Liu

This works was composed of dance(including Performance), installation, video and music. I was in charge of installation, video and part of performance. Xiao Ke and Nan Nan took charge of the dance. The music was done by Olivier Palai with the cooperation of Er Dan of Began (an art team).

During the exhibition in Kunming of March, I had done two little balls with the toilet paper. I like this material because it is cheap and can bring us imagination. I am sensitive to smell, maybe this is another cause.

May, in Beijing, in the shop opposite the National Art Gallery, Zhang Xian and I, we decided to use toilet paper instead of the expensive China paper to make our curtain which came out well.

In the Triennial, I received the photo sent by Mr. Qiu Zhi Jie of performance space which was the three stories’ steps at the gate of Nanjing Museum. We only could use two stories of steps. Because of the limited time which is the common shortcomings of almost all the exhibitions, I had to make a programme in one day.

In my programme we planned to do an immovable installation and a movable installation. On the immovable installation the dancers could do most of the actions. On the steps we did a circular thing of 10000mm of diameter and 20mm of thickness with white paper pulp which we called poached egg. The movable installation was this ball made by toilet paper. It was not as big as I thought. The diameter of this ball was 2000mm.

I arrived at Nanjing on the 7th of June when I finally contacted with Qiu Zhi Jie. I found that the performance place was in a mess. Everday we changed the lodging place. Without knowing where we could live at night, Er Dan and I, we always went out for materials taking the heavy equipments.

For the paper ball, I thought that paper pulp was not so perfect as sticky liquid of starch as I imagined. I hoped to see the dancers moving in the sticky liquid at the audience hall of Nanjing Museum. In this way the museum was not so stately as it seemed. Here people could see the contrast between the stateliness of the museum and the secularity of the paper ball. When I was winding the big paper ball, people said that this ball could be used to blow nose, to clean up shit, to clean body after making love, to clean mouth after eating and something like that which I felt so interesting. I thought that this ball not only was a prop but also could clean up the sticky liquid of the dancers.

Things like ticky liquid, semen, liquid of love or vomit are all related with body. Now people are doing research of dinosaur egg, maybe in future archeology people will do research of different liquids of people in different times. It was very dazzling doing this at the gate of the museum. The president of the museum was a careful guy. He considered the liquid thing waste of some other works, nearly cleaning up all. Well the reason was simple, for he had to tell us that those things of the museum were all historical relic and we shouldn’t destroy them.

9th of June, we had prepared all the materials. Xiao Ke, Nannan and Olivier arrived.

In the midday of the 10 th of June. We found two women to help us to do the sticky liquid in the boiler house of Nanjing Museum, and then we poured all the liquid on the steps at the audience hall.

If I had more boiling water, I would do more sticky liquid, because the starch needed boiling water to become sticky liquid. The two women that we found complained about the long distance between the boiler house and the steps, so they asked for more pay.

In the following one hour, a butterfly fell on the liquid and couldn’t get away anymore. I saw it dying gradually.

The 11th of June was the opening of the The Triennial of Chinese Arts. In the midday we began to pouring water into balloons. The balloons were easy to break because of the hot weather, so we put them in the office of the museum. After four o’clock of the afternoon we started to put the balloons in the sticky liquid. At six o’clockwe started to do make-up for the performer. We painted the sticky liquid on their bodies, and covered them with the toilet paper which would be diluted by the water in those lovely balloons after they broke up. At 7:40 began the performance.

Before the beginning of the performance, I gave whistles to many people there. I hoped that when I began to whistle and pass the big paper ball from the first steps to the second to Xiaoke they could whistle with me. This was what I wanted, the right of expressing one’s opinions freely. I wanted to give more power to this works, to the dancers, the audience and I. The whistle was only a sign, it didn’t mean anything. It was a strange thing. It could call for all the other people to take part in this works and destroy it. When Nannan was tearing the big paper ball, she became weaker due to the view of the audience. At the same time, I was whistling and calling for others to tear the ball with me. It was just like that we were peeling the skin.

“Untinged” Process of the performance of body installation This is a multimedia works. This works was composed of dance(including Performance), installation, video and music. I was in charge of installation, video and part of performance. Xiao Ke and Nan Nan took charge of the dance. The music was done by Olivier Palai with the cooperation of Er Dan of Began (an art team). Here I will introduce my working part. During the exhibition in Kunming of March, I had done two little balls with the toilet paper. I like this material because it is cheap and can bring us imagination. I am sensitive to smell, maybe this is another cause. May, in Beijing, in the shop opposite the National Art Gallery, Zhang Xian and I, we decided to use toilet paper instead of the expensive China paper to make our curtain which came out well. In the Triennial, I received the photo sent by Mr. Qiu Zhi Jie of performance space which was the three stories’ steps at the gate of Nanjing Museum. We only could use two stories of steps. Because of the limited time which is the common shortcomings of almost all the exhibitions, I had to make a programme in one day. In my programme we planned to do an immovable installation and a movable installation. On the immovable installation the dancers could do most of the actions. On the steps we did a circular thing of 10000mm of diameter and 20mm of thickness with white paper pulp which we called poached egg. The movable installation was this ball made by toilet paper. It was not as big as I thought. The diameter of this ball was 2000mm. I arrived at Nanjing on the 7th of June when I finally contacted with Qiu Zhi Jie. I found that the performance place was in a mess. Everday we changed the lodging place. Without knowing where we could live at night, Er Dan and I, we always went out for materials taking the heavy equipments. For the paper ball, I thought that paper pulp was not so perfect as sticky liquid of starch as I imagined. I hoped to see the dancers moving in the sticky liquid at the audience hall of Nanjing Museum. In this way the museum was not so stately as it seemed. Here people could see the contrast between the stateliness of the museum and the secularity of the paper ball. When I was winding the big paper ball, people said that this ball could be used to blow nose, to clean up shit, to clean body after making love, to clean mouth after eating and something like that which I felt so interesting. I thought that this ball not only was a prop but also could clean up the sticky liquid of the dancers. Things like ticky liquid, semen, liquid of love or vomit are all related with body. Now people are doing research of dinosaur egg, maybe in future archeology people will do research of different liquids of people in different times. It was very dazzling doing this at the gate of the museum. The president of the museum was a careful guy. He considered the liquid thing waste of some other works, nearly cleaning up all. Well the reason was simple, for he had to tell us that those things of the museum were all historical relic and we shouldn’t destroy them. 9th of June, we had prepared all the materials. Xiao Ke, Nannan and Olivier arrived. In the midday of the 10 th of June. We found two women to help us to do the sticky liquid in the boiler house of Nanjing Museum, and then we poured all the liquid on the steps at the audience hall. If I had more boiling water, I would do more sticky liquid, because the starch needed boiling water to become sticky liquid. The two women that we found complained about the long distance between the boiler house and the steps, so they asked for more pay. Therefore I decided to stop the pouring of the liquid. In the following one hour, a butterfly fell on the liquid and couldn’t get away anymore. I saw it dying gradually. The 11th of June was the opening of the The Triennial of Chinese Arts. In the midday we began to pouring water into balloons. The balloons were easy to break because of the hot weather, so we put them in the office of the museum. After four o’clock of the afternoon we started to put the balloons in the sticky liquid. At six o’clockwe started to do make-up for the performer. We painted the sticky liquid on their bodies, and covered them with the toilet paper which would be diluted by the water in those lovely balloons after they broke up. At 7:40 began the performance. Before the beginning of the performance, I gave whistles to many people there. I hoped that when I began to whistle and pass the big paper ball from the first steps to the second to Xiaoke they could whistle with me. This was what I wanted, the right of expressing one’s opinions freely. I wanted to give more power to this works, to the dancers, the audience and I. The whistle was only a sign, it didn’t mean anything. It was a strange thing. It could call for all the other people to take part in this works and destroy it. When Nannan was tearing the big paper ball, she became weaker due to the view of the audience. At the same time, I was whistling and calling for others to tear the ball with me. It was just like that we were peeling the skin.