interesting links>shanghai dreaming

admin — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 04:35:37 +0000

Dutch artist Jeanne van Heeswijk:
“is a visual artist who creates contexts for interaction in public spaces. Her projects distinguish themselves through a strong social involvement. With her work van Heeswijk stimulates and develops cultural production and creates new public (meeting) spaces or remodels existing ones. To achieve this she often works closely with designers, architects, software developers, governments and citizens.”

One of those projects is “Shanghai Dreaming, Holding an Urban Golden Card“, made for the Shanghai Biennale in 2008.

This work is a great example of an approach to public art, that involves the local public, it is created through the input and participation of the public, it uses various media, she used local businesses, for instance a marketing company, to communicate the work. I like very much how through the collecting of stories, and transforming them into a visual, physical manifestation, some residents of Shanghai, just everyday ordinary citizens become visible. And through their stories, in fact, a story about the social impact of city life emerges.
An interview with the artist about this project can be seen here:
http://www.dmovies.net/shanghai7/index.html

Consider this an example of how you could think about creating the monument for Nan Ting.

Jeanne van Heeswijk’s website: http://www.jeanneworks.net

interesting links>the instant hutong project

admin — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 03:59:56 +0000

Another interesting example of subjective mapping, in this case of different hutongs in Beijing:

URBAN CARPETS
Series of 8 carpets representing different maps of Hutong areas with a size of approximately one square kilometre and a population of 30000. Each of them has been isolated and presented as autonomous town within the big city. They are embroidered by hand with the same technique of the propaganda slogans on large fabrics used by the communist party during the seventies. The carpets have been filled with white wire wool insertions. All along year 2009 the urban carpets will be shown to the Hutong dwellers inside the courtyards and on the public lanes in order to share the project with people and bring it back to the city districts it was inspired from.
Look at the different carpets here: red, cyan, brown, green, orange

IDENTITY
1500 red stamps on 1500 grey clay beijing bricks

Stamps have a central role in Chinese people’s life: they use them to confirm agreements and validate their actions. In a certain way loosing your stamp is like loosing your own identity. Each stamp is not carrying a name but it has been carved with a fragment of Hutong district map, a group of houses, a piece of city, to mark the relationship and identification between people and their living space. The installation is part of the Instant Hutong art project.
Look at the link here: http://www.behance.net/Gallery/identity/232326

remarks at gafa » textile

interesting links>shanghai dreaming

interesting links>the instant hutong project