Realising sense of place a world away at the Huaniao Island Public Art Festival

Realising sense of place a world away at the Huaniao Island Public Art Festival

In spite of the COVID-19 pandemic, resulting border restrictions and the typhoon season, students from the School of Art proved their resilience, tenacity and talent and contributed to an art festival a world away on a tiny island off the coast of China.

In particular, Chinese international students and Australian students with a Chinese background had the unique opportunity to showcase their art skills within the context of their own culture.

Highlights

  • Students were asked to produce artwork on the themes of field and encounter. As a public art exhibition, it was intended that the art also reflect the time and space that it was being created in.
  • Students were able to practise important art soft skills such as intercultural communication, negotiation, collaboration and trust.
  • Seeing students create works of art that extended their own identity and lived experience was a highlight for the educators.

In early 2021, Senior Lecturer Dr Marnie Badham and Associate Professor Dominic Redfern from the School of Art were approached by RMIT PhD student Ye (Sherry) Lui about having Master of Fine Art, Photography and Art in Public Space students participate in the inaugural Huaniao Island Public Art Festival. The opportunity for students to visit the small remote island of Huaniao (a small fishing village a five-hour ferry ride away from the nearest city, Shanghai) to produce custom art pieces for a first of its kind event was too good to pass up. However, the COVID-19 pandemic presented an interesting challenge for both students and educators.

As a public art festival, 10 students were invited to create works of art that reflected and spoke to the place where it was being exhibited and highlighted connection to the site. The project provided a unique opportunity for international students in China who were unable to come to Australia for their studies (due to COVID-19 travel restrictions) to participate in an art residency on the island. However, for students studying in Australia, the 7,000km distance created barriers to understanding the sense of the place they were creating art for. It also meant they couldn’t install their own artwork.

Having to juggle the needs of students in different contexts with different needs to complete their assessment, with the added language barriers, made for an interesting experience for the educators. For Marnie, whose work focuses heavily on socially engaged art and community (art that is responsive to people, community or space), making sure connections to the site and context was achieved through the students’ artworks despite these limitations was a high priority.

“This really challenged students’ willingness to push through complexity and to work within creative limits and restrictions,” Marnie said.

“Students were encouraged to practise soft skills like intercultural communication that we don't often privilege in other classroom context settings. These are important capabilities that they need to succeed in the industry.”

“The art business is half business,” said Dom, “and this festival gave them an opportunity to practise all those skills they will need to succeed.“

09 December 2021

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Person tying lantern knots whilst shiba dog watches on Ruijia Fan working on her art piece Tying Knots.

The final artworks included Tying Knots by Ruijia Fan, an installation involving traditional fishermen's knots (traditionally used to convey information) that document the story of the island’s traditional peoples and Lost Wind of the Flower Birds which was created by Bixiao Zhang using Google images of the island and artificial intelligence to project images onto abandoned houses.

Bixiao said that while overcoming the physical distance and difficulty of a virtual art residency was challenging, the experience and opportunity to meet the Island’s people and see their culture and unheard stories was rewarding. It also gave her insight into the direction she wants to take with her art.

“Participating in the festival has inspired the direction of my research and art practice in unexpected ways as it sparked my exploration of AI art.”

Artist working on art pieces outside Yan Wang’s art piece Daily Catch ready to be hung.

Marnie and Dom were also thrilled to see the immediate impact of this experience for their students.

“It felt like you're really seeing the impact of education. [International students] come here to extend their education, and there they are, applying them in their home culture in really meaningful ways that wouldn't be possible for ‘parachute artists’ dropping into places and contexts they are not familiar with,” said Dom.

Marnie shared similar sentiments. “I learned that there's more to teaching than classroom lectures that can be provided through opportunities to collaborate with meaningful industry experiences.”

 

Audience watching projected film RMIT academics Dominic Redfern and Dr Marnie Badham attending the festival’s launch seminar remotely from Melbourne.
 

You can find out more about the festival and read about each of the art works on the Huaniao Island Art Festival website.

Are you Interested in incorporating a global work integrated learning experience or an international guest lecturer into your course? Read about what you can offer your students in global experience.

Story by: Kelsie Kruse

Two people on scaffolding outside building Haoran Yuan’s work I See The Clouds of September being hung.
Person putting final touches on artwork hanging on wall The final touches on Warrior Tattoo by Qiu Ruiqi.
People inside unwrapping a hall of mirrors Unwrapping the hall of mirrors for Rani Amvrazis’s work, The Tension Between.
09 December 2021

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Acknowledgement of Country

RMIT University acknowledges the people of the Woi wurrung and Boon wurrung language groups of the eastern Kulin Nation on whose unceded lands we conduct the business of the University. RMIT University respectfully acknowledges their Ancestors and Elders, past and present. RMIT also acknowledges the Traditional Custodians and their Ancestors of the lands and waters across Australia where we conduct our business - Artwork 'Luwaytini' by Mark Cleaver, Palawa.