Live anywhere long enough and it is easy to find yourself a little lost in the usual. You settle in a routine – a corner, more like – and you forget the special character of the place you live in. As a long time Beijing resident I have often been guilty of the misleading assessment of Beijing as … normalAt Caught up in the habit of holding your head down, eyes forward During the deadly confidentiality of commuter and everyday life. However, Beijing is of course anything but usual. It is a city that is flooded with history and culture, blessed with a unique and exquisite artificial heritage.
I was recently reminded of this when I was invited to participate in the opening of “The story of trees,” A joint exhibition from artists Niamh Cunningham and Zheng Qinyan on Dong Yue Art Museum Down in Dongdaqiao. Excited to get out of the house and discover a new-to-me-location in Beijing and eager to support a friend and an invaluable member of Peking’s artistic society, I jumped at the chance to attend this special event.
The artists
Niamh Cunningham is an Irish artist who has lived in China since 2010. Since arriving in China, her 15 exciting years have included active involvement in several local and cross -cultural projects. She has co-curated the annual exhibition “Irish Wave” (2012-2016) every March during the Irish festival in China in both Beijing and Shanghai, presenting contemporary art of Irish and Chinese artists. Her first separate exhibition in China, “A Eastward Calling” (2014), was held because of the newly renovated Dong Yue Art Museum, and she has held several duo and group exhibitions with Chinese artists. In May 2024, she was invited to Chengdu-Europe Culture season, in which the Xly MoMa Museum presented the “Memory Palace of Tree Stories-The Paintings” to great recognition. Her continued education is focused on eco-literacy that informs her art practice. Since 2020, she has collected tree stories from a global public to her award-winning Socio-ECO Art Practice Memory Palace in Wood Histories, and many of the pieces shown in this current exhibition were painted in response to individuals’ tree stories. In April 2024, Cunningham presented at Tedx Beixinqiao. She is a member of Visual Artists Ireland and a founding member of Haumea Ecoversity
Zheng Qinyan, a Chinese artist and academic, is professor and doctoral site at the Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA). She serves as director of the Children’s Art Research Center in CAFA, chair of the 6th Children’s Committee for the China Artists Association, and Deputy CEO and Secretary General of the first national management committee for aesthetic education in primary schools under the Ministry of Education. She is also the recipient of the Huamao Meiyu Award. In addition, she is a member of the Art Education Committee for the Beijing Artists Association, an expert member of the public education committee of the National Art Museum of China, a member of the China Calligraphers Association and a member of the China Artists Association. She is also a member of the Youth Federation of the Central State Government and an expert judge for domestic and international children’s painting competitions.
The works
The main room of the exhibition is on the right side of the inner patio when you enter the location from the street. Inside, Professor Zheng’s works occupy the walls of each end of the solemn, high -ceilinged rectangular space. The works are calm, reserved and still; They shine in quiet Stateliness, almost like Zheng himself, which during the opening event of the exhibition flows around the room, weaves through the crowd and makes no noise, but still sits with a sharp, discerning look.
The beautiful and wonderfully textured trees and leaves of Zhang’s works emerge from delicate rendered blocks of calligraphy, the text of sutras forming the roots of the trees, or in a few cases hovering stoically over sea waves. The simple compositions and relatively soft and subtle colors combined with the meditative repetitions of written words and water give a peaceful air and soothing effect on the viewer.
The meditative properties of Zheng’s paintings fit the room, and the experience is improved by the long silk rolls embrazoned with Buddhist lyrics that have been ink in the gold brush -calligraphy and hung from across the length of the ceiling.
In contrast, Niamh Cunningham’s paintings are lively and bursting with color, as if to say “here! Yes! Feel!” And we do. We are submerged in a series of composition perspectives that place us immediately within the scenes in the middle of electric colors, floating shapes and a dance of shadows and lights. Treading in front of each painting was like stepping into an explosion of cold air – exciting and refreshing. Cunningham is himself hot and Nacn, talkative, always friendly, gracious and penetrated by forging connections, whether with people or with nature.
Of course, Cunningham also has more quiet works on the screen here, including some from her former “Microbe” and “Sucrose” series. But still in each piece there is a shock of emotions, big or small, exuberant or contemplative. Cunningham’s works do not request and question a connection with trees, but rather they take it as a given. We are one with the trees and their stories – and therefore one with each other – as soon as we step in front of each piece.
Several of Cunningham’s pieces are attached to her ”Memory Palace of Wood Histories ” Series, a project where people from all over the world were invited to share stories about their connection to trees. Described by Cunningham as “a socio-ecological art practice that invites you to tell a story or share information about trees,” is the project “a creative-led social study of how we can … live better with the greater life community.”
The obvious difference in styles of the two artists was a point of direct reflection during the event: how these different styles – one energetic and bold colorful and one softer and more still – complement each other to form a coherent presentation, the buzzing outward expressiveness that fits into other calm grooves of the other that strives against a balanced presentation of the complexity of the trees themselves.
Across the inner patio from the main part of the exhibition is a long, narrow gallery space that Cunningham considers “Wood History Social Room”, where suspended monotypes are created during a previous weekend’s environmentally friendly art workshops for young students. There is also a TV screen where visitors can watch video footage from Cunningham’s “Tree Story” series.
The exhibition asks us to consider “Our connections to the natural world when we look at different perspectives and different tree stories from real people at a time of ecological challenge.”
The museum
Dong Yue Art Museum was erected on the old reasons for the Temple of a Yuan dynasty to Thunder’s God. It sits back from the street, next to the larger complex in the Dongyue Temple and Beijing Folk Museum, which we previously covered as part of our visit here series. The modest entrance to the Dong Yue Art Museum is quietly advertised by dark round -handed double doors and light lion statues, with the traditional wall in the encapsulation A small dab radiant red in the middle of the surrounding gray.
Visiting the exhibition
“The story of trees” runs until March 28. There is no price for access to the exhibition, but it is a good idea to call on as the museum’s front door is often closed due to wind. English speakers can contact Niamh on 186 1153 1047 for entry.
In addition, there will be two bilingual trips this weekend: one on Saturday 22 Mar. 11.30am to 12.30pm and one at Sun, March 23 from 16.00 to 17.00. Contact Niamh on WeChat (ID: SISTAC) for more information.
Dong Yue Art Museum
99 Chaoyangmenwai Dajie, Chaoyang District
朝阳区朝阳门外大街 141 号
Hours: Tirs-Sun 10 AM-NU, KL. 14 to 16
Contact: 18611531047 (Niamh)
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Photos: Abigail Weathers, thanks to the gallery