I’m writing this first blog post from Beijing where I’ve just begun a 5 week residency at artist-led space HomeShop, supported by Arts Council England’s Artist international development fund. I am hoping that the research residency will develop my knowledge of early print and publishing forms within the context of contemporary China.
HomeShop, which was initiated in 2008 by designer Elaine Wing-ah Ho describe themselves as “an open platform to question existing models of economic and artistic production.” They seek to do this through serving as an open platform for multiple, interwoven series of small-scale activities, interventions, and documentary gestures undertaken by creatives who visit the space.
In this regard, the space has similarities to Islington Mill where I have my studio space and also direct the visual arts programme. Both are creative hubs that offer space for artists, designers, and thinkers to come together to create, produce and develop new work. HomeShop could be described as a micro version of Islington Mill, having 3 studio spaces, 1 larger workspace with 6 desks, a large kitchen/dining room and a main events space which fronts onto the street through a large glass window and doorway entrance.
Perhaps more than a studio complex or an artist led space, HomeShop seems to act as a meeting space, a space where people collect and gather. On the second day that I was here, I awoke (bleary eyed after a 16 hour sleep!) to find two groups meeting. The first meeting was the Beijing Urban Farmers group who are intending on installing an Aquaponics system to grow vegetables on the roof of the building. The other was a Chinese reading group.
The Aquaponics group are borrowing the Buckminster Fuller geodesic dome structure to house their system but there is a big question if the roof structure is load bearing and can take the weight. The possibility of calling out a structural engineer to assess this has been mooted but no one appears too bothered about this.
This kind of freeform self-building seems quite characteristic of the Hutong neighbourhood where we are based. These neighbourhoods originally contained traditional courtyard residences for court officials or wealthy merchants. With the fall of the Chinese dynastic era at the turn of the 20th century, buildings previously owned and occupied by single families were subdivided and shared by many households. Additions were tacked on as needed and built with whatever materials were readily available.
On my first weekend, HomeShop hosted a welcome potluck dinner where they prepared pizza bases and guests brought toppings. My contribution was some Heinz baked beans brought with me from UK! Potluck dinners – a group meal where all participants bring a single sized dish to share – are great events to meet new people. This was no exception. Lu Di, an artist from Beijing who used to be based in Manchester, came along. Lu brought with him a friend called Deng Dafei who is part of the Utopia artist group. I also met an artist called Lulu Li who recently returned from the UK where she did an MA at Chelsea School of Art.
Food and eating together seems to be an essential part of what makes HomeShop work. Quge, one of the core HomeShop team, cooks lunch every day without fail, with each person putting the equivalent of £1 per day into a pot. This regular lunch fixture seems to be the axis around much of what happens here. It’s what brings together people who are renting a desk with those that are here to do projects, and other visitors such as myself. Perhaps because it is so cheap, delicious and convenient, the lunches act as a catalyst to draw some of the extended network here regularly. Whilst they are here, people think about what they might do, with conversations naturally occurring. From reading their statement, HomeShop consider these seemingly simple engagements with daily life, work, and the community as “explorations of micropolitical possibility and working together.”
