| Title or content of the project: Ephemeral and Immortal |
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Artist(s) / Organization(s): Ren Jie
Media(s): Performance
Date: 2008-5-11
Venue(s): No.356 Tianshan Rd, ChangNing library. |
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Description:
There are eight chairs put at both sides (4 chairs each side) of a white mattress. The artist will cut black velvet according to the strokes of each of the Chinese characters. Then she will piece together the strips of velvet to form the lines of poems on the mattress. Eight volunteers will sit on the chairs. Each of them will read the poems assigned to them aloud (different poems for each person). Due to the fact that the strips of velvet are not fixed, the strokes of characters will become kind of messy by the end of the performance. Therefore, the lines will lose their original forms as well as meaning.
In the end, the artist will pin the loose strips of black velvet to the white mattress. The whole process will last for 3-4 hours.
The poems selected were all written by Chinese poets in 1980s. The project aims to revive the memory of that particular era through reading and writing the poems. While the adoption of an unusual way of writing will easily lead to vagueness and confusion, which shows the artist's understanding and reconsideration of traditional culture. |
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