Clay taken from the Mississippi and Yangtze rivers is set to unite contemporary artists from the twinned cities St. Louis and Nanjing. With just two weeks until the exhibition “River to River” opens, The Nanjinger was invited into the contemporary artists’ inner circle to witness the collaborative processes found at the 1865 Creative Park.
The collective is made up of four individuals with very varying degrees of experience with China. From first timers to regulars, overseas Chinese to born-and-bred locals, this colourful group of people draw on inspiration from their Chinese surroundings in order to create art in very different fashions.
Ron Fondaw focuses on the powers invisible to us all. Over the last month one of his art projects has been a pixelated photographic montage, which he wishes the viewer to move through, wanting nothing to be static, presenting a time-based hybrid, which he intends the audience to traverse.
A second project includes a plastic mold, in which are placed Nanjing’s renowned Yuhua Stones. With great enthusiasm Fondaw explains how this work came into existence through a collaboration with local artists, who assisted Ron in understanding the cultural aspects and Chinese principles of aesthetics.
His successful cooperation is certainly in no small part due to his humble approach to the whole experience. “My real interest is in interacting with the Chinese people in as many different ways as I can; not to change them, although it’s always reciprocal, but to change myself. That’s what art is for me; it’s a tool for understanding myself and my place in the world”.
After his stay in Nanjing, Fondaw concludes that once you peel the layers of stereotype away, we are not really that different. He illustrates this by pointing to the strong connections between Nanjing and its sister city St. Louis, from which he hails; both sharing common interests, aliking St. Louis’ Eads bridge to Nanjing’s Yangtze River Bridge, and St. Louis’ Sycamore trees to Nanjing’s Plane trees. This optimistic approach to the exchange is certainly visible in his art and in his demeanour, a poster child for successful cultural exchange.
Perhaps the most inspiring aspect for any true artist in such an endeavour is the process of finding oneself in entirely new surroundings and interpreting them on a mental and an artistic level.
Noah Kirby, a metal fabricator, became interested in Arte Povera with its everything used and repurposed mantra as a starting point for his creative process. This being Noah’s first visit to Nanjing, he looked beyond language, taking inspiration from markings for navigational aids, signage and posts. He noticed the heavy reliance of scaffoldings on buildings, strong use of patterns and began to build a visual response to this stimulus. He said, “That’s the thing that really stands out [about China]; there’s pattern everywhere. It’s sensory overload”.
Catherine Magel started out with simple walks through her Nanjing neighbourhood which resulted in the creation of a series of paintings incorporating reclaimed objects from her mini adventures. Something that particularly caught her attention was how locals stack countless items on top of each other or build entire constructs by tying them together with string. Magel in turn used this practice to bind together her 3D creations. “It is so interesting how back in the US you have artists who build constructs and then you have drivers and people transporting things. But here everyone is an artist by the way they tie layers and layers of material together.”
Relating her experience of simply stepping outside and looking at her surroundings, the glimmer of excitement in Magel’s eyes is hard to miss. She sees young people playing badminton, old people practicing Taiji, all the wonders one discovers upon newly arriving in China. One cannot help but envy her for the sheer joy of discovering an entirely new culture many expats have already traded in for a more sombre view.
Wu Wing Yee, a Hong Kong born ceramist, works predominantly in St. Louis and New York. She feels her work in Nanjing is subconsciously connected to culture. After walking through Nanjing, gathering discarded objects, keeping in mind that anything can be extended to sculptural form, she records time in journey through responding to those forms in ceramics.
Collaborating with renowned ceramist and lecturer at Nanjing Institute, Lu Bin, who has also been invaluable to the collective in securing studio and exhibition space, the two are creating visual responses in ceramics to each other’s work. Through sculptural forms employing clay from both Mississippi and Nanjing, River to River is a fascinating personification of the sister city relationship; visiting artists from abroad and locals coming together to produce something new.
This article was first published in The Nanjinger Magazine, June 2015 Issue. If you would like to read the whole magazine, please follow this link.
