The traces of ‘Traces of Shanghai’ – Metal International Residency Award 2012

Progress! Today I’ve produced 4 drawings – I’ve titled them all after the question that Alice asks the Cheshire Cat. They are finished for today, but I’ll continue adding arrows to them as I collect them over the next week.

I decided to re-do the ‘up’ arrows one, as I liked the way that I made the left arrows work with the area of the paper (coming out from the right hand side). So I’ve carried that compositional trick across the series of drawings.

Now I’ve traced the arrows from all of the photographs that I’ve had printed, I can now tak my scalpel to them, then I can play with pinning the arrows to the boards I’ve got and see what happens there.

A good day’s work – staying in the hotel room and cracking on with this has been a good idea today. Tomorrow, to the studio, and then a bit of biennial viewing.

Alice: Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?
The Cat: That depends a good deal on where you want to get to
Alice: I don’t much care where.
The Cat: Then it doesn’t much matter which way you go.
Alice: …so long as I get somewhere.
The Cat: Oh, you’re sure to do that, if only you walk long enough.”

I’ve just posted this onto my visual blog for the residency http://findingmywayinshanghai.tumblr.com/ as it conjures up an image that has been running through my mind on and off for the past couple of weeks. That of Alice asking the Cheshire Cat which way to go, and Alice being given many options, neither of which she knows how they will end up. I’ve felt a bit like that in a physical sense – lots of new information to process, finding my way through and locating myself within this megalopolis, unsure of where it will all lead.

The last few days I’ve felt a little overwhelmed with all the possibilities that I could follow up in my work, countered by the fact that I’m only here for another 9 days. Maybe I list them now to help me to understand a little more:

1. Arrows work.

-This exists as an online blog, collecting images of arrows that I have seen and been directed by whilst here in Shanghai.

-I’m also working on a series of drawings that uses the outlines of the arrows, painted in the correct colours, but with any text or elaborate design removed.

-I’ve started cutting the arrows out of the photographs and have just bought some pins, to be able to mount the photographic arrows onto small boards. I’ve been thinking that it would be great if this were a kinetic work, and the arrows rotated – to add to the paradox of the arrows trying to orientate you, but only seeming to add to the disorientation.

-I’ve also got an idea that I’d like this all to lead to an installation, which uses an animation of the arrows, moving around, which, when projected onto the floor of a space will influence how people move through it.

2. Trajectories work

-There’s the whole issue of Watermark. It’s raining for the next few days, so something using that is probably out of the question – cant put water onto a wet floor and make a mark. I had an idea for a work in Zhabei Park, but I think that is a huge participatory piece of work that would take a lot of effort. Maybe I just need to create a piece of work that is a proposal for the idea.

-I’d still like to see someone using one of the larger brushes to do calligraphy with. Maybe the weekend is the best time to see it. I’ll try again on Saturday.

-I started working with ink on rice paper at the studio of Chen Hangeng http://www.chenhangfeng.com yesterday. That was good to experiment with ink on a larger scale, and also quite physically. Although I wasn’t happy with the content of the drawings – for me, they needed to be more rooted in actual observations of people moving through space to be valid.

3. Architecture of Stairs

-I’ve taken some films of staircases and escalators as I’ve been moving up and down within the city. I don’t think that the footage I’ve got will work, as on an escalator, the camera moves with the stairs – I wanted the stairs to be moving smoothly across the screen, but also for them to transition from one place to another, altered by the play of changing light. I think this is something I’ll do a rough edit of here, but then look to develop further back at home. (But I really want to try it while I’m here!)

4. Biennale research

-I managed to find the catalogue of the 2008 biennale ‘Trans Local Motion’ I’ve bought the 2008 guide book, and have got photos of the essays in the catalogue, so I can put that to one side and do some reading on the plane home while I make work.

I’ve had a fun day in the name of artistic research! I’ve been to Zhabei park (as tipped off by the work of Francois Chastanet). Oh, my, goodness! What a park – it really is a local park for the community. The activities that we in the UK would normally do in an arts, sports or community centre all take place here. I’ve seen:

tai chi,
fishing,
instrument practicing (euphonium, clarinet, trumpet to name a few),
singing,
walking,
stretching,
calligraphy practice,
mass line dancing,
badminton
knitting
and ballroom dancing.

Now, my interest in movement in my work started at university, when I practiced ballroom dancing as a pastime (I’m reasonably skilled at it), so I was watching all of this going on, and, my, what a cacophony of sound it was, and one of the dancers came and asked if I’d like to dance. I was made up, I was itching to get up there, I’ve not ballroom danced in ages, but it’s something I love to do. It was a bit tricky at first, working out what steps he was trying to get me to do, but in the end we ended up with somethings that looked a little bit like a tango, and quite a lot like a salsa. Our cha-cha’s never quite cha’d in the same place though. I danced for nearly an hour and had great fun, and it was great to be in the middle of this mass of people all exercising, socialising and enjoying themselves.

It was also a great opportunity to observe how the plaza functioned too. From the buzz I encountered at 10am, it became much quieter as people dispersed for their lunch – physically and well as audibly (there’s a decibel-ometer that read 70db at it’s peak, and lowered to 49db by lunch). I think it might be somewhere that I could make a piece of work – it won’t be watermark, but there’s something about the space that I think will draw me back, although that might just be a desire to dance.

My proposal for this residency included me doing some research into chinese calligraphy being made onto stone floors in public spaces. I had been struggling to find any parks with suitable spaces where I might happen upon people doing this, so I did some desk research this morning (coupled with a Sunday morning lie-in and slouching about).

I happened upon the work of Francois Chastanet:

After re-reading the Lefebvre text, I took some time to relate it to my practice, and it has afforded me a useful period of reflection – I’m becoming more aware that it will be difficult to re-make Watermark here in Shanghai, but I’m not so bothered about that. It’s good to understand when a piece works well and why it wouldn’t work somewhere else so I can move on.

Lefebvre talks about the ‘Architecture of Stairs’ in relation to mediterranean cities built on escarpments. Shanghai isn’t built on escarpments, but it’s definitely got an architecture of different levels, linked by stairs and escalators. A lot of time spent above or below ground, a product of the need to accommodate so many people in a space.

It’s started me thinking about making a work that involves stairs, escalators etc. I’ve taken some smartphone videos and I’m going to play with them and see if an idea that I’ve got will work. I might need to return to the museum of urban planning to link it up with a statistic that I remember seeing there – it was about how the living area per capita has increased from 1979 to today – that’s got to be because of the increase in high-rise living in the last 20 years.