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

So..Apparently the shoot begins today again! I asked She to organise 4 funeral criers for the same day – so the price won’t change again etc. Yesterday she tells me she found 4 – but I have to buy them tobacco as a gift – and give them 1000 RMB. Just got a call and its gone up again. Gosh, things are shifting in China – you never know whats going on, and best to be zen with it I guess.

Anyway, it will be great to continue the shoot. I am charging all batteries, clearing all disks. Lets hope for the best. I am meeting She at 2.45 pm.

Yesterday we got the sky train into town again – I shot a lot of footage – just of the smog and the incessant building – yesterday the pollution was quite normal – you could see a mile or so. I am hanging out for a good dose of clean air and a bit of wild nature, and open spaces. Chongqing is one of the fastest growing cities in the world – and the biggest – reaching 35 million people. Everywhere is filled with people, and more people and more people. On the public transport we fight for space – now it comes quite naturally – everyone just forces there way into the carriage as people are forcing themselves off. Noone seems to get angry – its just the way it is. We force ourselves on and off – we are getting used to it.

Pablo fell asleep in the pram, so we went and had a few beers in town. Pablo still drew a crowd while sleeping and then the old ladies started to touch him – sort of motioning that he might be cold or hot or what ever – I just motioned – please don’t wake him up – he needs to sleep. He was very rugged up – and its not that cold – but in China, the people seem to be obsessed by the clothes you are wearing and have no problem telling you if you are not dressed right – I walked out in sandals the other day and was told off – ‘too cold!’ I think they were saying as they were shaking their head as they stared at my feet. At a gallery opening in Berlin, I had a women literally start yelling at me for wearing sandals when she thought I should have had shoes on.

mmm. just got a call from She, my assistant and ofcourse the funeral criers want more money now – so they have cancelled tomorrow performance. We had a deal for six performers over three days. She says its just becuase they see a western face, so the money goes up. Thankgod I didn’t pay for the six today! When I went to the first funeral parlour with She, to organise the shoot, she said the price was exorbitant, four times what we are paying now. So, She went to the funeral parlour on her own, negotiated the price with out me being present. So, we have to find new criers now! I don’t think it will be hard – there are thousands of them in Chongqing – Oh, well. I thought it was a little too easy…

It was a stange shoot actually – usually my shoots are about building relationships, then trusting each other – then exploring what we can do infront of the camera. Today, they walked in, stood where I wanted them to then began- gave a great performance- then givemoney – then they left.

Tomorrow, we will head into town to find barbers to shoot I think…I also want to shoot from the Skytrain – its quite an amazing trip into town – it flys above the roads, accross the bridges, into a nothingness of grayness. – the pollution is intense. I am not sure why I want to shoot this – but when I am on the sky train, looking out the window makes me lose my tummy. Its a strange feeling. I also feel like I am looking at the end of the world. Just this crazy built up madness and chaos, with air that is hardly breathable. Like the building is a frenzy, going at such a pace, with such intensity, building a city for 35 millions people – but they have forgotten the need to breath. If they don’t do something about the pollution soon, you won’t be able live here anymore. I will try bringing the seconday video camera – it should deal better with movement.

I had a meeting with Nikun today, the curator of organhaus – to talk about doing another dinner here, like we did in Beijing. I am not sure if we will yet- but its good to put it out there and see if it is possible. I thought about doing it on the street, at one of the street food restaurants – we would attract a huge crowd though.

so – spent the day getting ready for the shoot – first of all search for tripod – its in the office a Organhaus. Test the tripod – then search for lights – no lights anywhere – so went to the shop – bought a 200 watt globe and then the guy added a plug to it. 10 RMB. There is the light. Just to light up the face a bit. I bought some tracing paper to diffuse it. I positioned the tripod about 3 meters from the wall. The aim was not to move the tripod and do a continuous shoot for twenty minutes.. I asked She to tell them to slowly move to the tripod, as if the camera was the body.

The two professional funeral criers arrived at 2pm. They look at the set up and say ‘its too close’ if you need us to do a long song, we need to slowly make our way to the camera, and we need a longer way. So, moved the camera back, but then had to compensate with a bit of a zoom as the wall wasn’t wide enough. They told me they collapse to their knees – so needed to lower the tripod. They get changed into the traditional outfit and seem ready to begin.

Wow – what performers – starting off with a slow speech, it then they fall to the ground, which moves onto to arms wailing and then singing and moaning that had such an intensity – there is no way that my mic could have handled it. My ears were hardly about to handle the intensity. They slowly make there way forward after much dramatic movement – throwing themselves on the ground. Wow, I don’t know what I was expecting, but I was a bit stunned. I said I wanted a continuous 20 minutes, and after this was agreed with, the first lady stops after 12 minutes and says ‘thats the end of the song’. They wiped there tears and went to get changed. I need another session, so she did another session of about ten minutes. Then the man did his version – about 15 minutes, then about 6 minutes. It was quite incredible to watch – I am not sure what this will become – some sort of video installation – The footage has turned out well – the focus points were hard as they kept moving, and the sound too loud, but we have another shoot tomorrow for two more funeral criers. I feel a bit exhausted after seeing the performance. But feel excited that we have begun the shoot. I think the plain back ground works. We exchanged money. They tell me they work everyday, and also are opera performers.

I have she to translate the video.

I got an email back from Julia from Platform China in Beijing, she sent notes from the girls that we worked with that night – the seamstresses – Inspired by the work of Lygia Clarke, and the positive social aspirations of the Fluxus group (in particular Yoko Ono) we also invited 5 seamstresses. Slowly, over the seven courses, the seamstresses sewed the guests together tracking the emotional connections of the conversation. As each of the guests engaged with each other, the seamstress would mark the connection via sewing their clothes together. As the dinner progressed, the stitching became tighter and more tense. The dinner table became a physical web of emotional connections. Accelerated intimacy (and insecurities) erupted, great conversation were catalyzed and friendships formed. The sewn clothes of the guests remained as an artifact. We have sent them back to Australia on the slow boat.

This makes me wonder if we can redo this event in Chongqing. My first thoughts are on the streets – at a street restaurant – but I worry about the crowds? Or in the gallery – but I think the streets would be better – to see responses, etc. I shall talk to Nikun about it. Invite the art students to take part.

I have also been thinking about a range of photos – something to do with chopsticks and smile training but I am still unsure of what to do. Something with the street vendors.

Funeral criers

http://madamepickwickartblog.com/2011/06/the-waile…

More:http://www.danwei.org/music/professional_mourners.php

For some reason, Chongqing has many funeral criers – up to 2000 of them. I am still yet to find out why this is. Funeral crying is popular in eastern europe, in taiwain, and greece.

I think the idea is, is that the criers help conjure up emotional intensity. The Professional wailers are performers and they paid to cry for the deceased through anguished songs. It is an ancient custom, but during Mao’s Cultural Revolution wailing was banned. “Now, in the reform era of go-go capitalism, its seeing a revival”.

I am not sure who will show up – so it will be hard to know how to shoot – I figure we get the whole gallery ready – two lights, tripod. From my research, it suggests they might fall to the ground – how long can we expect this? What is it like to be a funeral cryer – should I interview them as well? I really need to think this out

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.