Mr Monkey sees City of Lights and All That Glitters Must Be Gold at the CFCCA
Venue : CFCCA
Start date: 14 December/22 November 2013
End date : 22 December 2013
Visit date : 17th December 2013
Mr Monkey trotted along to the Centre For Chinese Contemporary Art to see the last two exhibitions of the year, City of Lights and All That Glitters Must Be Gold.
City of Lights
In Gallery One, Mr Monkey found City of Lights, created by Year 1 & 3 pupils from Cheetwood Community Primary School working with artist Gill Balfour. The exhibition is a collaborative response to Wu Chi-Tsung's Re-calibrate exhibition.
Re-Calibrate had two sections, a city made from plastic boxes and a set of cynaotype pictures, and so does City of Lights.
The city is constructed from paper and straws rather than plastic boxes, and the cyanotypes are represented by collages which do look very like actual cyanotypes from the right distance. There's also an interesting slide show showing the work in progress.
Mr Monkey found this a fascinating lo-tech version of the original installation.
All That Glitters Must Be Gold
All That Glitters Must Be Gold, in Gallery Two, is the result of Shanghai-based Chan Hengfeng's visits to Xitan Village in China and to Father Christmas in Rovaniemi, Finland.
Xitan Village apparently produces more than 50% of China's Christmas exports, which means it probably produces the majority of the world's Christmas ornaments. The exhibition features a series of videos showing various aspects of life in Xitan, including the making of ornaments, ornament-related pollution in the river, and local celebrations.
The Finnish section is an interview with Father Christmas. This is rare footage as you're not usually allowed to photograph the Rovaniemi Santa.
The exhibition is completed with some files of notes and photos, a transcript of the interview, a tree covered in baubles and a bowl of glitter that it's best not to get too near to unless you like being glittery.
Both these exhibitions run until December 22nd 2013.
