Karen Smith: lway from Lhasa to Katmandu…

"Artist s are only as good as the language they use to express themselves ; to express real feelings. Real personal feeling must reflect a n historical sensibility, a social experience…"

"In June 2006, I took a group of students from Hangzhou on their annual field trip. We went to Luhuo in the far west of Sichuan on the border with Tibet, which is home to a significant number of Tibetan nationals. I had already begun to use these trips for specific topic-based investigations into a wide variety of socio-cultural phenomenon specific to the location. This one was all about unravel l ing the idea of Shangri-La: its origins, location, and myths, as well as the reasons it became popular when it did in the West in the aftermath of WWI in tandem with the perceived bankruptcy of capitalist ideals."

Qiu Zhijie had visited this region before, but this visit would result in a new relationship, and the idea for th e project Railway from Lhasa to Kathmandu . The idea is based on the true story of Nain Singh, a 33-year-old Indian man who, in 1863, was given the task of journeying across Tibet, from the Indian side of the Himalayas, to the capital, Lhasa, in order to amass enough data to construct an accurate roadmap of the territory. His employer was Captain T.G. Montgomerie of the Royal British Engineers in India, under whose directives Nain underwent a two-year training programme, which included learning to walk in a precisely measured fashion, so that every one of his steps was exactly 33 inches. The precision of his stride allowed Nain to calculate the distance covered, which he recorded using a string of prayer beads. Orientation and altitude were read using a mercury-filled teacup and a thermometer inserted into his walking stick. Notes describing his route were concealed in the prayer wheel he carried. The data accumulated on this expedition (and subsequent forays) laid the foundation for an increasingly accurate mapping of the Tibetan plateau and the mountainous border regions, of particular importance to potential conquerors of Everest.

Naturally, the impetus at work behind the British survey—the Great Trigonometric Survey 1802-66—wasn't that innocent. There were always complicating political motivations for ‘visiting' Tibet. Geographical knowledge merely served to fuel the ambitions of so-called adventurers for exploring this eremitic land so removed from the developed world. In turn, stories of its impenetrable nature and preferred state of detachment fostered an aura of mystery and spiritual purity on what little was known of Tibetan culture and society. Over time, exacerbated by repeatedly rebuffed attempts by foreign expeditions to make headway across the border towards their goal, the capital, Lhasa, and against the background of the debates provoked by the rapidly changing socio-political reality engendered by WWI, attitudes shifted. The horrors of war prompted yearnings for a social model of peace and harmonious living and the sanctity of a spiritually cogent society, and Tibet gradually became viewed as the very model of Utopia.

"Thus, th e idea of Shangri-La was born. Of course, in the late 19th century, the British were motivated less by seeking enlightenment than in unlocking borders that would assist in the formulation of political, economically-driven policies. What followed in the early 1900 s (beginning with the expedition led by Francis Younghusband in 1904) wasn't exactly an invasion, but it certainly changed the course of history for Tibet."

"The second background to the project is the launch of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway on July 1st 2006, which is without doubt an epoch-making event in Tibetan history. It struck me that nothing the British could have done back then, nor even the imposition of Chinese sovereignty (in 1959), will have as much impact upon Tibet and the traditional way of life as the opening of a railroad connection between Golmud and Lhasa. The railway will be the instrument that will destroy the myths about Tibet, as it will allow everyone to discover its mysteries. The image of monks on motorbikes wielding mobile phones is hard to imagine, but it's part of the new reality. The railway is the modern world's invasion of Tibet. None of us can predict what it ultimately means for the Tibetan way of life. It has already changed so much from the old, traditional ways.

"I was thinking about this situation as we prepared for our trip. As we embarked upon our research, I came across the figure of Nain Singh —the first person really to penetrate Tibet. I have always been fascinated by maps, so it all made sense. I decided that, as a contemporary homage to Nain, I would walk the other way, from Lhasa to Kathmandu, attempting to follow exactly the same protocols he had at his disposal for mapping the journey. I would wear a fetter on my ankles to restrict my strides to the same exact measure of pace so as to record distances covered, and adopt the same techniques for calculating altitude and orientation. This journey, my ‘map', and all accompanying documentation are the core of the work.

"I was also keen to find a way to help the people in the region—there's much poverty there. I had previously met a number of artists in the area. Most put their skills to make paintings that are called tanka . Traditionally these depict deities, lamas and bodhisattvas —a Buddhist version of Christian altarpieces, for they focus on stories from the lives of these figures, miracles as well as moralities, as a means of disseminating spiritual values and preserving religious codes. For Tibetans, art represents a liberating force that can be a catalyst to enlightenment, even the scary visions of hell, gods of war and destruction. Most are produced anonymously —the painters have no concept of critical acclaim, celebrity or financial gain. They must be selfless in order to be open to enlightenment. It occurred to me that this was a perfect format for depicting the incredible story of Nain Singh. The narrative begins with Nain's training in the Himalayas. It then follows Nain on his journey on foot into Tibet, as he records the distance with his prayer beads, as he analyses the position of the sun and the stars against the horizon, and how all these observations are recorded on his prayer wheel.”

T he journey, at the same time, offers an ironic comment upon the fact that the next leg planned for the railway, from Lhasa to Kathmandu, heads back into the very territory the British once sought to protect.

"So I thought I'd forge the first section of the future rail track, to which end I collected as many metal objects as I could obtain from the local people along the route of the journey. These were melted down and recast as a length of track. I decided to suspend this in the space to remind people that this is the highest railway in the world.”

Weather conditions meant that Qiu Zhijie could only complete the first 600km of the 800km journey in 2006 . The rest was completed in early 2007, when, despite the harsh conditions, the only real obstacle to his successful descent into Nepal came from the painful chafing of the fetters eating into his ankles as he attempted to keep up with the masterful stride of each pace that Nain had established as the benchmark to be matched.

Qiu Zhijie is the intellectual dynamo of the contemporary art world in China. Engaging in parallel a ctivities simultaneously, displaying all the multitasking mental gymnastics of a wunderkind , Qiu Zhijie is as much art critic, philosopher, social historian and curator as visual artist. In all of these areas, he is never far from the frontline in thought, endeavour, intervention and innovation. It is a cutting edge that has all the physical appeal of a razor - sharp precipice , but Qiu Zhijie doesn't seem to care. Curatorial positions, performances, critical theories, and opinions flouted on web-blogs have yet to reveal any chinks in his armour: even in the face of the o utrage his views inevitably court . Qiu Zhijie parr ies controversy with evident flair, and take s on his critics with cocksure conviction of his position, his politics, and the premises he advances.

Artistically, Qiu Zhijie is also one of a kind. His works belie the paradox between traditional “Chinese” aesthetics and contemporary values: he is as much at home in the philosophies and practices of classical Chinese culture, specifically the techniques and history of calligraphy, which he writes with consummate skill , as post-modern discourse. He simply mixes and matches as the mood takes him, which is demonstrated to greatest effect in a multimedia work titled Rewriting the Lanting Xu . This involved the arduous physical act of writing a thousand times an inscription know n as the Lanting Xu — the preface to Poems Composed at the Orchid Pavilion , written by Wang Xizhi in 353, an exemplary work of literature and calligraphic skill subsequently adopted as a model for mastery of the art — across the same stretch of paper until the surface was consumed by a solid black film of ink. The final work comprises the black expanse of paper, a video recording of the process, and a series of photographic stills taken at regular intervals during the process.

Qiu Zhijie's skills and interests collide in a body of work that encompasses canvas painting, calligraph y , video works, installations , performance, and most recently, a seam of sociological investigations into a diverse range of topics associated with the changing cultural climate across China. Evidence of his zealous engagement with socio-cultural phenomena is present in a number of earlier video works. The title of one such example of t h e approach is Ping-pong , which references an actual historic circumstance that has come to be known as "Ping-Pong Diplomacy" —a term coined to describe a new era in Sino-US relations which was launched in 1971, when China invited the US table-tennis team to visit China for a friendly game with the local national team. The image of “ping-pong” was seen as an apt metaphor for relations between the two countries leading up to this moment — engendered by the victory of the New China communist regime over the Nationalists wh o had a strong following in America . As a direct result of the sporting gesture, Richard Nixon himself decided to travel to China a year later in 1972 , a visit that would change history . Qiu Zhijie's video work focuses on the training regime and ambitions of the students studying at a special sports school devoted to the task of producing table tennis champions. S ome of the se students are as young as four or five years old , but all dream of being ping-pong champions: i.e., national heroes.

Qiu Zhijie was a pioneer in the field of video art in China, less in terms of his own innovations than in identifying a growing interest in the medium amongst young artists, and giving credence to t he artistic potential of video art both in his writing and his curatorial activities. He was the driving force behind the first public exhibition of video art in China in 1996, in Hangzhou, and another the following year in Beijing, which remain hugely influential exhibitions. There is little that Qiu Zhijie has not attempted in the name of art. Although he rarely lingers in one intellectual space for long, and is constantly travelling, he is less of the "red guard of the avant-garde", a label ascribed to him in the late 1990s by artists who experience d working with him. Teaching now occupies a large amount of Qiu Zhijie's time —he is an associate professor at China National Academy , Hangzhou —but there is no reduction in the intensity of his output or his passions. If anything, the students enable him to achieve more than was ever in his power as an individual artist working alone. They also deserve credit for the part they played in helping Qiu Zhijie to realise his project for The Real Thing .