"Nemesis", Mustard Seed Garden, Beijing China

Installation/Performance
15 minutes
Mixed Media
performers: Zhao Ting Ting, Wang Wei

This exhibition took place over the course of 2 months. 6 artists would prepare for 1 week and exhibit for one day. Straws were drawn to decide the exhibition order. Materials used by each of the artists were to be left in the space to be used by the following artist. The entire exhibition had the sense of a game.

This was the first work to be exhibited in the "Nemesis" process. Each of the artists involved initally left one item in the space to be used in this exhibition. Items included: 250kg flour, 30 cleavers, 1 double bed, 1 wooden scaffold and 6 mosquito lamps.

Using the available items left by the other artists, this work became a tri-level scafolding consisting of a pool of live eels in water at the very top, the double bed with a television in the center, and a mule standing amongst piles of flour on the ground level. During the performance, a woman lays on the double bed in the middle level. At the exact time of the exhibition opening, a 10 alarm clocks buried in the flour were set to go off. Upon hearing the alarm clocks, the woman rises from the bed and descends to the ground level where she joins a man. The two get on their hands and knees and start cautiously sifting through the flour piles looking for the alarm clocks and the 30 cleavers that have also been buried in the flour. When either a cleaver or an alarmclock is discovered it is thrown into a pile on the other side of the room. After all the items are found, the woman returns to the double bed and lies back down.