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Categories Salon Blogs |
Beijing Project 1 (Inquiry Letter)March 14, 2004 This is an excerpt from the inquiry letter(!) I mailed to the Creative Capital. One Sentence Description This project aims to record, on the street level, the tremndous vitality generated by drastic changes taking place in Beijing, through painting and digital devices, and to provide an alternative to the usual journalistic documentation. Project Description In the course of 4 years, 4 - 5 trips will be made to Beijing, ranging from 3 weeks to several months in length. During these, I will make paintings on sights and from life. Unlike photography or video, painting takes from several hours to days to complete, thus providing me with an excellent opportunity to get to know the place and people. It also tends to attract the local people to interact with me. While the focus is on the painting itself, which is my medium of choice to superbly capture the feeling of being there and of the moment, other digital devices such as a video and still camera and a sound recorder will be used to document the process and interaction. These digital files will be combined to make short video clips and slide shows with sound and voice, and along with written accounts and still images, they will be uploaded to a web site so that the project can be shared on an ongoing basis with a wide range of audience. Some censoring and other legal issues are anticipated, and reporting on such issues and their solutions will be included in the web siteOs agenda. As the project progresses, involvement if not collaboration with local artists or art students (some connections existent) will be sought. The project will culminate in exhibitions which will present the paintings and the collected digital documentation in an integrated installation. Place your work in a context so we might better evaluate it. What are the primary influences on your work? How does your past work inform your current project? Please use concrete examples. These examples may include other artists' work, art movements, your cultural heritage, any research/work from outside the art field, etc. (no more than 900 characters) Beijing is unlike any other places I've been. A giant awakening from a long sleep - ready to be the center of the world again. Amid the city's rapid transformations, the people and general atmosphere appear to operate in its own grand flow of time. Devoid of fear and anxiety so common elsewhere, this city will no doubt be the key to global direction in the 21st century. Like artists who flocked to New York in the '50s, I feel an urgency to be in the belly of Beijing. Rebelling against my city-upbringing, I was influenced by the 19th century naturalists like Constable and Kensett, and spent years absorbing and painting fleeting moments in the changing bucolic landscape around New Paltz. Equipped with an age-old art form and hi-tech communication tools, I am now ready to return to the urban front and take on this grand city where changes and timelessness are two faces of one entity. In what specific ways does your project take an experimental approach to content and form? (no more than 600 characters) Each painting I do is a search for its unique reckoning of the moment, therefore it's always experimental. In this project the subject is wide open, expanding its experimental parameter. The form - employing painting as a means to create a connection with a locality, and recording such interactions as a work itself - is experimental in its conception, logistics, and outcome. My biggest challenge, hence the most experimental aspect, is to keep a firm focus on the content (painting) while effectuating the form (documentation). The integrity of this project depends on this fine balance. Creative Capital is interested in assisting artists in the process of discernible artistic and professional growth. How might your proposed project act as a catalyst for your artistic and professional growth? (no more than 600 characters) I have long been enamored with painting's ability to capture the essence of "being there," while frustrated by its commercial application that limits its relevance in our complex society. This project utilizes digital media and the web to bridge the gap between creation and presentation thus shifting the focus from result to process, and to create multilevel contexts that render painting relevant beyond its usual role as a commodity. Artistically this will grant me more freedom while preventing isolation. Professionally it will open up my venues beyond geographical and commercial boundaries. Who is/are the audience(s) for your work and how might you reach them? (no more than 600 characters) Bystanders whom I encounter while painting on site; painting fans on both continents, reached through gallery and museum exhibitions; contemporary art followers, reached through gallery, museum, alternative space, university gallery and public space installations; and those who are interested in Chinese history and culture, communication, globalization, language, media arts, web culture and design, sociology, and anthropology, all reached through the internet.
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