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“culture Hybird” --A workshop about making shortbread

Critical thinking

Through this social practice in B16, I re-understand art. I always think that the creation and display of art is in a place with a relatively "ceremonial sense". For example, we will create in a studio and display works in galleries, museums and other formal places. However, in this event, art was directly transferred to people's daily lives. Artistic language and artistic methods have become simple, they are extremely close to people's daily lives. It is because of this that there is more space for the development of artistic thought.

Firstly, art comes from life, whether it is "game theory", "labor theory", "witchcraft theory" ... In fact, it is essentially an activity that occurs in life. This should be a feeling of my coming to Birmingham to study, especially after this activity. In China, everyone only accepts works of art in the school system, and people rarely value the art of life. However, this practice in B16 made me feel that everyone who participated in the "shortbread" event had their own unique ideas. They had serious thoughts on what to express, and their attitude towards this little cookie was serious too.

Secondly, art is the combination of simple individuals. No matter how large a work of art is, it is continuously completed step by step. Even great art ideas are promoted by small ideas. The average production time of everyone was only about 10 minutes, but the short time recorded the thoughts that flashed in their minds. Joseph Beuys said, "Everyone is an artist." In reality, not everyone is an artist. I think it is because the artist is good at recording every simple and small thought in his daily life. In the end, these small thoughts are enough to become a work, from quantitative change to qualitative change.

Finally, the art of life is the more real. Towards the end of the event, when I delivered the baked "work" to each of them, they did not simply pick up and eat it like they would treat a biscuit. Almost everyone held up the plate and looked at the shortbread carefully, and when I interviewed them and asked about the meaning of the pattern, people also looked very excited. In their opinion, this shortbread has a special meaning. In my opinion, this may be a rare self-creation in their life, and I designed this event to have the honor of witnessing their occurrence. People's feedback has also impressed me greatly.

This time, although it was carried out for the purpose of cultural exchange, let the participants know some information about the culture of Chinese ancient characters. However, what I saw at the event was not just the sharing of foreign cultures. It is a strong response from the participation of art in social practice.

General idea about the course

Linked to the practices of art participating in society, I suddenly thought that during the Spring Festival in China, almost every community will hold activities for artists to write Spring Festival couplets and send blessings. Therefore, I decided to hold a cultural sharing and exchange activity in B16.

Inspirations (1)

In the UK, my major course is contemporary art China, and the element of calligraphy is more and more widely used in contemporary art. Famous contemporary Chinese artists like Xu Bing, Gu Wenda, Zhang Huan, etc. are all frequently use calligraphy elements to create their works. Actually, I've always been confused that as a person whose first language is not Chinese, how do they appreciate calligraphy works? Until I came into contact with some works of the American abstract expressionist painter Franz Kline (1910-1962), such as New York, NY 1953, Crow Dancer, etc. it can be simply said that without techniques and cultural background, calligraphy is a kind of black and white Art, frame and space art. Therefore, calligraphy is not as esoteric as I thought in my mind, nor is it inaccessible to everyone. Calligraphy can show its simplest and most essential charm in other countries.

Xu Bing, Happy Chinese New Year.    

 Zhang Huan, Family Tree.

Franz Kline, New York.      

 Franz Kline, Crow Dancer.

Inspirations (2)

In China, my research direction is calligraphy, and my interest is about Chu Jian. Chu Jian appeared in the Spring and Autumn period and the Warring States period over two thousand years ago, an ancient character written on bamboo pieces. Of course, choosing it as the basis for this social practice is not only related to my interests. I also think that this type of text not only inherits the pictographic characteristics of the original text (Oracle or Bronze Inscriptions), but also lays the foundation for the development and evolution of Chinese characters today. Chu Jian's fonts are changeable, and the structure is diverse. It is easy to innovate and change it.

Chu Jian

About B16 and own thought

Based on these cognitions, I further thought that since I want to share the Chinese culture with the residents of ladywood, what can I show them differently? Relay on the information and field investigations, I pay attention On B16's Edgbaston Reservoir, this reservoir is a feature of B16. And the origin of human civilization is the river culture, so I think water plays a pivotal role in our lives. Therefore, I chose the shape of the word "水"（water）as the base image and decided to let the friends at Neighbor Night try to use this image to describe the B16 in their impression. Of course, based on Chu Jian's high plasticity, this " "Water" can be deformed and placed anywhere. Like "浴"（bath）, the character ‘water’ can be placed below and left; Like the character "酒"（wine） deforms “water” into two curves; The word "渊"（deep water） puts the word "water" in the middle.

                   “浴”

                   “浴”

                     “酒”

                       “渊”

Tutorial ideas

After discussing with the teacher, the teacher gave me a lot of opinions and asked me to refer to a project called "Daily Bread" by artist Onkar Kular, (http://www.onkarkular.com/index.php?/project/bread/) which is a project involving children. First, introduce children to the history of bread, teach them how to make bread and taste different breads from around the world. Then, the children design breads with different recipes for different uses. Finally, bake these designs out.

After referring to this, I think that to better spread the art of calligraphy, I must turn it into something ordinary in life. Therefore, I decided that the "logo" that everyone has designed can be made into food, which will also increase the fun of this event. The teacher gave me a good opinion is that food can choose "shortbread", this is a traditional Scottish biscuit. I really agree with that which on one way it is a traditional food, and it can be a represent of British culture; on the other hand, it is easy to shape some patterns.

Own practice about B16

At the same time, I also designed an example of a "logo". My design inspiration comes from the "渊" (deep water) of Chujian characters. This is a wrapped Chinese character with a character means water in the middle. It reminds me of the space b16 on the map, which is similar to this word. Edgbaston Reservoir is in the middle of B16, occupying a small seat. The outline of B16 is very similar to a bat who wants to fly. According to the data, the reservoir is surrounded by woodland and grassland，and the area supports a valuable city site for animals such as newts and bats. So, this simple logo I designed is a Chinese character with a bat shape and a "water" in the middle.

After all, I don't know much about the local culture, and I can only express a regional feature here. I believe that the local people know and feel much more about this than me, and they can design a logo with more local characteristics. This is also the original intention of my organization of this workshop. I hope that there can be sufficient collision and communication between different cultures.

Event final content

One week before the event, after the teacher discussed with the person in charge of B16 "Eat, Make, Play ", I was allowed to use the on-site oven, which ensured that my project could be carried out smoothly. And I confirmed and organized all the procedures of the event with Dem again: A workshop about making shortbread to create a hybrid between calligraphy and B16.First step is using Ancient Chinese character“水”(water) as a basic image to create individual shapes by participants. The second step is to carve their design on the made dough and bake it!

My plan had to make a small adjustment once again, because the time was only 2 hours, and there were 7 activities on site at the same time. In other words, there is a plane B, which is to select some iconic words that are closely related to the community in advance, and let residents refer to the sample to cut out shapes. Although this step lacks the step of independent design, it is also a good idea to let them feel Chinese culture when doing shortbread. After all, it only takes 2 hours.

D-day prepare

In the afternoon of December 4th, I made some shortbread of Chinese characters in advance, including Chinese ancient characters such as "爱"（love）, "和"（peace）, "人"（people）, etc. These are some beautiful words to describe the community. I hope that residents at 6pm will like these shortbreads in the form of ancient text. At the same time, in order to save time, I prepared the dough that I was going to knead on site.

Happy Neighbor Night

In order to be fully prepared to welcome the residents of B16 who came to Neighbor Nigh, we came to the Christ Church in advance, and I took the time to place my "baked examples" in advance. As the teachers introduced our projects one by one, the residents cheered, and the event has started!

On site (1)

At the beginning, everyone felt very novel and kept sighing "This is a Chinese character? " "This is so interesting!" “It’s not like Chinese characters, it’s more like a pattern.”

Soon, a resident came to me with great interest and designed his own shortbread, which is also my first shortbread today. I explained to him that this is an ancient Chinese word for water, but he explained to me while he was portraying that I didn't think it looked like a river or water, and I felt that the form was like steam, and an "X" was marked below to indicate negation, and a love was drawn on the entire picture. He said he hopes that the world can pay attention to the issue of climate warming, and also hopes that the problem of climate warming can be improved.

On site (2)

There is also an American friend who came to ladywood shortly after. She said that she did not think much when drawing these patterns. She just felt that there should be a lot of fish jumping on the water, so she designed this picture and used the extra dough to make a fish look，and hope everyone can pay more attention to environmental issues.

On site (3)

Towards the end of the event, I found that everyone seemed very reluctant to be restricted by the B16 area. Residents reflected issues such as climate warming, environmental pollution, and personal interests on the image of "水"（water）. Everyone wants to express their feelings. I originally thought that there would be no time for everyone to design the patterns themselves, but everyone seemed to have the desire to create, saving the time of designing on paper and engraving the patterns directly on the dough. A newly moved resident even thought about 3 minutes before he started engraving it.

In the end, a little girl walked in front of me and portrayed one. It is demanding for a child to have some knowledge of this place and the world. So, I did not require her anything. When I asked her what was carved, she said "Pokemon" in a small voice, and when I asked further, she didn't give any more explanation. This should be the smallest participant in my activity today.

“Episode”

I was infected by the atmosphere at that time, and I participated in the activities of other friends on the spot.

In the meantime, a resident came to me and exchanged her shortbread. She thinks that my idea is very good to make Chinese characters in this form, and she generally makes shortbread into traditional shapes, and may only make some changes in taste at most. Actually, it's really easy to make life art.

The end

The event is over. Although some of the residents' designs have nothing to do with ladywood, they are the truest reactions to their lives. I think it is also very good. They extended the questions to be answered and the ideas to be displayed beyond B16, which I did not expect. I am still very satisfied with the results of the event, and everyone is actively participating in my event. Let me have a new definition of art. Art does not have to be so great and extraordinary. Art can also be simple and ordinary. Only when art participates in life can it magnify the meaning of art.

After the event, I shared the activity of the day and my first experience of combining community and art with my roommate. She also showed great interest. Since this event is mainly based on people’s feelings and the word "水"（water）. Then I decided to invite her to also design a shortbread about "水"（water） as a small extension about this activity. She said that she would think of "fire" when she mentioned water, so she wrote a Chinese character "fire" with flowing lines of water. I told her that there is an idiom in China called "水火不容" （Water and fire cannot merge with each other），which is a metaphor for the bad relationship between people. She suddenly appeared very confused, and then deducted the two points of "fire" into two hearts, indicating Water and fire can merge with each other，which she named that people should live in harmony with each other. The energy carried in the small pattern is huge. A seemingly ordinary social activity has a different impact on participants and me.

Who says calligraphy culture can only be displayed in writing brush, Chinese ink, Chinese paper, and Yantai? Shortbread is also very acceptable. Who says art can only be presented in exhibition halls? An ordinary church is also possible.