Boshan, China, 2 weeks AIR

In August Phoebe Stubbs, Michael Ruh, Elliot Walker and myself travelled to Boshan District, Zibo, Shandong, China for a 2 week artist in residence program. It was the first time that XiYe GongFang studio had welcomed artists from outside of China to work alongside their makers.

The differences were huge but the skill of the makers was incredible. For the 4 of us it was certainly a ‘baptism by fire’ working in sweltering conditions in 98% humidity and certainly gave us all a huge respect for the Chinese makers. We were tasked with creating brand new artists that would be exhibited in Beijing. We were all assigned a team and we worked with them to create our designs. The language barrier was quite tricky but our translator, Carl, was incredible and we also all had the glass knowledge so could communicate without needing spoken words. Not only did we work on new bodies of work we also took part in their glass festivals giving talks at a number of different events around Boshan.

I had always wanted to visit China and it is definitely more than I could have imagined. Getting to get outside of the tourist cities and see ‘the real’ China was a privilege and something I will remember forever. I also got to visit the forbidden city in Beijing which was a once in a lifetime experience.