Meeting New Artists
I have been introduced to some really interesting artists some have studios at 501 or in the local area others are here just for the New Year holidays. I met Zhou Yumei an installation and performance artist who has a studio in Beijing and we talked to each other about our work (Http://blog.sina.com.cn/zhouyumei). Although there is the obvious language difference the Internet helps to look at images of work and we could understand basic art terms. Mao Yan yang has a studio here at 501 and he paints, Mao has done the residency at the Chinese Arts Centre in Manchester, which I had seen so this gave me some reference to his work (www.maoyanyang.com). He kindly documented my performance and has told me about his experience about temporarily living in Manchester; I hope to interview him after the New Year. I was lucky to meet the artist Ren Qian his practice involves video, photography and performance, when he showed me his work I recognised his ‘Water’ works were he collected bottles of water from different rivers over a period of 10 years. We went to his studio and Chloe and myself interviewed him about his experience of working in London. I was overwhelmed by Ren’s work especially making it over a ten-year period. This has got me thinking about my work and how my pieces are very short and temporary, it seems that durational performance work in China is popular.
All the artists I have met have been very friendly and are eager to hear about my work. I can feel quite shy talking about my work, as I like to just show it rather than talk about it. Yan Yan is eager for me to do an artist talk at the studios which I would like to do but I am worried how much will get lost in translation. Were do I start with my talk? Recently I have turned artist talks into performances, however I feel on this occasion this is not appropriate. Interviewing and talking to the artists here will help me structure my presentation and I will discuss this further with Yan Yan. I feel a little nervous as I am still very much an early career artist and my work has significantly changed since 2007 with more of a focus on performance. The event I plan to have at 501 will be a new experience for me as I have either collaborated with other people or have been part of a group event. I would prefer to do a talk about what I have done rather than discuss my old work, as this will be easier to translate in real time, although Yan Yan thinks I should do the talk at a different time. I’m not so sure I think combining the two would be better and the audience will get more of an understanding about the work.
I have been giving serious thought as to where I will show my work, as I don’t feel that the studio is the right space for me. I really like the entrance to the 501 studios and the landing area on the first floor, which my studio is next to. I am drawn to these spaces as they are in-between and dark which is ideal for using lights and my disco ball. A young boy called Dou Dou has been practising playing the piano in the studio and I would like to do a performance with him for my final showing. He plays very well, although I found it more interesting when he tried to remember different melodies, creating a broken soundtrack. Since I have been here, listening to my music has been a great comfort and a motivator to work in the studio and I would like to combine Dou’s piano playing with my own recital of broken western pop songs. My aim is to create an ‘International Performance’, which continues my enquiry into the meaning of the word ‘International’. I have also been developing the Chinese medicine illustration into a moving slideshow with the image sliding across and off the edge of the screen.
