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1）A performance by pictures

 

As a theatre designer with a fine art painting background, similar to many designers in China, how can I create visually-driven performances that also emphasise the live experience?

 

The concept of stop-motion animation reminds me the connection between still pictures and moving images. And I think this connection opens up new possibilities for exploring the relationship between painting and performance.

 

Sequences of pictures construct the performance itself, I refer to it as “performance by pictures.”

 

This concept aligns with my response to the theme of RARE Vision at PQ2023.

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2）The hands of time

 

In this hand-cranked device, the audience has the power to choose whether to fast forward or pause time, thereby reweaving reality and co-creating a multi-layered live performance alongside the live painting and photography happening onsite.

 

The process of frame extraction in video editing reminds that I can perceive each frame not only as a moment in time but also as an individual image, allowing me to create a new order that goes beyond the boundaries of both video and images.

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3）Clumsiness 

 

If my work is to be understood as a video installation, it diverges from the trend of embracing constantly evolving technological advancements and instead returns to the fundamental technical principles. Its deliberate "clumsiness" becomes the artistic value that I consider most significant, serving as a critique of technology itself.

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4）Plastic art and colour 

 

Hangzhou was the capital of the Southern Song Dynasty, and the West Lake is the site of many cultural memories, including Xu Xian and the White Snake, Emperor Song Huizong and the Slender Gold Calligraphy, and Master Hong Yi's poem ‘Where we part, old roads lie,

sweet grass greens to the sky’. I choose a simple blue colour, like a golden liquid but dark as a tragedy. It brings together all my cultural imaginations of the Southern Song Dynasty and ancient China.

 

When it comes to plastic art, I can think of nothing more fascinating than the interior of a boat——the kind of form that is so function-driven that I only need to use one way to identify it. So instead of adding extra elements, I simply painted the interior of the boat with a thin layer of paint.

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5）The untethered boat

 

When I talked to the curator, he mentioned boats and felt the sentiment that ‘our heart should be like the clear autumn water, and our action should be like an untethered boat’. The untethered boat means not to be tied to a rope but to go with the flow of the river and be at ease with what happens. It shows uncertainty and serendipity, the reverence for everything in the world that is beyond the rules and regulations, which fits perfectly with my creative philosophy.

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6）The limitation of the circumstance and the uniqueness of the work

 

The exhibition was held during a period of severe epidemic, and there was no way to be there  personally. Our team has to split into two and work in parallel in two cities 2,000 kilometres away to make it happen, however, I turned this limitation into one of the unique forms of the work.

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7）Brief introduction

 

As Moonlight, As a Boat is a performance installation work first shown at the Invitation Exhibition of Chinese Youth Stage Designers in December 2022. 

The curator provided each artist with a boat commonly found on the West Lake in Hangzhou Province, China. During the exhibition period, I painted the interior of the boat blue on-site and documented the whole process. Additionally, I photographed people using a Chinese fan to dress themselves up as women in the ancient Song Dynasty at another location.

 

Using a series of these on-site photographs, I created a stop-motion animation and mounted it in a hand-cranked device that the audience can interact with. They can watch each individual photo or manually watch them together as a video while also being able to see the painting and filming process.

 

This work incorporates my understanding of performance art at every level.

 

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