atchison in residence

I first became interested in traveling to China about a year ago when Cheng Xiaobei, the director of the Shangyuan Art Center Residency, visited Minneapolis and I had a chance to speak with her about the program. At that time my knowledge of contemporary China and its social and political history was limited to articles that I had read in the New York Times, National Geographic, and a basic generalist’s knowledge of World History. When I committed to applying for this opportunity, I began researching the history of post-Mao art in China and became fascinated with the contrasting historical trajectories of the Chinese avant-garde, and those of America and Europe. I also began the exercise of examining the history of class struggle in America next to that of China.

I will be an artist in residence at The Shangyuan Art Center (Located in Shangyuan Village, Beijing, China), from July 2 – August 27, 2011. From what I understand, during my two months at the residency, myself and one other artist will be the only Americans among about 23 Chinese artists. This residency is geared towards emerging artists and encourages a cross-disciplinary practice and the sharing of ideas. While in residence I will be provided a studio, an apartment, and exhibition space. I will be expected to spend my time at the Art Center reflecting on my art practice, researching, learning from my environment, taking risks in my work that I would not otherwise explore, and engaging with the other residents in cross-cultural and cross-discipline dialogue and group critique.

In my proposal that I submitted some months ago, I wrote:

 

In Shangyuan I will be investigating the power dynamics that emerge in instances of communication. Specifically, I will be surveying certain rare and perplexing circumstances in which the structure of these power relations transfigures from hierarchy to equilibrium. This will include searching for their formative influence(s) and imagining potential social and political ramifications. Due to the density of this idea, I am zeroing-in on interactions where dynamics of this quality emerge, and reducing the amount of variables that are present in order to distinguish what is extraneous from what is critical.

 

For example, in recent work I explore the implications of reading lips and speaking on someone else’s behalf or speaking in their place. In my video piece, being half of there, power is redistributed between the speaker and interpreter through the use of these models. I am delighted by the eternal failure of even knowing, with all certainty, what I really mean when I myself speak or gesture. Even though my head is my head, and my tongue is my tongue, it is strange to me, and it can turn against me and deliver me to the unknown. In Shangyuan, I will be in pursuit of this instability. I will be without the luxury of immediacy in communication. The otherness that I will experience while navigating unfamiliar cultural and linguistic terrain will challenge my critical framework and feed my research. This distancing from confidence and tempo in speech, gesture, and comprehension, will push the unutterable and poetic elements of my investigation to develop in intricacy as well as position.

 

I am always looking to offset any tendencies to normalize, form habits, or get too comfortable, so that I will continue to take risks and produce earnestly. In my art practice this looks like self-sabotage, cannibalization of my conceptual strategy, aesthetics, and ethical zeal. As with the psychoanalysis of patients and the cross-examination of suspects, I am trying to force a fault and create a slippage, in order to betray whatever hint of truth I unknowingly have the ability to affect in both my work and myself.

 

The only condition of the coming months upon which I can rely is that the proposal which I drafted above, and what I am thinking now, about what I will do, and experience, and explore while I am in China, will undoubtedly change. I am at ease with this indeterminacy.

 

I board my plane June 29^th. Stay tuned.