THE SELF-ISOLATION RESIDENCY 6th APRIL 2021: DAY 373

Composition in White (Painting), 501 Artspace, situation-specific installation, Chongqing, China, June 2012.

'Composition in White (Painting)', 501 Artspace, situation-specific installation, Chongqing, China, June 2012.
In 2012 I was fortunate enough to be awarded both an Arts Council England grant and an artist residency at the 501 Artspace in Chongqing China as visiting artist in association with The Sichuan Fine Art Institute.

The 501 Artspace is housed in an old munition’s factory in Chongqing, which is regarded as the world’s biggest municipality at some 30, million inhabitants. The Artspace itself sits between two worlds, our, now outdated, view of ancient, romantic China and this 21st century urban sprawl. The building is entered of a busy, bustling main road, where seemingly all of China is gathered together, but the small widows in the gallery space above open onto an unseen garden full of birdsong and light. This however being an art gallery, and one in pragmatic 21st century China, the windows are constantly covered by vinyl/canvas blinds which do their best to cut out both the bird song and especially the daylight. 

On engaging with the space over several visits at all times of the day and night I became more and more aware of how much I wanted to draw attention to the windows and the light; indeed, I became fascinated with the idea of “drawing” the light back into the space. I wanted to pull the light into the space much as I do as a painter when I pull oil paint across a canvas. Once again, my mind considered the available materials, the space, the light, the windows and the blinds covering them. Everything else in the space was an addition and I striped them out of my thinking. This finally led to the removal of the original blinds and the construction and anchoring, or the new “blinds” above that echo and follow the line of the ambient light as it falls is drawn into the space.

To be continued...