24th May 2011 The exhibition
The exhibition finally opened. The space isn’t perfect. It was a cafe-book bar and this is their first proper exhibition. But it’s good anyway as this is my first show in China, after having left her for so many years. Through making and installing the work I’ve gained a lot of new understanding about China and made many new friends.
The exhibition has a theme of ‘water’ and ‘city’, it has three parts: the photos I took during the Trial Point System; the ‘forest’ and ‘city’ photos from Chongqing City; and the stone/video installations. It’s surprising that people welcomed the stones so much. Many asked me to hold the stones a bit more before they took them home, others spent a long time playing with them. It is through the stones that I can see people’s love to the Yangtze and the nature. Some asked me why I took photos of the trees, since they are so ordinary and ‘daily’. But one 9-year-old girl answered that question for me, she said: “The big trees are all wounded, they’re bleeding; they got all their branches chopped off—it’s not environmental -friendly at all!”
I feel that it’s been a great trip and I experimented a lot in Chongqing. However to grasp a country properly, one month is really next-to-nothing. China is changing so fast and is full of energy, I have a lot of interest in it. But this will be a long process, if I want to produce some really powerful work her.
21 May 2011 Life of a river
The exhibition day is approaching fast. Apart from taking pictures of the river and the city, I’m now trying something that’s entirely new to me. I’ve been collecting stones at the river bank and hope to make some installations with them.
I discovered that from far away, the river always looks very calm, not interesting and full of concrete scars. But when I got close to the river, the rounded stones appeared , just as so many river banks. I’ve been playing with the stones, just as how I always did in my childhood. It seems the river now has gradually become a ‘river’ again, something part of the romantic nature that I can play with and have a connection too. And the stones have become the link between me the river. In the exhibition I’ll have red stones and stones with white circles. I’ve also done something to make them more ‘special’.
‘red stones. each one was held in my palm for 10 seconds.
stones with white circles. each circle was felt and followed by my finger tips.’
This obviously has a lot of reference to Richard Long’s work. But he doesn’t seem to hold his subjects this way. Anyway, I’ll have a go.
Apart from the stones I’ve also been making videos that are about the swallows, tadpoles and water flow at the river. Again, all these are surprises that were only discovered by being very close to the river. The river is still full of life.
19th May 2011 Trial Point 4 – the missed one
GPS: 29.17”890’N 106.23”178’E Altitude: 555ft
After wandering in the city for two weeks, it’s refreshing to concentrate on the river for a day again. This time I didn’t expect much from Point 4, I might struggle to take a picture again.
But Point 4 was everything you can find by the river. A massive paper plant with great blue domes, a typical white-red chimney and a container port dominate the opposite bank. On this side, one can find a ship-building yard, a small port, a pebble-digging site, some sand-digging boats and some vegetable patches.Viewed from our 60km train journey along the river, similar view was constant all the way through. We managed to find a good spot for the photograph. But what I’m considering now is the advantages, disadvantages, and meanings of this ‘Point Approach’.
It is a good way to keep close to the river site as well as to collect convincing data. So far every point has pointed to the same conclusion: the uncontrollable industrialisation and urbanisation of China on the huge cost of its natural and cultural environment. Many of the damages are probably not reservable.
But after all these, a river in my mind will always be a river. I might not find it here by the side of the Yangtze, but it’s still there.The Point System obviously has its charm of travelling, but is this what I’m after for the work? How do I bring out the river that’s in my mind?
