Playground
While researching The Global Playground, I couldn’t help to look into the emergence of playgrounds in our urban environment, in full knowledge that playground was just a metaphor in the project. Playgrounds have shaped our built environment in many ways over the past few decades, but they are oddly exclusive places for children and parents/carers, often in very public areas of the city.
Children played in streets and open fields before urban spaces became too dangerous as vehicles start to dominate. In Europe, early forms of a dedicated, public play area started life as sand pits in Berlin, inspired by Friedrich Froebel’s ideas on play. Early examples of play areas were strange sights in today’s world: boys and girls played separately, and organised play was supervised by instructors. Post WWII, children found play in the remnants of bomb sites which inspired the idea of adventure playgrounds. These exciting play areas are made of found and discarded objects and children are free to roam and explore like going on an adventure. However, there are many places in the world where the introduction of an enclosed, public playground is an imported idea. Without the development of adventure playground and organised play in the earlier part of the 20th century, children play in the open, wherever they are allowed. The idea of play shifted from these open spaces to an enclosure, from self-initiated exploration and group games to designed play. The play structures in a playground, to this date, are often made from metal and they all have slides, swings, roundabouts and seesaws. Adults somehow settled on what a playground should consist of, and it doesn’t really matter what climate you are in. I still remember the burning sensation while sliding down a very hot slide in the height of summer in Taipei when the temperature goes way beyond 30 degrees Celsius for months.
Exceptional urban playscapes designed by Isamu Noguchi, architect Aldo van Eyck and contemporary designers inspired by ‘natural play’ are few and far between. We have become accustomed to these universal, exclusive spaces, and parents rely on them for safe outdoor play in an otherwise dangerous city environment designed mainly for cars.
Playgrounds, therefore, compartmentalise our experience in public spaces. The demarcation of play runs deeper than physical boundaries. Playgrounds are mainly designed for children. What about parents? When my son started walking, I found myself in playgrounds minutes away from my home that I never visited before. There are as many carers as there are children, yet we stand around, assist, or observe our children and wait till boredom strikes, understandably, as the ones who are not playing.
Play is universal and is not tied to playgrounds, but modern playgrounds shed some light on how we adults perceive play. We want children to be physically active, sensorially stimulated, interact with others and be enthralled. But, children don’t need playgrounds to play. Early forms of swings in Greece and China don’t appear to be for children but for adults. Games and sports make rule-based play. Those who want to play find playgrounds everywhere. The players make the playgrounds.
Japanese American sculpture Isamu Noguchi’s visionary designs are great examples of inclusive play in the sense that everyone can play, young or old. There are structures to climb, which is an active device, and swings, a timeless invention for passive play, that is to allow the body to experience movement without moving. There are contoured surfaces for seating, integrated as part of the playscape rather than a park bench. It is sculptural in form and it is intended for the general public, the young as well as those young at heart. I wish these playgrounds will become the norm one day, perhaps alongside the movement of pedestrian-priority thinking in urban planning.
Haglund Skola, Sweden
Haglund Skola
Almunge, July 2018
Lilla Skola, where I was staying, meant little school. It felt familiar already, as I was here a few months ago, when the whole site was covered in thick snow. The house was part of the Haglund Skola compound where SU-EN Butoh Dance Company’s HQ is located, comprising the main school, little school, shower house, and guest house. Set within a forest in Almunge, I was well informed that there would be no WIFI, and mobile phone signal would be unreliable.
What is most disorienting for someone who lives in a city is probably the various tasks and procedures that one has to follow in and around the house. Upon entering the house, one needs to remove outdoor shoes and put on a pair of slippers. I’ve always considered this a good habit. There are various signs around the house, for example, ‘Haglund house order’, ‘Snow shovel plan’, ‘departure info’, ‘compost and recycling’, ‘fire instructions’ etc. One should pull the toilet flush knob straight up and gently. After shower, one should clean and dry the floor and walls. Do not use the oven at the same time as cooking other things; it will not get hot. There are 7 different bins in the kitchen: tetra/cardboard/thick paper, hard and soft plastic, metal, glass/ceramic, paper, compost, burnable rubbish, and something for the fox, if you know what goes in that bin. Compost is restricted to raw food: no eggs or egg shells, no citrus peels, no avocado or fruit with a large stone. I guess it’s a matter of learning a new habit.
After a day of meeting, preparation and rehearsal, I returned to my humble abode and continued with a different kind of busyness. I went through everything that needed to be binned and tried to identify the variety of materials our rubbish are made of. It might sound like an ordeal to have to go through all this, but the question that came to my head was: why did we make our life difficult by designing and producing packaging that cannot be biodegraded or recycled to begin with?
Clements Yard Winter Open Studios 2015
A small selection of my latest art work displayed alongside products designed by Michael Douglas (Outpost Bags & Objects) and prints by Julia Rodrigues. We are also joined by Telegram Gallery www.telegramgallery.com
Tidal Lagoon Swansea Bay shortlisted artist, May 2014
PRESS RELEASE
29 MAY 2014
THE POWER OF ART
Swansea Bay Tidal Lagoon Plc announces short-list for international sculpture commission
Artists from Wales, England, Scotland, USA, Canada, Netherlands, Italy, Slovenia, Norway, France, Spain, Germany and Japan are leading an international response to a ground breaking zero carbon energy project in Swansea Bay, Wales.
Mags Harries, Lajos Heder, Ingrid Hu, Andy Pink, Peter Wall, Timo Von Kreigstein, Vesta Kroese and Manja Van De Worp are just some of the names included in a short-list of finalists for an international sculpture commission to be sited within the footprint of the proposed Swansea Bay Tidal Lagoon.
More than 100 local and international artists from all disciplines and ages submitted artwork. Developed and promoted by international charity Cape Farewell, the commission will be funded by Tidal Lagoon Power Limited with £10,000.00 prize money. The short-list of entries includes sculptural physical forms, kinetic sculptures, sound events, word sculptures - each of which have addressed in some form, the challenge of tidal power, lunar cycles, energy production and a celebration of the culture of Swansea.
Chief Executive of Tidal Lagoon Power Limited, Mark Shorrock says: “Swansea Bay Tidal Lagoon provides a new template; a power station that creates a public amenity and has the potential for low carbon power and culture to flourish together. Working with international charity Cape Farewell, we have established a cultural programme to create a forum for artists, scientists and communicators to be brought together to stimulate the production of art founded in scientific research. We have been blown away by the calibre of the submissions. This is an exciting initiative that we hope will lead to Swansea Bay tidal lagoon becoming a must visit cultural destination as well as the world’s first tidal lagoon. Engaging artists with a major infrastructure project is one of the visions we had for Swansea Bay tidal lagoon when we set out on this journey. To see us take this first step towards that reality is brilliant.”
David Buckland of Cape Farewell says: “Worldwide the artistic and creative community has responded in strength. We received 100 applications that champion the creative spirit and the desire of artists to be part of this inspirational and real project that will go a long way in mitigating the causes of climate change. This has been an extraordinary effort and we salute all the artists.”
“Reducing the field of applications has already been a difficult task. We have been mindful that we do want projects to be ‘doable’, that are original and that will last the test of a harsh environment and time. Some are for indoors and some will have to be adapted to acknowledge the limitations imposed by the lagoon and the necessity tidal lagoon has given itself to achieve its environmental goals. In selecting these projects we have wanted to share the imagination of the artists as well as addressing their ambition to address and celebrate the original concept of the lagoon.”
Julie James AM for Swansea West adds: "This scheme promises a wide variety of potential benefits. Boosting tourism and enriching local culture and identity are just two. It is hugely encouraging to see that the developer has every intention of turning vision into reality in each of these areas. They have my support."
At 320MW installed capacity, with first power expected in 2018, Swansea Bay Tidal Lagoon will be the largest marine energy development in the world. Developed by Tidal Lagoon Power Limited, it will have an entirely predictable 495GWh output each year of clean, green electricity and is estimated that it will power 155,000 homes for 120 years – that’s about 11% of Wales’ domestic use.
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Press Enquiries
Photographs are also available to accompany this press release.
For further information please contact Lisa Jenkins, Head of Media on 0790 873 8763 or at lisa.jenkins@tidallagoonpower.com
Aesthetica Art Prize 2014
Longplayer Bowl Display shortlisted for 2014 Aesthetica Art Prize 3D Design/Sculpture category
Exhibition at York St Mary's, 4th April - 22nd June, 2014
Organised by Aesthetica Magazine, the international art and culture publication, in partnership with York Museums Trust, the Art Prize is a platform for emerging contemporary artists from across the world to bring their work to a wider audience. Taking place in the exceptional setting of York St Mary’s – York Art Gallery’s contemporary art space, the exhibition reframes the relationship between the historic and the contemporary by uniting the international rising stars of the art world in a major group show.
Longplayer is one of the four Main Prize finalists. A 1:3 model of the original installation has been made for the exhibition, alongside the audio clip from the 1000 minutes performance.
www.aestheticamagazine.com/art-prize-exhibition
Oct 2013 / sketch book
Mysterious fading letters on the walls of Toledo, Spain, and a quick sketch of a fountain that somehow reminds me of the world in Shaun Tan's 'The Arrival' www.shauntan.net/books.html
September 2013 / Maggie's Culture Crawl
Thanks to a_zero environmental architects who took part in Maggie’s Culture Crawl, I joined this all night charity walk that lasted 7 hours.
Walking through London overnight is a strange sensation. Contrary to hiking in mountains, you take in large scale manmade structures / spaces over a time and distance that is a lot longer than normal, and after a while you start to question whether humans are really good at building an ‘environment’.
I lived in a concrete jungle before, so this is not a reaction against the built environment. It is an observation that layers of history, labour, and thoughts that have shaped London, seem to have all flattened into a single backdrop during this walk, and Londoners on a Friday night seem to be flattened to become part of that backdrop too.
I led a short course in the summer which looked at re-adapting a design response to a city, in this case New York, to a London context. Characteristics of a city are often described by well-known landmarks, cultural icons, historical references and local customs. To take the students into the heart of the city, I organised walks by two Londoners who kindly accepted my request and took the students around places that they live, work, and hang out.
What makes these walks special, and a human experience, is that the first hand experience which allows students to form different, authentic opinions, and more meaningfully the opportunity to interact with locals who have things to say about the place they live in.
Similarly, the most touching aspect throughout Maggie’s Culture Crawl is the participants, both those who walked and those who prepared, sign-posted, cheered along the way. If the same all night walk takes place somewhere else, I hope it carries the same message - it is not about London or the special places we get to visit in the middle of the night, it is about people who are willing to step out from the backdrop together for a meaningful event. One sees a very different London with these people in the foreground. One of the most vivid moments is an elderly man, walking slowly with his walking stick…
I am also impressed with the creativity at various rest points. It reminds me of promenade performances. The tree with hanging apples, for example, is a magical touch, and I would like to think that there is as much joy in the preparation as in the receiving end. But all praises go to the ingenious polarised glasses that turn lights at a distance into heart shaped glows.
To end the ramble, it feels appropriate to keep remembering and sharing this quote from Susan Sontag:
‘Compassion is an unstable emotion. It needs to be translated into action or it withers. The question is what to do with the feelings that have been aroused, the knowledge that has been communicated.’
Reconfiguring archeological finds
This is a replica of a broken ancient earthenware, on display in a metro station in Taipei. I am fascinated by the movement of the mechanical arms, which have nothing to do with the earthenware, but someone has carefully studied the fragments and pieced them together imaginatively.
http://vimeo.com/74399341
Colours, fired
These ceramic colour palettes are intriguing to look at. Unlike paint samples, they are with textures and finishes, and each is unique. I found them at an exhibition on Tsai Jung-yu, one of Taiwan's most celebrated ceramicists.
June 2013 / Camberwell Arts Festival
Responding to Camberwell Arts Festival's food and travel themes, I collaborated with the chef at Cool Cats Cafe and created 3 table top installations under the title 'After our journey', turning packaging materials into serving plates.
Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
