This Week (Part Two)
Yesterday I made a trip to the China Print Museum, hoping to gather some information on ancient Chinese print techniques. However for me, the museum was somewhat of a let down, both in presentation and content. There were very few real objects or artefacts, most things on display were printed replicas mounted on foamboard and displayed in endless glass cases. The basement houses a huge room full of printing technology from the 19th and 20th centuries, rather than a museum, this particular room felt more akin to a storage space.
Over the past week, I’ve met a number of Beijng based artists. On Saturday I spent the day at the 798 art district and met artist Ma Yongfeng, and writer Edward Sanderson, who together with another artist are collaborating on a soundcloud audio interviews project, Uncut, which presents unedited interviews with artists/curators/writers based in the city. They told me that the audio format is less likely to be censored here and so people feel more able to speak freely (at least in the middle section of the interview, the beginning and end sections are more dangerous!) To me, this seemed like a brilliant and humorous way to subvert censorship, playing on the laziness of censors, not bothering to listen all the way through.
Later I met artist Chen Zhou who told me about his video works which are based on conversations with friends and strangers concerning various everyday things that appear as absurd or nonsensical when considered closely. He took me to the gallery, Magician Space in the 798 district where he will have a solo show in a few weeks. There I met Billy Tang, recently arrived from London to work for the gallery. It turned out that we know some people in common so I shared a glass of whiskey (before 6pm!) with them both before heading on to meet artist Shao Kun at her studio near Caochangdi and writer and artists assistant/producer Jessie Wu Cheng. They told me there is a real focus at the moment on considering what a uniquely Chinese contemporary art might be or look like. German art historian Hans Belting had been in the city for a conference last week positing the same question.
Jessie is of the opinion that Shao Kun represents a new generation of Chinese artists who are as comfortable drawing references from ancient Chinese art to engaging with western postmodern practices. When discussing how artists respond to the political and social context in China, they were both of the opinion that artists from outside China, even having lived here for years tend to not get past the notion that things are ‘interesting’. However they feel that the political system has a direct bearing on their lives and this resonates in their work. Strong sentiments and I look forward to discussing this with some of the ex-pats I’ve met here at HomeShop.
