The Fourth Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art

Edible pen jing (details) 2000 Mixed media installation and performance, London, UK Courtesy: The artist Song Dong confirms that he writes in the water diary every day. If little has happened, he will record that there is nothing much to write. If he has been travelling, he will document the journey. Song Dong's description of the way the diary evolved indicates the central and deliberate role the work plays in his life: '.A.fter a while this stone slowly became a part of me.That means I could say anything to it and be unscrupulous. This act became a part of life and it made me more relaxed.' When the project was shown in Berlin, the artist invited visitors to participate by w riting in water on one of twelve stone slabs laid out as an ephemeral visitors' book. During a residency in London in 2000, he adapted the opening performance for the exhibition to specifically incorporate an element of time, perhaps related to the wee ks he had spent away from his home in Beijing. Writing the time with water was, paradoxically, a calculated attempt to capture the transience of the moment, as Song Dong scribed the time by hour, minute and second for the duration of the event. Similarly, he marked the beginning of the new millennium by water-writing every second of the first hour of the year 2000 for each of 24 time zones . 98 APT2002 Song Dong has been a significant figure in the development of Chinese conceptual art since the early 1990s. His practice incorporates performance, photography, projection, video and installation. Of his conceptual approach he has said, '.A.s I understand it, the time is over when artistic styles are defined by medium, method and paradigm. When I make use of these, the only thing that I have in mind is whether they fit my ideas'. 2 Song Dong's performances usually involve the repetitive and occasionally arduous carrying out of an everyday act such as writing, cooking or breathing. The ritualisation of this action and/or intention transforms the activity into a work of art. Edible pen jing 2000 consists of landscapes fashioned out of fish heads, chicken feet, beef and mashed potato, which are then eaten by visitors to the exhibition. In Breathing 1996, compelling images show the artist breathing onto the icy surfaces ofTiananmen Square and Houhai Lake (Back Sea}, a large pond in the old quarter of Beijing .This two-part performance was Song Dong's tribute to the June Fourth Movement, the wave of pro-democracy sentiment that culminated in violent clashes in Tiananmen Square, leaving what writer Wu Hung has called a 'painful wound in China's national psyche'. After 40 minutes lying face dow n on the ground, the artist's warm breath had formed a circle of ice on the surface of the Square; but it left no trace on the Back Sea, as 'the frozen pond absorbed Song Dong's breath into its very existence'. 3