Some more press has emerged, this time an article on the performance in Berlin that was part of Extension Series. Posted below.
http://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?id=566960695…
And another piece written about the show in Brighton:
http://louisehalvardsson.blogspot.com/2011/05/chin…
What a relief it is to have some writing about the work that comes from a position of wanting to be engaged and writing about the experience of viewing it. This makes a perfect antidote to the national press who are quite simply nowhere.
I was in Amsterdam a few days ago performing another piece of mine and whilst there had a get together with Irina and Gerrit Jan, two of my fellow artists at CEAC and Bram a researcher I also met in Xiamen doing an exchange at the University. It was quite funny at first seeing this little group I know from the other side of the world, assembled in front of me in The Melkweg for my show. Very quickly however, once we got talking outside, it seemed perfectly natural that we should be together as a group.
I think the bonds that I made as an artist in residence in China are rather deep and go beyond being merely a professional acquaintance of the other artists. Over the course of time we got to see one another in many situations and states, some quite unusual like having our feet pummelled in a ‘massage’, for example. This diversity gave us a chance to see how the artist and person connect in each of us. I think that in general we are usually more selective in the presentation of self when at home and divide different aspects of our lives to different people and places. That, combined with knowing what we are doing at home on a whole other level, gives a more polished finish.
I have to say I miss the collective dinners I was a part of in Xiamen. Having something of a Groucho Marx feel about groups, this is an unusual sentiment from me. Still, I rarely experienced those dinners to be exclusive groups but rather regular exchanges that were fluid in the group composition and changeable in location but almost always marked by tasty new surprises and one crazy story after another of everyday life in China.
