Talking about rice while eating rice (2016)
Three stories, an audio installation, and a discussion event.
While working as artist in residence in Guangdong, southern China, in May-June 2016, I had the opportunity to travel 4 hours north of Guangzhou to Rice Harmony, a social enterprise in the small village of Qingyuan.
Three stories
The three stories from my visit are here:
Audio installation
These stories have been converted into an "audio book" you can listen to here:
The accordion sequence which links the stories in this piece is from "Happy Cry" by Wu Tiao Ren, a brilliant folk group from Guangzhou. Listen to the whole track here.
This audio story was combined with a rice cooker and a supply of rice from Randall Organic Rice in Griffith, Western NSW, for an installation at 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art as part of the Sea Pearl White Cloud exhibition. Visitors to the exhibition could eat a bowl of rice while listening to me talk about rice on a little transistor radio.
Discussion Event:
As part of Sea Pearl White Cloud, I hosted a public discussion event, also called Talking about rice while eating rice. Following on my experiences of rice farming in Guangdong, I invited artist Vic McEwan, recipient of the Arts NSW Regional Fellowship 2014-15 (Narrandera NSW), and rice farmer Tim Randall (Griffith NSW) to join me at 4A. Discussion focused on the social, environmental and economic factors which affect rice farming communities in Australia and China today. Audience members were treated to three different rice varieties from three rice cookers.
More info about Talking about rice while eating rice:
Rice was supplied by Randall Organic Rice in Griffith, Western NSW.
Link to information about Vic McEwan's Sun Rice project.
Lucas Ihlein's Guangzhou Delta Haiku project, of which this project is a component.