Chuqing Feng

The first workshop that people explore Southwark Park, led by artist Gail Dickerson.

Chuqing is a curator and designer active in both London and Guangzhou. She holds a graduate degree in Curating Contemporary Art from the Royal College of Art (RCA) in the United Kingdom. She completed her undergraduate Exhibition and Display Design studies at the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts in China.

Chuqing's research in the field of curating focuses on participatory art, community, social art studies, and urban curating. She delves deep into the exploration of multiculturalism, the interplay between art and the city, and the social impact of art. Guided by the principle of making contemporary art more accessible, she is dedicated to providing audiences with better opportunities to understand and experience contemporary art through her curatorial work. Additionally, Chuqing emphasises the sustainability of exhibitions and audience experience, strives to pioneer innovative exhibition formats and curatorial approaches and explores further possibilities in the field of curating. She has previously been involved in participatory art projects such as To Be Here With You (2023) in collaboration with Southwark Park in London, Underdone (2023) in partnership with Fluidtable, and the exhibition project Rebuild: Name, Birthplace and Current Residence (2022).

Furthermore, Chuqing is a member of Skiip Studio, an unrestricted creative design studio. Since 2022, they have been focusing on visual design, brand design, window display design, and event planning. Drawing on their diverse identities and perspectives, the three members integrate and transcend different design fields, pushing the boundaries of creativity with an open-minded approach. They are committed to spreading and sharing art and culture with the public while meeting client demands and providing solutions.

Details at: https: //instagram.com/skiiip__studiio?igshid=MmIzYWVlNDQ5Yg==

To Be Here With You embraces practices of ritual to create a space of shared knowledge, gentle hospitality and open collectivity. Each workshop embodies the sacred rituals of our everyday routines, ancient mythologies, earthly knowledge or pagan beliefs. Situated within the space of Southwark Park, To Be Here With You recognises a desire to reconnect with nature through practices of ritual. A series of five, free public workshops begin with a responsive walk through Southwark Park, followed by a guided workshop in Southwark Park Galleries’ Salter Space. The project explores dynamic spaces of collectivity, participation and shared thinking. Each workshop opens a pathway for audiences to appreciate the spaces we inhabit, to rediscover the spiritual aspects of nature, and to value our intimate rituals as something sacred.

Workshop 1 - Gathering – The workshop consists of an initial walk and introduction into Gail’s practice, where participants are encouraged to discover the layers, cycles and methods of geology that exist within and beneath our feet. This will be followed by a map-making workshop, where participants can incorporate shared and collective learning to layer, merge and make use of foraged earthly materials from the walk itself.

Workshop 5 - Greening – Collaborating artists Hannah Lees and May Hands incorporate ideas of collective making via participatory weaving, stitching and sculpting using locally foraged materials. Lees and Hands infuse their practices with ideas of Sigil magic, effigy building, and ideas of remnants and remains. Focusing on young children and families, this workshop develops ideas of connection, lightheartedness and support within the city's green spaces.

Workshop 3 - Infinitely – Alice May offers a unique opportunity to tap into your inner creativity and explore what ignites your passions. Drawing inspiration from dreams, the natural world, and the people, things, and places that hold a special place in our hearts, Alice May's artistic processes invite participants to delve into their artistic potential. With a focus on the universal language of love and the cosmic connection we share as beings.

We walked in the park and explored the materials used to make the 'map'

Workshop 2 - Activating – The workshop will consist of creating unique musical instruments from found objects and materials in Rie's workshop. This will be followed by impromptu performances around the park to showcase the music the instruments create.

In Collaboration with:

Co-curator

What exists between individuals in relationships? Is it a boundary, a narrative, or a hidden undercurrent of controversy?

In the spring of 2014, a special program production team from Japan's NHK television station released a collection of interview works titled "Unconnected Society." In Japan, "unconnected" is interpreted as "in the process of high-level growth, many traditions that maintain interpersonal relationships are broken, and a person gradually loses all connections, encompassing social ties, blood ties, and regional ties." However, dealing with the "unconnected society" in the current context of China is not an easy task, as it is entangled with many complex issues.

In his book From the Soil: The Foundations of Chinese Society(1947), contemporary sociologist Xiaotong Fei mentioned that the expanded form of China's rural society is like seeds blown away by the wind from an old tree, either finding new land to survive or being eliminated if they don't find land. In China, tens of millions of young people live far away from their hometowns, and relatives, and struggle alone in big cities, facing severe survival pressures. Factors such as modernization, industrialization, and individual atomization also contribute to their active or passive loss of various connections. As sociologist Yinhe Li said, "In the past, it seemed like everyone had to get married. When men reached a certain age, they should get married, and when women reached a certain age, they should get married. But now many people choose to remain single, which is a rare change in China." From this perspective, people often avoided being unconnected in the past, but now many people actively choose to give up those connections.

Regarding "names," everyone seems to be easily asked, "How did you get your name? What does your name mean?" Everyone is expected to tell a story to fill the gap between family/family history and oneself to rationalize their continued blood relationship. And the rhetoric of "names" as a metaphor for home points to this humanistic culture derived from blood relations, which develops along with the development of individuals, families, and lineages.

The narration of "birthplace" is usually used to recreate the subject's nostalgia for their hometown. Geographical ties are a projection of blood ties, and those who are always questioned with "Where are you from?" may themselves be perfect examples of displacement and alienation. While it is possible to romanticize being a wanderer in a foreign land, it conceals the genuine pain and unbearable partings that we have long established with this land. For those who have left their hometowns, their descendants can still trace their ancestors' birthplaces or ancestral hometowns as their native or ancestral origins. Regardless of the reasons why personal memories may not reach this goal, collective narratives will define your/our/her/their connections in place of personal memories.

As for the "current residence," it is both an ecological medium for relational exchanges and represents the location where people are currently situated and the social ties that spread from it. The boundaries of "inside" and "outside" identities gradually blur through migration to a foreign land. "Outsiders" can be assimilated to become "locals" and can also become "travellers." The current place of residence may also become one's "hometown" in the future. Urbanism is a beautiful fairy tale that never mentions the high walls of boundaries, always tilted, some people can easily cross over, some people have no return, and it also keeps some people permanently trapped in one place.

It is these simple personal details that constitute the majority of our connections.

At the forefront of China's international exchanges, the Beijing area's historical culture and social ecology are constantly transforming into vibrant new aspects. Faced with this reality, this exhibition takes "names, hometowns, and current places of residence" as its theme, extending the critical reflection on the "unconnected society" to the field of art, and bringing about a ritual based on emotions and collective imagination. How can we explore the exchange between "individuals" with an open perspective and diverse media? Or what has happened that led us to choose autonomous solitude? Should we return to a society with strong blood ties, regional ties, and social ties for exploration, especially in the post-pandemic era? Do we have methods to build new types of connections? And how can art, as a means of therapy, bridge the gap in relationships between people within the exhibition space? How can we obtain a more valuable future through giving, caring, and reciprocal exchanges (rather than exploitation)?

city curating exhibition identity relationship

Chuqing Feng

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Royal College of Art