Zhuhai Adventures

I was being nosey. Next to the front doors of our tower there is a garden, it seemed to be full of wooden figures and I wanted a closer look. There were many rough-hewn wooden sculptures, lots of animals and birds also artistic interpretations of tables and chairs, all carved very simply from solid blocks of tree. As I was picking my way through this ‘gallery’ I heard someone call out and saw a face peeking at me around the corner of the house to which the garden belonged.
Sorry! Sorry! I shout across. Just wondering what this was? I’ll head out now- so sorry to have trespassed and disturbed you.
The very next day as I am heading into the back entrance to our tower, a woman approaches: ‘Were you looking at my garden? Why did you run away? We were inviting you in for a glass of wine.’
This is Sonia and from this moment we became friends: ‘I am having an exhibition next Sunday come!’
On Sunday Rob and I visit. Sonia firstly invites us into her apartment – it is very different from ours being on two levels with a living room that has an extremely high ceiling, an open plan kitchen and presumably bedrooms on a mezzanine floor.
‘Look I have built this for my children.’ In the living room Sonia has created a climbing wall that leads to a platform overhead which has cushions and a comfortable sitting area and a sky high bookcase full of children’s books. ‘I began to build it myself but a carpenter friend helped me to complete it. My children can now escape from the adults and eavesdrop on our conversations.’
I am invited to climb, which I do…it’s fun and it does make a beautiful addition to this large room- all in natural wood.
Next door there is a Community Gallery. It seems that Sonia has bought or rented this to create a gallery for the community. When we explain that we are both Drama teachers she tells us about a performance that she created last year. ‘Twelve women came to me and I wrote a play of each of their stories which we performed through the whole of one day. Here are some of the placards that we made as scenery. It was very well attended.’
The placards are angry. The women obviously had problematic lives, and these were issue-based pieces that tackled some of the difficulties that effect Chinese women.
The Gallery is beautiful with a double-height ceiling the same as Sonia’s apartment. The walls are lined with framed pictures. There are artistically scattered wooden sculptures, masks and handmade pottery. A long wooden table with linen runner is laid beautifully with Chinese fruit- longans, mandarins, dragon fruit, and bowls of flowers. There are bottles of soda and wine ready for the exhibition.
The Artwork on display has been created by AI – but it doesn’t look like it. The topic is The Black Swan, a philosophical book by Nassim Nicholas Taleb subtitled ‘The impact of the highly probable’ Sonia is using this theme to explore four different areas she considers that humans should be regarding more thoughtfully: Environment, Technology, Science, and the Future.
The paintings are beautiful, they have a natural muted colour palette, with naïve but interesting renditions of animals, insects, birds and humans in many differing environments natural, industrial and urban, all containing the black swan image somewhere.
We soon realise that this is no ordinary exhibition, many people attend and just as Rob and I are thinking that we will slip away, Sonia invites us all to sit around the long table. ‘Now for the discussion time.’
Some of the attendees have brought their children and all are invited to make comment. We are to choose a picture that interests us and to share with the group our thoughts on one of the areas for debate. A 10 year old girl starts us off: ‘I would like to talk about technology, it is both useful and also has its dangers…’
She speaks thoughtfully and confidently. This is a warm and inviting forum, we all take it in turns. It is obvious that Sonia has run these events many times before, she is an architect by trade and a Creative by nature. She puts mild demands on every one of us there and invites us to deliberate, using Art and food and convivial company to explore issues that we really ought to be thinking about more often. We are now part of the ‘Wechat’ group FutureNarrative.
More workshops and discussion groups are arranged. Rob’s colleague Bill runs a session ‘Community Theatre and Social Innovation’ that proves very popular, but unfortunately we have a planned trip that weekend and miss this.
A few weeks later Rob and I offer to provide an Augusto Boal Community Theatre Workshop. We have around 15 people there, teachers, students and other interested creatives including colleagues from BNBU and some family members. Everyone joins in enthusiastically, including the children, there is much laughter and people become more confident and assured as the session progresses; we are all pleased with what we have collectively achieved. It’s another beautifully warm and sunny day and after the workshop we sit outside in the sculpture garden eating soup that Sonia has prepared. We make new friends, plan visits to other galleries and find out even more interesting things about the people we knew beforehand. Meanwhile the children play gleefully in the sunshine on the roof of Sonia’s shed and at the site of a burned-out snake nest.