A specially commissioned performance by Xie Rong (aka Echo Morgan), who draws on autobiography to share thought-provoking narratives through body, gesture, and voice, interwoven with classical Chinese aesthetics.
Momo 默墨 – Silent Ink draws inspiration from Jizi’s cosmic ink paintings and his struggles as a young man navigating political and historical turmoil, reflecting the silence of generational trauma and evoking today’s forbidden Heaven Songs from Afghanistan.
Renowned musicians Wang Beibei and Dr Cheng Yu will perform live with Xie Rong, standing in solidarity with Afghan women’s unimaginable realities, embodying the call from within the burqa.
Fragmented sounds from the Silk Road, contributed by Uyghur musician Shohret Nur, Turkish double-neck baglama player Ozan Baysal, Afghan drumming recorded by Elizabeth Nott, and Kazakh kui by Sabine Masters, weave into a powerful soundscape composed by Wang Beibei, echoing Rong’s own childhood struggles and amplifying the silenced voices and songs of freedom.
This performance reimagines ink as a vessel for the female voice, exploring the search for refuge in cosmic energies and the healing found through shared, broken silences. Here, the live performance becomes a journey into communal resilience, uncovering solace and strength within the collective voice.
How to attend
This is a free event open to the public. Join us at the SOAS Gallery, Lower Ground Floor, on Friday, 15 November 2024, from 5:00pm – 6:00pm.
Above the cloud “In Xie Rong’s sharing, #gender is not a #slogan, and #race and nationality are liberated from mere #symbols.Returning the #couplet, taken by the #father, back to the #mother—using hers: the #daughter’s body. A tribute to #YokoOno, crafting a new “Added” “ #CutPiece”—using her own body. Confronting the #colonial veneration of masculine hero statues with the endangered Spanish “maternal” #seagrass, #Posidonia—using her #body.#Contemporaryart has been nurtured in a twisted, giant vacuum culture dish, where it becomes pretentious and hollow when new expressions are forced upon it. I haven’t been moved by something truly fresh, unpretentious, courageous, or cosmopolitan in a long time. But tonight, I’m witnessing something remarkably heartfelt and honest! I have no words, only pure #emotion, and the deepest praise for her pure spirit and powerful expression!She is a naturally gifted #storyteller, with passion flowing effortlessly and a rare ability to communicate in a low-context manner within #Asian#societies. With a wise heart and a fluid, adaptable standpoint, it’s clear that she is better suited to being a #globalcitizen, a #free#traveler!What a beautiful night!”— Freesia, Absolute KunmingFor the first time, I used my #mothertongue to articulate the origins of my #Action#Body in front of my mama.Perhaps it was the expertly crafted coffee, the soulful #teaceremony, the artistic #Yunnan dishes, and the heartfelt warmth from our new friends in #Kunming.For the first time, my mother and I shared such an honest and loving exchange, encouraging and caring for each other through our stories and emotions.I am so grateful to #空空间 (Empty Space), organized by artist HeLibin, which welcomed us with such a rich and fulfilling experience! #artisttalk
My first hologram performance is to honour Dr. Refaat Alareer and his last poem, “If I Must Die,” which he wrote 5 days before he was killed with his brother, nephew, sister, and her three children. If you click this link from your mobile phone, you can view my performance hologram in your environment, Let’s tell his story together!
VIVAAR VENEZIA
For the 60th Venice Art Biennale – 17.4.-24.11.2024 – the curator-duo Jonas Stampe and Xiao Ge. I am so grateful for the volumetric video cuption at wimbledoncollegeofart with incredible PHD research Terence Quinn and Chris Follows, Grzesiek Sedek, Jakob Taylor Black and Cory Allen from Scatter USA for sharing his personal grief of losing families to the bombing in Gaza.
Along the Adriatic coastline, from the Arsenal to the Giardini, walking towards the sunset, you can see gatherings and performance art everywhere. “Hope…,” “Kite…,” “Love…,” a few Chinese words waft intermittently from nearby. Approaching a crowd of dozens by the bridge, we see people sitting in the front row, with a Chinese woman dressed in white at the center. Her hair is tied up in a bun, and the word “Freedom” is written in blue paint on her face. She is telling the story of a child in wartime: “She is searching for her father who disappeared in the flames of war,” “She hasn’t had the chance to say goodbye to anyone,” “Look at this kite, the one you made for me…” From her words, we piece together the keywords “Hope” and “Love,” and discover that these two words are not rare in Venice.
My first hologram performance is to honour Dr. Refaat Alareer and his last poem, “If I Must Die,” which he reshared 5 days before he was killed with his brother, nephew, sister, and her three children. I hope you can follow the link in my bio and scan the barcode wherever you are around the world, you can watch this performance on your mobile in your own environment. Let’s tell his story together
VIVAAR VENEZIA is a project initiated by the curator-duo Jonas Stampe (Sweden) and Xiao Ge (China) to coincide with the 60th Venice Art Biennale – April 17 to November 24, 2024.
Grateful for the volumetric video cuption at Wimbledon college of art with incredible PHD research Terence Quinn and Chris follows , Grzesiek Sedek, Jakob Taylor Black and Cory Allen from Scatter USA for sharing his personal grief of losing families to the bombing in Gaza.
Fragmented sound from An-Ting In the sunny afternoon, Venice was suddenly struck by a thunderstorm, as if the heavens too heard the poetic songs in 50 languages. Under An-Ting’s poignant and cinematic sound wave, tears were shed. The holographic digits also dispersed and evaporated into the night sky.
Community project by David Heathfield, full playlist on YouTube:
Poet, storyteller and teacher Refaat Alareer was killed along with close family in an airstrike on 6 December 2023. Already the invitation to recite his extraordinary poem If I Must Die in diverse languages and voices has made this growing playlist a testament to the power of the spoken word in calling for change. His Voice Shall Always Remain.
If I Must Die – Dr Refaat Alareer
If I must die,
you must live
to tell my story
to sell my things
to buy a piece of cloth
and some strings,
(make it white with a long tail)
so that a child, somewhere in Gaza
while looking heaven in the eye
awaiting his dad who left in a blaze –
and bid no one farewell
not even to his flesh
not even to himself –
sees the kite, my kite you made, flying up
above
and thinks for a moment an angel is there
bringing back love
If I must die
let it bring hope
let it be a tale.
You might translate the poem yourself or you can find translations of the poem into many languages online. Of course you might choose to recite the poem in English, the language in which he wrote this beautiful and prescient poem. We send our appreciation and our condolences to his family. Let it be a tale!
For the 60th Venice Art Biennale – 17.4.-24.11.2024 – the curator-duo Jonas STAMPE and XIAO
Ge has commissioned eighteen international performance artists to explore the latest hologram technology as a gateway to the future.
Simplicity and natural framing are key components for VIVAAR VENEZIA as a human centric technological showcase fusing performance art with the hologram.
VIVAAR VENEZIA is an experiment and a showcase of the conceptually and visually new hologram technology presented in the real world setting of public space near the Giardini.
Eighteen hologram performances will be on display for the public to explore on their smartphones by scanning a QR code following the hashtag #HologramMe! Eighteen red mobile bases will be positioned in an open configuration close to the Giardini and the scenic lagoon.
Xie Rong, China / UnitedKingdom
London-based Xie Rong, aka Echo Morgan, challenges stereotypes of ‘Chineseness’ and femininity through body-centred works. Using ink, lipstick, charcoal, chlorophyll and even breast milk, she creates provocative action paintings and portraits with personal and eco-feminist themes. Blending Eastern philosophy, Fluxus and live art, she seamlessly interweaves English and Chinese folk songs to challenge beauty standards. Trained at the Sichuan Fine Arts Institute, Central Saint Martins and the Royal College of. Art, her creations have received international acclaim. and are featured in numerous private and public collections and exhibited worldwide.
‘With money you’re a dragon Without it you’re a worm Find a place that you can build on And a way to hold on firm…’
Watching @danielyorkloh perform live at the @twotempleplace Place was a remarkable experience. Juxtaposing the world of the privileged, yet embittered émigré William Waldorf Astor (who commissioned the building of Two Temple Place) with the harsh experiences of the impoverished first #Chinese#settlers in London, Daniel York Loh creates a powerful one-man show of two worlds apart. One evokes the depths of #Shakespearean#theatre#drama, portraying greed and fear entangled in @cheng_yu_music’s Pipa and @wangxiaouk Erhu, while the other expresses anger and confusion through a rap melody accompanied by electric live sound composed by @antingpig . The contrast in #musical style and #performance was captivating, leaving me utterly blown away! Since then I wished to work with Daniel.
Join us for a captivating 2.5-hour workshop of self-discovery through #creativewriting and crafting performance props, alongside #face#painting and the design of #protest#slogans. Let’s delve into the timeless tales of the “Classics of Mountains and Sea,” crafting our own #mythology and breathing life into #creaturesembodying unspoken emotions and the call of hope!
Tangram, a collective of musicians who celebrate the interaction between contemporary Western and Chinese musics, marked their fifth anniversary on 27 Jan. at LSO St Luke’s. But rather than being a celebratory programme, like their 2022 Lunar New Year concert, this event had a more contemplative feel. In the words of their flautist Daniel Shao, who curated the programme, it represented ‘a journey navigating the fragile relationship between humans and our environment through sound, installation, and performance art.’ Contributing to this immersive experience was a huge vertical painting by art director Echo Morgan, which formed a backdrop that oddly seemed to shapeshift in different lighting.
Dai Fujikura’s short cello piece Hidden Tree opened the concert in elegiac mood. Composed during lockdown, the piece is inspired by the organic growth of trees and the dark wood of the instrument, and Garwyn Linnell’s poised performance provided space for reflection.
Tangram presents “Nature Echo” at LSO St Luke’s — Photo by Mike Skelton
Many of the strongest works on the programme were by young composers, including Zhenyan Li’s Bamboo Echoes for dizi (Chinese bamboo flute, played by Shao), cello (Linnell), percussion (Beibei Wang) and piano (Annie Yim). Li, who herself plays the dizi, is from the southern Chinese province of Sichuan, which is famed for the quality of its bamboo; the organic growth of the plant fascinates her, as does its frequent evocation in Chinese literature. The quartet showcased Li’s imaginative ear for timbre and sense of drama. There were moments when the whole ensemble seemed to be infused with the bamboo flute’s slippery glissandi.
Plastic Ceremony by Tangram co-director Alex Ho was performed by Beibei Wang, one of the most extraordinary percussionists on the London scene. This was an imaginative lament with a ritualistic character. Opening with Wang agitating a pair of percussion beaters wrapped in plastic, she drew a huge variety of sounds from a single Chinese drum, 16 plastic bags, a couple of beaters, and vocalisations. She is a powerfully theatrical performer who compels attention, as also shown in Electra Perivolaris’ Sleeping Warrior for flute and percussion. Composed for Shao and Wang, the piece was inspired by the mountain contours of Scotland and Greece. While the musical material was slight, Shao’s uncanny blending of vocal utterance and the flute, combined with Wang’s mesmerising control of a pair of stones, created a striking impression.
Tangram presents “Nature Echo” at LSO St Luke’s — Photo by Mike Skelton
During the interval, venue staff positioned a table centre stage for Vivian Fung’s The Ice is Talking for percussionist, ice, and electronics. The piece was commissioned by the Banff Centre in Canada: Fung’s childhood memories of vacations in the Canadian Rockies, and her realisation that the icecap has receded, were the starting point for the work. Tapping, brushing, and scraping the ice blocks with a couple of table knives, Wang created an unforgettable spectacle, against the aural background of an ever-mobile electronic soundscape that sounded like distant, underwater resonance. Wang added amplified vocalisations, concluding in a whisper with the only understandable phrase: “the ice is talking.”
As Shao approached the performance area for Liza Lim’s Bioluminescence, art director Echo Morgan appeared and threw handfuls of tiny lights around his feet: you don’t often hear a London audience gasp, but they audibly responded to the surprise beauty of the lights. According to Shao, the piece was ‘inspired by squid that have twinkly lights inside them,’ and he made the fiendishly complex multiphonics and tremolandi sound as if the music was swimming in space.
Tangram presents “Nature Echo” at LSO St Luke’s — Photo by Mike Skelton
Sun Keting’s short piece for cello and piano, before we were ocean, was more harmonically-driven than other works on the programme. Yim’s piano chords formed the ground underneath Linnell’s ethereal cello lines, though they moved closer together in the more vigorous central section. The piece’s poignant lyricism acted as a welcome contrast to the lively virtuosity of much of the rest of the programme.
We had more surprises in store with the final work, George Crumb’s Vox Balaenae (1971) for electric flute, electric cello, amplified piano, and crotales. The white-clad performers wore lovely white paper masks, and Morgan herself created a live painted artwork during Crumb’s rich and strange piece. She smeared cobalt blue paint on the floor canvas with her hand, forearm, and eventually her whole body, a visual counterpoint to the musicians’ haunting dialogue. Crumb’s song of the whales segued to a passage for recorded sound alone: at this point, all four performers moved to the front of the performance area and Morgan decorated their outfits to match her artwork.
Tangram have found a gap that nobody suspected existed in the London contemporary music scene. Their blending of Western and Chinese musical styles is combined with highly imaginative presentations and truly limitless virtuosity as musicians. Tangram concerts are always a voyage of discovery: who knew that stones can sing and ice can talk?
I CARE IF YOU LISTEN is an editorially-independent program of the American Composers Forum, and is made possible thanks to generous donor and institutional support. Opinions expressed are solely those of the author and may not represent the views of ICIYL or ACF.
Performance artist and art director for Tangram’s forthcoming production Nature Echo: meet Echo Morgan
I am Echo, and it’s a pleasure to introduce myself as the art director for the two performances of Nature Echo. The journey through this performance promises to be an immersive experience, blending the harmonies of nature’s echoes with the transformative power of music and art. With a talented ensemble and a programme that delves into our intricate relationship with the environment, Nature Echo is not just a concert; it’s a unique opportunity to connect, reflect, and be moved by the beauty and fragility of the natural world. Join us on this unforgettable musical expedition, where the boundaries between classical music and visual art blur, and the echoes of nature resonate within us all.
I first heard about Tangram Sound from Kakilang ⾃⼰⼈ (formerly Chinese Arts Now), an organisation that consistently delivers outstanding interdisciplinary art rooted in the diverse voices of Southeast and East Asia. Having resided in the UK for the past 21 years, I’ve always been drawn to the allure of Eastern sounds, especially when they exude freshness and innovation.
Tangram, a London-based music collective, is dedicated to crafting and curating ambitious, multi-disciplinary, and culturally-curious productions. What truly strikes a chord with me is their unwavering commitment to transcending the conventional divide between China and the West, connecting communities across the Chinese Diaspora and beyond. They inspire meaningful conversations, healing, and transformative change, all made possible through the collective experience of art.
I was already captivated by Beibei Wang’s mesmerising water drumming. So when Tangram’s co-director, Alex Ho, approached me with the Nature Echo project, I couldn’t help but see it as a remarkable opportunity. It promised a chance to connect with exceptionally talented musicians and immerse myself in the harmonious symphony of nature’s echoes.
What to expect
As my involvement progressed, I had the privilege of meeting co-director Rockey Sun Keting and the brilliant flautist Daniel Shao, who curated the evening’s musical programme. Through a series of online meetings, we meticulously selected nine musical compositions from four continents, categorising them into two distinct atmospheres: woodland and ocean. The audience can anticipate an enthralling auditory journey, replete with the evocative sounds of ice and plastic, the haunting echoes of vanishing whale songs, and the ethereal glow of bioluminescence—a musical expedition delving into the delicate yet perilous relationship between humanity and the environment.
Our performance will feature compositions by distinguished artists such as Liza Lim, George Crumb, Dai Fujikura, Chen Yi, Alex Ho, and Sun Keting, complemented by the world premiere of an exclusive commission by Zhenyan Li.
The ensemble, consisting of the exceptionally talented Beibei Wang on percussion, Daniel Shao on flute, Annie Yim on piano and Garwyn Linnell on cello, promises to deliver an unforgettable experience.
Written by Xie Rong, also known as Echo Morgan, who is an artist. Her work converges at the intersection of personal narratives, collective social struggles, eco-feminism, immigration, body politics, and gender politics.
Artist’s Talk : Xie Rong : Tuesday 28th Nov : 1pm : Lecture Theatre
Xie Rong Tuesday 28th November 1pm Lecture Theatre
It’s with great pleasure that we invite Xie Rong to deliver our final Artist’s Talk of the term this Tuesday lunchtime.
Xie Rong, also known as Echo Morgan, fearlessly challenges stereotypes surrounding “Chineseness” and femininity through her provocative art. She uses her body as a canvas, employing materials such as Chinese ink, red lipstick, coal, chlorophyll, and even her own breast milk to create expressive action paintings and emotionally stirring portraits. Drawing inspiration from personal experiences and broader themes like the body politic and eco-feminism, Xie Rong skillfully combines Eastern philosophy, the Fluxus movement, and action art to encourage introspection and foster meaningful dialogue.
Xie Rong’s artwork seamlessly integrates English narration with Chinese folk songs, challenging prevailing notions of beauty, power, and vulnerability. She honed her artistic skills at the Sichuan Fine Arts Institute High School, Central Saint Martins, and the Royal College of Art. Her visually enchanting creations have garnered international acclaim, with exhibitions held in various countries. Collaborating with photographer Jamie Baker, Xie Rong explores the fusion of painting on photographs and employs mark-making techniques, resulting in unique artist prints. She also creates intimate and emotionally challenging personal films. Recently, Xie Rong has expanded her creative collaborations to include musicians and movement artists, delving into the realm of immersive site-specific storytelling experiences. Blurring the boundaries between theatre and action art, she practices art as the healing power within our community.
Xie has earned numerous accolades, such as the Aesthetica Art Prize in 2014, the 40 Under 40 Perspective Art Award in 2017, the Chinese Arts Now Scratch Award in 2019, and was shortlisted for the Mother Art Prize in 2022. As a lecturer and researcher, she has presented her work at many UK and Chinese universities. She is an associated lecturer at the Chelsea College of Art, Royal College of Art, Central St Martin, and Glasgow School of Art.
Xie Rong is based in both the UK and China. Her dedication to pushing boundaries and defying conventions is evident in her work, which continually pushes the limits and invites viewers to engage with thought-provoking narratives through the embodiment of body, gesture, and voice.
My M(other) is Beautiful is a 10-minute film that captures the live performance of the same name.
A collaboration with artist Guy Wigmore, the film invites viewers to witness the unfolding of four heartfelt personal narratives, each intricately mirroring the cycles of the seasons. As we journey through the historical corridors of Zabludowicz Collection, we are transported to diverse landscapes that ignite our imagination. From the bird singing Japanese garden to the tumultuous Vietnamese Sea, we encounter the fluidity of a Caribbean healer amidst the Walsh waterfall, and witness the birth of a warrior in the depths of the Indonesian jungle. Viewers are transported to evocative settings that become canvases for profoundly immersive storytelling.
In the depths of grief after my mother-in-law’s passing, I painted with my own hair. As an action painter, my work is a physical manifestation of emotion, and this unique medium allowed me to capture my profound feelings of loss in a raw and visceral way. Through the drops of ink and the movement of my body, I connected action and mind, creating a powerful expression of sorrow on paper. I am deeply grateful for the opportunity to enjoy an exhibition opening without being covered in ink or paint, a rare and cherished experience for me. My heartfelt thanks go out to the Mother Art Prize and the incredible Anita team for facilitating such a memorable event. Additionally, I am immensely appreciative of all the visitors who shared their photographs and recordings with me, further enriching this unforgettable experience.
Exhibition opens Thursday-Sunday at the ZC until 25 June.
Anatomy of Posidonia Live Performance, Ibiza Video by Philemon Mukarno
Action painting Spirulina chlorophyll powder and Sea water on paper 2.75×11 Meter
Hair, the wild and abstract body movement seems always connected with the subject of femininity and freedom. A source of power that also signifies vulnerability and subservience.
This hair painting illustrates a microscopic images of fertilised Posidonia seed with eggs. At 100,000 years old, Posidonia is the oldest and largest living organism in the world; It’s one of the greatest sources of oxygen in the Mediterranean, with each square metre of plant generating between 4 and 20 litres of oxygen per day. These meadows serve as a home to more than 400 plant species and 1,000 animal species. Much loved and protected by local community but ignored by commercial developers and tourists, I wish to highlight the beauty, power and endangerment of this precious and magic plant!
Performed in front of the monument: Vara Del Rey ( A Spanish war hero was born in Ibiza in 1841 and died in Cuba 1898, during the Spanish-American War). I was provoking the concept of his heroic status. Is he also a hero in the eye’s Cubans? The Chinese political criminal, Noble Peace prize winner and democracy activist Liu Xiao Bo wrote: “Scepter’s Terracotta Army. Amazed entire world. A tombs that are more majestic than the palace. Our long history. Relying on the emperor’s grave to show off glory. “
Perhaps it’s time to focus and celebrate all other species than glorifying colonialism rulers! This performance was also inspired by a local Catalan feminist funk band: Pussydonia.
It was my first time in Ibiza and I was completely amazed by it’s landscape, culture, energy and history! It was emotional to see my performance been reviewed in Spanish and published on magazines, newspapers and radios! Thanks you Territory Team!
A short interview about my newest performance: Echo of Posidonia thank you IB3 for capture those sensitive moments and thank you Isa Sanz Dirctor of Territori festival for the truly remarkable effort to produce and promote this new body of work. Sharing precious opening light with Sarah Misselbrook and Saul Garcia Lopez
This is the first official performance by me with my boys: Tao and Zen.
权Rights, Power and Authority. During 20mins live performance I build a 木Wood shape character by using local died plants: Giant reed and my sons carried another half of the character 又 means again and repetition. Embodies with this word: 权power, authority and rights we are running. Audio tells the history of this word and mixed with protest news recorded from around the world calling for: human rights, woman’s rights, queer’s rights and animal rights … gives the social and emotional context to our action of running.
Yesterday, China puts ChengDu, my hometown: A city of 21millions into Covid lockdown. Tonight, many are queuing in the rain for Covid testing due to China’s strict zero case policy. This huge sudden entries has crashed the city’s digital contact and trace system also many people’s hope for more realistic and humanity approach from the authority.
Become Little Plum Blossom NFT captured the #bodypaint preparation for my latest performance: Chinese Knot, which took place at the Non-fungible Body festival in Linz, Austria. OÖ Kunst To mint this #timelapse as our first NFT is a symbolic #gesture to keep Xiao Hua Mei (Little Plum Blossom) and #herstory alive, when so many in #China have been silenced.The process of body-painting transformed my body into an intermediate space of #social, #political, and #artisticexpression. This pre-performance action is the passage between my life and art. In 2020, a mother of eight children locked up in an iron chain captivated the attention of many people in and outside China. Her story is beyond a tragic #humantrafficking case. She was named: Xiao Hua Mei (Little Plum Blossom) by the Chinese authorities despite much controversy and disagreement.
Can #DNA be fake? Can #identity be traded? Can 1.4 billion people save one woman? Can the internet’s hottest topic break the #censorship wall? Silenced, jailed, disappeared, delete, remove, forget …
10 years since the make of Be the Inside of the Vase. The film will be screening at The Third Festival of Chinese Video Artists at the Cine Morelos Cinema, Cuernavaca Mexico. It as a parallel activity in their own Violet Green Festival. Feminisms in Morelos. Thanks to Curator and longtime supporter Elizabeth Ross.
Sensational title on the society page, photos with mosaic cover our eyes …
In the past 6 months, a mother of eight children locked up in an iron chain has captivated the attention of many people in and outside of China. It is beyond a tragic human trafficking case.
There are many twists and turns in the narrative. After huge public outrage authorities in China’s Xuzhou city issued 5 statements and named Chained Mother as “Xiaohuamei: “ Little Plum Blossom – a woman was sold three times from south-western Yunnan province to Feng county. But is she truly her?
Can DNA being fake? Can identify be swap?Can 1.4 billion people save one woman?Can the internet hottest topic break the censorship wall? When is the systematic structure of rape fall? Is this horrific tragedy only happens in China? Are we truly protected in so-call more civilized city? Religion, morality, tradition, custom, politics and law, why everything over powering a woman’s choice roar!
Silenced, Jailed, Disappeared…
Delete, Remove, Forget …
Opening act at The Non-fungible Body performance Festival, Linz, Austria
Xie Rong, Chinese Knot. Photo: Nurith Wagner-Strauss
Linz has a new performance festival: THE NON-FUNGIBLE BODY – Performance and Digitalization. It brings together artists who address the cultural significance of live performance in the (post) pandemic era.Curated by Freda Fiala & River Lin. Participating artists: Cibelle Cavalli Bastos, Marita Bullmann, Yun-Chen Chang, Beatrice Didier, Jan Hakon Erichsen, David Henry Nobody Jr, Sara Lanner, Sajan Mani, Boris Nieslony, Yiannis Pappas, Jianan Qu, Xavier Le Roy, Sarah Trouche, Xie Rong
I arrived in Zurich on the 7th of April in a storm. There were Ukraine flags flying in the old town. I checked with my Israeli friends safety as the shooting in the downtown Tel Aviv that night killed 3 and injured few … ShangHai has entered full scale lockdown, 25 million people are experiencing the world toughest restrictions … I watched the clouds rushing cross River Limmat, I thought, how would people react to the Cut Piece in the time of the pandemic and a war in Europe?
Here are some my experience of the Cut Piece 2022:
The performance last 2 and half hours finished by museum turned down the lights as the security guards need to go home. You could say it was an open ending, waves of actions, strong opposite responding.
Dust of fabric, I don’t remember seeing such poignant fragment in the last Cut Piece.
Whisper, 5 Chinese speaking audiences said: “Thank you”, “ Sister”, “I am sorry” … to me in soft and gentle tone, It made my eyes moist almost instantly.
A little girl came at lest 3 times, she collected different pieces from every parts of my outfit, to me she was making a map, she seemed happy and enjoying the participation. Took my instruction as an offer, a gift. Her movement around my body created poetic dance like the passing cloud.
A little boy came with his mother, dressed in yellow jacket and blue hat, it reminded me Yoko Ono’s The Blue Room Event which is where the exhibition title from: This room moves at the same speed as the clouds. This room slowly evaporates every day. Stay until the room is blue…
Some audiences were challenging the concept of “Taking” Someone didn’t cut but simply changed the direction of the scissors; Two people cut their own shirt and placed the small fabric in my hand; Someone kneeled down and stared into my eyes; Someone hugged me; Someone wiped my tears away; Someone sang, Someone cried … Two young women took their own clothes off to cover me while someone strip everything off … Someone walked away with the scissors, someone brought it back … the performance continues very slowly and silently. The
stage became an opening book … echoes Yoko’s words: “Many rooms, many dreams, many countries in the same space. — The Blue Room Event ”
One point, I had two jackets and three coats on, five people sat around me, I thought if all audience came up to the stage what a grand statement that is! “world will live as one.”
Historically Yoko amended the instructions a couple of times: indicating that “members of the audience may cut each other’s clothing. The audience may cut as long as they wish.” All the gestures happened during this Cut Piece naturally. Also it seems at times people were also recreating “Touching Piece” and “ Half A Wind” to my outfit.
Four people wrote to me after the performance, asking my thoughts also sharing their experience, what a generous concept of live art, taking and adding, sharing and exchanging! The relationship between performer and participants. It rises questions about power and control.
I went back to the hotel with three piece of fabrics and a feather in my hair, a small bleeding cut and one shoe. Like my audiences, I also had souvenirs from this Cut Piece 2022.
Finally, I like to quote Kevin Concannon conclusion from his essay: Yoko Ono’s CUT PIECE: From Text to Performance and Back: Readings of Cut Piece as feminist, pacifist, anti – authoritarian, Buddhist, Christian – and even as a striptease – are all valid. The many and varied interpretations of Cut Piece by artist, performers, audiences, and critics testify to the work’s great power – a power embedded in its score. But most importantly, Cut Piece is an incredibly rich and poetic work that poses seldom – asked questions about the nature of art itself and in the process opens itself up to a multitude of readings. To assert that any of its performances or interpretations are definitive denies the work the very multivalence at its core and minimizes the qualities that make it forever vital and alive.
I choose to wear white because it’s world peace sentiment and most importantly I was imaging as the performance goes, the energy and the shift of missing piece creates abstract clouds just like the exhibition title: This room moves at the same speed as the clouds. I wanted to in-body the cloud. ☁️
My outfit was combined with newly bought items: tights, underwear and jacket and my own loved designer clothes: shirt, skirts and shoes but this time I made a decision not to wear European Union heritage brands. I didn’t want to have the concept of “cutting” related to them because of the Russian-Ukraine war and Brexit. Still I wanted to offer my best outfit also most recognisable classic brands that has their own social identity and global expansion and influence. Here are some of my thinkings:
Jacket: Ralph Lauren ( one of the oldest American luxury brand based in New York, many people would considered it as the icon of American/Western lifestyle.)
Shirt: Vivienne Westwood, UK brand ( “The mother of punk” Vivienne Westwood is also an Eco fashion campaigner, social injustice activist, consumerism ideologist. )
Skirt: Alexander McQueen, UK brand: ( This was a vintage piece designed by Lee McQueen himself, who has a vision to “create armor for women”. To wear that to cover my bottom because both myself and Lee has experienced abuse from childhood. ) for me, Lee’s proud queer identity, HIV positive status, drugs use and tragic suicide makes him one of the most complex icon of our time.
Underwear: Calvin Klein ( one of the most iconic cultural symbol of body and branding. In 2020, Calvin Klein made a statement to cut ties with any factories or mills that produce fabric or use cotton from Xinjiang by 2021 due to human rights Al campaigners say, the cotton are produced by Xinjiang’s Uighur minority forced labour. )
Tights: Wolford ( This was the only European brand I used for it’s second skin feel and intimate last protection concept )
Shoes: Manolo Blahniks: ( It’s a pair of very classic heel. Many used as symbol of modern femininity, often used as feminist statement in soap opera such as: Sex and The City.
Film screening on the March 25th, 2022 at Central Michigan University
Gifts For The River Film Festival seeks to celebrate our relationship with the land and waterways that sustain us. To celebrate the artists and filmmakers who are in intentional relationship with the natural world and utilize their medium to create awareness about the issues that threaten Mother Earth as well as celebrate the ongoing resilience of Turtle Island and the peoples who care for it.
As part of the conference series on “Women and Masks” atBoston University, I am glad to present my long-term research on performance artist Xie Rong 谢蓉 (Echo Morgan) for the first time.
The performances of Xie Rong 谢蓉 (Echo Morgan) engage with Masks and Maskings as strategies of a strong contemporary female artistic expression. Born in Chengdu in 1983, Xie Rong’s studies have taken her to the UK, where she currently lives and works. Looking at Chinese culture from a diasporic perspective, her performances focus mainly on her family history in relation to the political history of modern China. She uses both physical Masks as well as various strategies of Masking her skin, which highlight the body both as a place for the projection of transcultural phantasy and as a site of power struggle. Contextualising the case study of Xie Rong, the presentation takes a conceptual approach, to understand her artistic engagement with Masks and Maskings as a ‘method’ of corporeal investigation and as ambitious intercultural articulation.
Freda Fiala is a writer working across the contexts of performance art, new media dramaturgy and interculturalism, through researching and curating. She is a fellow of the Austrian Academy of Sciences and currently pursues a PhD on contemporary performance practices in East Asia. She studied Theater and Chinese Studies in Vienna, Berlin, Hong Kong and Taipei. Her research interests mainly include cultural diversity, cross-cultural exchange and ‘actionable speculations’ in the age of digitalisation.
Xie Rong and Jamie Baker ‘Sea 海’ Jeju Island, South Korea, 2019
Sea
Performance by Xie Rong Photo by Jamie Baker
I like to say, I am the daughter of the ocean, I like to say that I grew up in the sea … but that’s a lie, I can’t swim and I am terrified of water. I first saw the sea when I was 11 years old, my dad took me to Hainan, it was the only time I traveled with him, growing up with my single mum, she described him as: “The Sailor! He is drifting in the yellow river.” For many years this metaphor painted a vibrant and romantic image of my never-homed father. He used to say he won’t become my burden and he will die young, at 60 years old he will jump off a cliff and hug the ocean. My father did die at 60 years old, not by the cliff, not in the sea but in an empty flat, alone, starving, and frozen to death.
The Chinese word “Sea” constructed in three parts: water, human, and mother. It’s a word about bodies. bodies of humans, bodies of nature. Bodies of individuals and social emotions.
2019, I traveled to Sydney and South Korea, and Finland to perform about the Sea. I collected personal stories and collaborate with local musicians, Subjects spread crossed: family, loss, grief, migration, border and climate crisis.
Just like the sea itself, so close to everyone’s life, deep in everyone’s memory. Even for someone like me who doesn’t even swim.
Xie Rong appropriates contemporary of Chineseness, and tropes of Chinoiserie and femininity in order to subvert them. Utilising her own body as material, she often works with text written on her skin using red lipstick, black Chinese ink, white ‘ink’ made from jasmine tea, or her own breast milk after giving birth to her second child. She mines her own experiences of childhood, family, marriage and motherhood – and those of her female ancestors – juxtaposing English narration with Chinese traditional folk song to play with her complex hybrid identity. Her work explores the territory of translation: between two languages, between gesture and stillness, between her Chinese past and English present, between performance and image. Xie Rong studied at the Sichuan Fine Arts Institute High School before moving to London, where she gained a BA in Graphic Design at Central Saint Martins and an MA in Fine Art at the Royal College of Art. Her work has been seen in the United States, United Kingdom, France, China, Sweden, Egypt, Germany, Australia and Korea, Finland, Mexico and Iran . She won 40 under 40 perspective art award in 2017 and the China Arts Now Award 2019. Since 2011, She has been collaborating with photographer Jamie Baker on photographic interventions within her performance work.
Xie Rong. “The place where I yearn is day and night.” Ramat Gan Museum of Russian and Far Eastern Art. From November 11, 2021 Exhibition curated by Adiya Porat
Solo Exhibition, at the Museum of Far Eastern Art . An exhibition that includes a selection of video performances, as well as video art and photographs.
Xie Rong, a Chinese-born contemporary artist, specializes in performance and video art. Her work, born from a hybrid complex self-awareness, balances between tradition and modernity. The artist tells about the personal, translating her stories into the language of performance, recites texts in English, and sings traditional Chinese songs. Xie Rong uses the technique of homage and silence, indicating his presence, powerful and fragile at the same time. The artist uses her influence on the public, involving the audience in her own performance.
Xie Rong’s narrative is based on her family history. In her works, she shares memories of her childhood in the city of Chengdu in the Sichuan region, talks about her relatives and the ancestors of her family. The personal memories that the artist explores are based on the deep traditions of a complex Chinese society undergoing ideological, political, economic and social changes.
Xie Rong analyzes the stereotypes associated with China, fights against them and opposes them. He paints his body with classical Chinese cultural symbols, mimicking either blue-and-white porcelain or classical Chinese landscapes and calligraphy, giving new meaning to traditional Chinese painting. With her art, she “translates” traditional classical Chinese art into modern language, adapting it to modern Western perception.
Xie Rong’s work is influenced by Western performance artists of the 1960s and 70s. In those years, performance included an exploration of the capabilities of the human body, a test of physical and mental endurance and stamina. Shi Rong, using voice, body, symbolic images and personal texts, examines the relationship between such human manifestations as cruelty, beauty, vulnerability, trying to understand how all this together affects the formation of self-awareness and the feeling of one’s own body. Shows traditional Chinese art through a modern view from the side – from Europe, using both sound and traditional Chinese symbols – for example, a goldfish, concepts from Chinese philosophy.
Often, Xie Rong invites the audience to take an active part in her performances, drawing strength from the vulnerable position in which the audience finds themselves and the discomfort experienced by the participants in the show. The emotions of the audience are intertwined with the feelings of the artist, which allows her to build a certain model of relationships, which is a holistic performance.
The creative cycle of actions of the artist and the audience, the inextricable link between the past and the future, between traditional cultural baggage and contemporary art echoes the principle of Buddhist samsara: the cycle of birth and death, growth and decay, death and rebirth.
Xie Rong (1983) was born in Chengdu, China. She attended art school in Sichuan, where she studied classical drawing and calligraphy, at the age of 19 she left to continue her studies in London, where she received her first academic degree in graphic design from the Central Saint Martins College of Art (CSM) and the second academic degree in art from the Royal College of Art. Lives and works in London and Surrey. Participated in solo and group exhibitions in Hong Kong, Australia, China, Sweden, Germany and England. Her husband, photographer Jamie Baker, helps her in her work.
*****
Xie Rong. “The place where I yearn is day and night.” Ramat Gan Museum of Russian and Far Eastern Art. From November 11, 2021 – May 2022 Exhibition curated by Adiya Porat
Harbinger – create a physical and digital exhibition about marginalised communities dealing with the climate crisis in line with COP26 which is on the 1st -12th November 2021.
The exhibition also showcases the stories of artists and how they and their art have been affected, as a result. These stories are married with recorded interviews with a leading dermatologist consultant explaining the effects of chemical treatments on the hair and skin, and parallel recorded interviews with soil scientists from renowned international universities showing the effects of chemical treatments on the soil, wildlife, plants, and the effect as these chemicals make their way down through the earth to the water table. This is an integral part of the exhibition and a curatorial decision to marry the emotional and scientific elements to powerfully show the impact on marginalised women’s skin and hair and the impact on the earth’s skin.
There will be photographic examples of biodiversity due to hair chemical treatments being invested within the soil. Finally, archival materials showcasing historical evidence of the creation of mass chemical treatments because of profit from white cis man-made industries.
Conversation with Duan Ying Mei about my performance art as part of her exhibition in Garage Museum of Contemporary Art
The performative Body
Photos by Jamie Baker
1.Little Red Flower
‘My earliest performative act was put my hand at 90 degree angle whenever I need to speak.’ In this performance, I reflected on my childhood communist education by covering my body with branded red lipsticks.
2.Be the Inside of the Vase
Through brutal personal history I addressed sexually political statements from my mother: ‘Don’t be a vase, pretty but empty inside, be the inside of the vase!’
3.Balls of steel
Come to tingle my rusty bell, I will sing for you, I will tell you a story… 5hours spontaneous storytelling performance.
4.Three Cannon Balls
A head, two fists covered by sticky rich balls. Three sauce labeled aside: brown sugar/communist education, soya powder/culture heritage, sesame seeds/western education. Audiences were invited to dress me with a chose of sauce.
5.Mountain and Water
Faced with the failure of the human order, learned men sought permanence within … the mountains to find a sanctuary from the chaos of dynastic collapse.
6.Home
家 (Jia) means Home, also my mother’s middle name. She was born 1957, her life story meets every changing political event in modern Chinese history.
7.Delete
From age 4-7, I lived in a boarding communist nursery. June 1989, I was not able to go home for one month . Teacher gave all the students one little red flower a day as an emotional comfort. During this performance, I slapped myself… until the Chinese characters fell into powder.
8.Painting until it becomes marble 10days after my mother in law’s death, I painted a picture with my hair. Sorrow and grief transformed into lines and splashes, recorded my profound feeling of loss.
9.Part of a Lighthouse
Faced painted Chinese character “光” : Light. 12 words were should out.12 ropes threw from 12 spaces, dragged between audiences, I built a light house inside the museum.
10.Story of the Stone
For all the people that suffered in domestic violence, for all the women that were forced into a mad house, for all the children that were victims of elder abuse … I was buried inside 3tones of stones up to my rib cage, audience are invited to remove them.
This limited edition print is made from layers of wild flowers and weeds from our lawn. The character written across my face reads: Love. If the lawn is a symbol of status and a sign of pride and unity in the community, I truly wish our love for a manicured lawn can be more inclusive by allowing it to grew higher and more wild.
Risograph was born in Japan in the 1980s I used the scanning process for my face layer and all the available riso ink from @londonbookarts which are made from environmentally friendly soybean ?can you see the life journey contains in each dots? ♻️
Bazaar presents the ultimate guide to London’s annual celebration of art
Rewriting the narrative
Join Helena Lee, acting deputy editor of Harper’s Bazaar and founder of East Side Voices, in conversation with three of the brightest East Asian artists working in Britain today: Xie Rong, Vivien Zhang and Kristy Chan. They will cover everything from finding strength in their artistic voice during the pandemic, to breaking boundaries with their cultural vision. Expect an evening of frank conversation about staying true to yourself and to your art form.
Lawn Are an Ecological Disaster, Are you surprised?
This year I have been researcher on the history of Lawn. Reflecting on the social and environmental impacts of Lawns, family roots, man occupied space, collective memories, native species beyond human centred perspectives. How visionary plans for the city can be sustainable for generations to come.
Portrait 爱LOVE is made from layers of wild flowers and weeds from our lawn. The character written across my face reads: Love. If the lawn is a symbol of status and a sign of pride and unity in the community, I truly wish our love for a manicured lawn can be more inclusive by allowing it to grew higher and more wild.
Film: TianFu Lawn: Keep off the Grass In early 90s, my father’s business was declining. He borrowed money from his friends and family to invest in properties. A trusted the contact in the government, shared a secret business opportunity. Chengdu is redesigning its city centre on Ren Min south road, where the imperial city was demolished during the Cultural Revolution. My father can invest in one real estate and turn it into a shop front. This seems to be a golden opportunity to change his life, he dreamed excitedly the future customers spending fortune on his merchandise in the middle of this heavenly city centre. One year later, the reality was unexpected and cruel. This city centre square that many people was waiting for was 88000 square meters of lawn. Lawn does not grow well in China so for the next 24years, “Keep Off the Grass” has become a symbol for a civilised city. Together with ground-breaking urban modernisation, our motherland has transformed from mountains and water, villages and gardens to forests of irons and concretes decorated by manicured and not so evergreen turf patches.
XieRong’s wild lawn & neighbour’s manicured lawn, Surrey England
TianFu Square in1980, ChengDu China
XieRong’s father in TianFu Square, 1991, ChengDu China
Fearless performance artist Xie Rong (also known as Echo Morgan) puts herself in vulnerable, uncomfortable positions to communicate strong political messages. Using her own body as a canvas, she invites her audience to bury her with stones, throw water on her and touch her pregnant stomach. Xie’s arresting performances infuse personal experiences growing up in China with broader political points about race, gender and cultural attitudes. She draws strength from the audience’s uneasiness and plays on relationships of control. With these unforgettable performances, coupled with strong photography by Jamie Baker, Xie is poised to make her mark in a big way. Today she tells us why she has dramatically pivoted her practice towards a deep concern for the environment.
Xie Rong, Light, photo Jamie Baker, Asian Culture Center, Gwangju, 2019
ON HER LIGHT BULB MOMENT
In 2019, I flew to Sydney and back for a single performance. I spent 48 hours in the air and only 30 hours on the ground. The trip prompted me to look into my carbon footprint and I discovered that flying from London to Sydney produces the equivalent amount of carbon dioxide that a resident of India produces over the course of an entire year. My performance in Australia had been connected to the sea, examining it as a border and addressing political policies towards refugees. But I felt so guilty about flying so far to perform a work about nature that I rewrote the entire script in my hotel room the night before. I performed a work about environmentalism that day and the experience made me step back and rethink my entire practice.
Xie Rong, Sea 海, photo by Anna Kucera, Sydney Art Space, 2019
ON SUNRISE
When I admitted my regret, the curator told me to she wanted to meet me at 5am the next morning. She took me to her favourite spot on the beach to watch the sunrise. She told me that sometimes you have to remember moments, that experiences are important too. She told me how important it was for me to share my message and how much it meant for me to be there spreading it. She reminded me that as an artist you have to produce things. After doing all this research I wanted to find something I could do to counteract the environmental damage of travelling so I have adopted a plant-based diet. I feel like I’m contributing to the movement of changing. People have to realise that it’s down to individual action rather than system change. There are small efforts we can make in our daily life that will make a change.
The whole experience led me to deeply research environmentalism. I’ve spent the pandemic looking into the crossovers between performance art, action art and activism in this context. I’ve found so much strength and power in what other artists have done. I was talking to the artist Betsy Damon and she said, “I will only do art that belongs to the ecosystem and I will only teach art that is activism”. I felt that was such a grand and meaningful decision. I’ve made a film about my research this past year that juxtaposes found footage and still images. I’ve been thinking about how much my own work could actually make a change. I usually perform in galleries, but I’ve started asking myself am I brave enough to actually go out on the street to stage a performance and risk being arrested?
Xie Rong, Be the inside of the vase, photo Jamie Baker, Dyson Gallery, London, 2012
ON THE POLITICS OF A PATCH OF GRASS
One area that has really interested me is the subject of lawns. It felt like a subject that had a lot of historical and cultural roots that I could dig into. Many years ago, in China, my father invested money to buy a prominent site in our city centre and later discovered the square that it was situated on was to be a huge lawn. Lawn does not grow well in China. It sat on the edge of a dead patch of land for 15 years. The lawn space was installed as a symbol of a modern international city. English culture has influenced the world for decades, and lawns are really symbolic of that. American lawns are symbolic of man conquering nature and by extension indigenous people. A lawn represents a certain history; it’s more than just a piece of grass. It has historical roots. We need to revisit our history books and reflect on what we have normalised. I love what Zheng Bo said, that art needs to be a multispecies celebration and I feel this inclusiveness needs to be discussed.
The message I always got when I lived in China was that capitalism is killing the planet. I always reacted against it because I felt I was being brainwashed against capitalism. But now, having lived in this country for 20 years, I’m starting to think maybe I believe it. For me, as a Chinese artist, I feel this responsibility to address the global scale. I want to have more dialogue and encourage more exchange of information. With the pandemic, China is in danger of withdrawing to protect itself in this bubble. I feel the need to be more present in the Chinese art scene because I feel this dialogue is so important. If we want the planet to change we have to work together.
Xie Rong, Circle of Fire, photo Jamie Baker, Röda Sten Konsthall, Gothenburg, 2018
Xie Rong’s ecological research film ‘Eco Echo’ can be viewed here. The film was supported by Chinese Arts Now festival through Arts Council England funding, and will be shown at the Transmission Gallery in Glasgow during COP26
This feature is part of ‘Unearthed: Eco-visionaries’ a thought-provoking series by Kate Neave uncovering contemporary artists at the forefront of environmental thought. We discover artists that engage with the natural world, explore topics at the frontier of art and nature or shed light on an environmental issue. Taking inspiration from these creative practitioners, we join the complex conversation about the climate crisis, harnessing creativity’s power to reach a deeper understanding and be a catalyst for change.
Echo Morgan (Xie Rong) is a performance artist. She has always been interested in the relationship between Body, Memory and Politics through gesture, mark making and storytelling. Through video and an audience Q&A, she will share her research into some inspirational artist’s projects (including Betsy Damon, Zheng Bo and Song Chen), that address important environmental issues through the theme of water, plants and soil.
Human 人 -Little white flower
Live performance @ilminmuseumofart? @jamiebakerphotography
1997, I was 14years old. I had my first article published on national newspaper. I passionately wrote my grief for the death of DengXiaoPing. Sorrow is a strange thing when you see everyone around you was crying, tv channel was playing funeral songs, over over again, all newspapers were filed with condolences … people were in black and wore white paper flowers, it affect you, It makes you sad, our school decided to stop classes for three days instead we were setting in the classroom watching documentaries about Deng’s achievement and folding hundreds of thousands white paper flowers. We then decorated them around the classrooms, hallway, and every trees around the school.
Yesterday was PR China’s 70 years birthday. The entire nation was celebrating its victory and power. My cousin woke up 6am in the morning to watch the rising flag ceremony at the city square in my hometown ChengDu. All her classmates were in uniforms, standing in the rain, national flag painted on their little face, shined with bright smiles. On TV, I watched the replay of the whole parade. The familiar pride, smiles, absolute perfection, millions of people in one voice, millions of steps in uniformed movement. The patriotism was in the air and deep in people’s blood. .
Five demands, no one less. The message from Hongkong is loud and serious, one 18years old protester was shot on the chest right next his heart … watching them online, they have nothing but a brave heart. 269 people were arrested on the national day, 178 male, 91 female. age from 12-71. Aiweiwei posted the number this morning.
My heart and thoughts goes to Hongkong. It’s not about Hongkong independence! They have shown the real hope for democracy and real strength of dignity! Once were so precious to the true Chinese identity and still so important to our world peace and humanity.
29/09/2019
Human 人- Prisoners 囚
When I was 3years old, a disable old man bought me a rocking horse. He told me the first English word I knew: “ White “. He was my grandfather. One of the most intelligent man I have never get to know. Grandpa Yong, speaks five languages. That made him one the main target in the culture revolution. A Slave to Western Culture. The red guards broken his legs and he died of depression in early 90s.
I whitened my face, while telling the story, I applied two brush strokes with finger: two line joined at the top splits down the bottom, like a standing man, read: 人 Ren, : Human. Black ink covered my mouth, silenced me.
Live performance at Ilmin Museum of Art
Seoul, Korea
Part of PAN Asia performance festival
Photo by Jamie Baker
Waves of arrests in Hongkong. “Police have rounded up children as young as 12 years old on suspicion of unlawful assembly, possession of offensive weapons or rioting, often based solely on the color of their clothing and objects in their bags. Of the 1,596 people arrested since protests began in June, 464 were students, including 207 this month. “ – Los Angeles Times.
Families began to warn me, what to say and what not to post ; Friends are divided over opinions…
05/08/2019
Light
Those flowers
The laughter reminds me of those flowers,
Quietly open for me in every corner of my life,
I thought I would always be by her side,
Today we have left, searching in different parts of the world.
How are they?
Are they still there?
They have been blown away by the wind and scattered around the horizon.
Some stories haven’t finished yet, forget it!
Those moods are hard to distinguish between true and false in the years.
Now there are no flowers in the grass.
Fortunately, I witnessed your beauty in spring, autumn, winter and summer.
How are those flower?
Where are they now?
Old umbrella, hospital stand, 12 ropes and fairy-lights.
12 words: #Light, #love, #hope, #trust, #air, #water, #earth, #imaging, #feel, #freedom, #forgive, #dream
Yoko Ono “Peace is Power” exhibition @yokoonoofficial
Heavy heart following the live-stream of Hongkong Protest. Don’t know where the passion will leads the land … reading brutal comments from opposite viewers. Only finding peace in Patti Smith’s words :
This is
a mourning wreath
nothing but grief
nothing but blooms
cascading as dust
nothing but hatred
and the terrible cost
At the other side of the water
Chinese song from 1975
Verdant green grass, Misty white fog
There is someone at the other side of the water, I wish to drift down steam, to meet up with my closed one. However, there is dangerous swamp awaits and the journey far and long. I wish to force the wave and push up searching for her direction. far away vaguely I see her standing right there: in the center of the water.
An old man was interviewed to tell his story about the Great Escape. Vast numbers of mainlanders fled to #Hongkong illegally by swam cross the “XiangJiang” river which divided the broader from mainland and Hongkong. During the 1950-1970 it also define the opposition between capitalism and socialism. He was 14years old, swam, ran and hide for months, together with his mother they swam crossed the XiangJiang river. The rain was heavy… a big flood is on its way, the mother and son grabbed hold of a tree, mother pushed him to climbed up, suddenly many voices shouted from the tree. “push him down, it’s full here!” In the dark light they realized there were hundreds of people also in the water, many try to grab his legs and pull him down. The mother begged:”please let him stay, I lost my husband and other son in the water already! He is only 14! He needs to stay alive, pull him up please!” People did, helped her to hold him up, she used her body to support him … for hours, she stood in the water… the rain gets heavier, waves crashed in, dragged her into the dark. After that storm, many baby floated up but he never found hers.
The Chinese word “Sea” constructed in three parts: water, human and mother.
It’s a word about bodies. body of human, body of water. body of individual and collective history.
We all remember little #AlanKurdi that three-year-old Syrian boy drowned in the Mediterranean Sea. We all saw photo of two bodies in one red t-shirt. Face down, died but together. The Salvadoran migrant #OscarMartinezRamirez and his 23months old daughter, who #drownedwhile trying to cross the Rio Grande in Matamoros.
Human history is a record of #migration; migration is search for #home.
Photo by @annakucera.au Curated by @alexieglass
#xierong
16/06/2019
家- HongKong on my mind
家 (Jia) means Home, Family and Country. But most dearly It’s my mother’s middle name. My mother’s early life meets every changing political event in modern China.
My mother was born in 1957, two years after the birth of her brother, my mum is the seventh daughter in the family. Her arrival had broken my great-granny’s dream for more grandsons so my mum was the “bad luck”. Her childhood was during The Three Years of Natural Disasters. She remembered she was always starving.
During those year 1957, 1962, 1972 and 1979 marked the four major booms in illegal emigration to Hong Kong, as mainlanders had suffered greatly from the Cultural Revolution, which included vast famine. According to research and my investigations, about two million people flooded into Hong Kong as illegal immigrants, often with great personal loss, and more people died on their way or were caught and repatriated.
There are many touching footages shown when some of the mainland Chinese illegal immigrants hide in the mountains, the local Hongkong citizen brought food and clothes to help, they even surrounded the deportation vans and threw food into the vans… eventually that group of illegal immigrants stayed in HongKong! The wave of illegal emigration also prompted the mainland authorities to rethink their economic policy, scholars said. Late paramount leader Deng Xiaoping, who was said to blame extreme leftist policies for the mass escape, launched the “reform and opening up” policy and endorsed the development of Shenzhen – a key hub for illegal migration – into a special economic zone in the late 1970s … .
2017, together with my mother and my boys I had my first Solo exhibition in HongKong, the local Art Hongkong Magazine kindly made this cover of me. Same year HongKong Perspective awarded me the “40 under 40 Art price .” .
My heart is with all the Hongkonger on the street protest today! For your strength and bravery! Please stay safe.The world is watching and celebrating the solidarity with you! ❤️ .
Photo by Photo by Jamie Baker
Pearl of the Orient ?? By Luo Da You
Little river convolutedly flows to the south
Drifting to Hong Kong to take a look
Pearl of the Orient, my love
Your elegant demeanor and romanticism are still the same?
The harbor of curve moon
The color of night is deep, and the light and the fire are sparkling and bright
Pearl of Orient doesn’t sleep all night
Keep the promise of vicissitudes of life
Have let the sea wind blow for five thousand years
As if each tear speaks about your dignity… ?
1997, I heard this song for the first time and sang it passionately in the People’s square with millions of ChengDu citizens to celebrate the return of Hongkong to our motherland. I was 14, like the rest of the mainland China girls I thought I was free and Hongkong is coming home!
It has been hard few days following up the news and watching the story turned darker… reading the papers in both Chinese and English with completely different narratives that painted opposite sense of realities … ( most of mainland Chinese won’t even know what happened in Hongkong because all the news are consorted and removed, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram are blocked ). The more I look into the situation the more I questioning my life grew up in 80’s China and recall my recent memories when I visited my Chinese artist friends who are live in fears and under oppressions. All the unfair legal cases that happened to the people I knew and cared … It is easy for one to conclude that China has no #humanrights but it is heartbreaking to gradually realized that yourself! Because it is still where all my family are live and where my roots are deeply buried and a home where I wish my children will keep loving! ?
Xie Rong: Sea Durational performance
Saturday 19.10. between 13-16
Wäinö Aaltonen Museum of Art, Itäinen Rantakatu 38
As part of Wäinö Aaltonen Museum’s When Is Now -exhibition
EVENING SNACK AND FINAL DISCUSSION. Festival ends with joint early evening snacks and discussion about the festival themes and performances. The discussion is moderated by Marika Räty (Arts Promotion Centre Finland)
In a year of Instagramming dangerously, 52 artists respond to critical issues across the broader Asia region.
Description
The mainstream media keeps us in a constant state of emergency where the word ‘crisis’ is used daily and ‘breaking news’ is a permanent banner across our screens. The real emergencies we should be facing are often disguised behind biased rhetoric or consciously omitted altogether: Climate change! Severe economic inequality! Decay of democracy! Brexit! Trump! The alt-right!
52 ARTISTS 52 ACTIONS sets out to address the real and daunting trials of everyday life across contemporary Asia. Each of the 52 artists includes a statement about their work, which often reads as a compelling, heartbreaking memoir in miniature, giving deep insights into cultural traditions.
Echo Morgan – cover artist – says this:
I was sent away at the age of four after my parents’ divorce to board at a much-hated, strict communist kindergarten. There I was shaped into a ‘xiao hong hua’, a little red flower, obedient and pliant. This early communist education and China’s economic boom is deeply embodied in my roots. They still strongly control my thoughts and behaviour.
Other highlights include:
– Kyungah Ham’s Korean Mona Lisas
– Deborah Kelly’s crowd-sourced feminist wisdom as print-at-home stickers and posters
– Heman Chong’s list of 198 forms of non-violent action
– Chim Pom’s oversized jigsaw puzzle, Find the C*&R!!!, in response to Japan becoming increasingly strict about nudity even though Asia’s largest red-light district, Kabukicho, is in Shinjuku, Tokyo
– The Mulka Project’s mission to sustain and protect Yolngu cultural knowledge in north-east Arnhem Land under the leadership of community elders.
52 ARTISTS 52 ACTIONS champions small acts of disobedience undertaken live and online by 52 artists from 31 countries across Asia, addressing important concerns locally and globally.
From historical revisionism in the Philippines to micro-celebrities in Bangladesh, military abuse in Myanmar to rising sea levels in Indonesia, visibility for LGBTQI+ people of colour to contemporary Indigeneity, the artists tackle critical issues with determination, innovation and humour. Each week, the work of a different artist is presented in a unique context, spanning a year of new artistic practice across the region.
Exploring the role of activism and protest throughout, the focus is on art-as-action that has the power to raise awareness and invoke change. With striking images and bold, graphic design, 52 ARTISTS 52 ACTIONS is an encyclopaedia of creative responses to political and social issues facing contemporary Asia.
Following her intense performance of Yoko Ono’s Cut Piece (as Echo Morgan) at the Peace Is Power exhibition in Leipzig (April 2019), the amazing artist Xie Rong performed another of Ono’s works at the museum’s retrospective of Yoko’s career. Although Yoko’s Painting Until It Becomes Marble is an actual painting rather than a conceptual one, Rong performed a live interpretation of Yoko’s work. Immersing herself in paint and becoming a part of the actual work is an integral aspect of Xie Rong’s art. She applied her own method to Yoko’s static painting, and the result was stunning.
Yoko’s original work is a black and white ink drawing which is an accordion style fold-out. It was first shown during her first solo art exhibition Paintings and Drawings by Yoko Ono, at Fluxus founder George Maciunas’ AG Gallery in New York City. Painting Until It Becomes Marble came with Yoko’s instruction that visitors were to “cut their favorite parts until the whole thing is gone”. It was also shown at MoMA in 2015 as part of Yoko Ono: One Woman Show, 1960-1971.
Xie Rong’s live interpretation of Yoko’s painting was stunning. Yoko’s original painting actually has some ‘movement’ in its accordion folded shape. Rong took it to a new level, breathing new life into the piece. Reverently and ceremoniously, the artist stood quietly in the huge empty space with extremely high floor-to-ceiling windows emitting a background of pure light. Dressed all in white, Xie Rong stood with two bowls at her feet, one filled with Chinese black ink and the other with pure blue pigment powder. The artist combed the ink through her long black hair, saturating it and began to paint on a very large canvas on the floor.
Rong’s barefooted dance began – at first light and graceful like a ballerina, then more intensely, furiously jumping as her drenched hair splattered paint in all directions and on herself. ‘Jack the Dripper’ (Jackson Pollack) has fierce competition! The chaotic calligraphy continued with her head to the floor, making brush strokes. Kneeling with her head down on the canvas, submitting to the work in reverence, she made thicker strokes and swirls. Covered in ink, her white clothing and skin took on the characteristics of the actual artwork.
Xie Rong:
“An amazing aspect of the performance was the sound! This heavenly space is where they displayed Yoko’s cricket cages. I sang this song and told the story about losing my mother in law two weeks ago. And I invited audiences to rise the painting with me! But the paper dropped and become a cloud!”
at Yoko Ono: Peace Is Power exhibition @mdbkleipzig in Leipzig Germany
May 11, 2019.
Watch the performance videos:
Story of the Stone
This work by Xie Rong is inspired by three of Yoko Ono’s works; Three Mounds, Riverbed and Rising (lyrics).
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Xie Rong: “I wish to create a piece to bring illumination and sound into the darkness. To connect all the rooms into the main hall, create movement of audiences. From 9:30 Andreas played music create tension and atmosphere. 10pm, Me, in a mirror suit, walking into the main hall. I stood inside a rope light, silent, I will sing “Olive Tree” then I walk off to collect all the ropes, I shout out to each floor and balcony, drag ropes between people. Creating spider web collection between the three museum floors and four exhibition rooms.” … …
MdbK Leipzig, Yoko Ono “PEACE is POWER”, Eröffnung, Performance “Cut Piece”, Echo Morgan
Cut piece ✂️
Last night, I performed my “One Woman Show”. It is a title that borrowed from Yoko Ono’s MoMA’s exhibition in 2015. It was my 5th performance piece that responded to Yoko’s work.
This morning, tiredly woke up from sore muscles. I watched the video of Theresa May’s resign speech. Her usually steely demeanour collapsed, her voice cracking with emotion, she said:” The second female prime minister but certainly not the last. I do so with no ill-will, but with enormous and enduring gratitude to have had the opportunity to serve the country I love.” Suddenly, it reminded me of the aloneness and vulnerability I experienced before, during and after the “Cut Piece”. It’s a historical piece, I had exception and preparation for it. But it was still very challenging for me and the audiences.
1.The stage was high, because there were hundreds of audiences.
2.I was programmed into an opening timeline which the mayor and museum director were waiting to give a speech.
3.A daughter came with her mother,shaking, her mother encouraged :” Do it! Do it!” she cut small piece of my shirt “yes!” Her mother shouted loudly with proud!
4.A man walked up brutally took my bra and swung in the air! Whole room cheered!
5. As soon as my bra was off, two women jumped in front the queue. Quickly, collaboratively, tightly, they swaddled me together like a new born baby.
6. A woman gently removed my underpants, Later watching the footage I realised she was sobbing.
7. An elder woman ran close to the stage after my underpants was removed. She stood apart her legs, lifted up her long skirt, cut a small piece of fabric, she faced the audiences, like a warrior. She turned around and covered my crotch. She then held her both hands bowed me like a Buddha.
8. The second day, she waited for me in the museum and wanted to check if I was ok, she never heard about the original Cut piece so she was deeply sadden and dramatised by the action and process.
9. Dinner, one of curator call me the best actress, others angry:” You shouldn’t be allowed to cut your own hair to end the show! Because it’s Yoko’s work !
10. The sound was a sculpture and movement was a drawing!
I had a wonderful chat with artist Echo Morgan about her performance. Yoko requested that Cut Piece be performed at the opening of her Peace Is Power exhibition in Leipzig. Over time this masterpiece – performed many times by Yoko and by other artists – has become legendary. Echo Morgan was approached by the museum to be the performer, as they were interested in bringing her own art to the museum at a later date.
Photo: Alexander Schmidt
MdbK Leipzig, Yoko Ono “PEACE is POWER”, Eröffnung, Performance “Cut Piece”, Echo Morgan
Echo’s statement:
“I made a promise to myself not to participate in other artist’s work; not to react someone else’s performance…When Alfred Weidinger, the director of the Museum of Fine arts Leipzig approached me with the idea of performing Yokos Cut Piece. I fall into deep thoughts.
Cut Piece was first performed by Yoko Ono on July 20, 1964 at Yamaichi Hall, Kyoto, Japan. The artist entered the stage in her best dress, sat in a traditional sitting position, and invited the audience to cut pieces of her clothing with scissors and take the piece with them.
I met Yoko in 2009 at a design boutique in Notting-hill gate, Feathers, where I have worked throughout my study years in London. I helped her chose few outfits: jackets and shirts and 5 hats. While packing the clothes, I said to her: My husband gave me a piece of broken vase in 2003, he said it was from your live performance in Tate Modern and you invited the audiences to put the vase back together in 2013, we got married in 2004 and we have been cherish that piece of vase and really look forward to rebuilding it with her. Yoko smiled and asked me for pen and paper. She wrote down: Dear Luke and Echo, I give you a sun. Love, Yoko Ono. She even drew a smiley sun.
2011, I separated with Luke, went to the Royal College of Art and became a performance artist. Same year, I did a performance: I Buried My Loss, together with many sentimental letters and photos I left the note from Yoko and her piece of vase behind. The only thing I kept was his surname: Morgan.
As a pioneer in conceptual and performance art, Yoko’s work has moved and influenced many people. Including myself! I do feel deeply honoured to be approached to perform her Cut Piece at the opening of YOKO ONO PEACE IS POWER at MdbKLepizig. So, for one time only I will break my own promise, this is my tribute and love for Yoko’s art and life I do believe it is a fate that I have to take this offer. There for, I would like to take this opportunity and mark this performance as my last performance under the name Echo Morgan.
There was some controversy over having an established young artist in her own rite (who happened to be Asian) perform the piece, as some thought that her resemblance to Yoko would make her seem like an imitator. However, after the curators met with Echo (a Chinese artist based in London) they realized her deep understanding and determination to do this work, and agreed that she was perfect for the piece.
Cut Piece (Yoko Ono, Grapefruit 1964)
Performer sits on stage with a pair of scissors placed in front of her and asks the audience to come up on the stage, one by one, and cut a portion of her clothing (anywhere they like) and take it. The performer, however, does not have to be a woman.
Echo told me that her experience was surreal. She was haunted by the large size of the room (1,000 seats which were all filled, as was the standing room) and a live stream to 9,000 visitors in the gallery.
The circumstances (beyond Echo’s control) were more like a grand theatrical staging. Echo did not realize that the museum had the event programmed as a 90-minute performance, as the director and the mayor were to give speeches at the end. She was now on a schedule that she could not control and was worried when some aggressive participants cut large chunks of her clothing early on, speeding the piece along too quickly.
Echo ceremoniously approached the stage, sitting side-legged in the same way that Yoko had done, remaining motionless. She made the announcement, “Take the scissors. Cut a small piece of my clothes, One at a time. Take it with you. It is a gift.” She added, “My body is the scar of my mind.” paraphrasing Yoko’s song “O’Wind” from the album Fly (1971).
Although this stipulation was not in the original instruction, Yoko had always worn her best clothing for each performance – usually sacrificing a black dress from the London shop Biba. Echo wore formal designer attire; a white Dolce & Gabbana shirt, a black Prada skirt, a black Armani jacket and Chanel shoes.
Echo told me that she added the detail of black tights and high heels as a feminist statement (Charlotte Moorman had worn a ball gown during her several performances of Cut Piece). The artist’s shoes were removed by two participants, each of whom took one shoe and promised to bring them back again in 100 years (a reference to Yoko’s Promise Piece, which had originally inspired Echo’s performance).
Echo was completely absorbed in the moment, enjoying the sound of the cutting and of people’s footsteps echoing from the floorboards in the large hall. She was startled when man cut her bra and waved it around triumphantly, provoking opposing reactions – cheers and gasps of anger – from the large crowd viewing the live stream. But she knew that she was relatively safe amongst so many viewers. Other cutters were more hesitant, and most were less aggressive than she expected.
The cutters were also greatly affected. Most women were stunned by the performance and participated in a motherly, protective manner. When Echo’s bra was removed, two women wrapped the artist’s naked torso in two scarves – swaddling her like a baby. The director signaled that this would be a beautiful note on which to end the performance, but Echo decided to remove the scarf and continue. When all of the artist’s clothing was finally cut away, a woman made a grand gesture by cutting off a large piece of her own skirt, placing it across Echo’s lap, clasping her hands and bowing down to the artist as though she were a deity (the essence of Yoko’s intent of Cut Piece – the selflessness of Buddha*).
A most touching detail devised by Echo was at the end of the performance. When completely naked, she picked up the scissors and cut a piece of her own hair and left it on the stage before standing up and walking away. “It is a gesture of returning her a promise that I lost.”The intent was “To leave a part of me, after nothing was left of me, – my DNA – for her in return for that piece of vase that I had lost.” (Promise Piece). The artist asked Yoko’s long-time curator Jon Hendricks for permission to do this, which he gave wholeheartedly, knowing that Yoko would appreciate this addition. But of course, this ‘edit’ provoked a big reaction amongst the German art crowd. However, it was a poignant gesture that Yoko would certainly love – with its subtle reference to Hair Peace (1969).
Concerned museum patrons approached Echo the following day, asking if she was OK. This was her final performance as Echo Morgan. She will use her name Xie Rong from this point forward.
Yoko Ono and I in 2009, Notting Hill Gate, Feathers Boutique
Cut Piece✂️
I made a promise to myself not to participate in other artist’s work; not to react someone els’s performance after a heartfelt and inspiring conversation with John Court in Beijing. When Alfred Weidinger, the director of the Museum of Fine arts Leipzig approached me with the idea of performing Yoko’s Cut Piece. I fall into deep thoughts.
Cut Piece was first performed by YokoOno on July 20, 1964 at Yamaichi Hall, Kyoto, Japan. The artist entered the stage in her best dress, sat in a traditional sitting position, and invited the audience to cut pieces of her clothing with scissors and take the piece with them.
I met Yoko in 2009, at a design boutique in Notting-hill gate. Feathers, where I have worked throughout my study years in London. I helped her chose few outfits: jackets and shirts and 5 hats. While packing the clothes, I said to her: My husband gave me a piece of broken vase in 2003, he said it was from your live performance in Tate Modern and you invited the audiences to put the vase back together in 2013, we got married in 2004 and we have been cherish that piece of vase and really look forward to rebuilding it with her. Yoko smiled and asked me for pen and paper. She wrote down: Dear Luke and Echo, I give you a sun. Love, Yoko Ono. She even drew a smiley sun.
2011, I separated with Luke, went to the Royal College of Art and became a performance artist. Same year, I did a performance: I Buried My Loss, together with many sentimental letters and photos I left the note from Yoko and her piece of vase behind. The only thing I kept was his surname: Morgan.
As a pioneer in conceptual and performance art, Yoko’s work has moved and influenced many people. Including myself! I do feel deeply honoured to be approached to perform her Cut Piece at the opening of YOKO ONO. PEACE is POWER at @mdbkleipzig So for one time only I will break my own promise, this is my tribute and love for Yoko’s art and life. I do believe it is a fate that I have to take this offer. There for, I would like to take this opportunity and mark this performance as my last performance under the name Echo Morgan.
With Yoko’s best friend, the Curator of Yoko Ono exhibition: Jon Hendricks after performed Cut Piece, 3rd of April 2019
Unfortunately, Yoko didn’t come to the Opening and the only day she could visited the exhibition Peace is Power in Leipzig was on my mother in law’s funeral …
I am proud for doing this piece! It’s my way to return that piece of vase (PromisePiece) to her.
Echo Morgan is the English name of Xie Rong, a Chengdu-born, London-based, multi-disciplinary artist whose work is underpinned by a dark family story. She works with stereotypes of ‘Chineseness’ and femininity in order to subvert them. Morgan has written texts on her skin using red lipstick, black Chinese ink, white ‘ink’ made from jasmine tea, and her own breast milk after giving birth to her second child. She has played with tropes of Chinoiserie, painting her naked body to resemble blue and white porcelain, and then inviting the audience to violently wash the patterns away by hurling water-filled balloons at her. Her work mines her own experiences of childhood, family, marriage and motherhood – and those of her female ancestors. She is a story-teller.
… …
Juxtaposing English narration with Chinese traditional songs, Morgan plays with her complex hybrid identity and her difficult childhood. She explores the territory of translation: between two languages, between gesture and stillness, between her Chinese past and English present, between performance and image.
Galerie Huitis currently exhibiting the debut solo show in Hong Kong of the Chinese multi-disciplinary artist Xie Rong, otherwise known as Echo Morgan. Rong was born in the southwest province of ChengDu, China in 1983 and has lived and worked in London since the age of nineteen. Within her work, Rong oscillates between the role of performer, filmmaker, director and artistic narrator, operating across the intersection of a variety of mediums including painting, performance, film, prints, publications, short stories and audio works. The current exhibition, entitled 家Home, consists of an extension of the core thematic and aesthetic preoccupations Rong has explored in her previous work, predominantly the use of her personal prismatic and textured family experience as a reflection of the political, ideological and philosophical complexities and transformations of Chinese society…
A Broader Reflection of the Female Working Class Experience
The second dominating project within the exhibition is Rong’s sequel to I am a Brush, from which the exhibition takes it’s name – Home. The piece is comprised of an original performance, a video work and the parchment retaining the traces of Rong’s performative presence. Homeis reminiscent of Rong’s previous performance pieces including Be the Inside of the Vase (2012) and Little Red Flower (2012). The correlation can be seen within two avenues. Firstly the use of the narration of her own troubled childhood and relationship with her parents (particularly her father) and by extension the society within which she was raised. Secondly, the process of transforming her body into symbols, be it the Chinese national flag, blue and white porcelain, Chinese landscape painting or in the case of Home a more monochromatic reflection of the contradictions between her cultural identity. In this sense, in Home, Rong projects a more overt reflection of her cultural juxtapositions and her attempts to reconcile her socialized political and gender conforming upbringing with her intellectual and political confliction through her international exposure. However, arguably this is a somewhat superficial reading as, in my opinion, „Home“ projects a broader reflection of the female working class experience of both east and west. In this respect, despite in the obvious cultural nuances, which are not to be diminished of critical importance, in actual fact the core narrative characteristics and anecdotes are largely a global tale of subjugation and a struggle for the psychologically, physically and financially oppressed to overcome.
Ultimately, Rong’s debut Hong Kong exhibition depicts a strong foundational voice and aesthetic. Although there are notable influences from prior body art practice and both Eastern and Western cultural and artistic iconography – a large degree of indebtedness to Yoko Ono, Yves Klein and Carolee Schneemann, for example – Rong’s appropriation and assimilation of both cultural narratives is what makes her work particularly interesting from a critical perspective but also as an illustration of the interconnected and mutating cultural psyche’s of an internationalist ‘millennial’ practitioner….
Xie Rong x Echo Morgan – After her divorce in the UK, a petite Sichuan girl started her five-years performance art journey.
Art China · Meng Yuan | 2016-11-03 17:20
The first “Beijing·Live” International Performance Art Festival was held from October 15th to 23rd, 2016. More than 30 performance artists from 13 countries presented performance art works at the Danish Cultural Center. Echo Morgan performed her new work, My Father and My Son. The Art China reporter interviewed the artist Xie Rong and had a new understanding of her behavior.
1. You were a designer at the beginning. What is the opportunity for you to switch to behavioral art creation?
Yes, I was in college at the Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design. I belonged to the University of the Arts in London. When I was in school, I found that the boundaries between design and art were very vague. The graduation thesis at the time was influenced by Hélène Cixous’s theory of “negative writing”. In the book “Medusa’s Laughter,” she wrote: “Women must write about herself: must write a woman and bring a woman to writing… a woman must put herself in the text – bring her story back In the world and in history – through her own actions.”
My graduation thesis is “The Symbol of Negative Writing and Identity”, and I wrote an autobiography “Xie Rong and the Thirsty Devil”. In the autobiography, I combed my family history into the “three steps”: the root of the school, the school of death and the school of dreams. This is a turning point in my spirit and a turning point in art.
Xie Rong’s paper self-made book
I am a very emotional person. From small to large, I can feel the impact on my body and emotions around me. I like performance and like to speak, but I didn’t find a suitable channel to send it out. Body writing made me open my voice. I realized that my voice and my story are powerful. I used to think that this is just my personal experience. I think art is not personal but public. Everyone can feel and Experience, so I feel too personal to become very narrow. But after reading the book of Xisu, I found that it was not. When I put my body in the big age, I suddenly had power. I found the art of performance art and the sheep to express myself.
Xie Rong’s paper self-made book
2. What is the first performance art work?
In fact, this starts from the fact that I stopped writing for two years. When I was 21, I married an Irishman. After seven years, I separated. Later, I met my father to commit suicide. The two worlds collapsed at the same time, causing me to collapse. I have not created any works for two years. From 2011 I entered the Royal College of Art and followed Nigel Rolfe to study performance art.
“Send Book” was created in 2011 by artists during performances
“Book” was created in 2011. The artist is barefoot and uses ink to wash his hair.
My first performance art work was “Send a Book,” which was created in 2011. I was studying printmaking and learned that the world’s first prints were made with women’s hair instead of silk. So I went back to the woman’s body and painted it with ink on her hair. The painting was very abstract and it was an understanding of my own hair. I spent five hours creating an eleven-meter abstract scroll that represents my eleven years with my ex-husband. After bathing, the water washed the paint off the hair, and the ink was painted all over the body. At that moment, I felt that I was born again. Many of my works draw on the works of predecessors and need to think about how to turn them into their own artistic language. I feel that my cultural background is very important.
Xie Rong is painting with his hair
“Send Book” was created in 2011. The artist paints on a long roll of eleven meters.
3. This time, “My Father and My Son,” I used an object like a ball, which seems to appear in your previous work.
The object was woven from bamboo strips and covered with more than 80 sheets of rice paper. The shape is not very precise. It is made up of two parts, like a lantern, uterus, breast, testicles, planet, silkworm cocoons, eggs, nests, and so on. It also appeared in my four-hour behavioral work, Be the Inside of the Vase, in 2012. The image at the time was more precise and it was a vase.
Bamboo and rice paper woven objects
Objects appearing in “My Father and My Son”
At that time, the museum did not allow me to ignite the vase. I stood in the whole body with Meilan Zhuju, and asked the audience to throw a water polo to break the vase. The story of my father and me has puzzled me for so many years, and I hope to break it. The audience broke the lantern with 150 water polo. The water polo lost its light in 5 minutes and washed off the blue and white porcelain patterns and pigments on my body.
Xie Rong painted part of the bamboo on his body
Xie Rong’s 2012 performance art work “Being the Inner of the Vase”, which also appeared similar objects
One of the water polo players was very hard when they lost it. It hit my eyes and it hurts. The dark circles are like pandas for two weeks. This is a kind of violence. It is a retrospective of the cold violence I felt when I was a child. My mother has a face to face. I am not allowed to talk about their divorce. It is a mental imprisonment for me. At the time, an editor wrote a commentary and said that it was very repugnant to this kind of violence, and he did not know how to become a party to violence. She feels that the artist appears in a fragile and weak image, using his own vulnerability to make the audience become weaker, and the artist controls the mood of the audience.
“In Xie Rong’s sharing, 
thank you 
