Tasmanian Artist-in-Residence China Activity Report

18, Nov. 2024

As the one-month artist residency in China draws to a close, Hope Smith has gained various impressions during her stay. She experienced direct visual and spiritual impacts from a foreign culture, including jungle-like skyscrapers different from Tasmania's wilderness landscapes, endless flows of people and vehicles in the city, climate and humidity unlike Tasmania's, transportation arteries connected by ubiquitous tunnels and overpasses, beautiful night scenery with lights lining both sides of the Qiantang River, as well as countryside fields and old houses, and Huangshan's unique rocks, peculiar trees, peaks, and clouds and mist completely different from Tasmania's Cradle Mountain.

During the final moments of this residency, we visited the Print Art College and Chinese Painting College of China Academy of Art, as well as the Exhibition of Prints by Teachers and Students of China Academy of Art and Musashino Art University at Zhejiang Art Museum. At the School of Print Making, we toured the copper plate, lithography, and screen printing studios. In the woodblock printing studio, we happened to meet Professor Zhang reviewing first-year students' rural sketching assignments. Hope expressed amazement at each student's sketchbook – the beautiful notebooks, covers, and sketching assignments. She watched students carving and printing woodblocks, lingering there for a long time. At the Chinese Painting College, students from different grades and disciplines studied landscape, figure, flower-and-bird painting, and calligraphy. Hope showed strong interest in a senior student's graduation project materials - silk painting, and engaged in discussion with the creator.

This visit also marked the approaching end of the artist's residency in China. Hope told me she wished she could have visited these places at the beginning. Indeed, as a printmaking artist, her regret made us realise the importance of communication. Every artist from different cultural backgrounds brings curiosity and creative inspiration to add different artistic nutrients to their works. It is precisely this desire that strengthens our association's determination to create more possibilities for international artistic exchange in the future.

This artist residency received strong support from the Zhejiang Academy of Fine Arts Jiangdi Art Park, great assistance from Huangshan Yongsheng Culture and Art Company, and support from the Print College of the School of Painting Art at China Academy of Art. We extend our special thanks and look forward to continued exchange and cooperation, contributing to the artistic exchange and development between China and Australia.