Ross Sinclair reflects on installing his exhibition, Real Life is Dead/Long Live Real Life, at Shanghai Himalayas Museum...
"Ok it’s midnight on Wed 20 September. The show opens not tomorrow, but the next day. It’s hectic, to say the least. I feel like I’ve been here in Shanghai for 3 months although it’s really only been 3 weeks. It seems simply insufficient to say that every day has been a retina-mashing blur of eye opening, stimulating images, experiences, people and places.
"Ok it’s midnight on Wed 20 September. The show opens not tomorrow, but the next day. It’s hectic, to say the least. I feel like I’ve been here in Shanghai for 3 months although it’s really only been 3 weeks. It seems simply insufficient to say that every day has been a retina-mashing blur of eye opening, stimulating images, experiences, people and places.
I’ve been staying in an apartment rather
than a hotel and this has allowed a very different way of understanding the
city, very much recommended. It’s a 45 minute walk from the accommodation to
the Himalayas Museum and this has allowed great scope for exploration of the
many different aspects of Shanghainese culture, amongst the various local
neighbourhoods, including some interesting moments in informal shops trying to
buy some install materials, for example attempting to explain what ‘wallpaper
paste’ might be and what I might want to use it for. (not its stated use predictably)
In the eyes of the wary Shanghai shop owner I think I sounded quite odd, even
with a translation app, maybe especially
with a translation app. I mean, wallpaper
paste? Think about it, say it out loud - it barely makes sense in English.
What was I thinking?
We’ve had a couple more rehearsals of the
(admittedly rather grandiosely titled) Chinese Scottish Real Life Orchestra,
trying to smooth out the complexities of learning the songs Real Life is Dead/Long Live Real Life in
variable combinations/ mixtures of Chinese and English. I’ve learned the
Chinese of the simple lyrics but I think my pronunciation is terrible. Ok, I know its terrible but I’m giving it a
shot. I asked the volunteers how they wanted to arrange the songs, how the
balance of the languages should be, and I think it’s sounding pretty
interesting. In the ‘Orchestra’ we have a combination of members, from quite young
people still at school, philosophy students, interactive designers and even a
data analyst at Bank of China, and actually everyone is very youthful, except
me. We’ll have another rehearsal on the morning of the opening and then make
the performance during the launch of the exhibition with everybody wearing
their Long Live Real Life t-shirts,
especially painted in China for the performance in Shanghai.
Most of this week predictably enough has
been extremely busy with the install of the show. No matter how many times I do
it I never fail to get an incredible sense of this is the moment mixed with usual trepidation as the works start
coming back from (in this case) the various factories, craftsmen and printers,
beautiful coloured vinyl records, plush and grand banners, constructed in a
traditional Chinese celebratory style, though in this case adorned with the
epithets, Real Life is Dead/Long Live
Real Life, alongside thousands of posters with various different texts and
images. Mr Wang Lin, senior technician has been marshalling his workers good
style, he is one of the good guys, the kind of tech you know really cares about
the work and wants the exhibition to be seen by everyone in its best light
possible, above and beyond…
But the real revelation of the last week
for me has been popping across to the other side of the Museum for a bit of
respite from the day to day problems of my own install to see Bruce McLean’s
work slowly come into focus as the films and photographs begin to appear on the
walls, as his dynamic and energised show takes shape. (many works familiar to
me but others new to my eye).