”FACESCAPES where I follow a humanist tradition of getting in close on the subject, creating landscapes of faces, faces as a field, revealing contours and valleys like an aerial view of any terrain. But behind these abstractions my desire is to reveal the commonality of the human condition, a way of looking at the mileage of the human clock.”

It would be our village mine for Facescapes, and Frederic for his eco village.

Nine months later I returned for a month to produce my China FACESCAPES with my Australian – Chinese interpreter and a sound and camera assistant. The project went very well, meeting, filming and interviewing the locals. However I never totally finished my interviews as I fell ill and had to be shipped off to Hong Kong where I spent three weeks recovering. But I had achieved my objective despite not totally finishing all the interviews and film that I had planned.

A year later Frederic had almost fully developed his amazing project. Within the concept of his project was an artist in residence site. When Goncalo Leandro from WOA who was organising the residency asked me if I would like to nominate two artists to join them. I immediately included myself as well as Michel Batlle one of the local artist I had been working within the PADIES artist in residency program. I was very curious to see how the project had developed and what changes it had bought to the village. It was also an excellent opportunity for me to explore an idea I had wanted to expand for FACESCAPES.

What was wonderful was to see the enthusiasm and inspiration that the artists felt in discovering JiuXian and China. There is no doubt that for the artists to develop a project in China, especially under an artist in residence program such as being developed in JiuXian was a tremendous opportunity. All the resources are available, scale is virtually limitless and costs are comically low so an artist can avail himself of material, skill sets both practical and technical that would be economically impossible for most of these artists in their home. The artists threw themselves at this opportunity. The sense of community was very strong with support for each other’s ideas and work, each developing their unique approach.

I was more the observer. The isolation of the village gave me an opportunity to reflect on how I wanted to move forward and also participate in the concept of land art that was the goal of the residency. Whilst exploring my concept for FACESCAPES I availed myself of the opportunity to film some local events, a funeral, a school visit and the artists at work as well as local life. Through these observations I developed the concept for an installation piece that would incorporate Facescapes, the village and the mystic that surrounds it. I recorded local stories of mysticism and myth of the mountains which I’ll mix with the sounds of nature especially the sounds of the ever flowing water unique to this village, all this to be incorporated into the installation through multiple projections and sound bites within a symbolic room of five meters square. It is an exciting project. I managed to collect enough material for the project.

Now away from the quiet of JiuXian I need to find the time to fulfil this ambitious project. I believe it will immerse the spectator into the energy of the village, it’s peacefulness, its beauty, its people and it’s mysticism.

To achieve this would make the JiuXian experience totally perfect.