Beijing Streetworks 2005

On Thursday morning, June 23, 2005, a series of Streetworks were installed around Beijing. The installation began in the early hours. The streets were already bustling places of activity and movement as markets flourished, street businesses sprang up, elders exercised in community groups, workers scurried on buses and bikes, and school children were hurried along. Although looking somewhat obvious as wandering tourists, no one seemed to take much notice as local street elements were given unusual scrutiny through discrete yet detailed documentation. The ideas for the site works originated during a teaching residency at the Central Academy of Fine Art, Beijing in July 2004. A distinctive sight observed in Beijing was the manner of removing graffiti and political sloganeering from the streets. Workers methodically scraped off stickers and posters. At other times broad white brushstrokes of paint were used to cover offending messages. This overpainting, however, created its own visual energy as bands of white wash snaked in all directions around the posts in daubs and dribbles of street calligraphy. It seemed right to create pieces that would continue this local communication and open up the visual stories to other views.

The Beijing streetworks were designed in New York using materials related to previous visits to Beijing. These included remnants of papers and inks collected in Beijing, coins picked up in Chinatown in NY, and Streetwork postcards given to a colleague, Stephen Lane, who added his touch while working in Beijing and sent them back to NY through the post. To ensure the Beijing Streetworks would fit within the street settings in Beijing and be able to be installed in an unobtrusive way, the pieces were created as collages on self-adhesive vinyl sheets. Once the backing paper was removed, the pieces could be folded across an arm and gently pressed against the telegraph pole in a natural movement, much like standing and leaning on against a post. Five Streetwork pieces were installed during the day. A sixth was left with Stephen Lane, who was teaching a class in Beijing over summer and was to take his students around Beijing on photographic assignments. My request of was to ask Stephen to place the Streetwork in an appropriate location and leave it there. A few weeks later he sent a photograph of the installation site with the streetwork attached to a timber beam high on the ceiling of a guardhouse of the Great Wall of China.

As with all Streetworks, the Beijing collages carried a message about the Streetwork process on the back that was translated into Chinese. This information remains anonymous, however it always includes contact email details-as yet, no communication has been received as a result of the Beijing installation.

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