4D

Paldiski Flower is an artwork based on a cultural visit to Paldiski (Estonia) organized by Kuno Networks in association with EKA on the 14th of April 2009. Together with a group of colleagues from art academy, we visited the city and had the wonderful opportunity to talk to the people. It was great, the people in Paldiski were so open and willing to share their views about their history and the quick changes taking place at the time. A highlight of our stay was a quick jump to Pakri Island.

My first (and very wrong!) impression of Paldiski was that of a quiet place (maybe too quiet?), a little grey even. Not quite like a ghost city, but certainly more like a village in a sense, without car fumes and blasting horns polluting everything around (very much unlike Tianjin, where I come from!). I had heard occasional negative stories about this place, and it made me somehow curious. There was a kind of “sadness” in the air, or may I say Autumness? Judging by our conversations and the general comments I believe that most in our group shared a similar view. We walked around the city, randomly going here or there. I could not speak Russian (only a few words, such as “Paka!” Bye!, “Spasibo” Thanks, or “dobro pozhalovat” Welcome) a only a little Estonian. Eye contact, hand gesturing, and hopeful smiles were the main means of communication with the locals. At times I thought that some people I met were hiding under invisible masks. You can see this in other places too, I already mentioned I come from China. I think it was on the third day that two little girls passed me on the street. I saw the curious faces from those little girls and I greeted them: “Hello!”. When I saw the pure smiles they returned back to me everything I had experienced (or thought I had experienced) previously in Paldiski, simply vanished. It vanished like a rushed puff of tobacco in the cold and sharp in your lungs air of the city.

I didn’t know what kind of art works I could do for this place. But I knew what I don’t want to bring to this place. I don’t want to remind the old histories, either positive or negative, because that is only for repeating the pain and memories of a different time. I didn’t want to interfere with the image of those abandoned historical houses, because I think that is a part of the images in this place, so I decided that my work should not to change anything about them.

Considering this place and its people I felt that I should give them a present, something symbolic for them. I made a pinwheel, which has only 3 wings on it. Those 3 wings consist of three colours (blue, green, yellow), and I wrote the word Paldiski in three languages( Estonian, Russian, Chinese). I think that is kind of wish to this place from me. The word in Estonian and Russian will be understood by the attention from this place. The word in Chinese will be understood that Paldiski is not the place as before any more. It is known also from the other side of the world. I am a Chinese, and I came this place.

On the 23rd of April, I walked in Paldiski city with 5 flowers holding in my hands. I spoke with the people who I met, and told them: I’m a Chinese and I visit this place for short time. I asked them to help me write down something on my pinwheel like flowers. Then some of them wrote their own names, some of them wrote their children’s names, some of them wrote Paldiski. One little baby also left down her own mark. 

That midday, I gave one of flowers to a mother of a little baby on the street. In the evening I gave one to a soldier, one to his friend in a pizza restaurant. After that I went through the train station and gave one flower to a firewoman who works in the train station. I told them: these flowers are made for the people of Paldiski. On the flowers, I wrote Paldiski in Chinese and also some words are from the local children and people.

Free Smiling Ticket,
the idea was to reflect relational aesthetics by making an art activity. It experiments with a way to connect the museum environment with active artwork and audiences. It is also a challenge of convey the complex theoretical ideas by using simple forms and materials.

I chose the date 16th of May because it is the day when Tallinn organized the Muuseumiöö( Museum night). On that day, the museums were opened to every audience with free entrance. It was a good opportunity for shortening the distance between museums and audiences. To enter a museum people need to buy a ticket generally. However this activity based on an idea that the audiences should have easier access to modern artworks. This is the first reason why I chose KUMU museum as the location of the project Free Smiling Ticket. The second reason is because of KUMU is the biggest modern museum in Tallinn, it has many collections both contemporary and historical and the cost of the ticket is the highest.

Considering these reasons, I decided to explore the relative feelings of the audiences, the artwork, and the museum, by using symbolic items (the smiling faces). I drew the smiling face on each of the yellow round stickers that KUMU uses it as visible tickets. By putting these stickers on every visitor I hoped to send smiling faces through all rooms, stairs, corridors… coffee shop and restaurant included. I call the sticker as Free Smiling Ticket. The smiling face means a bit of happiness and an open mind.
When each visitor displays Free Smiling Ticket, it won’t look like a paid ticket anymore. People only can see the smiling faces on themselves, but not as the limited reminder of a museum fee. The moment when I give people the ‘ticket’ I say it is a Free Smiling Ticket. Meanwhile, people can understand it is either a ‘free’ Smiling Ticket or a Free Smiling ‘ticket’. The visitors would be ‘smiling’ not only because of the chance to get a free entrance to see selected artworks, also by looking at each other with those ‘little yellow stickers’ would soon dispel the imposing atmosphere of seriousness and formality in the museum environment.

During the activity I drew on the stickers one by one as the visitors came along. They had to wait for their own ‘smiling face’ to be finished, and this increased their expectation: the visitors were not only waiting for a free ticket but also a smile. When more and more people with the Free Smiling Ticket were gathering in the exhibition rooms, it also created new conceptual moving art object. When the smiling faces stood in front of the artworks, they helped to build a dialogue between the visitors, now turned themselves into an artwork. Meanwhile the exhibited artworks became a silent spectator.

Someone To Call My Own
It is a visual-musical video work, which cooperated with The Pugilist group. I created and illustrated the scenes and characters in the video which based on The Pugilist´s song of the same name.