A – CEAC

Zhu Zhu, Deng Yangqi, An Peiqi

root — Thu, 02 Jun 2022 08:02:58 +0000

Artist website

CEAC exhibition

H2O: Hydrolysis・Habitat・Oursexplores the different existence forms of water and its continuous vitality in the contraction of change and constancy.

We find that plants and water share similar habitat forms in a changing state of being. Being the habitat of water, plants themselves inhabit the natural world, interweaving and developing in the form of mutual transmission and flow, becoming a symbol of natural creativity.

Based on the idea that “the definition, use and change of water by human beings are the aggregate of human thoughts and wisdom about water as a natural element”, we believe that the human community is a continuous entering and detaching existence in the habitat landscape of plants and water.

The concept of the work is that there are two kinds of water being discussed, the tangible water and the intangible water. Tangible water is the familiar forms of water existence, such as liquid, gas, solid; static and flowing modes of movement; different volumes. At the same time, it is also just a residual trace.

The intangible water is the water we are about to know, the free water, the entry point to embody the dynamic of water and the mechanism of association. The first is its imminent change and reorganization, constantly reborn in the invisible transmission and dissolution. The second is its eternal mechanism of symbiosis and balance, where the decomposition and generation of water allows it to be associated with other organisms to form a stable and infinite flowing habitat.

H2O: Hydrolysis・Habitat・Oursis an exploration and response to both tangible and intangible water.

Hydrolysis is the migration and association of tangible water, tracing the form and role of water, the process of using water to decompose human landscape into flowers of different colors, rhythms and scents. It remains between the breath of the flower and flows between the liquid tissues.

Habitat is the understanding and exploration of the intangible water, which is the body of water and plants. Water connects everything and balances between the contraction of plants. It embraces everything. When people enter this habitat, they will be mapped with the plants through the connection of water, forming a new balance mechanism in the space. The human intervention will share the gift of water with the plants, reflecting the mode of living with nature. Habitat explores
a symbiotic landscape between human and nature. Are we able to co-habit
with plants? Are we the intangible water?

Zhu Zhu, born in 2000
2018-2022, Digital Media Art, Xiamen University

Deng Yangqi, born in 2000
2018-2022, Digital Media Art, Xiamen University

An Peiqi, born in 2000
2018-2022, Digital Media Art, Xiamen University

Amanda Maria Milne

root — Sun, 05 Jul 2020 13:22:23 +0000

Artist website

CEAC residency

July 6 till August 5, 2020

Amanda Maria Milne was born in Wales in the UK, has a home in Ireland, worked as an artist and teacher in the United Arab Emirates and is currently living and working in Shanghai, China.

Amanda’s work maps the physical traces and hidden emotional landscapes of memory. Using her knowledge of homeopathy combined with analytical research and study of cause and effect Amanda makes series of works that are interconnected with theme’s such as ‘Dis-ease’ (lack of ease), ‘lines in isolation’, and ‘10,000 + 1’.

To express the ephemeral nature of memory Amanda uses different techniques including traditional techniques of papier-mâché, stop motion animation, linear drawings using semitransparent parchment & archival inks and photography. Amanda’s earlier works were figurative and explored the human condition through personal events that led to the study of homeopathy and personal beliefs in a holistic approach to diagnosing and treating the human condition and she continues to explore ways to develop conceptual art that engages the viewer to pause and reflect.

On July 5th 2020 I arrived in Xiamen by train from Shanghai to begin a month’s residency at CEAC. I had clear objectives and a detailed plan but as I researched my theme ‘physical traces of the hidden emotional landscape of memory’ I started to contemplate my reasoning behind the project: What do I really want to explore? What is it that I really want to communicate? Why I have I chosenthis theme? What links are there in my past and present works? What legacy do I want to leave my children so they will know me as an artist instead of a mother? I looked back at hundreds of photographs I have taken over the years sorting through the snap shots of family gatherings, birthdays, Christmases, school plays, graduations, butterflies, moths and flowers selecting out the other photographs I have taken when I am on my own. These are images of discarded objects, man-made structures, reflections, shadows, graveyards and my road kill collection of animals hit by cars, which I still find hard to look at and decided not to select.The everyday discarded or lost objects found out of context evoke emotional memories of eternal loss and abandonment in contrast to the reflected images that are fleeting memories in space and time created by elemental forces of nature on the landscape that capture a transitory moment and provide solace almost another worldly presence for my collection of memories. While man-made structures
declare order and provide physical solid layers of memories that help to bind the other
remembrances into a solid framework.

I took another look at the three images that stimulated this project. The images show
clearly my shadow reflected on a rocky outcrop of stones in the mountains of Hatay, Turkey.
Representing a fleeting moment in time that had taken hundreds of thousands of years of the
earths formation to create. I always saw the layers of time and the past in these photographs,
symbolising past memories layered in the rocks. These three photographs started a journey of
creative exploration that developed into an autobiographical book about dis-ease ‘not at ease’
throughout my life.

During this period of contemplation at CEAC, I was able to reflect and see more clearly the
connections in my work and the direction I want to take, as Anselm Kiefer said “artists draw
connections and tie the invisible threads between things” and I feel having the opportunity
to focus on my artwork during this this residency has given me the chance to do just that.

Gallery

Annie Mackinnon

Fri, 12 Apr 2019 17:20:14 +0000

Artists website

anniemackinnon.com

CEAC exhibition

Subliming Skying, Star Gazing, Screen Glazing

Annie MacKinnon (b.1995) is a British-Chinese artist based in London, working across video, sound, sculpture and fashion. Her work investigates the paradoxes of sustainability, environmental discourses and the changing relationships between bodies and nature. She graduated from Central Saint Martins in 2018 and hassince exhibited in a two-person show ‘A Motorbike Sunbathes on a Plastic Turf’Human Resources Los Angeles and a group show ‘Creative Unions’at The Lethaby Gallery London.

Antoinette Nausikaä

Wed, 12 Aug 2015 14:57:11 +0000

Artists website

CEAC exhibition

First moments of things I saw

Coming august 1st the Dutch artist Antoinette Nausikaä will present her new publication First moment of things I saw at the Chinese European Art Center in Xiamen. This artist book is the newest expression of her long-term undertaking Stone-time, an art project around sacred mountains in which she explores the current authority and timelessness of these places. In the past Antoinette Nausikaä worked around mt Fuji (Japan), mt Olympus (Greece) and mt Ararat (Eastern Turkey/Armenia), in China she traveled along the five great sacred mountains –– the Wŭ Yuè/五岳 .

Usually she works and lives on and around the mountains for an extended period of time, observing them and using them as her home and studio. During these working periods she collects materials. In many cases she uses herself in her photographs depicting her relationship towards the direct environment accompanied by minimalistic ink drawings or texts of observations in which she reacts to what she sees and feels, and sculptures that relate in a physical way to that what she is experiencing.

Later she creates and constructs art pieces such as an installation or, like in the case of the Chinese sacred mountains, a publication. These productions also explore issues of our universal human behavior and emotions, wonderment, time, space and self.
Through her contemplative way of working Nausikaä aims to tap into a different layer of
seeing and experiencing, thus exposing what the current perception of accelerating
time and shortened attention span altogether ignore.

Astra Howard

Mon, 12 Jan 2015 13:33:14 +0000

Artists website

Astra Howard

Astra Howard at CEAC, Interview by China Residencies

Astra Howard Xiamen Blog

CEAC exhibition

Lift Off – Touch Down

Astra Howard is an Action Researcher/Performer from Australia working predominantly within public spaces in cities. Since 1998 Astra has designed and produced site-specific works in cities internationally, including: Sydney, Melbourne, Beijing, Paris, New York, Delhi, Hanoi and London. After completing a PhD in 2005 titled: ‘Orchestrating the Public: To Reveal and Activate through Design the Experience of the City’, Astra has continued to test urban and social theories in the city spaces they critique.

Undertaking various projects commissioned by city councils, state government departments and community/arts organizations, Astra has designed and directed these projects using iterative research methodologies. Information is gathered about a location, the data collected and ‘creatively visualised’, which in turn generates dialogue and debate amongst members of the public about issues affecting their city.

Anne Weshinskey

root — Tue, 11 Nov 2014 15:23:00 +0000

Artist website

CEAC exhibition

Equilibrity

Anne Weshinskey is, first and foremost, thrilled and eager to have the opportunity to present her work to the always curious and enthusiastic CEAC audience.

Arni Gudmundsson

root — Thu, 12 Dec 2013 12:50:02 +0000

Artist website

CEAC exhibition

Sculptures and Drawings

Rolling Snowball 4, Quanzhou, 2013

Rolling Snowball 5, Djupivogur, 2014

Rolling Snowball 6, Djupivogur, 2015

Arni Gudmundsson is a Stockholm-based artist working in a variety of mediums–from sculpture to photography, performance, and drawing. He is also the co-founder of two artist-run galleries in Stockholm (Konstakuten and IDI.) Along with being one of the initiators of Supermarket, an annual fair of independent artist initiatives, Gudmundsson participates in many shows throughout Europe, Asia, America, and the Middle East as both an artist and an organizer.

Ann Noel

root — Sat, 12 Oct 2013 12:37:38 +0000

Artist website

www.ann–noel.com

CEAC exhibition

China Conflux

‘Art is a full-time, absorbing occupation and a way of life for me’, says Ann Noel, a British born artist living in Berlin, Germany. Every aspect of her daily living experience becomes possible source material for a continuing voyage of creation and discovery, whether it be the trash picked up off the street, the words in the diary she writes faithfully each morning or the souvenirs and keepsakes given to her by participants in her ongoing exchange project “GIVE &TAKE.”

AnneMarie van Splunter

root — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 09:48:07 +0000

Artist website

annemarievansplunter.nl

CEAC exhibition

CEAC video group exhibition

AnneMarie van Splunter
Title: A Day Such As This (Amsterdam version)
Running time: 8:33 minutes

The 9 year old pupils of class 5A of primary school De Witte Olifant in Amsterdam open their curtains to start the day.

Visual artist AnneMarie van Splunter filmed the children at their homes. The film shows 21 children, 21 curtains and 21 views on a small part of the city of Amsterdam.

An optimistic welcoming of a new day, accompanied by Bill Withers’s song “Lovely Day”.

Andrea Weigert

root — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 06:13:44 +0000

Artist website

CEAC exhibition

The Story of Painting ( Wo de huaer)

e Story of Painting ( Wo de huaer) is a painted process of reflection and interaction.

What does the story tell?

The story is about the first easy step into the water until its final difficult end. But is the end only the beginning of another process and if so, what is important enough to keep? Is there always the necessity to make a sacrifice in order to go on or is it simply a transformation of what is going on?

And what does “simply” mean?

Why does painting hurt, when and who does it heal? The hidden process in
painting is also one that is shown on the end of the ride. While being on the road the story is told around one special element which is the dragon sitting on the roof of a temple. While looking at this static dragon the mind is on its way. This way is a painted area, the painted world is on the move, is moved and is moving. On its way one has to be patient cause it is still unclear which parts will survive and which will be lost. But one is for sure: at the end, the story is hidden and it is up to you what you want to hear.