Field Recordings (Xian Chang Bian) is a collective of New Zealand and Chinese artists who share an interest in social geography and use documentary film processes to explore cultures as they occur in urban environments. This shared practice results in films and video installations that investigate how social interaction shapes and is shaped by land- scape and history, and how culturally specific practices might be communicated between and within cultures. Field Recordings involves the following artists: Guo Zixuan, an artist raised in Beijing now living in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland; Li Xiaofei, who works in Shanghai and New York; Tu Rapana Neill, a New Zealander based in London; and the Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland based artists Jim Speers and Clinton Watkins. This exhibition focuses on the works made in China between 2015 and 2017.
Li Xiaofei was born in the Chinese city of Hunan in 1973. He lives in Shanghai and New York. He graduated from the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts. Li has been the recipient of multiple grants and awards, including the Iaspis International Residency Grant, Stockholm, Sweden (2013) and The Sovereign Foundation Fellowship of the Asian Cultural Council, New York, USA (2011). Li initiated Assembly Line in 2010, an ongoing project that records industrialised social change in, not only China, but as it occurs internationally. Through this documentary process, Li explores what lies beyond the orderliness of the assembly line, the capitalist factory, consumer society, social progress and social mores—the reality of the people living in a highly systematic and institutionalised environment. Full CV
Jim Speers became interested in moving image because of its potential to capture the phenomenological experiences of everyday life. Specifically, his interest in documentary art is in the possibility of culture revealing itself through small moments and things. His recent works have moved toward a more discursive form of film which aims to record the ways people characterise the physical and social world they find themselves in. Working with Field Recordings has offered him a particular opportunity to consider the ways subjecthood might be understood, not only in terms of outcomes shown to an audience, but in the way it is negotiated within a collaborative process. Speers is an Associate Professor at The University of Auckland’s Elam School of Fine Arts. Full CV
Clinton Watkins investigates affect through the construction of immersive experiences combining sound, form and scale. His work focuses on the characteristics, structures, phenomena, and processing of sonic and visual material through a minimalist sensibility. Watkins is also an experimental musician who regularly produces and performs, both as a solo artist and collaboratively. Watkins is a Senior Lecturer at Auckland University of Technology teaching experimental time-based media. Full CV
Guo Zixuan works in video, video installation and performance art. She is influenced by Eastern philosophy and the aesthetic of Taoism that underpins her culture of origin. Guo’s practice is driven by her sense of being ‘a transitional self’. As someone living in both China and Aotearoa New Zealand, she experiences an ‘in between position’, a dual perspective in relation to the everyday and of art making. Guo is a Masters graduate of The University of Auckland’s Elam School of Fine Arts. Full CV
Tu Rapana Neill has worked in the media industry for the past decade, as an editor on film projects, then a director of documentaries and commercials. In 2014, he directed the critically acclaimed documentary series Digging in the Carts, which explored the history of Japanese video-game music and its influence on electronic music. His interest in Japanese culture has continued through to the Ghost Selectors documentary project. This combines glimpses of Japan’s history with an introduction to the culture of specialist music bars. In Aotearoa New Zealand, Rapana Neill has worked on documentary projects for Māori Television, including a series about the tribe Nga ti Kahungunu and the lost Māori descendants of Goethe. Full CV
现场边 (Field Recordings) 现场边是一个由中国与新西兰艺术家组成的创作小组。艺术家们以社会地理为关注点, 通过实地调研和拍摄探索了在城市环境中所产生的不同文化。此次艺术实践的成果是电影 和影像装置。作品调研于,社会的相互影响是如何被地形景观与历史所改变与被改变的, 并探索了特定的文化实践在文化之中与文化之间的相互传达。现场边包括下艺术家:果子 暄,北京附近长大,现今居住工作于奥克兰;李消非,工作居住于上海与纽约;图·奥 尼尔,新西兰人,工作居住于伦敦;吉姆·斯皮尔斯和克林顿·沃特金斯,工作居住于奥 克兰。 此展览的作品在中国拍摄于2015年至2017年。
果子暄 果子暄,其作品专注于影像、影像装置、与行为。在东方哲学与道家美学的文化背景下, 她的实践理念被‘一个过渡地自我’所带动。作为一个生活在中国与新西兰的艺术家, 她所经历的‘在中间地带’使她在创作和生活中拥有了一个双重的视角。果子暄,硕士, 毕业于新西兰奥克兰大学美术学院。
李消非 李消非,1973年出生于中国湖南,现居住、工作在上海和纽约,毕业于广州美术 学院油画系。曾获纽约亚洲文化协会(2010)和瑞典IASPIS艺术家基金(2013)
。李消非从2010年开始创作“流水线项目”,该项目是一种与当下的社会进程和社会变迁 联系在一起的实践过程。他进行了大量的实地调研和拍摄,用切片的影像和断裂的叙述 等方式,探讨人在高度系统化和体制化的环境里的一个现实处境。
图·奥尼尔 图·奥尼尔,电影剪辑、纪录片与商业片导演,在影视行业拥有十多年经验。2014年导 演了备受赞誉的纪录片《Digging in the Carts》,此片探索了日本游戏音乐的发展历史 以及对电子音乐的影响。他对日本文化的关注也延续到了纪录片《Ghost Selectors》系 列,此片是一部描述专业音乐酒吧文化和日本历史的结合。在新西兰奥尼尔曾工作于毛利 电台,参与制作一系列纪录片,其中包含《Ngāti Kahungunu部落》和《歌德丢失的毛 利祖先》。
吉姆·斯皮尔斯 吉姆·斯皮尔斯,其对移动影像的关注起始于影像对日常生活现象体验的捕捉。斯皮尔斯 尤其专注于在实地调研中通过时刻和事物中所展现出的文化自身。近期作品更是以一种 推论性的影像形式记录人物在现实社会世界所体现的自身人物特征。现场边小组为他提 供了一个特殊的机会来考虑主体身份该如何被理解:它不仅是一个可以被观众所理解的外 貌,而是一个在合作过程中商讨的结果。斯皮尔斯是新西兰奥克兰大学美术学院副教授。 克林顿·沃特金斯 克林顿·沃特金斯,其作品关注于通过结合声音、形式、比列来构筑身临其境的体验,并 研究其所产生的影响。通过对极简的感悟,他的创作实践着重于特性、结构、现象、声音 与视觉材料的处理过程。沃特金斯同时也是一位实验音乐人,经常参与个人或团体的创作 与演出。沃特金斯是新西兰奥克兰理工大学实验时基媒体的资深讲师。