501 Artists in Residence, Chongqing. November 2010

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

Today was my 4^th studio day and it was in the studio of Xu Gangfu (affectionately known as Mr Bald). I arrived at 10am, expecting it to be just me and Mr Bald’s assistant. It was in fact the artist himself, his assistant, his partner and a model. This was my first studio day in the presence of a nude and to be honest, my instincts were to make my excuses and leave. Not because of the model as such, Chongqing must have more simultaneously running life drawing classes than anywhere else in the world – we have encountered so many during our time here. But just the working situation as a whole had become that much more intense. I see the studio as a highly personal space and my presence within it, as privileged. With a model here, someone not necessarily aware of what I am doing and in an exposed state, made me feel very uncomfortable.

In this situation I tried to make as little movement as possible, trying to keep out of site of the model. However after a short while, the atmosphere began to feel less tense; but still no less intense. It was clear the model was very at ease, she came and went as she pleased and seemed to be observing me as much as I was her.

As I mentioned in one of the first posts, Mr Bald’s studio resembles that of a 20^th Century European sculptor. He is surrounded by his work at varying stages of completion and by the materials and tools of his trade. To be present while he worked was a powerful experience – he held court like a leading actor. Mr Bald would adjust the assistants’ work and they would look to his for guidance. His presence was very strong and everyone in the room knew what their role was.

Because of the stairs and mezzanine level, I found several vantage points from which to survey the unfolding scene. I spent much time, watching, thinking, waiting and looking. For me, this was a unique atmosphere, that I wanted to observe as fully as possible.

This fourth studio day was cut abruptly short after lunch, when our road trip to Guang’an, planned for later that evening, was brought forward by several hours. It was agreed that I could come back for an hour on Monday morning to finish the work, if necessary. Not speaking Chinese has its problems; I generally don’t get any warning about what is about to happen.

Jessica Longmore
Saturday 27^th November

Journeys to somewhere
For the past 15 days I’ve been making my way around Chongqing trying to locate places and activities described by other artists.

I know what I’m looking for when I set off, for example, a high up look out opposite a construction site next to the river. But Chongqing is mountainous, has a number of constructions sites and 2 major rivers. I’m yet to locate the spot but I’ll keep looking because the endeavour is never futile. Along the way I have found 2 places to work: under a bridge by the Jialing River and next to the power station on the banks of the Yangtze River. I regularly journey to these places, which are surprisingly quiet, peaceful places to work.

Small observations
Overnight changes: scaffolding on houses, pavement dug up, pavement re-laid, road works, no entry, land turned, crops planted. Work in progress: cleaning, sweeping, watering, harvesting, fishing, digging, building. People spending their leisure time: exercising, walking the dog, playing cards and dancing to music pumped out through camouflaged speakers. Opposite the scaffolding, every afternoon a gathering of people at the bench and the same grey haired man surveying the scene.

Good people
This is a chance to acknowledge the good people I have met in Chongqing, who for no reason I can discern other than kindness have helped me along the way, without any questions asked. Three people have helped me carry bags of sand from the riverbank, a man showed me an easier method of taking water from the river, the grey haired man on the bench gave me directions and advice, and many people have allowed me to look and to wander at ease.

Nina Chua
26th November

Here are some images of things I have found in the street. In some cases, things that I wish I’d made.

There is a haphazard feeling to life in Huang Jai Ping. If people need some sort of structure to help them with their everyday life or work, then they just build it. What they build will tend to be a very ad – hoc, temporary structure purely constructed for a specific purpose. These structures are an everyday sight in Chongqing, which nobody questions or probably even notices; whether it is strings of sausages slung over a coathangers, hanging in trees, or baskets full of hot-pot vegetables propped up on a street bin, not to mention washing hanging from every available horizontal line or bar.

Before I left Manchester I was warned by the curator of the Chinese Art Centre, Ying Kwok, to beware of well meaning cleaners, who might tidy or throw my work away without realising. Due to the mundane materials I use to make work, I am already used to this being a problem in the UK. In China, however, I have not given anyone the opportunity to throw any work away, as it has only existed for a moment before I have dismantled it myself. This is generally the way I work, when in somebody else’s studio, but I had considered that the cheap and readily available materials here in Chongqing might encourage me to make more concrete structures, constructed over a longer period of time – however this seems less and less appropriate the longer I am here in Chongqing.

Jessica Longmore
Thursday 25^th November