Let the Water Flow Project

Project Team: Li Xiaofei, Jim Speers, Clinton Watkins, Tracey Guo, Tu Neill

Let the Water Flow-01

HD Video / PAL / Color / Sound

13 min 49 sec

2016

https://lixiaofeiart.com/artworks_video_water_01/

Let the Water Flow-02

HD Video / PAL / Color / no Sound

05 min 36 sec

2016

https://lixiaofeiart.com/artworks_video_water_02/

Let the Water Flow-03

HD Video / PAL / Color / Sound

17 min 33 sec

2016

https://lixiaofeiart.com/artworks_video_water_03/

Let the Water Flow-04

HD Video / PAL / Color / no Sound

06 min 35 sec

2016

https://lixiaofeiart.com/artworks_video_water_04/

Let the Water Flow-05

HD Video / PAL / Color / Sound

05 min 21 sec

2016

https://lixiaofeiart.com/artworks_video_water_05/

Xiao Pundoug

HD Video / PAL / Color / Sound

30 min 52 sec

2017

https://lixiaofeiart.com/artworks_video_xiaopundoug/

Project Summary

The project is a combination of imaginative overlays. Those interviewed talk of how the river has produced idioms, or ways of seeing the world. It also incorporates ideas taken from other contexts, often to find they have a local analogue; a century ago Joseph Conrad proposed that seafarers experienced a special psychological relationship with the maritime environment. A century later the men working aboard boats on the Yangtze confirm this sense of being in a world apart from the mainland. They are though part of the city, even if at a distance. If the water differs from land as a place for people it has also played a decisive role in the development of the city.

Our artwork cuts between the sounds and images of ship life, the cityscape as viewed from the water and interviews so that geography and particular physical features provide a context for personal stories. As a further issue the project presents a view of work as something that’s subjectively experienced by individual people. The people we meet determine the landscape that we record. We aim to understand how they see their environment and how their working life affects their view.

About the Artists

Jim Speers is a sculptor and documentary filmmaker.  In recent years he has worked in a range of media including sculptural installation, printing and model making as well as exploring the combination of non narrative and interview based forms of video.  This has involved production and exhibition in New Zealand, China and Europe. His recent exhibitions/projects include: Hold til Wednesday, Starkwhite, (2015/16) Long Days, Fei Contemporary Art Centre, Shanghai (2012); New Windsor Road, Starkwhite, Auckland (2011); Numerology and Territories, Te Tuhi Centre for the Arts, Pakaranga (2010); Crystal Spirit, Starkwhite (2009);

Ghost Trail Services, Kunstverein, Ludwigsburg, Curator Leonhard Emmerling (2005); Raider Lodge, St Paul St Gallery, Auckland University of Technology, Auckland, Curator Heather Galbraith (2005) Brazil is Fine, Jeffrey, (Frances Hodgkins Fellow), Hocken Gallery & Library, Dunedin, (2001); and Tiffany’s Kyoto, Artspace Gallery, Auckland (2000).

Li Xiaofei born in 1973 in Hunan, studied at the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts and lives works in Shanghai. Li has received grants from the Iaspis International Residency and the Asian Cultural Council. Li’s work has been featured in solo and group exhibitions internationally, including: “Social Factory: The 10th Shanghai Biennale”, “ {   } The 8th Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art”,“60th International Short Film Festival Oberhausen”, 5th Japan Nakanojo Biennale and the “2013 Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism/Architecture”, Shenzhen. For more info see: http://www.lixiaofeiart.com

Clinton Watkins born in 1976 in New Zealand studied at Elam School of Fine Arts and lives and works in Auckland New Zealand. Clinton has exhibited in solo and group exhibitions throughout New Zealand, Australia, Europe, Asia and the United States most recently working with artist Santiago Sierra and performing along side free jazz saxophonist Peter Brötzmann. Clinton is represented by Starkwhite Gallery and releases sound compositions on a variety of local and international record labels such as CMR, Absurd and Scarcelight. Clinton holds a Doctoral Degree from Elam School of Fine Arts, lectures in experimental time-based media and is the Programme Leader of the Bachelor of Creative Technologies degree at AUT.

For more info see: http://www.starkwhite.co.nz/clinton-watkins-overview

Zixuan Guo born in 1988 in HeiBei, China studied at Elam School of Fine Arts and lives and works in Auckland New Zealand. Guo holds a Master Degree from Elam School of Fine Arts. Guo has exhibited her work in group exhibitions throughout New Zealand, and Shanghai.

Tu Neill

Director / Editor / Producer

Tu graduated from The University of Auckland with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 2006. Since then he has worked in the media, across a number of platforms and roles beginning as a television editor first in New Zealand and then in London. It Tu has edited current affairs shows such as Tagata Pasifika and Waka Huia. He also was the lead editor on the feature documentary – Poi E.