At the end of November 2010, I interviewed renowned Chinese artist Gu Wenda in his studio in the m50 district in Shanghai, China, as part of my first leg of PhD fieldwork research…according to the blog post from that day it was interview number 8. It seems like such an age ago, yet at the same time like it was yesterday. As part of our morning together, we discussed his practice in relation to my research focussing on points including the concept of “inbetween” due to his shared time between Beijing, Shanghai and New York; coined terminologies such as global, universalism, othernisation, and revisionism; the question of whether cultural meaning and cultural context translatable; the different levels of culture today and their accessibility; how misunderstanding is the essence of new creation; visual arts versus conceptual art; and the notion of “to define is not a punctuation, it is a process of development”. He also showed me an animation and short film of what was then a work in development called ‘China Park’, an architectural idea and reinterpretation of the traditional Chinese garden, which ‘offered a blueprint for an ecologically-friendly future city and makes a spectacular contemporary garden scene.’
“I do not want my art being something just kept in the hands of collectors or displayed in museums…Artists should be responsible to the world they are living in and offer solutions no matter how long is needed to put them into practice.” – Gu Wenda
Now known as ‘Central Park’, this work is soon to be on display at Chambers Fine Art in New York (opening 15 November 2013) and will consist of the preliminary studies and documentary material for this venture, and new development of Gu’s practice into garden design and urban planning. It was first exhibited in its entirety in Shanghai in 2010 as part of the Shanghai Pujiang OCT 10-Year Public Art Project and, as stated, known as ‘China Park’. It’s change in name to ‘Central Park’ makes reference to its relocation to Manhattan, New York. His practice has always examined the relationship between East and West, the transcultural as such, alongside the comparison of the traditional and modern. Here, for ‘Central Park, Gu compares the Western and Chinese approaches to landscape gardening proposing the creation of “a modern eastern garden” which beyond its possible realization can serve as a model for the future planning of ecologically sound cities throughout China.
“As the users of the park grow familiar with it as their outdoor playground or living room, they will be presented with cultural and historical references in an entirely pleasurable way. Gu’s proposal for ‘Central Park’, elitist in inspiration but populist in its aspirations, is visionary in its scope but based in reality.” – Chamber Fine Art
Rachel Marsden's Words 