New Arrival
So many hours later I arrive in Chongqing and am met at the airport by Yan Yan and Chloe. We drove through lots of traffic, as it was the rush hour, the yellow taxis drive like England cab drivers, aggressively. I dumped my stuff off at the flat and then we went for dinner. We had a big hot pot of spicy prawns, tofu and vegetables, which was delicious although I found it difficult to get the prawns head and legs off with my chopsticks. It took me a while to get off to sleep, as I was cold but slept in til 11am. Went to the studio for the first time today and took along the few things I had bought with me, it was nice to lay my things out and start getting a feel for the space.
Speaking to Yan Yan it seems with the Chinese New Year celebrations the gallery will be used for a planned event so it is likely now that I will be showing my work in the studio or in another space of my choosing. This has taken a little bit of the pressure off and has got me thinking about starting some smaller projects which I can complete back in the UK. For example I would like to interview some of the artists who have already done international residencies to hear about their experiences. The audio files could be linked to a website or simply put onto a CD, sharing information in this way is important to me and I do see it as an artwork. We went for lunch and I had some dry spicy noodles, I really need to learn some more basic Mandarin, as I don’t feel confident ordering food.
I am not being stared at as much as I thought, however when I speak I am aware that people take more notice of me. I feel that I would still like to do a performance in the street or on public transport using my voice as this draws people’s attention. At lunch today Yan Yan pointed out a sign, which is advertising a government organised International Festival of Art, which only has Chinese artists in. The word ‘International’ is used in the UK for artists who are not from the country giving the impression that the work is somehow better or more insightful than a local/regional artist work. However the Chinese version is the opposite of this, which is saying that Chinese artists are International.
