Further Images / Return to 2014
Description: In her first weeks walking the streets of Xiamen, the Action Researcher/Performer had various unexpected encounters with local residents. She recorded these experiences and then had the texts translated into Chinese. There are many walls around Xiamen that have phone numbers stenciled on them by individuals to attract personal business. Soon after they are stenciled, authorities paint over them with white or grey paint to conceal the message. This overlay of paint leaves a variety of tonal patterns on the otherwise weathered grey walls. In one instance, the Action Researcher/Performer came across a small pencil text written directly on top of a freshly painted square surface. In order to read this 'quiet' message, one necessarily had to stand very close to the wall surface. On another occasion, the Action Researcher/Performer saw a broken clipboard attached to a wall, the white painted surface of the clipboard camouflaging it against the background wall surface. Responding to these local wall images, the Action Researcher/Performer printed and pasted the encounters she had experienced in Xiamen onto small white painted clipboards and attached these onto wall surfaces around the city.