501 Artists in Residence, Chongqing. November 2010

A knock on the studio door and Yan Yan’s voice telling me ‘I’ve brought a friend to meet you’… Another impromptu surprise!

Xiao Q! A huge longhaired dog and my companion for the remainder of the week. A really good surprise I have to thank Yan Yan for arranging.

Before leaving for Chongqing I met with artist Philip Davenport, he was artist in residence at 501 earlier in the year. Philip recalled taking Yan Yan’s dog, Xiao Q for long walks, Xiao Q disrupting art students sketching at their easels, causing mayhem chasing other dogs and the access a dog grants you to areas you might not otherwise venture. Philip’s instruction for me was to take Xiao Q for a walk then with a wry smile he mentioned Xiao Q’s size.

One of the first things I enquired when I arrived was about Xiao Q. It turned out that he was living with a different owner, Yan Yan unable to keep up with the demands of caring for such a large dog. At that moment I thought I wouldn’t get to meet him and gave up on the thought of fulfilling Philip’s instruction. But such is the way of the people here, it seems Xiao Q has several homes happy to share and that Yan Yan can bring him back as and when he likes.

I spent most of today walking Xiao Q which was as enjoyable for me as for him. With only 4 days to go, the exhibition is on my mind but as I have mentioned previously, I have made the decision to keep working right up to the last day and this was the opportunity to follow Philip’s instruction with the possibility in mind of discovering something new.

Link to read Philip’s experience with Xiao Q:

http://arthur-and-martha.blogspot.com/2009/11/day-…

Nina Chua
2nd December

Today I had a two and a half hour studio day with Shen Hua. Shen Hua was the first artist that I have been able to discuss the work with at length and also the first to talk to me about their work. Shen Hua’s paintings focus on the Ban Ban and other migrant workers in Chongqing. He empathises with their stories, as he himself has made the journey from countryside to city; a journey of huge contrasts in China.

Ban Ban are the men and women, unique to Chongqing, who carry goods either end of a bamboo pole. Our first experience of the Ban Ban was when we arrived and one man carried Nina and my 23kg each suitcases – either end of a bamboo pole- up three flights of stairs to our apartment. On this occasion, Nina and I scurried after him, so we could catch him if he collapsed under the strain, but he barely broke a sweat.

We continually see people carrying large objects up and down the high street in Huang Jai Ping. Stacks of polystyrene, babies in baskets, net bags of pomellos (grapefruits the size of watermelons), clusters of water bottles and canisters of gas. Old and young, men and women. It is a basic, daily routine of many people’s lives.

It is rare to see a foreign face in Chongqing, but you do see people from all over China here. Chongqing is said to be the world’s fastest growing city; some even say, with a population of 32 million it is the world’s largest city; but there seem to be many contenders for this title. The rapid expansion of the city has not only attracted people from distant villages to come and work, but also swallowed up villages which were formally on the outskirts of Chongqing. This sudden explosion in size and population, combined with continual urban construction and demolition makes Chongqing feel quite disconcerting. I can’t get any sort of sense of the city as a whole, and as everything appears to be the same age you get no idea of the city’s past. On the surface it is a city without history. Chongqing is the former capital of China but it is very hard to find visual evidence of this and this lack of historical context adds to the feeling of disorientation.

Jessica Longmore
Wednesday 1^st December

A nice circularity has happened. Our exhibition will be held in the gallery at Ximalaya Bookshop. Ximalaya was my starting point, the first place I found by following an artist’s description in this case a map drawn by Sarah Sanders. As I approach the end of my residency it feels right that my work should culminate at Ximalaya Bookshop.

The time we’ve had to work in Chongqing has been short (less than a month), so it is both our intention to keep on working up to the date of the exhibition. Today Jessica was in Yao Bo’s studio. This is a lovely studio that Yao Bo keeps immaculately clean and tidy, she sometimes lives there and it carries a feeling of home about it. The space is filled with Yao Bo’s ceramics and paintings, some look robust and others more delicate, the placement of each work carefully considered. In the middle of the room is a large table laid out with ceramic objects that look like fragments of seashells. They are actually casts taken from deflated balloons and by the side of the table Yao Bo has constructed an ad-hoc looking structure (upturned furniture stacked together for height and bamboo poles reaching across) to enable her to cast the balloons. It will be interesting to see how Jessica responds to this space.

I placed two constructions I made earlier in the week, outside to collect rainwater and made a journey to the riverbank to collect sand.

The exhibition will open on the evening of Monday 6^th of December so we have 6 days to go.

Nina Chua
30th November

Chongqing is a city in flux. What we see, feel, think changes on a day to day, hour to hour basis. Each time Nina visits the river, something is different. Each time I set out to make work, the parameters change.

I am trying to allow myself to go along with this swirling tide. To respond to things as they happen, instead of trying to make things happen.

Returning to Mr Bald’s studio I found a very different scene. Harsh lighting, business discussions on the phone and no model. I spent my hour in the studio, took my photograph and went home.

Jessica Longmore
Monday 29^th November

Saturday Morning
While Jessica was working in Mr Bald’s studio I was in our studio trying to construct a container for water using some wood and plastic I found yesterday in a pile of building debris. I was just getting to a good point when (as Jessica has said) the day was cut abruptly short, firstly by an unexpected lunch date and secondly by the earlier than expected road trip to Guang’an. This kind of time keeping keeps us on our toes; plans merrily chop and change at a pace that makes all planning redundant.

In regard to Jessica’s Objects for a Studio, this has been disruptive, sometimes favourably with an impromptu call to work in an artist’s studio but more often less favourably, resulting in a working day being cut all too short. I supposed most of us work to fill the time we have, Jessica has explained that if, for instance, she has 2 hours in a studio, so be it, she can work within this time frame. Less workable is the expectation of 7 hours that turns out to be 2 hours.

Whilst I’ve been observing Jessica at work I have become aware of the highly charged environment of the artist’s studio. As my previous posts have alluded, it is not a comfortable situation for me to enter, I feel like I’m intruding in somebody else’s space. After some discussion, we have decided that I will no longer pay a visit to observe, as Jessica explained to me, it is a privilege to be given access to someone else’s studio and the privacy of this space is to be respected.

Guang’an
The trip to Guang’an was brilliant fun, a welcome break before we start work on our exhibition, which is fast approaching.

We travelled with Mr Bald and Yan Yan meeting their friends along the way, all graduates of Sichuan Fine Art Institute where Yan Yan and Mr Bald teach. One of Yan Yan’s ex students is now a very wealthy businessman, his interior design company has flourished and he is owner of a very swish coffee house/restaurant and massage parlour (amongst others), which we had opportunity to sample.

There was plenty of eating, drinking and friendship involved but this weekend was really about the important business of new a public art commission. Jessica and I are honoured to have been invited and to have had the opportunity to witness this occasion.

The commission is for a public sculpture somewhere near to Guang’an, more than this I don’t know. As far as I can deduce, Mr Bald is the commissioned artist and Yan Yan is acting as agent, although I later found out he is also doing some of the preliminary design work. The businessman (Yan Yan’s ex student) and his business partner connect the artists and the government officials of which there were many, all trying to secure a good deal.

The dinner on Saturday night was seafood hotpot, in a private restaurant room where introductions were made. Yan Yan and Mr Bald were guests of honour and treated with much respect. Jessica and I, holding some novelty value and as guests of Mr Bald and Yan Yan were introduced to everyone (including other diners in private rooms), given flowers, had our picture taken countless times, were wined, dined and toasted.

The following day we ate a casual breakfast followed by a business meeting in a teahouse. Later a huge business lunch with government officials and local businessmen including one man whose company it transpired, manufactured the waterproof jacket I had with me. After the meal I asked Yan Yan how negotiations were going, he very quietly suggested that the artist fee they were offering wasn’t very good. I couldn’t help thinking how often this is the case.

In the evening we ate a meal at the coffee house, this included a plate of deep fried mealworm, which looked ugly but tasted really good – salty and crisp. This was a meal between friends and the relaxed atmosphere was a lovely way to end the weekend. Toasts were made to friendships old and new.

Nina Chua
28th November