Dear Gao Brothers
Attached to this e-mail you will find several images
of a super 8 film that I shot in January of this year
whilst travelling in China with a friend. On the first
evening of the visit we went walking in the centre of
Beijing. It was bitterly cold and yet there were people
standing out in the cold, selling kites. These simple
kites can be found everywhere in Beijing and these people
had attached many of the kites together with string, perhaps
100 kites. The string of kites stretched high into the
sky until they were completely swallowed by the black
of the night. As there was no wind, it was difficult to
understand how the kites remained stretched up towards
the heavens, indeed it seemed as if there was someone
or something in the night sky, which was holding onto
the other end. Many people stopped to stare up into the
night sky and the trail of kites that seemed to go on
to infinity. The image stayed with me for the duration
of the month long visit to China.
On the second last day in China I went to visit the Great
Wall. The wall was completely deserted, not another soul.
I decided to shoot a film of my friend trying to fly a
long string of kites from the wall. Most of my previous
work has been performance to camera, simple gestures or
actions that hold within them an element of endurance,
which is reflected in their repetition. The kite flying
was difficult as there was little wind that day and several
long climbs up the huge sets of stairs was necessary in
order to pick up some momentum. The light, playful kites
on the wall seemed to be in direct contrast with the social
history of the wall, which is tied up in territory, exclusion,
and deaths of millions of men as they dedicated their
lives to its construction.
I was supposed to embark on a 3 month visual arts residency
with the Long March Foundation in Beijing from October
– December of this year but I have had to post pone this
residency due to a lack of funding. However, I am committed
to creating a collaborative work in China with the Long
March in Spring of next year.
I realise that my submission is late but the information
posted on the AN Magazine web site was misleading and
I thought that I would be able to apply later in September.
I now realise that this is not the case but I hope you
will enjoy looking at the images and will perhaps consider
them for your project.
Best Wishes, Ruth Macdougall (Scotland - UK)
back to top |
