meeting points and disconnects: the cultural nuances of emotional expression.

I got a great letter back from Julia from Platform China – she gathered notes from the seamstresses about the dinner event we held in Beijing.

Yang Rui:

As the participants are involved in the whole work, it reflects the relationships between different individuals and, people and the society. The course of sewing shows not only the communication between the people at the table, but also shows the communication between the eaters and the seamstresses, which, let us think about more of the relationships in this world. I feel so happy to be involved and become clearer and clearer to understanding the meaning of this work.

Ji Fei:

First, I feel pleasure to attend this activity, this is the first time for me to be involved in such a video or installation project(work), which enables me to have a deep understanding of the artist’s initial meaning. To me, it just like an entrance to the contemporary art for me. It provides me a way to change my personal view—from a people involved as a seamstress to an outsider, you know, I can really feel two roles in this artwork.

As part of the audience and part of the involved people, I saw people talking, laughing and exciting when I was sewing. Also, in my action, I mean during my sewing, I interrupted their talking and even thoughts, I think this shows how fragile the world could be, because even a simple string can interrupted their normal eating and talk, and everything is posited in a world that filled with different kind of interruption. And when these interruptions added together, it may even ruin the whole.

Yang Ru:

It’s my honor to be involved in this artwork which enables me to understand the meaning of this activity. As the sewing become faster and faster and tighter and tighter, the people’s reactions at the table varies a lot: from slowly tasting the food to feeling hard to get the food, from simple conversation to singing at a high volume, from simply sitting at the table to trying to break the constraint, from people starting to know each other to more familiar and intimate with each other, these all happened along the course when the seamstresses sewing them together.

I feel it reflects a truth that: to enjoy the freedom from the constraint, and to accept the constraint from the freedom, this is life.

Julia Fu (Fu Lang):

It was an exciting night and I really enjoyed it, not only with the sewing, but also the whole atmosphere.

We planned our sewing carefully, from the changing of the length of the string, to the speed of the action, and every little change could change and interrupt the people at the table at last obviously. I think the meaning of this work is very clear, and people can also have different ways to read it, but I would like to say something impressed me most, I mean, the reaction of the eaters(the people at the table). They wanted to use the lighter to burn the strings, they suddenly realized that they were sewn by the strings and lose the freedom, they protested the lost of freedom, and they tried many ways to break the string net, and finally moved out from the table to get freedom, all this shows people’s eagerness to freedom. Also, as a seamstress, I find that the more they talk or the communication went on, the more constraint they got, so was that show the same as what the Chinese saying goes: “Don’t speak too much, since too much talk will bring you troubles”? However, people nowadays seem more like to fight against this kind of control rather than just surrender to it.

In fact, what tight the people together is not the string but their communication and friendship, that is really interesting.

OK, So the heater didn’t work in pablo’s room – it brightened up the room so much he didn’t sleep. He then locked himself in his room somehow – a scary moment – but we managed to talk him through the instruction of unlocking it before he got upset. I started to think we were going to have to knock the door down. He spent the night sleeping accross us. Oh, these beds are so hard – its just a blanket across wood – today I want to get a massage.

Great news about beginning the shoot tomorrow – today we are on the hunt for locations. I will keep the location the same as so the focus can just be on the performers. They will be wearing traditional costume. I want the shoot to be closed, just me, she and the performer.

I wish this residency was four months, not three. The people here are really welcoming – chongqing has been an absolute highlight of an amazing few months in China. We run into a lot of people at the restaurant out the front of the building. The food here has been fantastic. We haven’t cooked at home at all, and I doubt we will. Pablo is getting more adventerous all the time – last night he had a chicken dish with heaps of chilli in it. Its still been a bit difficult – he mostly eats plain rice, but he is also eating a lot of fruit. Today he had a tantrum over noodles.

So, leaped ahead. We have six funeral criers booked in – first shoot starts on Thursday. Apparantly the key was to go to the funural homes without the foriegner – the price quartered. We will shoot two a day – around half an hour to twenty minutes each. I now need to find a good studio – I am looking for a studio – to shoot in – there is a great wall in the 501 warehouse – but I am a little hesitant about the noise – and getting electricity for lighting, etc.

Wow, what an achievement. I feel great that things are progressing. She, my assistant here is great. Today she swapped my broken heater – and I bought a bigger one. I hope this one lasts more than ten minutes. I was assured it was ‘good quality’. Lets see – but it will live in Pablo’s room to keep him warm at night.

So – white is the colour of mourning in china – I will go with the white wall as organhaus for the back drop I think.

OK, we seem to have settled in. We had some one to look at the airconditioner and 50 Y later, he cleaned the filter. I got some more heaters and an electric blanket – but I still can’t get rid of the chill in my bones – its not cold here – it has a dampness that reminds me of my uni days in Melbourne – unheated houses, and a wet coldness. Its not cold at all – 14 degrees – and since I spent time last winter in Finland, this is just about summer. But there is no heating – so here, I am working with a blanket wrapped around me, fluffy slippers on, and a heater at my feet. Pablo doesn’t seem to be suffering – he keeps taking his clothes off and running around. The electric blanket is a winner though – I am just worried about Pablo spilling a drink on it though. When I asked the shop keeper what would happen – it was translated to me as ‘ just don’t do it’. So when he comes into our bed at 3 or 4am because he is cold, I get up and take the electric switch out of the wall and we try to make our little quilt cover three. Interestingly, the lady who sold me the electric blanket said it was such good quality, I could come in and exchange it for the rest of my life? Need a new heater already. My heater lasted about ten minutes until the top part of it didn’t work…mmm.. great quality.

So work has started, just. I have been assigned an assistant – She – a student from Sichuan University who speaks english. We went the other day to a funeral parlour to start the discussions about funeral cryers. I am after about 6 – 8 of them – but its seems this will cost around $1000AUD, money I hadn’t quite budgeted for. They want 800 Y each – we need to make a few more phonecalls to different funeral parlours. Again, I am wondering how much I push things, and how much I just be more zen to see what happens. She tends to read my emails which is great, but the messages don’t quite get understood – or more to the point, due to my lack of chinese, there is no disucssion – I guess, more just direction, which means it feels like I am having to push my ideas through.

I already feel anxious about time though – the days so so fast here – we are waking up a lot later – 10am and the day starts, I feel like a take a couple of breaths and the sun is setting. This is strange for us – we are usually up at around 6am.

I know a big part of a residency is just being in new environments – which is incredible – but it always takes a long time to settle before work can begin! When we leave our flat, we are propelled onto the street – strange smells, shouting, food – we can’t stop for long with out pablo getting crowded with mums showing their kids what a little western boy looks like. People are gambling, selling, yelling, going about business. The street life here is incredible. It will make Australia and Berlin feel like it is dead. We went to the dumpling restaurant for lunch yesterday and they bring out a little childrens book for pablo – pointing out pictures to words – in no time, we had about 25 people surrounding us, and adhoc chinese lessons and english lessons had begun.

So today, another meeting with She, and hopefully push things on a bit. Today I want to see Nikun about a potential talk/intervention at the university – I still need to spend more time thinking about things – mapping out the days and the work I hope to achieve here.

Thanked Jan for his help last night. He seemed fine – he could understand it was a bit scary at the time as we had no idea what was going on – great to know that just a noisy air-conditioner causing the problem – they are fixing it today apparantly – its freezing in here, and we are a bit scared to turn the aircon back on (it runs heat). We will be here for a month, so will buy extra heaters as well.

Chongqing is a crazy sprawling city – yesterday we made our way into the center via a chinese subway map (and made it to our destination!) – the subway is actually an overground skytrain – really amazing flying through the city and over the rivers – but Chongqing is so polluted – it feels like your traveling in a bubble of grayness. You get a sense your traveling into nothingness, and you sort of lose your stomach when huge buildings suddenly appear out of the pollution. Apparently yesterday was a good day! And it was – there was a touch of blue in the sky, the dampness wasn’t there. But living in a bubble of grayness is a bit disconcerting.

We met up with Matt Nemeyer, who lives here. I went to school with him in North Queensland – and I just realised he lived here via facebook. His partner, Ling, is from Chongqing. He took us on a long drive out to the country side to a friends’ BBQ celebration – incredible! We went to a big warehouse with BBQ lamb on spit. Everyone was given gloves, and you just dive in and pull the lamb apart – and then move onto big soup filled with vegetables and god knows what else. We then moved onto Karaoke – late night, but lots of fun and met some lovely people. Pablo had a ball at Karaoke – playing with everyone. You hire a room and then buy the alcohol, and then singing for hours. We got back in the wee hours of the morning.

Gosh, the food here has been an experience – an absolute highlight. China is quite amazing.
Going to meet She today – in about half an hour – to talk about work. mmm. Will be interesting to see where this goes. She seems to have been given the job as my assistant/translator, as well as the lovely Strawberry – who has been working out a power, internet, DVD, and TV request.

And we now have a TV that works, and a DVD, so Pablo is content with a few DVD’s. Matt spent the morning putting some artwork up on the walls. Settling in well. Bought Pablo a soccer ball so matt and pablo can spend some time at the Arts Academy football field. I have been told there is a kids park around here as well – so that will be nice to find.