Wang Qingsong: time-lapse video

As part of the Wang Qingsong project, ArtisanCam set up a time-lapse camera to record the events of the day. This is now available to watch online, alongside interviews with the artist and a gallery of his other work.

Follow this link to ArtisanCam

ArtisanCam use a mixture of video and interactive activities to introduce children to the world of contemporary visual art before encouraging them to have a go themselves in fun and exciting ways.

Wang Qingsong - Sept 13 photo gallery

We've uploaded two galleries worth of photos taken in the make-up rooms and around the building last Saturday. Many more were taken in the auditorium, but you'll have to wait until the final artwork is unveiled at BALTIC on 21 October before we can show them.

Meanwhile, follow the links:

Front of House
Make-up

Wang Qingsong - a volunteer writes

Was it theatre?

We weren’t acting, at least I don’t think we were. I could feel though that many of us would have slipped easily into more developed roles. Take the people with serious injuries; I don’t know whether the make up artists suggested what the injuries might have been, but every single person had a story – machete wounds, a bullet’s exit and entry, boiling oil. Most had added narrative about how they came to have the injuries, and as the morning wore on these stories became more elaborate and more fixed.

As more and more people congregated with gowns and injuries I began to get a sense of the waiting so familiar to hospital experiences, but this was fleeting. What made it so was the mismatch between the expressions on people’s faces and their body language and their apparent physical condition. It was an atmosphere of muted excitement which was in no way like that of a hospital or casualty ward. This mismatch felt OK. It was comfortable, anticipatory and not boring or scary enough to be “real”.

Shortly before we were asked into the auditorium I wondered what this unfamiliar artist would ask us to do, and if anyone would refuse. How might our appearances and apparent roles influence our behaviour. I was reminded of the famous Milgram experiments (1963 onwards “The Perils of Obedience” 1974) which demonstrated the extreme willingness of adults to go to almost any lengths on the command of authority. I noticed the people dressed as paramedics and volunteers wearing nursing gear and doctors’ coats with stethoscopes seemed to have slipped right into a recognisable stance and demeanour. Some of them had developed “important” walks. The Zimbardo prison experiment (1971) chillingly demonstrated that the mere wearing of uniforms dictated the ways in which groups of volunteers treated one another over a period of time. Awareness of this made me poised to resist – especially since I was dressed as a potential vulnerable “victim”.

In the event there was no opportunity for any of this. We simply had our photographs taken, and it was over in a very short time. I felt disappointment which was quickly replaced by curiosity at the suggestions people were making about what they would do next. Some were planning to go and impress their friends, scare people on the bus and fool their employers – I heard someone asking “their” make up artist how long they could make their injury last because they needed it for Monday. This was the day of the Newcastle United demonstration against Mike Ashley – people giggled about what an impact would we make if we all piled in wearing our gowns and injuries.

Was it theatre? Still not sure. It was good being in the theatre and taking part. It was fascinating being made up by a professional for the first time and seeing the process of Wang Quingsong’s work of art. I hope we all sat still enough for him to get four good shots!

Denise Johnson, volunteer participant
September 14th 2008

Wang Qingsong Liveblog

Today's the day and already over a hundred participants have entered the building, ready to be made up with a variety of interesting illnesses and horrific injuries prior to this afternoon's photo shoot.

Check back here regularly for comments from the participants as they tell us what's been going on so far, or drop into the Theatre where you can watch the days events unfold live on our foyer screens.

Lunchtime tai chi

On Friday 12 September we are holding lunchtime tai chi in Stage 2. Come along for a 12:30 start – you can take part in a 45 minute tai chi class suitable for beginners, followed by buffet lunch, tickets are only £4.

Places can be booked/reserved through our box office on 0191 230 5151.

How can the arts contribute to our emotional health?

As you may be aware, this week Northern Stage begins a residency with international artist Wang Qingsong. Qingsong is visiting us from China, to create a new photographic work exploring the notion of pain and healing, and theatre as a cathartic experience. The work involves 300 local participants being made up to look ill and bloodied, like a scene on a hospital ward, and will be exhibited at BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art from 21st October to 24th November.

Qingsong arrives this evening, and as part of this residency and exciting new project, Northern Stage is holding an in-depth discussion tomorrow on Friday 12th September at 18:30, here in Stage 2, ‘How can the arts contribute to our emotional health?’ In the developed world where self-help is big business, mental illness affects someone in almost every family and happiness is hard to define, let alone sustain, what role do the Arts have in promoting and improving our emotional health? Wang Qingsong, during his residency at Northern Stage, has suggested that the theatre is or can be a place of emotional healing, with something important in common with a hospital. Our panel discussion will ask if this is a view of theatre we recognise, whether poetry, fine art, dance, film, music or architecture can make us "emotionally well". This is also an opportunity for you to share your views and gain an insight into this extraordinary residency.

Professor Paul Younger, Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Engagement) at Newcastle University will be chairing the debate. The panel is made up of Erica Whyman, a theatre director and Chief Executive of Northern Stage, Dr Dominic Slowie GP and Artistic Director of Operating Theatre, a company which applies theatre practice to medical and public health learning, and Mike White, Director of Arts in Health at CAHHM, who has been awarded a fellowship of the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts to research community-based arts in health and build national/international links in this field. We also hope to welcome Wang Qingsong to our discussion to give his views on why he chose this topic for his new photographic work, kindly translated by his wife and working partner Zhang Fang.

We very much hope that the discussion will be of interest to you, and that you can come along and join us for this free event.

Places can be booked/reserved through our box office on 0191 230 5151.

We hope to see you there.

Jeremy Hunt on creating Hospital Patients

Jeremy Hunt, effects artist. My thoughts so far…

So, getting involved in a project where a photographer wants to take 300 people and make them look like the inhabitants of a hospital/waiting room? Cool! The fact that the artist is someone I had become aware of a couple of months before (on the Culture Show) made it even more exciting and intriguing.

Normally on effects work you focus on one individual and so the make up/prosthetic is at a real high level of detail, taking quite a long time to achieve the illusion. This project can only be achieved in a different was. Trying to get through the sheer volume of people to a level that will be convincing on a large-scale photo is a cool challenge. The only time I’ve ever attempted something like this was doing the make up for the ‘zombie raves’ that have been put on for the past couple of years. If you can turn a drunken techno crowd into the living dead by the dozen, this is also possible!

After meeting up with Beckie, the practicalities of the logistics because clearer and less scary. Knowing that there were going to be 4 other special effects artist on the project, as well as assistants, made it less daunting. Also, knowing that some of the 300 were to be hospital staff and visitors cut down on the numbers requiring make up. Northern Stage getting hold of props (such as bandages and drips) along with all the costumes (hospital gowns etc) also brings the project further into the possible. Still, the sheer volume of people in a short space of time makes it a scary amount of make up!

The effects have to be striking from a distance, quick to apply, convincing and realistic. With only around 5 minutes per person, the ailments have to be thought out well before. This required the traditional brainstorming technique used by creative types for a long time; myself and Mark (the other effects artist I know on the project) went to the pub. Over a couple of pints, we discussed the various injuries and illnesses we thought possible, coming up with a list of quite terrible things that can befall an individual! This covered things from diseases to burns, from animal attacks to a child getting a pan stuck on their head! Deciding we need a run through on a couple of them with a willing ‘victim’ for our practice (Caroline!) and gave her a variety of make ups, which we also photographed. Other prep work so far has involved creating a ‘wound tray’ of sculpted, moulded and then cast in latex prosthetics, which can be quickly applied and blended with make up.

Meeting up with the others involved in the project is something to look forward to; the sharing of ideas and solving problems as a group is always dynamic and exciting on projects like this. The day itself looms nearer; a day of relentless hard work where a few people will turn hundreds into a living canvas to achieve one man’s vision!

There’s something surreal and horribly amusing to me, as to how it will look before the photos are taken; a veritable horde of people with horrendous make up chatting and drinking tea. Then the photograph images themselves; how are they going to look? What is Wang Qingsong’s vision? Can’t wait to see – let’s hope we can pull it off!

Wang Qingsong update

Wang Qingsong: Changing Cities

As the day of the big shoot draws nearer I thought I’d give you a behind the scenes peek at all the goings on at Northern Stage.

We started planning for Wang Qingsong’s residency way back in February when Qingsong and his wife popped over for a R&D visit. He spent time a lot of time visiting Newcastle’s cultural landmarks, meeting the local people and understanding what Northern Stage and Newcastle meant to him. Ultimately he came up with the idea of theatre as an emotionally healing experience.

Since then the idea has developed somewhat. It was decided that 300 participants would feature in the photograph and would be made to look ‘bloodied’ and ill and as if they were in a hospital, waiting to be healed, or perhaps in an auditorium waiting for a performance to begin.

So began a search for 300 sets of gowns, scrubs, tabards and doctors and nurses outfits (of the practical not sexy variety!), stethoscopes and IV drips. In flooded the responses from make up artists informing us they were excellent at creating ‘wormy infections using thongs and latex’, missing fingers and ‘booze related injuries’ and so, with everything in place, we began the search for 300 volunteers to flaunt these wonderful wounds.

People applied from far and wide (from Edinburgh to London), some as young as 3 months and some as young as 76, and before we knew it we had over 600 participants interested in the project. After whittling down the applicants we sent out a congratulations or commiserations email and began planning the day.

We plan to stream live from Stage 1 while Wang Qingsong works, so nobody misses out and we are working closely with Culture Lab, who are documenting the entire day, following the process and also the journey of our participants. National Journalists will be interviewing Qingsong and capturing the whole process on camera, and the final images will preview at Northern Stage before being displayed at BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art from 21 October to 24 November.

Of course, there was plenty more to be arranged, visas, work permits, translators, schedules and itineraries, all the hospitality and logistics involved in such a big project, right down to all the tiny details of buying tons of make up remover and cotton wool, or enough pastries and sandwiches to feed 300 hungry patients! With Qingsong himself arriving next Thursday, everything is kicking into action, and things are getting really exciting… watch this space!


Sophie Temple

Applications closed for Wang Qingsong

With well over 500 applicants, we're sorry to say that we've closed the initial interest form for the Wang Qingsong project. If you applied then you should have recently received an email telling you a little more about the project, and requesting extra information about yourself.

If you missed your chance then you're still welcome to come along to the theatre on Saturday 13 September and watch the installation unfurl on the screens around the venue.