Category Archives: Eco Art

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The Rhythm of Life -Xishuangbanna artist residency on local ethno- and bio-diversity Nov 2021

简单中文

Dai Zu artists Han Xuan  (Nam) singing and Tie Farong on beats at the giant Buttress tree. 

The role of art and culture have important roles in advancing human partnerships with nature. An ecocentric orientation in our cultures could provide landscapes for new stories of sustainability.

 I was very excited to be invited to be part of this residency at a time when both art practitioners and art academia are more committed to supporting and building better stewardship for preserving the environment .

This residency had an earlier rendition during the Dai Zu “water throwing festival” in April. During that time Covid restrictions were more relaxed and the artists had a number of academic evenings with scientists learning about their work at the tropical botanical research centre based inside the park. Unluckily for me, the Oct/Nov residency (running at the same time as the Dai Zu  “Opening door festival”)   was no longer possible to enjoy such presentations at the research centre due to the recent restrictions for Covid control.

I did however have a couple of really nice chats with prof Harald Schneider who sat on my corner of the studio for 20 mins one day. He observed that the particular Bauhinia flowers outside from where I painted were pollenated by bats rather than insects.I took great pleasure in this new knowledge, I felt enriched by it and it made me aware of how little I know of plant and animal life .

Over fifteen Chinese and foreign artists participated in the project with a supportive painting postgraduate team and also a documentary film team from Yunnan University, Kunming.  Here we can take a quick look at only some of the artists and their work and where possible I will interweave a little environmental philosophy, history and systems thinking.

 

Participants :

 

Duan Jianwei 段建伟, Chen Nan陈楠, Han Xuan罕璇, Mica米卡, Che Bai 车白, Bowa Gonggao博瓦·公高, Wu Hong武宏, Gaoxiang高翔, Zhangxin张鑫, Zhu Jinghua朱景华, Zhou Rui周睿, Dao Jun刀军 , Huang Yan黄燕, Yan Wen岩纹, Wang Wei王伟, Niamh Cunningham 倪福。瑞莲, Zhao Weijia 赵伟家, Zhao Zijie, 赵紫婕, Wang Cenjun, 王岑君 , Shang Heng, 尚恒 , Chen Tiantian, 陈甜甜 , Wang Chu, 王楚,  Zhu Xiangqi, 朱祥琦, Guo Ziyuan, 郭子媛, Tie Farong, 铁发荣, Huang Shunfu 黄顺富 

18:8 M:F (26)

 

DocumentaryTeam： Wang Yue, 王跃 , Li Sihan, 黎思涵, Luo Wenxin 罗文鑫

Duan Jianwei 段建伟

Artwork by Duan Jianwei, 段建伟

Duan Jianwei’s work focused on stylised studies of Dai Zu community in Xishuangbanna . I really enjoyed the honesty of our chats in the evening at dinner, such as the uncertainties and discomforts of beginning a work. It was easy to understand the high respect he had earned from all around. Later I realized there was burnt orange wall of the Daizu village“ opening door festival” we visited earlier and wonder if this was what caught his eye. I will ask him as I hope to visit his studio here in Beijing some day!

Photo taken on a visit to Daizu village celebrating the “Opening Door festival”.

with graduate student Zhao Zijie, 赵紫婕 and Menglun resident  Xiao Yu 小玉

 Chen Nan, 陈楠

Artwork by Chen Nan 陈楠

During the first week Chen Nan explored symbiotic relationships with organic plant and insect life. And so I was surprised  on the second week to see him working on  primitive icons of ethnocentric icons. The ‘bird man’ painting above is my favourite !

Hanxuan 罕璇

Artwork by Hanxuan

Xishuangbanna artist Hanxuan  (also known as Nam) was one of my favourite artists at the residency. She had the  gift of being able to share her good will with ease and  grace . She has impressive Dai Zu tatoos on her upper arms extending over her shoulders reaching the upper neck. HanXuan also has an amazing  singing voice (see video at the start of this blog) . Her paintings explored her native culture and stories she heard as a child.

Mica

Artwork by Mica

German digital artist Mica presented his Tree of Life to the upper floor of the guest house restaurant. Tree of Life is a special digital work on canvas where he invited all the artists to add and contribute drawings. His newly created work is of carefully trimmed exotic flora that merges into a ferocious dragon.  Mark Elvin (The retreat of the Elephants ) referred to flower viewing  as an instinctive remembrance to the lost world of human interaction with an untransformed nature. I  believe  here the notion of ‘Untransformed Nature  is turned on its head ! Mica was incredibly helpful when I had computer problems and gave me a crash course in storage of digital data. 

 Che Bai, 车白

Artwork by Che Bai

Local artist Che Bai 车白 is of Jinuo nationality. When we were on the road travelling, Jinuo mountain was pointed out to me “That is where Che Bai’s people live”. The Jinuo are specifically located in Xishuangbanna. He has been called the Picasso of Jinuo ethnic minority 基诺族. During the two weeks he painted several different ethnic groups in exaggerated styles with figures in motion.

Bowa Gonggao, 博瓦·公高

Artwork by Bowa Gonggao, 博瓦·公高

The Losuo river flowed a couple hundred metres from our Octagon guest house and Bowa Gonggao’s panorama of the tropical forest park reflected in its red clay waters with four local figures guarding the river banks. A second work by Bowa was a dance of wildlife with Dai zu roof architecture in the background . GongGao brought cheer where ever he went and is another new friend I hope to see again .

My current reading “The Retreat of the Elephants- an environmental history of China“ by Mark Elvin Yale University Press refers to an official of the Ministry of Works in  nearby Guangxi province Xie Zhaozhe’s publication “ Fivefold Miscellany”(published in 1608) The people of Yunnan rear elephants the way those in the heartland of China rear cattle and horses. They ride them on journeys. They load them up with grain…”

However by late imperial times the only elephants survived in the southwest (ie here in Yunnan ) and for palace ceremonies in the capital .

Wu Hong, 武宏

Wu Hong, 武宏

Wu Hong explores  natural earth pigments in his work. His filtering and sieving processes suggested pharmaceutical precision of locally sourced clay. He painted meditative patterns  of the Bodhi leaf motif, his intentions also include making floor installations with his pigments.

Art work by Gao Xiang, 高翔1

Art works by  Gao Xiang 高翔2

Gaoxiang is known for his large scale, contrasted impasto brushstrokes. On a previous residency I really enjoyed watching him think and pace around his canvasses before he rushed to stab them with the brush. On this occasion we were opposites sides of the wall and could not observe his process this time. His vibrant wildlife cycles of life and death such as the deer caught in the leopards mouth is a figure reworked on large canvasses. A paper in Biological Conservation (Rostro- Garcia et al 2016) listed the Indochinese leopard having only 7 viable populations , extinct in Singapore , likely to be extirpated in Laos and Vietnam, and almost extinct in Cambodia and China , with small distributions in Malaysia, Myanmar and Thailand. (Study published over 5 years ago.)

The Octagon House  ( where we slept )  &  Restaurant and  other buildings where we made studios 

Zhang Xin, 张鑫

Kunming artist Zhang Xin workspace was under the roof of the Octagon house. He layered sheets of pigment both acrylic and oil. This layered materiality made me think of the layers of time,  the eons , our notions of history are often so limited to our own era.  Zhang Xin’s work helps us put into perspective a wider history of our planet and its materials.

 

 

A mechanistic world view : 

Eco philosopher Carolyn Merchant in her book The Death of Nature (1980) examined the mechanistic world view of modern science which she claims sanctioned and gave license for the exploitation of nature. For me there is some difficulty in accepting this view, my early adult academic training is in science, I have respect for the sciences and now I discover that I identify with them which is why I am a little “put out”. The more I learn about ecophilosophy, I see contradictions are inherent in complex systems of knowledge, meaning and behavior.  But surely it was more economics that gave that licence.

 Zhu Jinghua, 朱景华

 

ZhuJinghua interweaves machinery into the  wood of the Black heart tree . When his wood arrived we all gathered in his studio /shed after dinner that night to marvel at the dark centre of the wood, feel and smell the sap. Zhu said the wood is strong and can quickly resprout and grow. Local residents grow it in front of their house as fuel for their homes to avoid deforestation.

I hope to visit Zhu Jinghua in his studio in CAFA Beijing  soon and he might even have a tree story for the ‘Memory Palace of Trees’.

Zhou Rui 周瑞

Artwork by Zhou Rui 

Xishuangbanna artist Zhou  Rui explores the roots of his native land, both in painting  celebratory ethnic dance , Dai Zu architecture and peace of place. Zhou Rui is also organizer extraordinaire, he is the other half of the curatorial team with Gao Xiang . Throughout the two weeks if he wasn’t at his easel he was moving about trouble shooting and fire fighting ensuring a safe passage for the project.

Dao Jun , 刀军

Art work by Dao Jun

Local artist Dao Jun was always up  very early and cheerful . We shared opposites sides of the studio shed .  He kindly provided me with insect repellant  rings to burn in the late afternoons and evenings. He focused on the Daizu  culture in his work . Weaving is a fascinating subject for me and  I loved this dramatic composition .

 

 Huang Yan, 黄燕

Xishuangbanna artist Huang Yan was the only artist  to  work on  paper, using ink and brush to investigate patterns of nature .

 

Wang Wei 王伟

Yunnan artist WangWei made small scale but powerful studies of tropical plant and animal life .

 

Niamh Cunningham 倪福。瑞莲

 Artwork by Niamh Cunningham

Entering the forest for one last walk was a highlight  of Xishuangbanna for me.  I walked in silence and paused when it started to rain, to listen to the drumskin thuds of different leaves and tried to distinguish different sounds coming from which exotic tree. The paintings were studies of the tree canopy and the huge butteress featured in the video at the beginning of this blog. They are giants of the forest and although roots are not embedded very deeply, their height is stablised by these wide extension structures.  Trees that look perfectly straight from a distance can often be spiral like when viewed from the base.

 

A note of gratitude:

A huge thank you to all the artists for their excellent company and from whom  I have learned so much . Also a big thank you to the postgraduate students and local artists who were ever so helpful. Special thank you to Wang Cenjun, 王岑君 and  Yan Wen岩纹. Also a big thank you to Yu Jin 玉金 manager of the Octagon(八角楼) guest house.

Many thanks to the great curatorial duo team Zhou Rui and Gao Xiang. Sincere thank you to Xishuangbanna Culture and Tourism Bureau, Xishuangbanna National Museum and all the departments involved in ensuring this artist residency a success.

 

 

The  following links have some good overview  videos

 

Media link One 

Media Link Two 

 

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Working with DNA as an art material -Hair Lock and Hair Skull showing in ‘ Linear’ at LangKong, 798 -July2021

Hair Skull，artists hair, Niamh Cunningham 瑞莲 2013

简体中文

The exhibition Linear is currently showing at LangKong art Museum(朗空美术馆)   in 798 (situated 3 doors away  from Red Gate gallery )

The Hair Skull has not been exhibited in 798 since 2013 so if you are in 798 please come along, you can also see the Hair Lock. These are works made over 7 years ago. The Hair lock was exhibited in New York (2015) and Taipei (2016) with the Intimate Transgressions project.

Hair Lock, artist’s hair, Niamh Cunningham 2015

Working with DNA as an art material :

Physically knitting your own genomic material is a very contemplative process. Each strand is tested for strength, elasticity and tensility before being selected for specific sections of the sculpture. The white hairs are strong and tensile and suspend the skull with ease. The coloured hair is soft but elastic and resilient.

All perceptions are acts of interpretation:

Being able to see through own genome and acknowledging it as your “coded” self as well as your personal story or experience, this screen of transparent knitted hair frames your world view. Holding on to the idea that it is my perception, acknowledging my referenced life (family traits and other things that are contained in my genome) and personal experience, this is what is framing my view of the world.

 

Consciousness is controlled hallucinations:

This is an interesting soundbite worth looking into. We know now that green red and yellow colours are not objective properties of objects in the world, they are just attributes of reflected light. And as the brain works out calculations of wavelengths of light it determines what colour something is. So we don’t even passively receive colour from the world but we actively attribute it to things in the world.

Neuro scientist Anil Seth talks about controlled hallucinations as being our consciousness and says it is not just our perceptions of the outside world but also ourselves, our memory, everything we perceive is a construction.  According to Seth instead of perception depending largely on signals coming into the brain from the outside world, it depends as much, if not more, on perceptual predictions flowing in the opposite direction. We don’t just passively perceive the world. We actively generate it. The world we experience comes as much, if not more, from the inside out as from the outside in.

Hair Skull, artists hair, Niamh Cunningham 2013

Cultural perception and our ecological crisis:

This brings us back to our ecological crisis. How can we change our perspective and ways of relating to ‘life’ as a planetary process. Developing a cultural ability to see our actions and the changes we can make, to view this from a systemic perspective would be a good goal. I believe culture and the arts have a vital role in shifting these norms of perception to positive changes in consumer choice which will leading to new industries and economies which are actually sustainable.  

 

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Many thanks to curator Chang Feng, whom I have known many years and for whom I have the highest respect. Also to director Li Zheng 李征 of Langkong Art Museum  and all the hardworking team involved in ‘Linear’ .

Opening of ‘Linear’ at Langkong art Musuem 798  on Sat 10th July 2021

Linear will be exhibited till Jul 30th. There are amazing works showing by these artists ,

阿德里亚·彼得斯Adrian Peters（德国）\阿莲娜Alëna Olasyuk（乌克兰）\比尔·彭伯恩Bill Pangburn (美国) \陈澈Chen Che \高风Gao Feng \张丹Zhang Dan \李家瑞Li Jiarui \李沅Li Yuan \邵维春Shao Weichun \卢琳Lu Lin \王世龙Wang Shilong \王琪Wang Qi \夏国Xia Guo \杨志凌Yang Zhiling \张庭群Zhang Tingqun \张泓Zhang Hong \冉启泉Ran Qiquan \ 李永庚Li Yonggeng \ 吉苏•金Gisoo Kim（德国） \ 丁文尧Ding Wenyao \何红云He Hongyun（德国）\瑞莲Niamh Cunningham（爱尔兰）\刘水洋Liu Shuiyang\奥罗拉·诺雷纳·佛朗哥Aurora Noreña（墨西哥）\青木健二Kenji Aoki（JAPAN/USA）\陈学刚Chen Xuegang.          

 

At the opening on Saturday it was great to see old friends from projects years ago such as

张庭群Zhang Tingqun

I first met  Zhang Tingqun at an exhibition in Ordos, Zhang’s focus on the line is tantamount to his control of the brush.

李家瑞Li Jiarui

Over the years I often bumped into Li JiaRui on different projects in Qingdao , Ordos  and even the Gobi Dessert ! His supersaturated infusions of line and motion create space and time yet to be imagined.

陈学刚Chen Xue Gang

I first met video artist Chen Xue Gang  on the train to Hohot in 2015 for an exhibition . I remember his GIFS and our conversation back then. His current video work is a delightful morphing of human form .

杨志凌Yang Zhiling

I met Yang Zhiling a few years ago on a special visit to his impressive studio. 

陈澈Chen Che

This week I have found a new friend in Chen Che whose interests also strongly interweave fragmentation with nature. He has great English and kindly helped me with translation during speech time.

阿莲娜Alëna Olasyuk

Olasyuk takes penmanship to a different level, my personal favourites are her black works which defeat the limits of the paper surface.

王琪Wang Qi

 

There are many more participating artists I am looking forward to getting to know . 

‘Linear’ will run till July 30th at Langkong Art Museum in 798 , Beijing , it will then tour other cities such as Shenyang, Chengdu and Shanghai. Please click on the links for a more detailed overview of this exhibition. 

To see an overall view of the artworks by these artists please click on the links

 

Link 1 https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/LDdm7QCVhqhEmKZFikABvA

 

Link 2 http://www.ym-china.com/zhanhuizixun/5787.html

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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New Interpretations of Art and Heritage -Suzhou Classical Gardens

Winding Wall  – Sucrose Series Niamh Cunningham 2021 

 

“Silent and Soft – It moistens everything -New Deconstruction of Art and Heritage” 

This current exhibition held at the Couples Garden Retreat  which is one of the nine World Heritage Gardens in Suzhou Classical Gardens .

 

 

 

 

 

The exhibits involve sculpture, painting, calligraphy, photography, video and installation. These works of art use contemporary art language and garden heritage dialogue, in the deep courtyard of classical gardens, “moisten things silently” into the garden, into the world cultural heritage.

 

A special thank you to curator Rong Chen, and all the Suzhou team involved.

Thank you also to artist friend 朱志刚 Zhu ZhiGang  

For a long time, I have been fascinated by the complicated and often disorienting landscapes of Chinese gardens. In these highly regarded gardens, scholars borrow from the Confucian geometric order, the Taoist search for an elixir (which is closer to the natural world than Confucian ceremonial). Gardens can also assist in meditation, as in Buddhism. The picture extends in an uncanny way in time and space, revealing long-ago insights into the natural world.

 

Participating artists: 

DIRD / Cai Dongdong / Chen Rong / Chen Naiqian / Cong Yunfeng / Donal Turner / Dai Jiafeng / Ding She / Fang Minyao / Guo Kewei / Hang Tianyi / Liu Changming / Liang Yajie / Lu Junzhou / Luo Bonian / Ni Fu Ruilian / Qian Ruya / Rushi Humanity Space / Sun Cunming / Tang Huawei / Tong Yan Runan / Wang Dameng / Cao Yonghua / Wang Qingsong / Wang Yabin / Wumen Aesthetic Art Institute / Wu Mengyuan / Yang Lidan / Zhu Xinyi / Naga Art Studio / Zhao Rongjun / Zhu Zhigang

 

 

The UNESCO World Heritage Training and Research Center in the Asia-Pacific Region (WHITRAP) is UNESCO’s Category 2 International Institution (Category 2 Centre), the first professional institution in the field of heritage protection established in a developing country. It serves the signatory countries of the World Heritage Convention in the Asia-Pacific region and other UNESCO member states, and is committed to the protection and development of world heritage sites in the Asia-Pacific region. The UNESCO World Heritage Training and Research Center in the Asia-Pacific Region is composed of three centers in Beijing, Shanghai and Suzhou. Suzhou Center (contracted by the Suzhou Municipal Government) is mainly responsible for traditional building technology and restoration, analysis of protection materials, and restoration and maintenance of historic gardens.

 

润物细无声

艺术与遗产新解构

Silent and soft, it moistens everything

New Interpretation of Art and Heritage

2021.6.12 — 7.11

开幕时间：6.12 下午1:00-2:30

分享时间：6.12 下午2:30-3:30

苏州耦园  

苏州市姑苏区仓街小新桥巷6号

 

主办单位 Organizer：

联合国教科文组织亚太地区世界遗产培训与研究中心（苏州）

The World Heritage Institute of Training and Research for the Asia and the Pacific Region under the auspices of UNESCO(Suzhou)

 

苏州对外文化交流促进会园林文化专业委员会

Suzhou Association for the Promotion of International Cultural

Exchanges, Suzhou Gardens Committee

 

苏州吴门美学艺术研究院

Suzhou Wumen Institute of Art and Research

 

承办单位 Undertaker：

苏州市耦园管理处

Management Office of the Couple’s Garden Retreat

 

支持单位 Support unit：

西湖当代美术馆

Moca Westlake

骆伯年艺术基金会

Bonian Luo Art Foundation

如石人文空间 

Rushi Cultural Space

 

 

To view all the participating artworks in this project  the below links can be autotranslated into English

 

Link 1

 

Link 2

 

Link 3

 

Link 4 

 

Link 5 

 

Link 6 

 

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All Things Bright – June 10th

 On Thursday the exhibition “All things Bright- The Beauty of Biodiversity ” a global sustainable Art Initiative was held in the Shangrila Hotel hosted by Golden Bee.  It ran parallel to the International CSR symposium.

Foggy Dew – Wukou Si  Sucrose Series  mixed media 100x50cm Niamh Cunningham 瑞莲2020 

The Sucrose Series is a mixed media series which focusses on carefully selected nature photographic images which are then subjected to various ‘interventions” . These interventions represent the manmade interventions we have imposed on our planet since the industrial revolution. Following a process of multiple steps of intervention including sewing and printing on cotton, the ink is partially lifted from the surface into the sugar mixture, often Chinese water-colour is added, these pigments move in a state of flux as the sugar mixture crystalizes and so the painting continues its process in the following months and even years. The Sucrose Series involves not just the original artwork but many process images which document the changes  that has occur over many months or even years . Some of these  images from the different stages during the transformative crystalisation process reveal interesting happenings that also reflect the positive and negative feedbacks which happen to our biosphere . It is this complex network of events which are difficult to  isolate and attribute as direct consequence of a single action. This  artwork  has  been  shown  on  my  blog  a collection of tree stories  called  “Memory  Palace of  Trees ” in 2020 . This is a socio eco practice where the public is invited  to share tree stories. This year  tree stories are submitted  in the format of one minute videos.

Willow Ice,   process print Sucrose Series UV print on Aluminium composite, 120×160 cm Niamh Cunningham 2020 

with some of the participating artists including WangHainan 王海南，Jing Yumin 景于民， Gu Liming 顾黎明，myself,瑞莲 Michael St Amand , Zhang Meng 张锰，Mr Zhuang (CEO) 庄先生，Liu Yue 刘悦

 

A sincere thank you to Mr Zhuang of Golden Bee , a global sustainable art initiative , also to Liu Yue and ShiYan  and those further afield 

 

 

 

 

 

 

List of Participating Artists  

景育民 Jingyumin

王小杰 WangXiaojie

刘悦 Liuyue

郑靖 Zheng Jing 

张锰 Zhang Meng

艾娜。莱姆 Anna Laimu

张帆 Zhangfan

米卡。库恩

Niko de la Faye

周是麟 Zhoushilin

郑岱 Zheng Dai 

顾黎明 Gu Liming 

何杉 HeShan 

Niamh Cunningham  瑞莲

CROW 

吕智张 Lv ZhiZhang

王海南 Wang hai nan 

于扬 Yu Yang

韦冬 Wei Dong

Munkh Erdene

Michael St Amand 

李超 Li Chao 

Urlike Arnold 

Victor van Keuren 

 

 

 

 

 

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What is Microbe Art?

 

 

简体中文

Living Roots Awaken in my Hands found dust on Luria -Bertani

I like to explore the relationship between art, science and society. My work is focused on transformation and the surrounding ‘entanglements’ that constitute life and our ecosystems. I view Microbe Art as a  transformation that reflects bigger concerns such as the balance of ecosystems and working within a delicate environment.

The value of art and science is not so much about introducing technologies but to inspire new thinking and new ways of confronting the various challenges for our current world.

I first started working with the IPE (Institute of Process Engineering- Beijing) on a project developing “The Microbe Art” in December 2020. Working with Prof Xing Jianming and IPE has been a hugely positive experience . A special thank you also to Dr Peter Mu who helped me in the laboratory, he introduced the world of making growth media, autoclaving, and aseptic techniques,

 

Microbe Art invites different ways of seeing.

Microbe Art is exciting because it deals with these tiny nanomachines we don’t normally see. However, when grown in colonies under certain conditions we can witness their presence in unexpected ways.

 

 The same petridish under different light 

"Lifelights II " E coli GFP, Kocuria Rosea, White M , on LB under UV1. “Lifelights II ” E coli GFP, Kocuria Rosea, White M , on LB under UV.

2.”Lifelights I ” E coli GFP, Kocuria Rosea, White M , on LB on lightbox.

3. “Lifelights III ” E coli GFP, Kocuria Rosea, White M , on LB on dark background.

 

What are the things we feel when we look at Microbe Art?

Working in the same office as Dr Mu is Dr Yang ,  Below is Dr Yang’s plate of microbes gathered from his home , this provided Dr Mu and I with new  microbes later sequenced and identified as Kocuria Rosea , Glutamicbacter Nictoniane , and others for further work . 

“Life is a box of chocolates- you never know what you’re going to get”

Microorganisms are ubiquitous and are found from within our own bodies to the deepest oceans and frozen lakes.  They drive processes such nutrient cycling in ground and water ecosystems. Microbial activity in humans includes producing food, digesting food, reducing inflammation etc. And of course there was that popular myth, the idea that there are much more bacteria than human cells in the body but scientists have concluded it is much closer  1:1 ratio , in fact “ the numbers are similar enough  that each defecation event may flip the ratio to favour human cells over bacteria “Nature 08, Jan 2016  ( Don’t you just love the way scientists talk!)

 

The Process 


         

1.Making Luria Bertani growth media                  

2.  Autoclaving  growth media                            

3. The plates are poured and allowed to cool and solidify under UV light to help maintain a sterile environment, The

lid sitting slightly above the cooling gel reduces chances of contamination however sometimes condensation gets caught on the lid sitting above the plate, this can sometimes contaminate the gel.

 

4. Glove contamination is easier to happen than you might think

5. After using wire loops to inoculate the plates I discovered I often broke the surface of the media. I later tried sterile plastic loops which were far easier tools to manage. Of course I broke even more rules using sterile brushes, and   even using print blocks .

6. Electrophoresis shows clear and distinct bands showing PCR was successful. Microbe Art6. Electrophoreis shows clear and distinct bands showing PCR was successful.

When we identified colonies with good performance growth and colour Dr Mu  isolated the colonies a few times to make sure they were pure without other strains . This was the first time I had seen a PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction) machine being used. After electrophoresis confirmed the PCR worked Dr Mu sent off samples for sequencing. When the sequence code results arrived,  he matched the codes using a website where we could upload the segment of sequence to match and identify the exact strain of colonies with which we were working.

 

Microbe Art Workshops at Middle School 101

Microbe Art and transdisciplinary education

Microbe Art Workshop at Middle School 101

The Microbe Art Project brought scientists from the IPE including Prof Xing Jianmin, Dr Peter Mu and Dr Yang together with Teacher Ma (a well renowned science teacher here in Beijing) to present workshops on exploring  different growth processes and developing aseptic techniques in order to create artworks  at Middle School 101. This bringing together scientists, students, and artist transcends the boundaries of individual disciplines, discovering flexible forms of learning and collaboration.

IPE scientists Dr Peter Mu, Dr Nadia Samak, Teacher Ma, myself, Prof Xing Jianmin and Dr Yang  on our first visit to Middle School 101 in the school horticultural centre December 2020

 

Microbe Art in environmental research

Microbe art will extend beyond the petri dish. Scientists at IPE and those from other institutes will be working together developing plastic degradation in art. We are aiming to develop this over the next few years. Currently there is an ongoing academic research project spanning many countries and universities on plastic degradation. We are aiming to collaborate in such projects. I believe Microbe Art will be useful in developing popular science, cross discipline education  and extracurricular activities for middle schools . This is also important as we address the ecological emergency as we develop microbial art in plastic degradation and many other areas as we prepare for an ecologically safe living space for humanity and all living things.

 

 

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This was my “Year of the OX post” made on my blog earlier this year

 

The year of the Vaccinae, CW  on Luria Bertani agar on lightbox, Niamh Cunningham 瑞莲 2021

Vaccinus is a latin adjective meaning ‘from cows’ (the word vacca meaning cow). At the end of the 18th century English physician Edward Jenner injected cowpox material to increase immunity protecting against the more serious small pox. The injection itself was called vaccination.

 

 

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Memory Palace of Trees -the videos……. a call for your tree story

 

Welcome to the Memory Palace of Trees, a place where you can share your tree story.

It has been a tough year and many of us have remeasured our relationship with nature, both as individuals and as a global society .

Throughout the pandemic I have collected tree stories from people all over the world, including poets , painters , a  forester, a  dendrologist , artists, a children’s writer  and all kinds of other people .

 You can see  last years collection of stories in Memory Palace of Trees 2020 here .

This year the tree stories are in the form of a one minute video.

 

If you have a tree story to share I would love to add it to the Memory Palace of Trees 2021.  I can add Chinese/English  subtitles to your video.

If your tree story is later selected for future exhibitions or installations I will contact you to let you know.

Take some time to think about what you want to say , find a good tree to sit under and share your story.  Just to let you know under 60 seconds is a very short time!

I can be contacted directly on this platform or on the last page the enquiry page on my website.

 

Really looking forward to hearing from you .  Please ask if you have any questions about this. 

 

Memory Palace of Trees is a socio -ecological art practice which invites your participating to tell a story (or give some kind of information) about Trees. It is a social enquiry of how to live better with the planet and with people and other living beings. You are cordially invited to tell me your story of a tree or trees.  I would love to hear from you .

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Memory Palace of Trees – an overview

 

Web of fabulous grass, sucrose series, Niamh Cunningham 2018 

Memory Palace of Trees:

In October 2019  after reading the Pulitzer prize winning book ‘The OverStory’ by Richard Powers I started my plans for the socio-eco art practice ‘The Memory Palace of Trees’. It began in January 2020 at a time when the pandemic was just about to reveal itself as the most urgent global emergency of our lifetime. The pandemic is very much part of our ecological crisis and how we ‘utilize’ the natural world.  Throughout a most turbulent year, people worldwide have reappraised their relationship and dependance on the natural world. Many have turned to nature to claim a space of sanctity and sanity and some people have shared their stories with us in the Memory Palace of Trees.  

Gingko Palace  Sucrose Series 83 x 120 cm print on Aluminium  Niamh Cunningham 2020 (week 15)

Most of these are personal stories.  Submissions came from a range of different people in the US, Europe, Australia and Asia including a children’s writer, poets, dendrologists, artists, a dancer, a forester, an ant forest app user, photographers, academics and more

Ginkgo Palace UV print on Aluminium 80 x 120 cm  Niamh Cunningham  2020 

…..many of these stories inspired the makings of new artworks .

 

Here is a one minute video clip of the artwork for the November tree story . 

Ladybird of DongXiaokou (6 min 40 secs) video Niamh Cunningham 2020   Dancer: Zhang Yi , Music Credit: Ciorras 

 

I want to say a huge THANK YOU to ALL contributors and I will be in contact soon to thank each of you properly. Your stories will act as important stations (or installations) in the Memory Palace of Trees and will be a part of larger future artworks

 

 

 

The Second Beech  Niamh Cunningham 倪芙瑞莲2020 (week 17 of the Memory Palace of Trees)

Ice Willow , Sucrose 8.7.2020 Print on Aluminium , Niamh Cunningham -Kosimas Willow Story 

 

 

 

Chestnut – Park Tree Sucrose Series original Sucrose 50 x 50 cm  Niamh Cunningham 2020 (week 12)

 

 

 

What is a memory palace?

This is a map of a physical space with ‘stations’ containing information you want to remember, these stations are arranged in a linear journey . Here is a link to a  blog from last year  : Journey Image and Space the Memory palace workshops.

 

Open Call for your tree story on video 

Memory Palace of Trees will continue in 2021. This year the submissions will be in video format. If you have a story you can tell in less than a minute (less than 60 seconds), please  find your favorite tree sit under it and video yourself  on your phone telling the story. I can help with the editing and add the English or Chinese subtitles.  Please ensure the sound quality of your recording is clear.  If you are in Beijing I can come and video you if you wish. Please ask if you have any questions about this. 

Looking forward to hearing from you.  Please email me at niamh@niamhcunningham.com

 

 

Jinan Tree Song  Sucrose Series, print on aluminium 158 x 120cm  Niamh Cunningham 2020
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Art for a sustainable future – exhibition

TreeSong Jinan Sucrose Series (3.7.) Niamh Cunningham 瑞莲2020

I believe the ecological crisis is a crisis of culture and art  (in all its forms) has an essential role in confronting the environmental emergency. It can be cross disciplinary, it can span the divides of science, agriculture, food culture, education , ethical consumerism, economics, film, music and so much more.

This week I was very happy to be part of the  exhibition “Art promotes a Sustainable Future” which coincided with the 13th China Corporate Social Responsibility Report International Symposium at the Taifu Hotel Beijing  2-3 rd December 2020.

Foggy Dew – Wu Hou Ci (8.6.)Sucrose Series Niamh Cunningham 瑞莲2020

The Sucrose Series began five years ago and explores transformation through crystalisation and drying of water content in the mixed media.  This transformation occurs on two levels. In the early stages ink is lifted from the surface with hot mixed media , particles of ink are  moving and shifting as the process of drying occurs and crystallization takes place. This layer could be the metaphor for our unique current era of the ecological emergency, being the first generation to witness climate change and the last generation to be capable of taking meaningful action.  The outer layer is a crust of opaque crenulation of crystal obliterating the original image.

Purls in the Undercut sucrose （4.6.） Niamh Cunningham 瑞莲 2020

 

 

 

 

 

Participating Artists include:

Jing Yumin 景育民

WangXiaokie 王小杰

Zhang Meng 张锰

Zheng Jing 郑靖

Liu Yue 刘悦

Niko de la Faye 尼可。德拉法耶

Eine Lem 艾娜。莱姆

CROW

ZhangFan张帆

HeShan何杉

Lv Zhiqiang  吕智强

Mica Kuehn 米卡。库恩

Niamh Cunningham 倪芙瑞莲

 

 

 

With CEO Zhuang at the CSR Symposium 

 

 

A big thank you to Mr Zhuang Creative CEO of Goldenbee  organiser for the symposium and  exhibition and also to Shiyan Wang of GoldenBee and artist Liu Yue  .

13th China Corporate Social Responsibility Report International Symposium
Art for a Sustainable Future

 

 

 

 

 

 

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The Pattern that Connects

What an unusual opportunity to be able to show work at this time. ‘The Pattern that Connects ‘ is a duo exhibition with woodcut artist Ma Liangfen from Cangzhou academy of Painting , Hebei. The exhibition opened (26/9/2020) at Dong Yue Art Musuem in Chaoyangmenwai . 

 

 

Thank you to Therese Healy , acting head of Mission at the Embassy of Ireland who spoke at the opening . Also to Wang YueZhou from Cangzhou Federation of Literary and Art Circles. Media figure Ms Chen Bing gracefully presented as Master of Ceremony . Thank you also to academic curator  Zeng Luhong  for his exhibition essay and media coverage and special gratitude to fellow artist Ma Liangfen whom I really enjoyed getting to know and learn from over the past two weeks. A big thank you to Yuan QiuLai director of Dong Yue Art Musuem with whom we had numerous cross cultural exhibitions over the past six years. The exhibition focusses on Nature , explores the human relationship with Nature and also examines  aspects of the ecological emergency . 

In January 2020 I began collecting written submissions on any aspect of trees for my blog “The Memory Palace of Trees” gathering stories from poets, childrens writers, dendrologists and other people across the globe. This socio-eco practice highlights the interdependence between trees and people and explores the place it might take us. 

Here are some artworks from earlier stories in the year. 

Forrester Anna Finke’s interesting passion for climbing trees

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Environmental educator Carrissa Welton’s story “Roots of Recovery” linked to the Ginkgo Sucrose work

Barrow Trance 

The story for ‘Trees can Communicate’ was linked to artwork on Barrow river reflections.


Joshua’s tree the Hawthorne with the painting Piyos view

WU Yiqiangs 吴以强 story of artists replanting the Swan Goose Forest

Mayfield 4am 凌晨4点 80 x 60cm Niamh Cunningham 倪芙瑞莲2014

‘The tree in your Backyard Yard’ story is matched with Mayfield 4am.

When taking some visitors yesterday on a tour of the exhibition we were talking about shared DNA , how we share 25% of our DNA with trees, Shared DNA of all lifeforms on earth are also part of the pattern that connects. 

北京公共汽车站Beijing-Bus-Stop-132x-90-cm-oil-on-canvas Niamh-Cunningham倪芙瑞莲 2014

 

The funny poem by Pat Ingoldsby thinking about a wooden telegraph pole next to a bus stop match with painting Beijing Bus Stop

 

New developments on the sucrose series have extended to selected  UV prints on aluminium  . I have also shown some original sucroses which are not immediately  easy  to identify with the earlier process stages.  This work visualizes the transformations that occur during crystalisation as a metaphor for the ever present ecological metamorphosis. 

Sucroses in the original form

Tree Song Jinan, sucrose series, UV print on Aluminium 200x 100cm Niamh Cunningham 2020

 

There are also some figures from my  2019  Portrait series most of these have never been exhibited before. 

 

There are also some figures from my  2019  Portrait series. 

Here is a link to view more details on the portrait project . 

Ma Liangfen 马良分

 

Ma Liangfen’s expansive collection of woodcut boards cover journeys of the natural world across China. There are a number of prints on paper including some reverse colour prints where only one board was used . I asked her about her affinity to cats and she told me had no cat at home but loved observing the independence of the wild cats exploring at leisure. Other works explore unexpected thoughts and fantasies creating new worlds within the realm of reality . 

 

 

 

Here are more in depth links to her work 

Ma Liangfen link 1 

Ma Liangfen link 2 

 

Exhibition Media Doc link 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Resilience Thinking – building a safe living space for humanity

 

TreeSong Jinan,  sucrose Series,  (3.7.3.b) Niamh Cunningham 瑞连 2020

Resilience is the capacity to be able to deal with change, to live with change, to make use of change , not just incremental change but also sudden shocks and crises and develop the ability to turn those crises into opportunities.

When we acknowledge we are in the driving seat of change and defining the conditions for world development, this profoundly shifts our potential in terms of our social well being , development and economic growth. And so we are able to look at the Anthropocene directly in the eye and deal with it in a more manageable way.

Having completed the Planetary Boundaries on line course presented by the SDG academy (all of the lecturers are from the Resilience Centre in Stockholm.) I wanted to mull over some of the things I have been thinking about.

The nine boundaries begin with the three main large scale processes : climate change, stratospheric ozone depletion and ocean acidification. Slow variables are biodiversity loss, interference with nitrogen and phosphorous cycles, changes in land use and fresh water use. The last two are heavily human induced chemical pollution and aerosol loading.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I discovered more about positive and negative feedbacks , regime changes , tipping points and to a more limited extent the interactions between boundaries.The main presenter Johan Rockström raises the chilling concept of the Quadruple Squeeze . These include Affluence and Population, the second is Climate Change crisis , the third is the Loss of our Ecosystems ability to buffer the changes (such as carbon buffers in seas) and the fourth is Surprise leading to tipping points where there is an ‘abrupt knock out’ after a period of resilience.

 

There is no doubt that we are facing the largest and fastest transformation in the history of humanity . We are the first generation to witness the changes directly and the last generation to have the capacity to exert meaningful change to these biospherical processes. 

 

Even though delivery of the talks are brief and persuasive it makes it easier to absorb the weight of the content.  One of the lecturers Gary Peterson whom I view as an eco philosopher spoke on resilience thinking. He explained the use of optimisation can only be used when the variables are known and when things are under control.

Resilience Thinking , Niamh Cunningham 2020

 

In order to act collectively there needs to be shared ability and shared trust. We need social, technical and institutional ways to enable new understandings which cope with uncertainty and the evolution of new things. Ways in supporting the Biosphere underpins our wealth and our wellbeing

However simply increasing resilience is not the issue, we also need to consider where resilience is harmful. Understanding circumstances when  increasing resilience in one thing can decrease resilience in something else. We need to understand what creates , destroys and trades off these things and also not focus simply on increasing resilience but what kind of resilience do we want to increase. For example the fossil fuel economy is amazingly resilient, we need to reflect how can we undermine the resilience of these things? 

 

 

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The course can be taken free of charge on EdX  platform

https://www.edx.org/