Encounters with wild birds of Beijing.

 

Early each morning, older generations of Chinese men stroll to local parks all over Beijing, carrying with them caged songbirds, which have become common pets. The men play cards and chess and their cages hang in nearby trees, the birds singing to one another.

 

In this installation video footage of my own encounters with the wild birds of Beijing is projected onto small screens inside the cages. The viewer can also hear bird song and the ambient hum of a city.

 

Discarded strips of cassette tape found in and around Fei Jia Cun, Beijing, 2009.

 

Here, discarded media is salvaged, re-spliced and re-presented. Magnetic cassette tape is usually found uncoiled and tangled in twigs or roadside bushes. This work was made by carefully collecting these long sparkling strips of obsolete media and re-connecting them to discover what sounds they hold. Chinese pop songs and techno music are audible beneath the warped crackles of an analogue media eroded by the elements.

 

As an installation a compilation cassette tape made from many of these strips of tape is played as a sound work on an old Sony tape deck.