I was thinking about Xiamen today, where I’ll be heading provided the funding comes through… I will hear about the second chunk next week so fingers well and truly crossed. The irony of the money coming from an organisational called ‘The National Lottery” has not escaped me.
Assuming next week brings good news, I’ll be making a performance pretty much from scratch. Last time I worked in China back in 2009 with a Beijing residency, I already knew very well what the work would be, I just needed to adapt it to the quite different context. One month was enough for this. With this work it will be different. I’ll be arriving with a set of ideas and assumptions that may or may not get me up and running. I need to feel it all though a lot more slowly and let the form of the work take shape based on the what I find when I’m there.
Back here in London and Portsmouth, where I am working, I continue with my language exchanges and these continue to surprise and inform. Today I am in the RFH in the Southbank, a good public space for this. The other day I learnt that Big Ben, viewable from the balcony, is called “da ben zhong” or “Big Stupid Clock” in Chinese. Not the most flattering translation but one I’m sure to remember!
