New Countryside Laboratory - Call for the Mural Painting Project Residency:
New Countryside Laboratory: Call for the Mural Painting Project Residency
¡°New Countryside Laboratory¡± project supervisor: Jay Brown
The ¡°Mural Painting Project¡± manager: Li Lisha
Lashihai is a village of minorities at a distance of 20 kilometers from Lijiang Old Town. The precise geographic location of Lijiang Studio is to the south of the Lashihai Lake. The Naxi people as the main habitants there are a minority of great history. Their culture, music and architecture all contain outstanding features. Lijiang, the city of tourism, has an abundant heritage of natural beauty and at the same time accelerates its exploitations in the peripheral villages, bringing new opportunities and challenges, diminishing the traditional farming life.
Lijiang Studio engages with the surrounding farmland and local residents as a laboratory. We are interested in local cycles of energy and material, land-use, reciprocity, development, and the future of the new countryside. We are process-oriented, and see the residency as a place for research.
We are intended to invite artists to join the ¡°Mural Painting Project¡± of Lijiang Studio as to get involved in the developing new countryside from a daily point of view, which will contribute to the process of our various experiments as a visible component. We require that the participants should keep communicating with the habitants during the whole procedure from choosing the painting¡¯s location to its accomplishment and respect the demands as well as the aesthetic features of the habitants so that the works can finally be appreciated by the habitants.
We suggest that the artists apply various methods to their creations and maintain the originality of their works while corresponding with the habitants¡¯ requests. Lijiang Studio will assume the role of organizer & coordinator during the whole process and the responsibility to facilitate the progress and the realization of the project.
We aim to by the means understand and discuss the vigor of public art creation in the countryside. We will supply you with:- Painting materials and tools (traditional Chinese paints, spray-paintings, acrylic, oil, materials and tools for repairing the wall; special requests upon further discussion)
- Room and board (artists will live directly with the family where his mural painting locates; family members can be brought with the artist and the fees of their room and board are to be paid by themselves)
- Local assistance for communications, investigations and the creation process (including preparation work like repairing the wall or enlarging the sketch)
Residency period:2 weeks to 1 month (concrete decision upon the need of the mural painting; the deadline for the realization of project is November 30th and that for the application is October 31st; once the sketches accepted, artist can start the residency.
Location of creation: Lashi hainan, Lijiang, Yunnan Provience, China
Application requirement: no amount limit for the mural painting creations and it is alright to cooperate with several families at the same time; please make the sketch before (colored, the more precise the better) depending on each family¡¯s wall condition and requests; we will transfer your sketch to the family and your sketch will be chosen if the family is basically satisfied. You can then begin your residency during which you will further perfect and modify your sketch; Lijiang Studio will do its best to assist your practice on the spot.
Note: please be prepared for changes over the sketch to be made directly on the wall Please send us by email your sketch and the conception as soon as possible (the total size of documents within 10M).
(Please contact us for questions and other requests)
See www.lijiangstudio.org for what Lijiang Studio has done in the past. Lijiang Studio is not a commercial space. We will reproduce your work in our documentation, but you will retain ownership of the work you make here. Since 2004, Lijiang Studio has hosted more than fifty resident artists and produced more than 20 events. Lijiang Studio maintains relationships with other residencies and art spaces around the world.
Jixiang First Commune, Hainan Village Lashihai
Jade Dragon County, Lijiang, Yunnan, China 674107
info@lijiangstudio.org
l_sirlisa@gmail.com
Tel. +86 0888-5441535 / 15912234613
Here as followed are the ten families that participate in the Mural Painting Project:(The part within yellow dashed is the permitted painting area, not meant for the set size for the mural painting. If the size is not indicated precisely, then it is just a general representation)
¢Ù The family of He Guizhen
It is a family of four people. The daughter is in kindergarten, the son is in elementary school and the two of He Guizhen couple are both farmers in Jixiang Village at Lashihai.
[b]Location of the family:/b]the first house of the First Commune of Jixiang Village, at the side of the main road of the village.
Picture 1Picture 1 is a half-open kitchen, where the hearth is on the right, the closet on the left and the eating place in the middle. The wall in the middle can be used for painting, facing the yard. ¡£
Demands of the family: to draw the tableware and sumptuous food of high quality like seafood, but especially no cheap things like radishes or cabbages; and according to the idea of the artist.
Advice from Lijiang Studio: more experimental attempts based on the family¡¯s demands.
Picture 2
Picture 3Picture 2 and 3 are the outside walls of the He Guizhen family, where the Picture2 is by the door. Advertisement signs were painted on them before. The walls are at the side of the main road, very distinct. Inside the walls is the sty.
Demands of the family: artist can paint mountains, water, guest-greeting pine tree, plum tree, orchid, bamboo chrysanthemum and animals (like tiger), etc. No human. If real objects and scenes are to be painted, they should mainly be realistic. Decoration style is acceptable. They impose no limit concerning the content and will refer to the artist.
Advice from Lijiang Studio: cover the advertisements with new mural paintings in a content and form that will please the farmers.
A general view of the He Guizhen family£º
The door they plan to repair in the future
Inner yard
¢Ú He Chengguang family
It¡¯s a family with 2 yards and 8 people. A small area for the processing of hollow brick is built within one yard and they sell silver sands there at the same time. It is a family of farmers in Jixiang Village at Lashihai.
[b]Location of the family: /b]in the First Commune of Jixiang Village, at the side of a small road next to the main road of the village; even though the place is not very remarkable, many people pass here for reason of doing business.
Picture 1Picture 1 shows the advertisement done by the family itself. It is drawn on the wall of a grocery at the road side.
Demands of the family: to redesign the small advertisement as soon as possible; the size is set by the red handwritten words in the picture. They will also refer to the artist¡¯s idea.
Advice from Lijiang Studio: because the grocery family doesn¡¯t want to participate in the Mural Painting Project, the artist is required to design a new advertisement for the farmer family within the limited size as shown in the picture.
Picture 2As shown in this picture is the most distinct wall of the He Chengguang family. It is the first wall to be seen when passing over the advertisement in picture 1.
Demands of the family: no precise requests, with reference to the artist¡¯s idea.
Advice from Lijiang Studio: it is hoped that the content of this wall can relate to the advertisement mentioned above.
A general view of the He Chengguang family£º
Yard
The hollow brick processing area
A great mount of hollow bricks which are cheap and convenient construction materials
Silver sands just arrived
¢Û He Simei family
It is a family of 3 people. The mother of the family died early, leaving He Simei as the elder daughter who has dropped out of school since very young and worked at home doing the farm work with her father; the little sister is in elementary school. Their living is poor and all they have is the mud house except for the sty. They started to repair slightly the house this summer.
Location of the family: in the First Commune of Jixiang Village, at the side of the main road.
Picture 1
Picture 2As shown in Picture 1 and 2 is their most decent wall, facing the main road of the village.
Demands of the family: beautiful colorful landscapes of Lashihai, with reference to the artist.
Advice from Lijiang Studio: to utilize mainly the walls facing the main road, the walls on both sides can also be used upon the need of creation; more experimental attempts based on the family¡¯s demands.
A general view of the He Simei family:
The toilet and the sty
The only decent house of the family
¢Ü He Zhanwei family
It is a family of 3 people. The son is 17 years old, unemployed. He Zhanwei is a farmer in the Jixiang Village at Lashihai who has disease in the legs but is good at carpentry. His wife is an ordinary farmer¡¯s wife.
Location of the family: in the First Commune of Jixiang Village, at the side of the main road of the village, near the basketball playground and the grocery.
Picture 1
Picture 2Picture 1 and 2 show the outside walls in the strip form at both sides of the door, facing the main road of the village
Demands of the family: no human and mainly landscapes to be painted; for example the Jade Dragon Mountain. They will refer to the artist¡¯s opinion.
Advice from Lijiang Studio: artist is expected to take advantage of the outside walls¡¯ feature of trip form. Experimental attempts are encouraged on condition to respect the demands from the family.
A general view of the He Zhanwei family:
The main road of the village and the old advertisement on the wall at the other side
¢İ Mu Zhanyun family
It is a family of 6 people who are farmers of the First Commune in Jixiang Village.
Location of the family: by the basketball playground at the side of the main road of the village. Close to it there is a deserted elementary school which functions as the activity center for the old in the village. Because of the open space, this is the preferred spot when there is some larger activity in the village.
All the mud walls indicated in the picture can be used for painting. The wall on the right is at a remarkable point of intersection, facing the basketball playground.
Demands of the family: to paint on the wall on the right the Jade Dragon Mountain and the lake at its foot. Title or signature can be included. The owner considers the wall¡¯s location quite remarkable and wants very much to show others the beautiful landscapes of the Jade Dragon Mountain. The long wall at the left in the picture can also be painted. The traditional Naxi dances or spectacles can be included in the painting. They will refer to the artist¡¯s opinion.
Advice from Lijiang Studio: more experimental attempts based on the demands of the family.
A general view of the Mu Zhanyun family:
In the picture are the stable for painting and the sty on the right.
Living place in the yard
¢Ş Mu Zhansheng family
It is a family of 4 people. Mu Zhansheng is a carpenter of the village. The two daughters are working in Lijiang City.
Location of the family: in the Second Commune of Jixiang Village, at the side of the main road of the village.
In the picture is the hollow brick wall of the family. Someone has once covered it secretly with advertisement which made the family very angry. They ask us to recover the old advertisement on the wall with mural painting.
Demands of the family: to draw a fairy landscape of green mountains and clear water; to include animals of the mountain like tiger, deer or wild goose, etc. The artist is to paint two or three undulating mountains, the waterfall and the brook. No sun is to be drawn which symbolizes the Japanese flag. No farmland neither. They will refer to the artist¡¯s opinion.
Advice from Lijiang Studio: more experimental attempts based on the demands of the family.
A general view of the Mu Zhansheng family:
Outside door
Inner yard
¢ß He Weilin family
It is a family of 8 people. He Weilin¡¯s father is a teacher; his grandparents, his mother and his wife are all farmers. Two daughters are still in the kindergarten.
Location of the family: in the Fourth Commune of the Jixiang Village, at the side of the main road of the village.
In the picture, on the right is the house for living, on the left is the kitchen and there will be built a toilet on the left of it.
Demands of the family: a black and white landscape picture is to be drawn respectively on both of the two newly repaired white walls. They will refer to the artist¡¯s opinion.
Advice from Lijiang Studio: to include new attempts in the traditional landscape painting.
A general view of the He Weilin family:
This picture shows the inside of the house at the right of the former picture
This picture shows the inside of the kitchen
¢à He Jiquan Family
It is a family of 3 people. Their life is comparatively hard. He Jiquan and his wife are farmers and their daughter is in elementary school.
Location of the family: in the Lijian Village close to the Jixiang Village, at the side of the main road of the village that leads to the Lijiang City.
As is shown in the picture, this is the outside wall of the sty of the He Jiquan family, built with hollow bricks. The wall faces another wall that looks like for advertising. He Jiquan is willing to share his wall surface so that he doesn¡¯t scold people from the advertising firm. He considers that whoever in need can use it.
Demands of the family: no special request. They are willing to offer the wall for the mural painting. They will refer to the artist¡¯s opinion.
Advice from Lijiang Studio: more experimental attempts, in the hope of making use of this wall to explore the limit of mural painting experiment in the countryside.
A general view of the He Jiquan family:
The sty
The tractor and the ox shed
¢á Zhao Qirui family
It is a family of 4 people. Zhao Qirui and his wife are farmers and skilled in planting fruit trees too. They have a son and a daughter.
Location of the family: Jiyu Village
Picture 1
Picture 2
Picture 3In picture 1, 2 and 3 is the outside gate of the family.
Demands of the family: the white parts on the brick walls at both sides can be painted with mountain, river, flower and bird in black and white (no big bird like the phoenix but small birds seen in the daily life). The base of the walls on both sides is made of unpolished marble. Artist is invited to make simple and widely-accepted pictures and to create with the combination of the Dongba characters. Only a male and a female seated lions are to be painted separately at A and B spots. For the surrounding areas, design with decoration lines. All the pictures at the wall base should be designed in paper-cut form without colors since the owner will have the part of marble left from the pictures to be polished. They will refer to the artist¡¯s opinion.
Advice from Lijiang Studio: more experimental attempts based on the demands of the family.
Picture 4The form of three houses with a wall is the most basic and common in the Naxi native residence in Lijiang. This picture shows the wall. More blank area should be left with few decorations.
Demands of the family: to paint fake bricks in the gray area on the wall with the three white long octagonal parts left in blank in the middle. The visual effect is to be referred to the two sides of the outside door. Then the blank parts can be painted with mountain, river, flowers and birds in black and white (no big bird like the phoenix but small birds seen in the daily life). They will refer to artist¡¯s opinion.
Advice from Lijiang Studio: more experimental attempts based on the demands of the family
Picture 5
Picture 6Picture 5 and 6 show the exposed inner walls on both sides of the ground floor of the main house, in half-open form.
Demands of the family: to paint both walls with mountain, river, flowers and birds in black and white. They will reference to the artist¡¯s opinion.
Advice from Lijiang Studio: more experimental attempts based on the demands of the family.
A general view of the Zhao Qirui family:
The wall in picture 4 can be seen at the entrance
Main house
¢â Mu Zhansong family
It is a family of 4 people. Mu Zhansong and his wife are both drivers. They have two sons; the younger is in the elementary school and the elder in the primary middle school.
Location of the family: in the First Commune of Jixiang Village.
Picture 1
Picture 2In picture 1 and 2 are the half-open outside walls on both sides of the newly repaired old house.
Demands of the family: to paint mountains and water in black and white; the pictures on both sides should relate to each other in harmony. They will refer to the artist¡¯s opinion.
Advice from Lijiang Studio: more experimental attempts based on the demands of the family.
Picture 3
Picture 4: a whole family picture taken at the spot. (From left to right: younger son, mother, father, elder son)
In Picture 3 the wall is in the half-open form, by the door of the kitchen. The kitchen is on the right.
Demands of the family: a painting of the whole family. In the painting, the elder son is to be painted reading books (because he never likes to), the younger son to be shooting birds with a bow (because he likes to raise birds), the wife to be doing farm work in the land (because the husband likes her to be hard-working) and the husband to be driving. (Attention: the family members should have decent appearance, for example the wife¡¯s hair should not be the same as in Picture 4 but be tied up neatly). They will refer to the artist¡¯s opinion.
Advice from Lijiang Studio: more experimental attempts based on the demands of the family.
A general view of the Mu Zhansong family:
A small garden in the yard£¬the left house is newly overhauled, on which the walls in Picture 1 & 2 are.
A fixed wall
Annex 1:
An introduction to several wall surfaces of the Naxi architecture in Hainan, Lashihai, Lijiang (only as background information for the project).
Mud wall: Built by the hand with mud base, it is the traditional wall body for Naxi people. Naxi architecture bases mainly on wood and mud; people build first the wooden structure for the house and lay up the self-made mud bricks for the wall body.
Mud wall covered by mud:This kind of wall is smoother and the surface can be painted with oil paints, yet the adhesion is just normal and it could come off later.
Mud wall covered with limeThe soil-red part in the picture is a common decoration of Naxi buildings.
Mud wall covered by concrete: The picture shows a local sculptor painting and carving on the newly-built concrete wall.
Hollow brick concrete wall: Cheap and convenient construction material, it¡¯s often used for the livestock shed because it can not keep warm or ventilate as the mud wall. In the region, many large signs of advertisement are made while the farmers are out working in the fields, by directly painting on the walls with oil paints, which is very easy. Farmers are very annoyed but could do nothing.
[b]Wooden wall:[b]
The picture shows a house with wooden beams, which is very rare now because of the lack of material. It is built by interlocking the wooden sticks which produces a wall in the form of waves. It is only used for the livestock shed.
Annex 2:
A review of the mural paintings in the village
The common decoration style of the outside door and the painting on the outside with its colors already off
Annex 3:
The traditional style of door engraving of Naxi family
Every family owns the door of six pieces combined
Annex 4:
Background stuffs of Lashihai (only for reference)
Laishihai is a high altitude lake
Oil-seed flowers in the spring
Plowing the fields
Pulling the pine needles every winter (the fallen leaves of pine trees are collected as the fertilizer and fuel for the next year)
Naxi dances and spectacles which are normally held around the campfire are carried out by sing and dancing. The Naxi costumes on the left are for young people and on the right for old people. A man is playing the flute in the middle to lead the rhythm.
Naxi women wear the ¡°seven-star sheepskin¡±, where the seven round decoration figures on the suit represent the seven stars as the symbol of Naxi tradition.
