In July and August 2026, we worked at the West 97 Art Community in Fulin, a village near Quanzhou, China. Fulin is a historic village with many traditional houses and temples. Many of the buildings are constructed from red bricks and natural stone pillars, and in many of the village’s narrow alleys and old houses, there are pieces of stone and rock that were hewn from nearby quarries
The exhibition Rock, Paper, Scissors 石头剪刀布 featured the sculptural figures we used in the performances, as well as photographs and short films of the performances. The exhibition however was more than just a record of the performances we did in and around the village.
The residency’s exhibition space is stunning, with very special brickwork and beautiful ornamentation and wood carvings. Our performance Carry That Weight inspired us to start making rocks ourselves, and we created more than forty blue and yellow stones and rocks, that are both props and sculptures. The exhibition thus became an otherworldly theatrical landscape, in which the surrealist figures crossed the boundary between exhibition- and public space.
All the works we did are about transience, time and the passing of time. That seems fitting in a village where the past is so very visible, and traditions are still very much alive -– we saw many rituals in the streets and beautiful little temples – but these works are more humorous than they are melancholic or sad.
