Date: June 25, 2017, 11am-4pm
Venue: Studio 5 & environs
Guide: George Kaye

Sunday picnic & drawing party! Join us for tea and summer greens in the garden. Help complete “Street Assemblies” neighborhood documentation project. Draw on Jiashan Road!

Date: April 30 & May 7, 2017
Venue: Xiangyang Park, Shanghai
Guides: Claire Teng, George Kaye, Angela, Chloe Luo, April Xiong, Amy Hua, Yolanda Hang, Charlotte, Theo, Kitty, Jay, Samuel, Duar, Leyla
Partner: Hunan Neighborhood

A publicly created record of transformations among plants in Xiangyang Park at the start of May!

– Find a plant specimen fallen to the ground (seed, leaf, flower etc)
– Place it on the book (refer to life cycle chart)
– Record the specimen with words and pictures

Date: March 19, 2017
Venue: Commune Market, Shanghai
Guides: Erna Spela, George Kaye, Luke Cardew, Ying, Charlotte, Mia, Oliver, Luca, Michelle, Jadee, Siena, Jason, Jasmine, Theo
Partner: Commune Market

Vampires, narwhals, a dragon, a plum. Stories of faraway islands in a slanted ocean. Join us for a day of shadow puppet performances created in weekly “playshops” held during the winter.

Date: December 17, 2016, 11am – 6pm
Venue: Jiashan Market, Shanghai
Guides: George Kaye, Charlotte, Uggles, Theo
Partner: Jiashan Market

Create your own wintertime bamboo craftwork!

We can help you make: a kite; a lantern; a whistle; animals; other…

Date: December 2 – 16, 2016.
Venue: Studio 5, Shanghai.
Artist: Zhang Yi

“I was born in Shache County, also known as Yarkand, which over two-thousand years ago was a seat of the Han Dynasty and a stop on the southern Silk Road. It was a gift from heaven to be born in such a place. When I was growing up I liked to peruse local histories, seeking to understand everything I could about the area. I guess this is part of what it means to have a sense of home. Creating drawings of everyday life in this place is just an extension of this sentiment.

Even though my current life is in Shanghai my hometown remains close to me, like a favorite old shirt worn under new clothes. Now and then I get word of the demolition of Shache’s old city and new high-rise construction. These changes are affecting people’s ways of living; but they won’t change my memories of my hometown.”
— Zhang Yi

Date: August 27, 2016, 12:00pm – 4:00pm
Venue: Fangcundi Market, Yunhai Plaza, Shanghai
Guide: George Kaye
Partner: Fangcundi Market

Compare leaves from the tulip trees of Shanghai with those from Los Angeles, and examine other leaf specimens from trees that grow in distant places. Keyword for the day: allopatric speciation.

Exhibition Date: May 22, 2016
Exhibition Venue: East Asia Global Village conference, Cenbo Village, Shanghai
Guide: George Kaye
Sponsor: East Asia Global Village

The lines that describe a tree or a leaf, the lines we draw between species, the lines between nature and culture: all become fuzzy with information when we take a close look. 9:00am: installation set-up; 11:00am: specimen collection; 1:00pm analysis and discussion.

Date: April 23, 2016
Venue: Shanghai 1933, 上海虹口区涤阳路611号
Guides: George Kaye, Shi Xiang, April Xiong
Sponsor: Kick the Gong Around

Twelve portraits of Cinnamomum camphora leaves created during prior exhibitions and workshops will be displayed in a collectively compiled book. Record your impressions in watercolor and add a page. Leaf pressing and leaf hand craft demonstrations throughout the day.

Date: April 16, 2016
Venue: New York University, Shanghai Campus, 1555 Century Blvd, Pudong, Shanghai
Guides: Helen Zhang, Amy Shui, April Xiong, Eden Ruo
Partner: NYU Green Club

The NYU Sustainability Conference invites speakers to present recent initiatives in alternative energy, agriculture, education and related projects around China. The Book of Leaves will give attendees a sensory experience of the remarkable Camphor tree which is dispersed across Shanghai including along the boulevard in front of the NYU campus.

Date: February 20-21
Venue: Fangcundi Farmers Market, Shanghai
Guide: George Kaye
Partner: Shanghai Roots & Shoots
Sponsor: Fangcundi Farmers Market

The most commonly sighted trees around Shanghai include the ‘London’ plane tree, camphor, Yulan magnolia, ginkgo, deodara cedar and a handful of others. Pressed and dried leaf specimens will be arrayed for viewing, and together with visitors we will add text to a book that may become a cross of a scientific notebook and an artists’ field journal.

    Lantern Riddles (hint: all share the same answer!):

  1. Many mouths to aspirate , but not the air you animals take.
  2. All food comes from the sun, but at the table I’m number one.
  3. A hundred sisters and a hundred bros, some are high and some are low, work by day and sleep at night, all to help our mama grow.
  4. Our shapes may be linear, oval, cordate; our skin may be fuzzy, glossy or mat, but one thing’s for sure: we’re flat!

Date: October 31-Nov 1, 2015
Venue: The Nest 公益新天地,105 Puyu West Road, Shanghai
Guides: George Kaye, Dong Xiaoxun, Zhou Liying, Helen Zhang, Amy Shui, Li Jue, Xu Xiaoxun
Partner: Shanghai Roots and Shoots
Sponsor: The Nest

‘300 Million Years’ consists of an 8-meter long scroll on which leaves from common trees are arranged in order of each species’ appearance in the fossil record. In their wildly varied shapes, sizes, configurations, textures, numbers, vein patterns, scents, surface colorations, etc. leaves present us with evidence of an epic story occuring over the giant span of geologic time. Episodes in this story include chance discoveries, migrations, species invasions, battles with disease, bad weather, sexual liaisons, sunny days, and thirst, all underlaid by unexpected genetic, metabolic, geologic and atmospheric transformations. The book can be “read” as a continuous narrative, in sections, or by individual leaf.

Saturday, Oct 31: Tree species survey (10:00am); Leaf analysis and discussion (11:30am); Leaf arrangement and inscription (2:00pm).
Sunday, Nov 1: Leaf drawing and watercolor painting (all day).



Background
Most of the tree genera around us go back at least to the Pliocene era, around 2.5 million years ago, when the first hominins (a.k.a. humans) started branching off from other primates. Many more go much further back, like the Magnoliidae (e.g. Magnolias) which diversified around 90 million years ago, and most gymnosperms (e.g. Gingko, Cedar, Cypress) which first appeared as far back as 270 million years ago.

timeline

From the time algal life forms first slithered up onto land until today there have been eleven major “chapters” (eras) in the story of plant evolution (and the evolution of the whole earth). The first starts with the appearance of plants on land and ends as atmospheric CO2 reached an all-time high (Cambrian era). It took another 70 million years or so for plants to develop vascular systems, accelerated by a drop in CO2 levels. The next chapter contains the advent of leaves (which were actually re-invented several times over), probably originating as outgrowths to protect plants from expanding populations of herbivores. Effective for gathering sunlight, leaves would have overheated if not for the transpiration made possible by vascular systems and the development of more densely arranged stomata (breathing openings) in connection with lower levels of CO2. By the Carboniferous era vast forests covered the earth. They included many now extinct tree species, individual trees reaching up to 30 meters high. The development of seed plants occurred in response to fluctuating periods of aridity. Seeds, with their fully enclosed barrier, could survive periods of dormancy, germinating when humid weather returned. The gymnosperms (i.e. no ovary or fruit surrounding the seed) include the cycads as well as all conifers and the idiosyncratic Ginkgo.

timeline2

A chain of cataclysmic events at the end of the Permian era precipitated the extinction of much life on earth, including 96% of marine species and 70% of terrestrial vertebrates. The plants fared better, drastically rearranged and with 50% of species wiped out, but most plant families surviving. By the end of the Triassic gymnosperm forests were again flourishing along with myriad new insect groups, many of which are still around, and of course the reptiles. The emergence of the flowering plants was slow going. Leaves that curled around to protect the female gamete gradually evolved to fully enclose it. The petal and carpel are essentially leaves that have evolved to a specialized reproductive function. While they emerged an incredible 150 million years after the gymnosperms, the flowering plants radiated across the newly separating continents, co-evolving with animal pollinators and by the end of the Cretaceous period becoming by far the most dominant and diverse group of plant life on earth. The angiosperms have adapted to a bewildering array of ecological niches over the past 70 million years, harnessing the power of animal dispersers to achieve unprecedented genetic responsiveness. As the plant species have proliferated so have their stories that teach us of strength, hardship, creativity, continuity, partnership and more. The final chapter includes the appearance of humankind on the scene, who through our short history of agricultural and horticultural interventions have become deeply implicated in this unfolding saga.

Exhibition Date: Sep 24-26, 2015
Exhibition Venue: Shanghai Exhibition Center
Guide: George Kaye
Partners: iEnergy, 1001 Love/ LOOP

‘Sun Spinning’ consists of an arc of spinning color wheels powered by bicycle, to be mounted in the courtyard of the Shanghai Exhibition Center during Shanghai Design Week. Create a color wheel and put it in motion! In partnership with iEnergy, creators of the convivial build-your-own bamboo bicycle workshops.

Date: June 6-7, 2015
Venue: Shanghai Ecodesign Fair, Shanghai Kerry Center
Artist: Studio Éleméntaires
Sponsor: Shanghai Ecodesign Fair
Materials: Bamboo, kite paper, steel fame and mechanical parts, arduino and anemometer.

Twelve handmade kites imprinted with images of the sky above Shanghai on different days, accompanied by a giant flipbook that captures the passage of time as the kites travel across the sky. The flipbook is calibrated to current windspeed by wireless link to a nearby anemometer.

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Date: June 6-7, 2015
Venue: Shanghai Ecodesign Fair, Shanghai Kerry Center
Artist: Ameet Gill
Sponsor: Shanghai Ecodesign Fair
Materials: Organic matter and plaster, ceramic fortune cookies, tasty baked fortune cookies

Step-by-step crossings through the spraying jets of water of the Kerry Center fountain. Stepstones created from compressed humus and organic matter indicate pathways along which our fortunes may be found.

Artist’s statement: “A gentle reminder of our hand in hand existence with nature while advancing towards our fortunes.”

Date: June 6-7, 2015
Venue: Shanghai Ecodesign Fair, Shanghai Kerry Center
Guides: Gao Yike, Mu Zi, Chloe Luo, Heather Kaye
Cooperating Partners: GangHao, Charyou, Huodongxing, YK Pao School BEES
Sponsored by: Shanghai Ecodesign Fair

The Ecodesign Fair Eco Guides is a corps of outstanding guides who have a dynamic flair for facilitating others’ discovery. This year more than fifty guides of all ages are dispersed throughout the event interacting with visitors, beginning with the greeting “how did you get here?”

ecoguides

Exhibition Date: June 6-7, 2015
Exhibition Venue: Shanghai Kerry Center
Arts Practitioners: George Kaye, Michael Yang
Partners: iEnergy, Shanghai HeARTS, Firefly Culture, Shanghai Girl Scouts
Sponsor: Shanghai Ecodesign Fair

A giant bicycle-powered spinning machine! Color wheels created during workshops throughout April and May will be mounted on an array of axles at the Ecodesign Fair. Hop on for a ride into the sunlight!

Date: June 6-7, 2015
Venue: 2015 Shanghai Ecodesign Fair, Shanghai Kerry Center
Guides: George Kaye, Han Aiying 韩爱颖, Lu Qing 卢清,Zhang Qihua 张琦华,Yang jianghuai 杨江怀, Xi Xiaoyi 席小艾,Xiao Wei 徐晓伟,Amy Shui 水华,Li Jue李爵
Partners: Fireflies Culture 萤火虫文化, Being 碧易环术
Sponsor: Shanghai Ecodesign Fair

‘Artful Migrants’ is a public artwork created for the Shanghai Ecodesign Fair. During the fair visitors choose pressed and dried plant specimens and pin them to a standing mural according to their own logical and aesthetic criteria. The criteria for arrangement may include classical taxonomy, color, size, shape, smell, etc. Visitors may play the role of a gardener, city planner, botanical scientist, or something else as they move specimens around the mural. As the plants are moved around visitors become more familiarized with the delicate structures and special qualities of the local botanical population.



Specimen sorting and exhibition prep
Date: 2015年5月31日
Venue: Studio 5, Shanghai. 169 Jiashan Rd., No. 5



Specimen collection and arrangement
Date: 2015年5月24日
Venue: Fuxing Park, Shanghai. Gate 2, 1pm-3pm,

Field notes: We built a kind of totem pole to honor plants in Fuxing Park today, especially the Ginkgo. In a last-minute hunt around the studio I found some cartons that stacked up nicely in the park. A ginkgo tree was located by the playground and some of its fallen leaves were pinned to the top of the stack, among a haphazard sampling of other botanical specimens. Totem poles are not objects of worship, but are artworks that commemorate exchange and reconnect a culture to wild nature. — George


Specimen collection and pin-up
Date: May 10, 2015
Venue: Jing’An Sculpture Park, Shanghai. Beijing W. Road entrance (Shanghai Natural History Museum main gate), 1pm-3pm.

Field notes: Nineteen species of plants sighted today including camphor trees, a Gingko, 铜钱草,a Magnolia, 红花檵木(Loropetalum chinense), winter jasmine, a species of rhododendron and others less readily identified. — George

A gardener crouched down pulling weeds comments that the weeds he is pulling are medicinal plants. 铜钱草 (tongqian grass) they are called. Some quick research reveals that it is used as a tonic for fever and bowel complaints– and also to battle leprosy, among other ailments. The latin name is Hydrocotyle vulgaris. A toad that dwells among the 铜钱草 hops away. There are lots of them around, says the gardener. Its skin is strange and horrifying, like a leper. Of what medicinal use is the weed to the toad? What gifts has the toad has passed to the weed? — George


Specimen collection and bike ride to Changfeng Park
Date: May 3, 2015
Venue: Zhongshan Park, Shanghai. North Gate No. 2 (Wanhangdu Lu), 10am-12pm.

Field notes: As we were inspecting a small red fruit that had fallen to the ground, two women nearby turned and offered that we were standing next to a pomegranate tree. Another man strolling by concurred, and the three of them then pointed out what they said was a willow tree but didn’t look like a willow to me. Folk knowledge, book learning, wisdom, conjecture and supposition are all on offer when speaking to people about the plants around us. The truth may be elusive… — George



Specimen collection and visit to Longhua Temple Fair
Date:April 25, 2015
Venue: Longhua Martyr’s Park, Shanghai. South Gate, 11:15am-1pm.

Date: December 16-22, 2014
Venue: ARTHarbin International Exhibition of Contemporary Art, Art Home Plaza 艺汇家, Harbin.
Guides: George Kaye, Teng Haiying
Sponsor: Harbin Bureau of Public Affairs

The Nature Scriptorium is a six-sided pagoda constructed of bamboo and rice paper onto which individual ecographs are inscribed by the public with Chinese brush and ink. For ArtHarbin, a subset of ecographs are exhibited that directly relate to the 5 elements of Chinese philosophy (metal, wood, water, fire, earth), plus the enveloping air, i.e. 气(”qi”). Suspended above the scriptorium are six hand-made kites adorned with ecographs that relate to the sensation of air.

For the opening ceremony the artist Teng Haiying created an ink painting on the entryway panel of the structure, filling the large sheet of rice paper in swift strokes with the image of a bee hovering in the air, piercing a flower with its tongue.

The ecographs scriptorium is designed and constructed by George Kaye. ARTHarbin is hosted by the Harbin Bureau of Public Affairs, and includes the works of over 20 artists from China and abroad. More information about ArtHarbin is available at www.yihuijia.com.cn.

Date: December 6, 2014 10am-4pm
Exhibition Venue: The Good Gift Fair, 164 Wulumuqi M. Road, Shanghai
Guides: George Kaye, Michael Yang 杨江淮,Amy Shui 水华
Sponsor: Good Gift Fair

A series of three murals depicting street scenes from Xuhui’s Jiashan Road (created with students from Shanghai No. 2. Middle School) will be displayed at the Good Gift Fair. Visitors may color the murals and add detail. A proposal to display the murals on Jiashan Road after the fair is pending with the Xuhui neighborhood committee.

ggf banner

Date: December 6, 2014
Venue: Shanghai Hunan Neighborhood Cultural Activities Center
Orgnizers: George Kaye, Sherry Poon, Crystal Wan, Catherine Szeto
Partners: Hunan Neighborhood, GHaoGS, ECOnomy Magazine
Sponsors: MuLiMuWai,Pure Living,Green & Gorgeous

The GOOD Gift Fair brings together fine artists, outstanding civil society organizations and the public in Shanghai’s Hunan Road neighborhood in early December. This festive and fun-filled day is free for all.

The fair offers the public a chance to contribute to a wide variety of civil society programs (20 RMB: purchase a school book for a migrant child; 25 RMB: purchase a tree planting in Inner Mongolia; 35 RMB: fund 1% of a years’ tuition for an aspiring college student). Visitors may also interact with artists and receive gifts of beautiful works of art created on the spot. A variety of colorful music and dance performances take place throughout the day, and food and hot drinks are served by favorite neighborhood purveyors.

For more information visit the website: goodgiftfair.com

April 19-20, 2014
The NEST, 105 Puyu Xi Rd, Shanghai
Artist: Ameet Gill
Partners: Manuela Frank and SAS Middle School
Sponsor: Shanghai Ecodesign Fair

Air awakens us to its presence by its changing movement, which we perceive on our bodies and all around us. Light, colorful things especially that change in response to the air put us in mind of changes in the air itself.

Air Tunes is a mixed media installation that combines giant chimes made from over 200 crochet circles and a garden of pinwheels made by students at SAS Middle School. Visitors are invited to remove a pinwheel from the garden and replace it with a puff of wildflower seed, that may grow to mark the beginning of a change that is taking place.

Artist’s statement: “This installation asks the public to engage in completing the piece, and also to carry a part of it home as a reminder of the change in choices we need to make today for a better tomorrow.”

Sponsored by: Shanghai EcoDesign Fair

April 19-20, 2014
The NEST, 105 Puyu Xi Rd, Shanghai
Artist: Loes Venker-de Noo
Sponsor: Shanghai EcoDesign Fair

Air Hug and Snugger is a whimsically knitted air filtration system shimmering with color that clarifies the mind and soul.

Artist’s Statement: “If you are good to the air, the air will be good to you. Hug it. Make it nice and snug. Your affections will be returned.”

Date: April 19-20, 2014
Venue: Shanghai EcoDesign Fair, The NEST, 105 Puyu Xi Rd, Shanghai
Sponsor: Shanghai EcoDesign Fair
Artist: 露Lou 露Lou
Partner: Zhi Geng Nong
Sponsor: Shanghai EcoDesign Fair

From lofty events in the atmosphere to the lowliest stirrings underground beauty surrounds us. Materials that are useful and/or nutritious surround us too. Take the mushroom: ubiquitous, fast growing, complex, tender, sometimes delicious, sometimes dangerous. Whether we value mushrooms for their beauty, their utility, or not at all comes down to our frame of mind.

In this interactive installation the artist duo 露Lou 露Lou have teamed up with Zhi Geng Nong, a social enterprise engaged in consumer food awareness and farmer training, in a happy marriage of aesthetics and action. Beautiful Mushrooms invites a sensory experience of soil, mushrooms, clay and porcelain, and a conversation about ecology.

Date: Sunday, April 20, 2014, 2:00pm
Venue: The NEST, 105 Puyu Xi Rd, Shanghai
Guides: Vivienne He, Yan, Jane Wang, Jay Peng, George Kaye
Sponsor: Shanghai EcoDesign Fair

Breathing is the most essential movement. What traces does our breath leave, hanging in the air? What of further extended movements, the day-in and day-out expressions of our dreams and aspirations. What traces do they leave, hanging in the air?

Aspiration Traces is a study of movement and an experiment in representing interaction with the enveloping air visually, using brush and vegetable dyes. It is also a gradually unfolding observance of the most essential movement, by which we establish ourselves in a reciprocating relationship with the air.

Exhibition Date: April 19-20, 2014
Exhibition Venue: Shanghai Ecodesign Fair, The NEST (105 Puyu Xi Rd, Shanghai)
Artists: George Kaye, Siu Tang, Zhang Jian-Jun and Barbara Edelstein, and individual ecographs creators
Partner: Xuhang Town Kite Club
Sponsor: Shanghai EcoDesign Fair

Air, 气,हवा, אוויר , hewa, לופט, umoya, ਹਵਾ, هواء. The thing that flies in our nostrils and flies though our lungs, flies over the treetops and across the cosmic night goes by many names. That Flies is a kite exhibition and interactive public artwork which invites everyone to devise a new name for the “thing that flies”, to make kites and decorate them with these names, and then to see if they fly.

 

Exhibition Date: January 19, 2014
Exhibition Venue: The Nest, 105 Puyu West Road, Shanghai
Arts Practitioner(s) George Kaye,Zhang Yi,Ding Yiyin
Partners:Shanghai Roots & Shoots,Hezhong Environmental Advocacy Center,Xin Che JianWABC, Helin Art
Sponsor: 2013 Design Shanghai Organization Committee

Five tables surround a pagoda built of bamboo and rice paper. At each table a representative from a selected civil society organization leads an art activity related to the five elements of Chinese philosophy (metal, wood, water,fire, earth). Visitors draw ecographs from the dictionary relating to the five elements on the five walls of the pagoda, or invent their own.

From inside the pagoda the ecographs can be observed taking form. Like the boundaries between nature and culture, the walls of the pagoda are a place of information flow.

Exhibition Date: April 13-14, 2013
Exhibition Venue: Shanghai Ecodesign Fair, ‘Cool Docks’, Shanghai
Guides: George Kaye, Sofia Yao, Han Pan, Chen Chao
Sponsor: Shanghai Ecodesign Fair

Choose your favorite ecograph from the “dictionary” (over 100 have been created to date in separate workshops) and draw it using brush and ink on a giant standing screen at the entrance of the Ecodesign Fair. Each ecograph is idiosyncratic, but they all express experiences of nature that expand our awareness of the communicating world.

Date: April 13-14,2013
Venue: Shanghai Ecodesign Fair, The Cool Docks, Shanghai
Artist: Xu Zhifeng
Partners: Futian Recycling Center
Sponsor: Shanghai Ecodesign Fair

Urban DNA consists of a dynamic system of residual objects spiraling 6 meters up to the sky arrayed around an armature of steel pipe.

Artist statement: “The scale of this work is in similar proportion to the city as the dna molecule is to the body. The individual components of the work come from all over Shanghai (via Futian, a not-for-profit recycling center). These bottles, packages and other waste reflect what we use, drink, eat. They are like imprints of the city’s genes, and assembling them this way provides an opportunity to reflect on our wastes as integral to what the city is.”


urban-dna_shw1484

The Shanghai Good Gift Fair is an alternative shopping event held in downtown Shanghai before the winter holidays. The public is invited to mingle with representatives from a variety of local charities and learn about their programs and good works. In addition visitors may meet several top artists from the Shanghai area that volunteer their time to be at the fair. In exchange for donations to charity programs, visitors may receive unique little works of art which the artists draw, paint or otherwise create on the spot. Visitors may then present these small works of art to family and friends during the holidays.

For more information visit the website: goodgiftfair.com

Date: August 22-September 3, 2012
Venue: Compatible Bazaar,98 Anshun Rd., Stall 26, Shanghai
Artists: Cheng Jingyan (程精雁), Jianwei Fong (冯建伟), Lucinda Holmes, Lin Yuan (林苑), Wang Yuhong (王煜宏), Zhang Yi (张怡)
Curator: George Kaye
Partner: Xiyitang

“City of Questions, City of Stuff” is a group installation created by six artists working in Shanghai, each contributing a small component of an imaginary city made from materials that might otherwise have been discarded. Each component of the city—an apartment house, a factory, a park – is entitled with a question about waste: Where do my food scraps end up? What is the most useless thing? How many full-time sanitation employees does the city employ?

The artworks are each mounted on pedestals made from construction debris, and stand at eye-height. Visitors can meander through the city “streets” and view the details of each artwork close-up. Visitors are also invited to add their questions about waste to a list that is exhibited on one wall, which will be compiled and delivered to the public affairs officer at the Xuhui District Dept. of Sanitation.


Questions from the wall:

What can I do with the plastic food trays from supermarket ?

What is the second most wasteful species on earth?

Is encouraging consumption in China a waste of money? For example: weddings, banquets.

What kind of building materials are used in the U.S.?

I have a lots of old packaging, how do I deal with these things?

How will you deal with the garbage left over from this exhibition?

How to deal with visual junk?

Are “environmental protection” and “green living” universally accepted?

Does the Government make money through garbage disposal?

Where does municipal wastewater discharge go to?

Where do restaurant leftovers go?

Where is contaminated drain water from toilets discharged?

How can ashes from burning paper products be managed? Is it harmful?

There is dog poop everywhere. What measures is government taking?

How should roadside vendor’s rotting food be processed?

Where are the city’s septic facilities located?

How can empty paint cans be recycled?

How can batteries be separated from trash and recycled?

Can plastic shampoo and soap bottles be recycled?

Vehicles are causing excessive air pollution. How can exhaust be purified?

The continual rebuilding of neighborhood pipelines is causing serious air pollution: is this constant tinkering a kind of waste?

The exhaust fumes from restaurant kitchens located on the first floor of residential neighborhoods is causing air pollution.

Are there too many disposable plastic food containers?

What is proportion of total garbage to total garbage bags?

How many trees have I eaten? Stop using disposable chopsticks.

Waste is not waste, focus on use.

How can we deal with pesticide bottles and bags?

Is waste really wasted?

How much water does your home toilet use each day?

What can not be reused?

Plants! Plants!

What is a real artist?

Date: April 14, 2012
Venue: Shanghai Ecodesign Fair, The Waterhouse, Shanghai
Artist: Robin Andersson
Sponsor: Shanghai Ecodesign Fair

“Blow” is a work created by Robin Andersson, commissioned for the 2012 Shanghai Eco Design Fair. Used and broken umbrellas are re-imagined as components in a delicate system of nature, exhibiting what all living things have in common: a capacity for re-production and evolution.

Artist statement: “Most people can relate to the cheap umbrellas sold by street vendors that pop up the minute it rains. “Blow” is reminiscent of a dandelion with its seeds (umbrellas) blown away. I use quite many umbrellas to create a larger spatial impression.”

Date: April 14, 2012
Venue: The Waterhouse, Shanghai
Artist: Francesca Galeazzi
Sponsor: Shanghai Ecodesign Fair

“I don’t Care” is an artwork created by Francesca Galeazzi for the 2012 Shanghai Eco Design Fair. Three balloons were suspended over the crowd, representing the three atoms in the CO2 molecule. The balloons have a combined volume of 14 cubic meters, the amount of daily per capita carbon emissions in Shanghai (source: Shanghai Statistical Yearbook and Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change). A descriptive postcard was distributed throughout the fair venue, and fairgoers were invited to reach up and spin the balloons, keeping their two-sided message in motion.

Artist statement: “The scary statistics about global warming or environmental degradation that we are constantly bombarded with are not really effective; usually the result is that people actually disengage…I am interested in ways in which we can represent and visualise our environmental impact in simple terms.”


我不管

Exhibition Date: April 14, 2012
Exhibition Venue: Shanghai Ecodesign Fair, The Waterhouse, Shanghai
Artist: Zhao Yunbo
Partner(s): Shanghai Oasis Environmental Center, Marine Dream China, Shangyin Gongyi, Shanghai Roots & Shoots, Charyou
Sponsor(s): Shanghai Ecodesign Fair

“Mind Box” is an interactive exhibit that employs symbols for “eco-values” designed by participants of workshops organized by five different NGOs. Meet representatives from vital environmental organizations in Shanghai and render your eco-values in paint on a canvas mural spanning across a courtyard at the fair.

Date: Sept 15-17, 2011
Venue: Eco Lifestyles Design Fair, Shanghai World Expo Theme Pavilion
Artist: Caitlin Reilly
Sponsor: Y+ Yoga

A small patch of grass is situated in the center of the crowded pavilion, where visitors are encouraged to remove their shoes, relax, and feel the ground beneath their feet.

Artist’s statement: “This installation is about touching the earth. It is a reminder of nature in urban spaces, but more so it is a reminder that sustainability is an attitude, a memory, a reflection.”

The Shanghai Good Gift Fair is an alternative shopping event held in downtown Shanghai before the winter holidays. The public is invited to mingle with representatives from a variety of local charities and learn about their programs and good works. In addition visitors may meet several top artists from the Shanghai area that volunteer their time to be at the fair. In exchange for donations to charity programs, visitors may receive unique gift cards which the artists draw, paint or otherwise create on the spot which communicate the goals of the recipient program. Visitors may then present these small works of art to family and friends during the holidays.

For more information visit the website: goodgiftfair.com

Improvisations

Jiashan Road Drawing Day

Date: June 25, 2017, 11am-4pm
Venue: Studio 5 & environs
Guide: George Kaye

Sunday picnic & drawing party! Join us for tea and summer greens in the garden. Help complete “Street Assemblies” neighborhood documentation project. Draw on Jiashan Road!

Miracles in May

Date: April 30 & May 7, 2017
Venue: Xiangyang Park, Shanghai
Guides: Claire Teng, George Kaye, Angela, Chloe Luo, April Xiong, Amy Hua, Yolanda Hang, Charlotte, Theo, Kitty, Jay, Samuel, Duar, Leyla
Partner: Hunan Neighborhood

A publicly created record of transformations among plants in Xiangyang Park at the start of May!

– Find a plant specimen fallen to the ground (seed, leaf, flower etc)
– Place it on the book (refer to life cycle chart)
– Record the specimen with words and pictures

Winter Shadows

Date: March 19, 2017
Venue: Commune Market, Shanghai
Guides: Erna Spela, George Kaye, Luke Cardew, Ying, Charlotte, Mia, Oliver, Luca, Michelle, Jadee, Siena, Jason, Jasmine, Theo
Partner: Commune Market

Vampires, narwhals, a dragon, a plum. Stories of faraway islands in a slanted ocean. Join us for a day of shadow puppet performances created in weekly “playshops” held during the winter.

A Winter Scene

Date: December 17, 2016, 11am – 6pm
Venue: Jiashan Market, Shanghai
Guides: George Kaye, Charlotte, Uggles, Theo
Partner: Jiashan Market

Create your own wintertime bamboo craftwork!

We can help you make: a kite; a lantern; a whistle; animals; other…

Shache Scenes

Date: December 2 – 16, 2016.
Venue: Studio 5, Shanghai.
Artist: Zhang Yi

“I was born in Shache County, also known as Yarkand, which over two-thousand years ago was a seat of the Han Dynasty and a stop on the southern Silk Road. It was a gift from heaven to be born in such a place. When I was growing up I liked to peruse local histories, seeking to understand everything I could about the area. I guess this is part of what it means to have a sense of home. Creating drawings of everyday life in this place is just an extension of this sentiment.

Even though my current life is in Shanghai my hometown remains close to me, like a favorite old shirt worn under new clothes. Now and then I get word of the demolition of Shache’s old city and new high-rise construction. These changes are affecting people’s ways of living; but they won’t change my memories of my hometown.”
— Zhang Yi

Book of Leaves: Cousins Abroad

Date: August 27, 2016, 12:00pm – 4:00pm
Venue: Fangcundi Market, Yunhai Plaza, Shanghai
Guide: George Kaye
Partner: Fangcundi Market

Compare leaves from the tulip trees of Shanghai with those from Los Angeles, and examine other leaf specimens from trees that grow in distant places. Keyword for the day: allopatric speciation.

Book of Leaves: Branching lines

Exhibition Date: May 22, 2016
Exhibition Venue: East Asia Global Village conference, Cenbo Village, Shanghai
Guide: George Kaye
Sponsor: East Asia Global Village

The lines that describe a tree or a leaf, the lines we draw between species, the lines between nature and culture: all become fuzzy with information when we take a close look. 9:00am: installation set-up; 11:00am: specimen collection; 1:00pm analysis and discussion.

Seeing Cinnamomum

Date: April 23, 2016
Venue: Shanghai 1933, 上海虹口区涤阳路611号
Guides: George Kaye, Shi Xiang, April Xiong
Sponsor: Kick the Gong Around

Twelve portraits of Cinnamomum camphora leaves created during prior exhibitions and workshops will be displayed in a collectively compiled book. Record your impressions in watercolor and add a page. Leaf pressing and leaf hand craft demonstrations throughout the day.

Seeing Cinnamomum

Date: April 16, 2016
Venue: New York University, Shanghai Campus, 1555 Century Blvd, Pudong, Shanghai
Guides: Helen Zhang, Amy Shui, April Xiong, Eden Ruo
Partner: NYU Green Club

The NYU Sustainability Conference invites speakers to present recent initiatives in alternative energy, agriculture, education and related projects around China. The Book of Leaves will give attendees a sensory experience of the remarkable Camphor tree which is dispersed across Shanghai including along the boulevard in front of the NYU campus.

‘Book of Leaves’ on Lantern Festival

Date: February 20-21
Venue: Fangcundi Farmers Market, Shanghai
Guide: George Kaye
Partner: Shanghai Roots & Shoots
Sponsor: Fangcundi Farmers Market

The most commonly sighted trees around Shanghai include the ‘London’ plane tree, camphor, Yulan magnolia, ginkgo, deodara cedar and a handful of others. Pressed and dried leaf specimens will be arrayed for viewing, and together with visitors we will add text to a book that may become a cross of a scientific notebook and an artists’ field journal.

    Lantern Riddles (hint: all share the same answer!):

  1. Many mouths to aspirate , but not the air you animals take.
  2. All food comes from the sun, but at the table I’m number one.
  3. A hundred sisters and a hundred bros, some are high and some are low, work by day and sleep at night, all to help our mama grow.
  4. Our shapes may be linear, oval, cordate; our skin may be fuzzy, glossy or mat, but one thing’s for sure: we’re flat!

Book of Leaves: 300 Million Years

Date: October 31-Nov 1, 2015
Venue: The Nest 公益新天地,105 Puyu West Road, Shanghai
Guides: George Kaye, Dong Xiaoxun, Zhou Liying, Helen Zhang, Amy Shui, Li Jue, Xu Xiaoxun
Partner: Shanghai Roots and Shoots
Sponsor: The Nest

‘300 Million Years’ consists of an 8-meter long scroll on which leaves from common trees are arranged in order of each species’ appearance in the fossil record. In their wildly varied shapes, sizes, configurations, textures, numbers, vein patterns, scents, surface colorations, etc. leaves present us with evidence of an epic story occuring over the giant span of geologic time. Episodes in this story include chance discoveries, migrations, species invasions, battles with disease, bad weather, sexual liaisons, sunny days, and thirst, all underlaid by unexpected genetic, metabolic, geologic and atmospheric transformations. The book can be “read” as a continuous narrative, in sections, or by individual leaf.

Saturday, Oct 31: Tree species survey (10:00am); Leaf analysis and discussion (11:30am); Leaf arrangement and inscription (2:00pm).
Sunday, Nov 1: Leaf drawing and watercolor painting (all day).



Background
Most of the tree genera around us go back at least to the Pliocene era, around 2.5 million years ago, when the first hominins (a.k.a. humans) started branching off from other primates. Many more go much further back, like the Magnoliidae (e.g. Magnolias) which diversified around 90 million years ago, and most gymnosperms (e.g. Gingko, Cedar, Cypress) which first appeared as far back as 270 million years ago.

timeline

From the time algal life forms first slithered up onto land until today there have been eleven major “chapters” (eras) in the story of plant evolution (and the evolution of the whole earth). The first starts with the appearance of plants on land and ends as atmospheric CO2 reached an all-time high (Cambrian era). It took another 70 million years or so for plants to develop vascular systems, accelerated by a drop in CO2 levels. The next chapter contains the advent of leaves (which were actually re-invented several times over), probably originating as outgrowths to protect plants from expanding populations of herbivores. Effective for gathering sunlight, leaves would have overheated if not for the transpiration made possible by vascular systems and the development of more densely arranged stomata (breathing openings) in connection with lower levels of CO2. By the Carboniferous era vast forests covered the earth. They included many now extinct tree species, individual trees reaching up to 30 meters high. The development of seed plants occurred in response to fluctuating periods of aridity. Seeds, with their fully enclosed barrier, could survive periods of dormancy, germinating when humid weather returned. The gymnosperms (i.e. no ovary or fruit surrounding the seed) include the cycads as well as all conifers and the idiosyncratic Ginkgo.

timeline2

A chain of cataclysmic events at the end of the Permian era precipitated the extinction of much life on earth, including 96% of marine species and 70% of terrestrial vertebrates. The plants fared better, drastically rearranged and with 50% of species wiped out, but most plant families surviving. By the end of the Triassic gymnosperm forests were again flourishing along with myriad new insect groups, many of which are still around, and of course the reptiles. The emergence of the flowering plants was slow going. Leaves that curled around to protect the female gamete gradually evolved to fully enclose it. The petal and carpel are essentially leaves that have evolved to a specialized reproductive function. While they emerged an incredible 150 million years after the gymnosperms, the flowering plants radiated across the newly separating continents, co-evolving with animal pollinators and by the end of the Cretaceous period becoming by far the most dominant and diverse group of plant life on earth. The angiosperms have adapted to a bewildering array of ecological niches over the past 70 million years, harnessing the power of animal dispersers to achieve unprecedented genetic responsiveness. As the plant species have proliferated so have their stories that teach us of strength, hardship, creativity, continuity, partnership and more. The final chapter includes the appearance of humankind on the scene, who through our short history of agricultural and horticultural interventions have become deeply implicated in this unfolding saga.

Sun Spinning at DesignShanghai

Exhibition Date: Sep 24-26, 2015
Exhibition Venue: Shanghai Exhibition Center
Guide: George Kaye
Partners: iEnergy, 1001 Love/ LOOP

‘Sun Spinning’ consists of an arc of spinning color wheels powered by bicycle, to be mounted in the courtyard of the Shanghai Exhibition Center during Shanghai Design Week. Create a color wheel and put it in motion! In partnership with iEnergy, creators of the convivial build-your-own bamboo bicycle workshops.

Flying Skies

Date: June 6-7, 2015
Venue: Shanghai Ecodesign Fair, Shanghai Kerry Center
Artist: Studio Éleméntaires
Sponsor: Shanghai Ecodesign Fair
Materials: Bamboo, kite paper, steel fame and mechanical parts, arduino and anemometer.

Twelve handmade kites imprinted with images of the sky above Shanghai on different days, accompanied by a giant flipbook that captures the passage of time as the kites travel across the sky. The flipbook is calibrated to current windspeed by wireless link to a nearby anemometer.

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Pathways to Fortune

Date: June 6-7, 2015
Venue: Shanghai Ecodesign Fair, Shanghai Kerry Center
Artist: Ameet Gill
Sponsor: Shanghai Ecodesign Fair
Materials: Organic matter and plaster, ceramic fortune cookies, tasty baked fortune cookies

Step-by-step crossings through the spraying jets of water of the Kerry Center fountain. Stepstones created from compressed humus and organic matter indicate pathways along which our fortunes may be found.

Artist’s statement: “A gentle reminder of our hand in hand existence with nature while advancing towards our fortunes.”

Eco Guides

Date: June 6-7, 2015
Venue: Shanghai Ecodesign Fair, Shanghai Kerry Center
Guides: Gao Yike, Mu Zi, Chloe Luo, Heather Kaye
Cooperating Partners: GangHao, Charyou, Huodongxing, YK Pao School BEES
Sponsored by: Shanghai Ecodesign Fair

The Ecodesign Fair Eco Guides is a corps of outstanding guides who have a dynamic flair for facilitating others’ discovery. This year more than fifty guides of all ages are dispersed throughout the event interacting with visitors, beginning with the greeting “how did you get here?”

ecoguides

Sun Spinning at EcoDesign Fair

Exhibition Date: June 6-7, 2015
Exhibition Venue: Shanghai Kerry Center
Arts Practitioners: George Kaye, Michael Yang
Partners: iEnergy, Shanghai HeARTS, Firefly Culture, Shanghai Girl Scouts
Sponsor: Shanghai Ecodesign Fair

A giant bicycle-powered spinning machine! Color wheels created during workshops throughout April and May will be mounted on an array of axles at the Ecodesign Fair. Hop on for a ride into the sunlight!

Artful Migrants

Date: June 6-7, 2015
Venue: 2015 Shanghai Ecodesign Fair, Shanghai Kerry Center
Guides: George Kaye, Han Aiying 韩爱颖, Lu Qing 卢清,Zhang Qihua 张琦华,Yang jianghuai 杨江怀, Xi Xiaoyi 席小艾,Xiao Wei 徐晓伟,Amy Shui 水华,Li Jue李爵
Partners: Fireflies Culture 萤火虫文化, Being 碧易环术
Sponsor: Shanghai Ecodesign Fair

‘Artful Migrants’ is a public artwork created for the Shanghai Ecodesign Fair. During the fair visitors choose pressed and dried plant specimens and pin them to a standing mural according to their own logical and aesthetic criteria. The criteria for arrangement may include classical taxonomy, color, size, shape, smell, etc. Visitors may play the role of a gardener, city planner, botanical scientist, or something else as they move specimens around the mural. As the plants are moved around visitors become more familiarized with the delicate structures and special qualities of the local botanical population.



Specimen sorting and exhibition prep
Date: 2015年5月31日
Venue: Studio 5, Shanghai. 169 Jiashan Rd., No. 5



Specimen collection and arrangement
Date: 2015年5月24日
Venue: Fuxing Park, Shanghai. Gate 2, 1pm-3pm,

Field notes: We built a kind of totem pole to honor plants in Fuxing Park today, especially the Ginkgo. In a last-minute hunt around the studio I found some cartons that stacked up nicely in the park. A ginkgo tree was located by the playground and some of its fallen leaves were pinned to the top of the stack, among a haphazard sampling of other botanical specimens. Totem poles are not objects of worship, but are artworks that commemorate exchange and reconnect a culture to wild nature. — George


Specimen collection and pin-up
Date: May 10, 2015
Venue: Jing’An Sculpture Park, Shanghai. Beijing W. Road entrance (Shanghai Natural History Museum main gate), 1pm-3pm.

Field notes: Nineteen species of plants sighted today including camphor trees, a Gingko, 铜钱草,a Magnolia, 红花檵木(Loropetalum chinense), winter jasmine, a species of rhododendron and others less readily identified. — George

A gardener crouched down pulling weeds comments that the weeds he is pulling are medicinal plants. 铜钱草 (tongqian grass) they are called. Some quick research reveals that it is used as a tonic for fever and bowel complaints– and also to battle leprosy, among other ailments. The latin name is Hydrocotyle vulgaris. A toad that dwells among the 铜钱草 hops away. There are lots of them around, says the gardener. Its skin is strange and horrifying, like a leper. Of what medicinal use is the weed to the toad? What gifts has the toad has passed to the weed? — George


Specimen collection and bike ride to Changfeng Park
Date: May 3, 2015
Venue: Zhongshan Park, Shanghai. North Gate No. 2 (Wanhangdu Lu), 10am-12pm.

Field notes: As we were inspecting a small red fruit that had fallen to the ground, two women nearby turned and offered that we were standing next to a pomegranate tree. Another man strolling by concurred, and the three of them then pointed out what they said was a willow tree but didn’t look like a willow to me. Folk knowledge, book learning, wisdom, conjecture and supposition are all on offer when speaking to people about the plants around us. The truth may be elusive… — George



Specimen collection and visit to Longhua Temple Fair
Date:April 25, 2015
Venue: Longhua Martyr’s Park, Shanghai. South Gate, 11:15am-1pm.

“Nature Scriptorium” at ARTHarbin

Date: December 16-22, 2014
Venue: ARTHarbin International Exhibition of Contemporary Art, Art Home Plaza 艺汇家, Harbin.
Guides: George Kaye, Teng Haiying
Sponsor: Harbin Bureau of Public Affairs

The Nature Scriptorium is a six-sided pagoda constructed of bamboo and rice paper onto which individual ecographs are inscribed by the public with Chinese brush and ink. For ArtHarbin, a subset of ecographs are exhibited that directly relate to the 5 elements of Chinese philosophy (metal, wood, water, fire, earth), plus the enveloping air, i.e. 气(”qi”). Suspended above the scriptorium are six hand-made kites adorned with ecographs that relate to the sensation of air.

For the opening ceremony the artist Teng Haiying created an ink painting on the entryway panel of the structure, filling the large sheet of rice paper in swift strokes with the image of a bee hovering in the air, piercing a flower with its tongue.

The ecographs scriptorium is designed and constructed by George Kaye. ARTHarbin is hosted by the Harbin Bureau of Public Affairs, and includes the works of over 20 artists from China and abroad. More information about ArtHarbin is available at www.yihuijia.com.cn.

Colors of Shanghai

Date: December 6, 2014 10am-4pm
Exhibition Venue: The Good Gift Fair, 164 Wulumuqi M. Road, Shanghai
Guides: George Kaye, Michael Yang 杨江淮,Amy Shui 水华
Sponsor: Good Gift Fair

A series of three murals depicting street scenes from Xuhui’s Jiashan Road (created with students from Shanghai No. 2. Middle School) will be displayed at the Good Gift Fair. Visitors may color the murals and add detail. A proposal to display the murals on Jiashan Road after the fair is pending with the Xuhui neighborhood committee.

Good Gift Fair

ggf banner

Date: December 6, 2014
Venue: Shanghai Hunan Neighborhood Cultural Activities Center
Orgnizers: George Kaye, Sherry Poon, Crystal Wan, Catherine Szeto
Partners: Hunan Neighborhood, GHaoGS, ECOnomy Magazine
Sponsors: MuLiMuWai,Pure Living,Green & Gorgeous

The GOOD Gift Fair brings together fine artists, outstanding civil society organizations and the public in Shanghai’s Hunan Road neighborhood in early December. This festive and fun-filled day is free for all.

The fair offers the public a chance to contribute to a wide variety of civil society programs (20 RMB: purchase a school book for a migrant child; 25 RMB: purchase a tree planting in Inner Mongolia; 35 RMB: fund 1% of a years’ tuition for an aspiring college student). Visitors may also interact with artists and receive gifts of beautiful works of art created on the spot. A variety of colorful music and dance performances take place throughout the day, and food and hot drinks are served by favorite neighborhood purveyors.

For more information visit the website: goodgiftfair.com

Air Tunes

April 19-20, 2014
The NEST, 105 Puyu Xi Rd, Shanghai
Artist: Ameet Gill
Partners: Manuela Frank and SAS Middle School
Sponsor: Shanghai Ecodesign Fair

Air awakens us to its presence by its changing movement, which we perceive on our bodies and all around us. Light, colorful things especially that change in response to the air put us in mind of changes in the air itself.

Air Tunes is a mixed media installation that combines giant chimes made from over 200 crochet circles and a garden of pinwheels made by students at SAS Middle School. Visitors are invited to remove a pinwheel from the garden and replace it with a puff of wildflower seed, that may grow to mark the beginning of a change that is taking place.

Artist’s statement: “This installation asks the public to engage in completing the piece, and also to carry a part of it home as a reminder of the change in choices we need to make today for a better tomorrow.”

Sponsored by: Shanghai EcoDesign Fair

Air Hug & Snugger

April 19-20, 2014
The NEST, 105 Puyu Xi Rd, Shanghai
Artist: Loes Venker-de Noo
Sponsor: Shanghai EcoDesign Fair

Air Hug and Snugger is a whimsically knitted air filtration system shimmering with color that clarifies the mind and soul.

Artist’s Statement: “If you are good to the air, the air will be good to you. Hug it. Make it nice and snug. Your affections will be returned.”

Beautiful Mushrooms

Date: April 19-20, 2014
Venue: Shanghai EcoDesign Fair, The NEST, 105 Puyu Xi Rd, Shanghai
Sponsor: Shanghai EcoDesign Fair
Artist: 露Lou 露Lou
Partner: Zhi Geng Nong
Sponsor: Shanghai EcoDesign Fair

From lofty events in the atmosphere to the lowliest stirrings underground beauty surrounds us. Materials that are useful and/or nutritious surround us too. Take the mushroom: ubiquitous, fast growing, complex, tender, sometimes delicious, sometimes dangerous. Whether we value mushrooms for their beauty, their utility, or not at all comes down to our frame of mind.

In this interactive installation the artist duo 露Lou 露Lou have teamed up with Zhi Geng Nong, a social enterprise engaged in consumer food awareness and farmer training, in a happy marriage of aesthetics and action. Beautiful Mushrooms invites a sensory experience of soil, mushrooms, clay and porcelain, and a conversation about ecology.

Aspiration Traces

Date: Sunday, April 20, 2014, 2:00pm
Venue: The NEST, 105 Puyu Xi Rd, Shanghai
Guides: Vivienne He, Yan, Jane Wang, Jay Peng, George Kaye
Sponsor: Shanghai EcoDesign Fair

Breathing is the most essential movement. What traces does our breath leave, hanging in the air? What of further extended movements, the day-in and day-out expressions of our dreams and aspirations. What traces do they leave, hanging in the air?

Aspiration Traces is a study of movement and an experiment in representing interaction with the enveloping air visually, using brush and vegetable dyes. It is also a gradually unfolding observance of the most essential movement, by which we establish ourselves in a reciprocating relationship with the air.

That Flies

Exhibition Date: April 19-20, 2014
Exhibition Venue: Shanghai Ecodesign Fair, The NEST (105 Puyu Xi Rd, Shanghai)
Artists: George Kaye, Siu Tang, Zhang Jian-Jun and Barbara Edelstein, and individual ecographs creators
Partner: Xuhang Town Kite Club
Sponsor: Shanghai EcoDesign Fair

Air, 气,हवा, אוויר , hewa, לופט, umoya, ਹਵਾ, هواء. The thing that flies in our nostrils and flies though our lungs, flies over the treetops and across the cosmic night goes by many names. That Flies is a kite exhibition and interactive public artwork which invites everyone to devise a new name for the “thing that flies”, to make kites and decorate them with these names, and then to see if they fly.

 

Ecographs Scriptorium: 2013 DesignShanghai

Exhibition Date: January 19, 2014
Exhibition Venue: The Nest, 105 Puyu West Road, Shanghai
Arts Practitioner(s) George Kaye,Zhang Yi,Ding Yiyin
Partners:Shanghai Roots & Shoots,Hezhong Environmental Advocacy Center,Xin Che JianWABC, Helin Art
Sponsor: 2013 Design Shanghai Organization Committee

Five tables surround a pagoda built of bamboo and rice paper. At each table a representative from a selected civil society organization leads an art activity related to the five elements of Chinese philosophy (metal, wood, water,fire, earth). Visitors draw ecographs from the dictionary relating to the five elements on the five walls of the pagoda, or invent their own.

From inside the pagoda the ecographs can be observed taking form. Like the boundaries between nature and culture, the walls of the pagoda are a place of information flow.

Ecographs at 2013 Shanghai Ecodesign Fair

Exhibition Date: April 13-14, 2013
Exhibition Venue: Shanghai Ecodesign Fair, ‘Cool Docks’, Shanghai
Guides: George Kaye, Sofia Yao, Han Pan, Chen Chao
Sponsor: Shanghai Ecodesign Fair

Choose your favorite ecograph from the “dictionary” (over 100 have been created to date in separate workshops) and draw it using brush and ink on a giant standing screen at the entrance of the Ecodesign Fair. Each ecograph is idiosyncratic, but they all express experiences of nature that expand our awareness of the communicating world.

Urban DNA

Date: April 13-14,2013
Venue: Shanghai Ecodesign Fair, The Cool Docks, Shanghai
Artist: Xu Zhifeng
Partners: Futian Recycling Center
Sponsor: Shanghai Ecodesign Fair

Urban DNA consists of a dynamic system of residual objects spiraling 6 meters up to the sky arrayed around an armature of steel pipe.

Artist statement: “The scale of this work is in similar proportion to the city as the dna molecule is to the body. The individual components of the work come from all over Shanghai (via Futian, a not-for-profit recycling center). These bottles, packages and other waste reflect what we use, drink, eat. They are like imprints of the city’s genes, and assembling them this way provides an opportunity to reflect on our wastes as integral to what the city is.”


urban-dna_shw1484

2012年尚礼之艺

The Shanghai Good Gift Fair is an alternative shopping event held in downtown Shanghai before the winter holidays. The public is invited to mingle with representatives from a variety of local charities and learn about their programs and good works. In addition visitors may meet several top artists from the Shanghai area that volunteer their time to be at the fair. In exchange for donations to charity programs, visitors may receive unique little works of art which the artists draw, paint or otherwise create on the spot. Visitors may then present these small works of art to family and friends during the holidays.

For more information visit the website: goodgiftfair.com

City of Questions, City of Stuff

Date: August 22-September 3, 2012
Venue: Compatible Bazaar,98 Anshun Rd., Stall 26, Shanghai
Artists: Cheng Jingyan (程精雁), Jianwei Fong (冯建伟), Lucinda Holmes, Lin Yuan (林苑), Wang Yuhong (王煜宏), Zhang Yi (张怡)
Curator: George Kaye
Partner: Xiyitang

“City of Questions, City of Stuff” is a group installation created by six artists working in Shanghai, each contributing a small component of an imaginary city made from materials that might otherwise have been discarded. Each component of the city—an apartment house, a factory, a park – is entitled with a question about waste: Where do my food scraps end up? What is the most useless thing? How many full-time sanitation employees does the city employ?

The artworks are each mounted on pedestals made from construction debris, and stand at eye-height. Visitors can meander through the city “streets” and view the details of each artwork close-up. Visitors are also invited to add their questions about waste to a list that is exhibited on one wall, which will be compiled and delivered to the public affairs officer at the Xuhui District Dept. of Sanitation.


Questions from the wall:

What can I do with the plastic food trays from supermarket ?

What is the second most wasteful species on earth?

Is encouraging consumption in China a waste of money? For example: weddings, banquets.

What kind of building materials are used in the U.S.?

I have a lots of old packaging, how do I deal with these things?

How will you deal with the garbage left over from this exhibition?

How to deal with visual junk?

Are “environmental protection” and “green living” universally accepted?

Does the Government make money through garbage disposal?

Where does municipal wastewater discharge go to?

Where do restaurant leftovers go?

Where is contaminated drain water from toilets discharged?

How can ashes from burning paper products be managed? Is it harmful?

There is dog poop everywhere. What measures is government taking?

How should roadside vendor’s rotting food be processed?

Where are the city’s septic facilities located?

How can empty paint cans be recycled?

How can batteries be separated from trash and recycled?

Can plastic shampoo and soap bottles be recycled?

Vehicles are causing excessive air pollution. How can exhaust be purified?

The continual rebuilding of neighborhood pipelines is causing serious air pollution: is this constant tinkering a kind of waste?

The exhaust fumes from restaurant kitchens located on the first floor of residential neighborhoods is causing air pollution.

Are there too many disposable plastic food containers?

What is proportion of total garbage to total garbage bags?

How many trees have I eaten? Stop using disposable chopsticks.

Waste is not waste, focus on use.

How can we deal with pesticide bottles and bags?

Is waste really wasted?

How much water does your home toilet use each day?

What can not be reused?

Plants! Plants!

What is a real artist?

“Blow”

Date: April 14, 2012
Venue: Shanghai Ecodesign Fair, The Waterhouse, Shanghai
Artist: Robin Andersson
Sponsor: Shanghai Ecodesign Fair

“Blow” is a work created by Robin Andersson, commissioned for the 2012 Shanghai Eco Design Fair. Used and broken umbrellas are re-imagined as components in a delicate system of nature, exhibiting what all living things have in common: a capacity for re-production and evolution.

Artist statement: “Most people can relate to the cheap umbrellas sold by street vendors that pop up the minute it rains. “Blow” is reminiscent of a dandelion with its seeds (umbrellas) blown away. I use quite many umbrellas to create a larger spatial impression.”

I don’t Care

Date: April 14, 2012
Venue: The Waterhouse, Shanghai
Artist: Francesca Galeazzi
Sponsor: Shanghai Ecodesign Fair

“I don’t Care” is an artwork created by Francesca Galeazzi for the 2012 Shanghai Eco Design Fair. Three balloons were suspended over the crowd, representing the three atoms in the CO2 molecule. The balloons have a combined volume of 14 cubic meters, the amount of daily per capita carbon emissions in Shanghai (source: Shanghai Statistical Yearbook and Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change). A descriptive postcard was distributed throughout the fair venue, and fairgoers were invited to reach up and spin the balloons, keeping their two-sided message in motion.

Artist statement: “The scary statistics about global warming or environmental degradation that we are constantly bombarded with are not really effective; usually the result is that people actually disengage…I am interested in ways in which we can represent and visualise our environmental impact in simple terms.”


我不管

Mind Box

Exhibition Date: April 14, 2012
Exhibition Venue: Shanghai Ecodesign Fair, The Waterhouse, Shanghai
Artist: Zhao Yunbo
Partner(s): Shanghai Oasis Environmental Center, Marine Dream China, Shangyin Gongyi, Shanghai Roots & Shoots, Charyou
Sponsor(s): Shanghai Ecodesign Fair

“Mind Box” is an interactive exhibit that employs symbols for “eco-values” designed by participants of workshops organized by five different NGOs. Meet representatives from vital environmental organizations in Shanghai and render your eco-values in paint on a canvas mural spanning across a courtyard at the fair.

The Ground Beneath Our Feet

Date: Sept 15-17, 2011
Venue: Eco Lifestyles Design Fair, Shanghai World Expo Theme Pavilion
Artist: Caitlin Reilly
Sponsor: Y+ Yoga

A small patch of grass is situated in the center of the crowded pavilion, where visitors are encouraged to remove their shoes, relax, and feel the ground beneath their feet.

Artist’s statement: “This installation is about touching the earth. It is a reminder of nature in urban spaces, but more so it is a reminder that sustainability is an attitude, a memory, a reflection.”

2011 Good Gift Fair

The Shanghai Good Gift Fair is an alternative shopping event held in downtown Shanghai before the winter holidays. The public is invited to mingle with representatives from a variety of local charities and learn about their programs and good works. In addition visitors may meet several top artists from the Shanghai area that volunteer their time to be at the fair. In exchange for donations to charity programs, visitors may receive unique gift cards which the artists draw, paint or otherwise create on the spot which communicate the goals of the recipient program. Visitors may then present these small works of art to family and friends during the holidays.

For more information visit the website: goodgiftfair.com