| Matchmaking in Suzhou Creek was Eastlink's contribution to this year's satellite events to the Shanghai Biennale. The project consisted of a two-week workshop during which local and visiting artists were 'matched', and allocated a workspace in the Moganshanlu factory compound. The intention was to foster a process that would result in an exhibition which grew directly out of the artists' interactions and the influence of the city itself.
I studied classical Chinese before I became an artist and had not been back to China since a language study tour in 1985. I arrived then, hopelessly prepared, with a good knowledge of medieval Chinese poetry and nothing of 20th century Chinese history. All contact with foreign visitors was strictly controlled and our naive and thoughtless questions caused a lot of anxiety and often pain, especially when they strayed into the subject of the Cultural Revolution.
Returning in 2005, the atmosphere in China is transformed. Amazingly my Chinese language came back and I gained wonderful insights into Shanghai and the lives of the artists working in the Moganshanlu compound.
The compound is an extraordinary entity, not only as an Arts precinct but also in the way it sums up the effects of the economic revolution in China as a whole. Originally, it housed a large number of small factories. Like thousands of others around China, when nationalised business opened up to market competition, many of the less efficient factories closed and the compound in Moganshanlu now houses only a handful of small manufacturers. At the same time, the government has engaged in a massive program of redevelopment which is accelerated at an extraordinary rate by the lack of private land ownership. Whole suburbs are routinely relocated, homes bulldozed and replaced by massive high-rise apartments. Artists who lose their homes or studios have been taking over the lease of the failed factories and consequently Moganshanlu now houses a combination of small factories, artists' studios and galleries in a haphazard atmosphere of demolition.
The workshop itself was also a surprising and wonderful experience. Not all the visitors chose to pair up with a Chinese artist and those of us working in the gallery generally worked on our own. I was using a Song dynasty painting that has been a source for my work for some time, Spring Festival, Life Along the River, as the basis of my work. I did not know what an extremely famous painting it was until I arrived in Shanghai. The scroll is remarkable for its extreme length which follows life along the river from the tranquil country to the busy centre of town. The reference in my painting was instantly understood by the Chinese artists.
As part of my project I walked the length of the Suzhou creek. To experience the transformation expressed by the painting was wonderful. Not so picturesque, Suzhou creek still gives a fascinating and intimate account of Shanghai. It passes through areas of demolition and development, populated by the homeless and the still intact, older-style communities; districts devoted to different industries, such as Beijing Lu which specialises in hardware; into the newly developed city, dotted with traditional gardens frequented by lovers and couples, people exercising and resting, contemplating life along the river.
I had hoped to devote the two weeks to developing a painting of the Suzhou creek that combined a large scale landscape painting with detailed drawings of locations, however, painting in the gallery proved very difficult. With the Shanghai Biennale due to open the following week, buses of art tourists were visiting the compound and the Eastlink gallery. Eventually I abandoned this idea and reverted to the subject I knew - mountains - and used the electronics speaker wire to draw a map of the creek, linking Australian mountains to an electronic circuit using postcards of the Pearl TV station, the landmark of Shanghai.
| 
