13TH SHANGHAI BIENNALE OF ART: PHASE THREE, AN EXHIBITION, POWERSTATION OF ART, SHANGHAI
A River Ends as the Ocean: Exhibition and Walks in Shanghai
ASTRIDA NEIMANIS, AUNTY RHONDA DIXON GROVENOR AND CLARE BRITTON
A River Ends as the Ocean is a collaboration between three researcher-practitioners: a feminist cultural theorist, educator, and writer (Astrida Neimanis), a visual artist (Clare Britton), and an activist, artist, researcher, and community Elder (Aunty Rhonda Dixon Grovenor). This collaborative practice combines place-based and practice-based research, documentation, sculpture, writing, and public pedagogy in the form of participatory durational performance.
In the phase of “walk the tide out,” a group of walkers, at the invitation of the three artists, followed the tide 16 kilometres out of Sydney’s Cooks River to its ending as Botany Bay and the Pacific Ocean. The tidal walk has also been held in Shanghai, where counterparts walked the tide in along the Yangtze river in a mirrored performance. This global, tidal gesture will draw attention to bodies of water; the ways they move through us, as we move through them. The exchange is captured in photographs, video, material artefacts, maps, and an invitation to attune to the river beyond the gallery window through meditation.
A River Ends as the Ocean: walk the tide out is part of the 13th Shanghai Biennale Phase 2: AN ECOSYSTEM OF ALLIANCE and is supported by the New South Wales Government through Create NSW. Printing by Pinch Press. This project has been funded by the Australian Government through the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, administered by the Australian Embassy in Beijing and the Australian Consulate-General in Shanghai.
photographers: Kristie Tan, Lili Zhang, Haijiao Ma, Yang Yang, Paul Costello, Lucy Parakhina, Jazlyn Morgan.
photo: Lili Zhang