Red Reproduction

Performance, installation

Yan’an Revolutionary sites, Yan’an Kangda Hotel Roon 6410

2006.5 – 2006.8

The artist traveled with the Long March team to Yan’an, searching for the connection and linkages between historical memory and tourism by collecting different memorabilia and souvenirs from the various historical sites throughout Yan’an.  In room 6410 of the “Kangda Hotel” (Anti-Japanese Military University Hotel) in Yan’an – a site which combines both history and tourism – Hong Hao would work everyday classifying and organizing these items, as well as scanning their images and combining them into a photographic collage.

If Hong Hao’s Long March work, “Long March in Panjiayuan”, is a form of vicariously participating in the Long March (Panjiayuan is in Beijing), using an analysis of images to reassemble revolutionary texts together, what it brings forth is the visual memory of the artist and connection to the period when he was growing up.  It is a voice coming from the overlap of historical socialist memory and memory from his youth.  In 2006, the artist has returned to traveling, from experience, gathering visual materials onsite to create

A new visual medallion.  the a society of economy of commercial products the reality and the historical narrative extension created.

Likewise, at the same time as this new visual medallion is produced, it is also takes “present” tense of history and moves it to a period in time in the past.

Fengshui of  Yan’an

Coloured ink on ricepaper

Yan’an Kangda Hotel

2006.5.20-23

Guo Fengyi, “Fengshui of Yan’an”, drawing

Directly across from the famous Baota Mountain in Yan’an is Qingliang Mountain, which houses an equally famous Daoist temple.  Based upon her extensive research of the I-Ching (Book of Changes) and Daosim, artist Guo Fengyi uses her unique method of drawing to provide a geographic depiction of this region.  From the changes and survey of her drawing style, one is able to see one individual’s self interpretation and understanding of a larger historical background.  The artist feels that the Fengshui of this region possess an important new beginning.

Myth of Academic Giant

Woodblock prints

Central academy of Art (Beijing) to Yan’an Kangda Hotel March – May

2006.3-5

Li Yang, “Myth of Academic Giant”, book; 2006

The artist compiled a picture-story book based on his personal experiences during his period as a student at the art academy.  The work combines poetry and confessional forms.  The light prose softens the criticism of the manic emotions of youth.  Confession is more to the core of the work, using a fragmentary method of recording events, as in a diary, to give expression and interpret the many issues confronting contemporary art education, and the feelings of despair that they give rise to.

Part of the work was to distribute the comic book to the representatives taking part in the “Yan’an Forum on Arts Education.”

Liu Dahong

Iron Ricebowl

Oil on canvas, installation

Kangda Hotel

2006.5

Liu Dahong, “Iron Ricebowl”, installation/painting, 2005

The Shanghai artist Liu Dahong’s installation work was exhibited in the lobby of the Kangda hotel in Yan’an.  The iron/porcelain bowl is ubiquitous object in the household of every Chinese family.  Within the bowl, Liu Dahong painted a group of images from “Red Female Army”, a modern ballet style opera popular during the Cultural Revolution.  At bowl was filled with water, and two small goldfish were placed in the bowl.  The work visually recalled the collective memory of the past generation.

Operation Change Word – Yan’an

Performance and installation

Throughout city of Yan’an

2006.5

Ma Wen, “Operation Change Word – Yan’an”, performance, 2006

The goal of the project is to ensure public signs in the City of Yan’an have appropriate English translations.

First, an encyclopedic record of public governmental signs (in Chinese) identifying historical sites are collected, each provided with new English translations, either to replace incorrect English, or to create new ones. A hierarchal design system for the signs will also be presented in the proposal. The proposal booklet will be submitted to Yan’an local authorities for implementation consideration. A selection of prominent signs from private businesses in the city will also be featured in the book with their poor English corrected.

For the opening of the “Long March – Yan’an Project”, a number of signs that bears bad English translations are replaced by the corrected texts with the permissions from the proper authorities. Video and photographs document the process. Old signs, documentary video, photographs and the proposal booklet are exhibited in an installation. A signage system will also be designed and implemented for the Yan’an Forum on Art Education.

In over six years of traveling around the world working extensively in the translation process, the artist has witnessed and experienced first hand the inadequacies and insufficiencies of translating words into another language. Some words or phrases simply do not have an equivalent in another language. The meaning of the original text can be misunderstood, the syntax may be wrong. There are misspellings, typos, or nonsensical words resulting from the final text-preparer’s lack of knowledge of the language, which make the mistakes even more glaring, bizarre and laughable.

English has become the unofficial language of our global community. And China is eagerly at the forefront of international encounters and exchanges. Yet any opening and widening of communication also open doors to the misinterpretation and misunderstanding inherent in communication and language. This project, meant as a form of community service, gives us an opportunity to discuss this margin of error and its implications, especially in the city of Yan’an. It was here, nearly 70 years ago, where New China’s political structure was first set up and diplomatic relations were established with the world. And perhaps starting with Yan’an, a city of new beginnings, we can work our way through other Chinese cities, in an attempt to put an end to this “Chinglish” that is universally mocked.

Shen Xiaomin

Eulogy of the Longjiang River

Video

Yan’an Kangda hotel lobby

2002-2006.5

The work is a documentary film.

As one of the eight “model plays” from the period of the Cultural Revolution, the “Eulogy of the Longjiang River” has had a strong impact on the artist’s generation.  “Model plays” were based upon the archetype of a distinct and clear conflict between protagonist and antagonist.  The story of “The Eulogy of the Dragon River” took place in the artist’s hometown. The artist found the two persons who the original “model play” was based upon, who were made into a parable of conflict between good and bad through documentation, and reexamination of history.  But it turns out the reality was different from the narrative the play espoused.

This work was displayed on the pubic video set in the elevator’s entrance of Yan’an Kang da hotel.  Although people may not stay long at the entrance to watch the entire documentary, only to catch parts of it in passing, the display unfolded the meaning and the questioning of a constructed narrative implicitly accepted behind the work.

Sui Jianguo

Made in China

Embroidered cloth flag

Installation

Yan’an Kangda Hotel Meeting Room

2006.5

Sui Jiangguo, “Made in China”, installation, 2006

The artist created a Long March flag with the four Chinese characters “zhong guo zhi zao” (made in China) embroidered by hand.  “Made in China” can often be seen on the labels of exported products, conveying a sense of national identity.  With the development of Chinese economy and its rise in international status, a perception that China will threaten the world has continually been espoused in several Western countries.  Through the extension of the slogan “Depend on Yourself and You Will Have Ample Clothes and Food” popular during the revolutionary period, the artist expresses his view on world politics and economy structure in the 21^st Century from the perspective of an independent country and nation.

Long March is made in China,

Yan’an spirit is made in China,

.‘Made in China’ is even more made in China.

—Sui Jianguo

Xiao Lu

Sperm

Video, installation, performance

Yan’an Kangda Hotel

2006.5.21-23

Xiao Lu, “Sperm”, installation/performance, 2006

In the 6^th floor’s small meeting room of the Kangda hotel, the artist presented an installation work composed of a special freezer made in Beijing, 12 glass bottles and file folders.  According to the work’s explanation, the artist hoped to have someone donate sperm to her, helping her to realize the long-cherished wish of having a baby in what is her last year to successful undergo artificial insemination.

In conjunction with the work, the artist organized a discussion onsite regarding love, marriage, sex, ethics and social morality and justice.  For Xiao Lu, human beings have many kinds of life needs that can be satisfied in many ways, and it is not possible to establish a single acceptable pattern.  In a similar manner, art is the same as life – for if art is not a deeply innate need, then what relationship does it posses with its surrounding, and what is the practical meaning of its existence?  Art that loses its connection to life and everyday existence risks metaphysical crisis.

As Xiao Lu states, “art is my sandbag”.  It is only when two sides sincerely conflict is there a reaction, and only then is there art.

Yue Luping

Watershed No.2

Book and archival materials

Yan’an Kangda Hotel 6^th Floor Meeting Room

2006.5

Yue Luping “Watershed NO2”, book and archival materials

Yue Luping, the leading critic and thinker of contemporary art at the Xi’an Art Academy, joined the Long March Project from its beginning in 2002 by carrying out his project “Journey to the West”, and has continually contributed to Long March dialogue.  His practice is archeological, examining the traces of ethnicity and migration to engage with the new Long March, as well as to give form to its many problems and contradictions.

For the “Long March – Yan’an Project”, Yue Luping has combined his ongoing “Journey to the West” project into a book, at the same time, bringing out his ideas of the contemporary art context in Xi’an.  The book was distributed to representatives at the “Yan’an Forum on Arts Education.”

Zhu Fadong

After You Comrade Zhu Fadong

Performance, photograph

Yan’an Kangda Hotel

2006.5

Zhu Fadong, “After You Comrade Fadong”, performance, 2006

The work is a continuation of a series of works from Zhu Fadong in which he performs in a blue factory suit.  For this project, the artist hired 12 local workers from Yan’an, and outfitted them with blue factory uniforms which the artist had tailor made.  The group “stood guard” to the entrance of the “Yan’an Forum on Arts Education”, welcoming the representatives by hollering out “After You Comrade Fadong” in their Sha’anbei accents.  Once all the representatives were in their seats, the 12 workers and Zhu Fadong filed in and sat in a row to attend the forum.

By “crashing” the forum, the artist raised the issue of identity.  The phrase, “After You Comrade…”, originally came from the early Soviet movie “Lenin in 1918”.  Its appropriation here seeks to identify the borders and spaces of salience in social classes by revisiting a historical context.  At the same time, it serves as a caution to the increasingly elitist nature of artists in their production.

The Experimental Art Department of the Central Academy of Fine Arts

Survey on Chinese Public’ Aesthetic Taste

Archival Book

2006.5

The Experimental Art Department of the Central Academy of Fine Arts ‘Survey on Chinese Public’ Aesthetic Taste’

 In July and August of 2005, the Experimental Art Department of Central Academy of Fine Art carried out this investigation in 11 provinces throughout china.

127 families were surveyed and 127 studies were collected in this project.

The survey was carried by visiting and engaging in the daily lives of Chinese citizens. Through field study methods, the survey sought to investigate the aesthetic value of Chinese families.

The investigation started with the general sociological background on each family, including income, education level, as well as their likes and dislikes of particular images.  As such, the investigation tried its best to present in full scale the Chinese people’s understanding of art and sub-culture as well as popular culture of a particular historical period.  Through the objective description of methods of cultural preservation used by human kind, the underlying social, regional, environment and cultural background on which it depends were explored.

The work will be presented in textual and archive format at the “Yan’an Forum of Arts Education” in order to providing representatives a specific case study about contemporary art education.

Dmitri Gutov

Torture with Russian Culture

Photographs

2006.5.20

He Jinwei

Purlieu – Yan’an woodcutting

Woodcut prints and performance

Qiaoergou historic site of Lu Xun Art Academy

2006.5.20

He Jinwei, “Purlieu – Yan’an Woodcutting”, woodcutting prints/performance, 2006
Woodcutting prints has a unique background in Chinese art history. It was first introduced into China from Japan by Lu Xun, a leading figure in the May 4 New cultural movement, and soon became the most popular form of artistic expression for young artists in Shanghai. With the travel of revolutionary youths to Yan’an, this type of artistic form became an important symbol of communist artistic production in Yan’an, becoming a model for “revolutionary” themed works, inspiring numerous generations of people. On May 23, artist He Jinwei, revisited the historical site of the Lu Xun Art Academy in Yan’an, and in the “serve the people” spirit of historical “Yan’an Forum on Arts and Literature”, created woodcutting print works onsite based on contemporary Yan’an landscape. The prints were distributed free of charge to the Yan’an people.

Over the past 2 years, the artist has already traveled the historical route of the Long March. The use of an artistic method is not to superficially continue with the metanarrative memory. Rather, it is to re-understand and interact with the people along the route of the Long March and along the peripheries of society, and through pursuit of historical memory, reconstructing the present. In a time where contemporary art is daily being museums, curators, and art market restricted and tempted, to return to the relations of production of art in a particular historical period is extremely meaningful. To re-present a historical period is not to simply copy its zeitgeist, but rather to a pursuit of historical memory to reconsider the state of contemporary art, and the result of the transition from creation to consumption, and to identify problems and possibilities. Through a historical perspective, unfolding the inherent contradictions facing contemporary art today.

Long March Project

Documentary of Long March Project

Qiaoergou historic site of Lu Xun Art Academy

2006.5.20

Lu Jie

No Foreigners Beyond this Point

Embroidered cloth flag, installation

Historic site of Lu Xun Art Academy

2006.5

“No Foreigners Beyond this Point” is a sign which the author has seen often in his travels in China and internationally, using the power of text to set apart and carve out a particular space.  What is represented within this area are all contradictions hidden under the symbol of a unified identity.  This warning is actually a two way street, much like a revolving door.  People are continuously identifying and counter-identifying themselves, ultimately turning into themselves and the “Other” within this revolving space.  Most absurd is humankind never wearies of this game, standing in place and stepping across.

This conceptual textual work was displayed in the site of Yan’an University Lu Xun Art Academy, originally a Catholic church built by a Spanish missionary.  The work’s appearance in this special context drove people to look into the alternation and repetition between the inside and outside as well as the moving in and moving out in the dynamical change of historical development.

Trinh T. Minh-Ha

Shoot for the Contents

2006.5

Ulrike Ottinger (Germany)

China: The Arts, the People

Colour film

2006.5

Dan Mills (USA)

(Miss) Understanding the Long March

Prints

Historic site of Lu Xun Art Academy

Wang Wei

25000 on an Escalator

2006

Wang Wei, 25000 on an Escalator, 2006

Yan’an Lirong Commercial Building is located in the most prosperous part of Yan’an city. The artist Wang Wei showed his video work on the building’s central public television monitors. The work shows two groups of people walking up and down escalators in shopping malls in a big city, with several people walking backwards.

Yin Xiuzhen

Long March

2002

Yin Xiuzhen, Long March, 2002

The old clothing, photos, postcards, suitcases and other objects collected by the artist at the twenty stops along the Long March – from Ruijin to the final destination of Yan’an – are all imbued with profound personal, collective and circumstantial memories. The documents collected at each stop and the documents and suitcases posted back to Beijing together form the artwork.  At some point along the Long March, it will be exhibited.

Song Dong

Ratio 1: 25000

Performance, installation

2006.5.20 – 23

Song Dong, “Ratio 1:25000”, performance/installation, 2002-2006

The artist prepared 3 “step recorders” for the Long March team.  These were given to the Long March curators and main personnel to track how many steps each one took.  The artist traveled separately from the Long March team, also keeping track of the number of his paces.

Based upon the recorded number of paces, the artist will construct a 3 dimensional installation of the ratio 1:25000, for a future Long March project.  The work converts the un-visual quantity to a visual solid, finishing the misreading of one event through history documentations and their materialized interpretation.

At 3 o’clock May 21, 2006, artist Shu Yong organized a group of 100 elderly residents from the Yanhe River Art Group “yangge” dancers, as well as 300 students from Yan’an University to form his “bubble group.”  On the Yan’an Yanhe River square, the yangge dance group performed, and the students, led by Shu Yong, blew bubbles, a childlike ideal refracted numerous rainbows in the sunshine…

Afterwards, Shu Yong led the group up Baota Mountain, and once more, underneath the Baota Pagoda, the group performed their dance, and tourists also joined the group in blowing bubbles.

Shu Yong’s work has continually been dealing with public art practice, borrowing upon history and myth to new theatrical sites and narratives.

The work uses a visually dazzling method to give form to the power of the collectivist ideal.  Through a whimsical form, the work deconstructs the ideal Utopian nation and searches for the location of power for collectivism.  Setting out from reality, the artist reconsiders history, culture and region, providing both a positive and realistic alternative.

Qiu Zhijie

It’s Changed

Performance, photography

Yan’an Yanhe River

2006.5.21

On the night of May 21, 2006, artist Qiu Zhijie completed this work at the foot of Baota Mountain in Yan’an.  In continuation of his series of works in which he records his writing in light through photography, he carefully selected the background and wrote the 2 Chinese characters for “change”.  The work records two traces of things past, one a fleeting flash a light, and the other the Baota Mountain onto one plane.  Through this relationship of space and time, the work combined historical memory and the present.

Shu Yong

Bubbles at Baota Mountain

Performance, photography

Yanhe Square, Baota Mountain

2006.5.21

At 3 o’clock May 21, 2006, artist Shu Yong organized a group of 100 elderly residents from the Yanhe River Art Group “yangge” dancers, as well as 300 students from Yan’an University to form his “bubble group.”  On the Yan’an Yanhe River square, the yangge dance group performed, and the students, led by Shu Yong, blew bubbles, a childlike ideal refracted numerous rainbows in the sunshine…

Afterwards, Shu Yong led the group up Baota Mountain, and once more, underneath the Baota Pagoda, the group performed their dance, and tourists also joined the group in blowing bubbles.

Shu Yong’s work has continually been dealing with public art practice, borrowing upon history and myth to new theatrical sites and narratives.

The work uses a visually dazzling method to give form to the power of the collectivist ideal.  Through a whimsical form, the work deconstructs the ideal Utopian nation and searches for the location of power for collectivism.  Setting out from reality, the artist reconsiders history, culture and region, providing both a positive and realistic alternative.

Yan Lei

Fifth System

Installation

Shenzhen to Beijing Long March Space C

2007

The Luojiaping Village in Yan’an lies in the lower reaches of Yanhe River.  A 200 meter stone bridge functions as a vital artery between Lujiaping and the city of Yan’an.  Before the revolution, an old stone bridge stood in its place, but fell into disrepair and was eventually abandoned and destroyed.  Today, a new bridge stands in its place.  Nearly choked by sand, the former bridge bases are the only remnants of this old bridge’s memory.  Yan Lei proposed to transport the base of this old bridge to Beijing and exhibit it in the Long March Space.

Do objects have memory in themselves?  Can they express and tell their own stories?  Having lost its original function, does the object still retain its meaning, or is it purely a symbol?  The process of movement itself is not the entirety of the work; rather, it is the material power of object which has endowed the work with meaning.

The work converts an object’s functional utility, and pushes it to the very core of the inherent power of objects to express itself.  The elements that comprise this core are history, culture as well as geography, time, and space.

Jiang Jie

Sending off the Red Army – In Commemoration to the Mothers on the Long March

Sculpture, performance

Yan’an Los Angeles Nusery School

2006.5.21

Jiang Jie, “Sending off the Red Army— In Commemoration to the Mother’s on the Long March”, sculpture/performance, 2002 – ongoing

Initiated in 2002 as part of the “Long March – A Walking Visual Display”, the work has continued to be realized in China and abroad.  The artist created a series of fiberglass babies, which symbolically functioned the newborns which the mother’s along the historical Long March were unable to raise themselves due to the hardships on the road.  The sculpture “baby” will be adopted and given a name by the local people.  Every year, the adoptee and family will take a family portrait with the baby on the baby’s birthday (adoption date)….

In 2002, one of the baby sculptures was adopted by the family of Xiao Hongang who works at ‘the museum of glacier’ in Moxi of Si Chuan province.  The family very much wanted to have a girl, so they named the baby Shen Xiaoshu.  Every August 26, they mail a photograph of the family with the baby.

The “Los Angeles Nursery” was established in 1941.  It was originally know as the “Central Nursery”.  Mao Zedong sent his daughter Li Min to this nursery as the first student, and the nursery soon became a cradle for the children of the Communist Revolutionaries.  Shortly thereafter, Song Qinling launched a donation drive among the overseas Chinese in Los Angeles, who contributed large sums of money, and other items to the Yan’an Central Nursery.  In memory of the patriotism of the overseas Chinese, the Central Nursery changed its name to ‘Los Angeles nursery’ under the permission of Central Communist Party.  Since the revolution, a large number of Central Party officials attended this nursery.

In May 2006, one of Jiang Jie’s babies was adopted by the nursery, and named Luo Anbao by the nursery’s principal.  The name is composed of the words “Luo” (from the Chinese of Los Angeles), “an” (from Yan’an), and “bao” from the word “bao bei” which translates as “little darling”.  In addition, the nursery also held a welcoming ceremony for the “baby” on the adoption date.  Every May 22, artist Jiang Jie will receive a photography of Luo Anbao with the children from the nursery.

The work recalls a brutal historic memory through the baby’s adoption and intercommunication between the artist and the adopter.  The work also represents a historical from a special view of female, providing it with a unique understanding of memory.

Xintianyu A Cross-Sectional Image of People

Performance and Painting

Yulin, Mizi, Guixian and other areas throughout Yan’an

2006.5

Born along the Yellow River Plateau, artist Chen Shaofeng has a strong personal connection and understanding of the history and culture of the region known as “Sha’anbei” (northeastern Sha’anxi Province).  Over a six month period in 2006, the artist intends complete a set of works in which he paints residents of Sha’anbei as they paint him.  The image is an important means of cultural preservation for humankind, and an innate urge and inalienable right of expression.  However, with professionalism and division of labor, the general public has become deprived of the right to use this natural form of expression, and have instead languishing in silence for many years.  Through encouraging people to draw him, the artist subverts the relationship between professional and folk, restoring the expressive power to the public realm.  In this process of mutually expressing one another through drawing and being drawn, the essence of art is restored.  This is not just a technique, but rather a consideration of art and its relationship to its surrounding.

“Xintianyou” is a folk melody from Sha’anbei region.  The singer creates unique lyrics dependent upon the appropriate subject matter for a given situation.  Likewise, Chen Shaofeng’s project does not have a predetermined subject which he will paint.  Rather, he selects a subject from the people he meets along the route of the Long March in Sha’anbei.  For example, the first subject that the artist painted was a 76 year old former soldier from the 359 division of the 8 route army.  In order to obtain this gentleman’s agreement, the artist had to temporarily set up his studio in the old man’s home, and bring him gifts, sing folk songs with him, burn incense together, as well as invite the old man to Beijing this winter.  Chen Shaofeng believes that this is art.  The final result of the painting is unimportant.  The key is the relationship created and the process of communication.  This is art returning to the people.  Everyone is an artist possessing the right and ability to visually express a subject that they understand and are familiar with.  This type of “art for the people” is not about fulfilling a doctrine; rather it is about an artist’s communication with the people to express a new artistic and work method.