As Nine Dragon Heads sets out from Seoul
through China, retracing of the Silk Road,
I decided to play with Orientalism and the
aesthetics we in the West have adopted
from Asian art.
Here I have created an enlarged lotus pond
in a giant 'bonsai' pot in which the leaves
gradually rot and extrude a rainbow oil slick.
Materials:
metal frame/pot.
dried lotus leaves, water on a bed heater.
Beijing through the Gobi and Taklamakan Deserts to Xinjiang
While traveling through remote northwest China we saw many ancient Buddist Caves which had survived the cultural revolution. However I was shocked to see how much looting had occurred with many of the Buddah heads missing. When we arrived in Uyghur country and performed art actions in our yurts I made this on the back of my yurt door. Not long after this journey Ai Wei Wei was detained and I reused this image to express my protest at China's destruction of their cultural assets. Materials: Leaves from a book bought at a Buddist Cave store. |