LIVELY AWARENESS OF OURSELVES: Q&A WITH CHRISTINA SHMIGEL
Why did you choose an installation piece to convey your experience moving to Shanghai?
Installation is my preferred way of working: I’m inspired by the places where I live and by the spaces in which I present my interpretations of those places. I think of my installations as creating a kind of theater space in which the viewers, rather than spectators, are the players. When I first arrived in China, I was thrilled to discover the traditional gardens. Full of architecture, hidden surprises, shifts of scale & view point, they are experienced thru slow revelation, in time and thru memory; those are exactly the elements that interest me in creating an installation. The Shanghai experience lends itself to spectacle & so it’s a great fit to represent it thru installation work.
In your artist’s statement, you state that you intend for visitors to experience the feelings which accompany the idea of “otherness.” What do you hope visitors will learn from this perspective?
When we encounter “otherness,” we host a variety of responses: we’re excited/curious/ frustrated/frightened/puzzled/delighted. “Otherness” can brings us into a lively awareness of ourselves: it gives us what the writer Italo Calvino called a “negative mirror.” Our experience of “otherness” can broaden our understanding of the world, & that, hopefully, extends our capacity for an empathetic relationship with the unfamiliar.
For those who know China, many of the objects in the show will be resonate with humor and familiarity. For those who don’t know China, their experience will be like that of the traveler: coming to know a place by seeing connections, repetitions, slowly making sense of what surrounds them.
What is the most inspiring aspect of creating art in Shanghai?
The markets! There’s the streets of the hardware market: everything you could buy from a catalogue in the States but all out on display in tiny storefronts & back lanes. And the street for metal stock with rods of copper and aluminum and brass & steel in dimensions I’ve never even dreamt of. There’s the notions market with every manner of ribbon & tassle & zipper & cord plus reflective safety cloth & tiny scissors & shoulder pads: so much that in a half hour’s time I have to face the fact that my creativity is just not up to the task! The fabric market, the artificial flower market, the market of seasonal decorations that I think of Red Street for its Chinese New Year look…all amazing & inspiring. And then there’s the food markets & the shops that sell household goods and and and…
Do you have any studio traditions, such as playing music as you work on your pieces?
So as not to deal with “blank page” anxiety when I get to the studio, I usually end my studio day by leaving myself an easy, meditative task to start in on the next day…or the next month as I move between a studio in Shanghai (pop. 22 miliion) and another in Bakersville, NC (pop. 800.) I also like to have some “daily practice” project going, something like the Shanghai Daily book that’s in one of the bottom drawers of the Cabinet of Curiosities.
Your artist’s bio discusses your participation in residencies and group exhibitions in numerous countries. What are the unique benefits and challenges of working on the international scale?
As a sculptor working internationally, it’s shipping that’s the biggest challenge: coming from China, the Cabinet was held over in Customs, arriving two weeks late for the opening! The benefit for me is that I love to experience new places but I’m not a great tourist so I really love it when I have an art task to do in a foreign place. It allows me to find my “family” of makers & see a new place through their aesthetic interests. There’s also something about making art without the comfort of your own tools and sources that’s super enlivening to the creative juices!
