Pu Yingwei's residency at MAMOTH, London, 2021.
Pu Yingwei is the inaugural artist in residence invited to participate in MAMOTH's international artist residency programme from 10 August-2 October 2021. Living and working in London for the duration of his residency, Pu Yingwei will develop a new body of work, which will be presented at MAMOTH in October 2021. Below is a diary Pu Yingwei kept during the first part of his residency.
DAILY ALTERING: FROM XI-BAI-PO TO LONDON
> DAY 1
"The week before I flew to London, I returned to Shanxi to visit my parents. For two days and one night, we drove to Xi-Bai-Po. The trip was a result of my increasing interest in the narrative chosen by the mainstream media and how it portrays a certain ideology. After returning to China and living in Beijing for three years, an increasingly irresistible red culture has penetrated my daily life; additionally, the pandemic has undoubtedly intensified this occupation. I began to observe how these words are generated and how they affect day to day reality. This is not a study of the past, but a self-oriented way of preparing for a future that I believe in."
> DAY 2
"On the night before leaving, there was only one overseas flight out of Beijing Capital International Airport. The check-in counter was crowded with people accompanied by huge pieces of luggage. Most people were students returning to Senegal, as well as some Chinese working in Africa. One of the Senegalese youths told me that he was returning to his hometown to use his Chinese experience to get a decent job in a local factory. Before leaving customs, staff once again tried persuading me to cancel the trip. Although this was just a formality, I froze for a moment, momentarily panicked. It rained heavily in Beijing that day, and after a nearly three hour delay, the plane took off."
> DAY 3
"After arriving in London, I went through a less strict 10 day home isolation. Soon after, I started to wander the street and bought a lot of 'red' reading materials. Among them are not only the red of radical politics, but also the red of fashion, and the red of historical testimony. As a whole, these visual cultures have begun to echo each other. So, what is the red that I produce? I imagine it as the collective diversity of these reds."
> DAY 4
"I begin to work on the residency. The end of July and the beginning of August are when most in European holiday, and the pace of collective production and activity slows down. The name of the residency comes from Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes novel - 'The Study of the Word of Blood'. My thoughts turn to blood, which perhaps is an entry point linking Britain and 'red'. After colour testing, I finally chose the red that is closer to blood, to complete my subsequent paintings."
> DAY 5
"Don't forget, the United Kingdom is also the birthplace of Dracula and Frankenstein. Today's super-states in the world are like hybrid and bloodthirsty monsters; freedom and violence, capital and communism, are completely coexisting and becoming entangled. I named it 'Werewolf, Frankenstein, and Vampire: Three Gentlemen of a Sovereign State'."
> DAY 6
"This trip comes from a red prophecy, which predicts a red planet in the post-epidemic era. This red is not just an ideology, but a red governance method and a way of producing power. After the outbreak, different countries have all strengthened their control over their citizens. Many people who are usually indifferent to politics suddenly realise that they implicated by politics. Masks are politics, so are vaccines."
> DAY 7
"In the past two months, this is a place that changes every day, new works are appearing all the time. Visitors bring their different perspectives and different interpretations daily, and the consensus is that we need some discussion about the current intense issues. This is not radicalism, but realism. Then, keep yearning!"
Photograph of Pu Yingwei's studio at MAMOTH, London, 2021.
Pu Yingwei, (b.1989), lives and works in Beijing, China. received his BFA from Sichuan Fine art Institute, DNSEP (MFA with Félicitation du jury) from École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts de Lyon. Pu Yingwei's work has been defined as an exercise in conceptual art with a strong utopian zeal. He is the artist who interprets the multiple media and identity narratives that he practices in the public sphere as a comprehensive mobilization. Taking personal history as an absolute starting point, with the exhibition, writing, design, lecturing, teaching, and other forms of work, he attempts to produce a kind of "meta-politics" that transcends grand topics such as race, nation, and ethics. Such politics is as complex and full of paradoxes as the reality we experience. In the recent practice, Pu Yingwei turned to the new working background with the split of ideological camp and the return of imperialism. He has extensively studied and continued the visual heritage of socialist realism art and avant-garde art in the 20th century, also he has drawn nutrition from the visual culture of revolutionary art and ideological propaganda, thus forming the unique language system and historical perspective.
