Song Dong 36 Calendars

This is a very interesting project and there were a lot to see in the exhibition. I think what Song Dong get inspired for this project, which is his daughter’s color book, is really great. That’s because the color books were something I familiar with and that’s why I was impetuous to color his paintings. There are only light graphic lines to form every picture in each calendar. Although they are just pencil drawing, the pictures were drawn in detail. They look like photographs which are usually put in real calendars. Song Dong was not trying to paint something abstract. He just wanted to record something important happened in his life, including some personal events as well as the historical ones. He is quite is ‘realism’ artist in this project.

Besides, with the descriptions written underneath each picture, it was easier for us to understand what event he was trying to record and more importantly, his feelings. He spent quite a lot of time to flip over the history and pick something that really affects China and the world to record. This was never an easy job.

Different calendar inspired people in different degree. Although some of them were Song Dong’s personal events, I was inspired by them as some of them were really touching. Like the one above, it recorded his life after his mother’s death. He said he always cried awake and his hair started to fall. He thought that’s because his mother was thinking of him. Each time she thought she would bring one away. However, he would feel thankful instead of angry when people ask him about his hair. This reminded him that he was thought by his mother. This piece nearly moved me into tears as I remembered that he was in a very good relationship with his mother. In the year 1983, his family went picnic in a park and his mum insisted to leave all the oranges to Song Dong. His mum always left the best to her kids. She demonstrated what sacrifice was. I immediately think of my mum when I saw Song’s work. She was that great as Song's mum.

I really appreciate the idea of inviting 400 public to edit Song’s work freely. Other than promoting the exhibition, the activity can also encourage the public to be creative and the idea of “making our own calendars” can be spread. It was fascinating to see the public’s works which add lots of colors to the exhibition. I think they were even more eye-catching than Song’s work as the productions of each participant were very different. There were mainly two parts that they can edit and they are the “calendar” part and the “picture” part.

In terms of color, some participants only use one color while some use many colors to edit Song’s work. To some extend, color reflects the emotion of a person. I personally appreciate the following creation most though her pessimistic worried me. She first acted as a student to do assignment. She wrote four short stories and one line on each day. She was creative but her message was not wanting to compromise with the world anymore and her attitude was negative. Then, she acted as a teacher to mark her work, giving grade C-. However, she gave an A+++ for her comment as a teacher writing ‘not to give up and your memory is not something wrong’. The words were all in red. I was really shocked and I wonder what have this creator experienced, causing her that depressed. It was a shame that the name tag of the work did not include the age of the creator.

Next, the effect of the tools used for the public creation was prominent. The organizer provided the participants with water color, pencils and rubbers. Water color is easy to use even for young kids. Rubbers provide a great space for them to exert creativity. They could use rubbers to rub away the parts they didn't like. Also, the rubber scrap could be a part of the creation which made the creation to become a three-dimensional creation. The scrap in the creation on the left makes the work rough. The creator seemed not wanting to recall any memories.

At last, in terms of the principles of design, most people wrote down very personal feelings and marked the date which was their personal events like the birthday of someone or holidays. That’s why I think it was very clever for Song Dong to say that this is the start of the project. I think the participants as well as those who have visited would have thought of creating their own calendars or diaries with sketches. To me, everyone can draw and skills can be improved through practice. Thus, I think this is a good start for everyone to record their lives and emotions. The principles of design of the public works were varied yet they were mainly inspired by daily lives.

All in all, I enjoy the part of public creation more than the original part of Song Dong. Maybe there were more colors and the ideas of the participants varied more instead of mainly recording the facts. That’s why human are precious as they have thinking and emotions.