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"Revaluing the Worthless" for A4 Residency Art Center, Chengdu, China
"Revaluing the Worthless" collected unwanted, discarded and donated electrical products and reanimated them to raise their value and spark renewed interest in them. Developed over two months with the generous support of A4 Residency Art Center, the final resulting installation was presented in the Snow Peak exhibition space in the CPI zone of Chengdu.
Here is a video that shows the various parts of the installation and how they have been installed in the space:
Once again I proposed to collect old and unwanted electrical products from the local community, and although in planning before I arrived in Chengdu, once again it took almost half the project development time to actually receive donations. And this time there were a great many and all at once! In comparison to the previous project in Japan, this collection of electronic waste differed greatly. Objects received ranged from a large commercial coffee maker to a paper shredder, a sausage grilling machine (still with original grease) to a small toaster oven. You will see almost everything in the video above as I tried to profile each. I also collected many materials from within the storage spaces of the residency center - the TVs, striplights, remote control car, dehumidifier, fans and even the scaffolding platforms used in the presentation.
In hindsight these scaffolding structures resemble shelving and as the exhibition space is an empty commercial space, it was appropriate to present the objects as if they were for sale again with their new reacquired value.
Thanks go to the team of A4 Residency Art Center, the fellow resident artists plus all those who donated their once prized possessions.
Below is a gallery of photos kindly taken by A4 Residency Art Center. To enlarge them please click on each.
Live performances during the residency
Above are photos of performances from (left) the opening event of the "Re-Create" exhibition at CPI and (right) Audible Area vol.28 at Streaming Records, Chengdu.
One of the first things asked of me on my arrival to A4 Residency Art Center was to prepare a performance for the opening event on 20th September 2025. My idea was to combine sounds of Chengdu I had collected over the two months with the sounds and actions of everyday electrical products. As the residency period passed I felt that vacuum cleaners would be the perfect addition to the piece. Three of them were triggered by certain sounds I played through large woofer speakers. But as with all best laid plans, they decided to activate at unplanned times. In the end I was happy they performed by themselves as I am only there to begin a process and let it unfold.
The concert at Streaming Records was kindly organised by Sun Wei, who also performed alongside some amazing local artists.
