Half the Sky Installation Day

4/19/2014

T'Alyne's "Sunshine"

HTS delegates began arriving in Shenyang on April 11th, staying at hotels in the area before beginning to round up the last installation items on the 12th and moving into the dorms at LuXun Academy. They were greeted by friendly and helpful gallery and administrative staff. Rosemary Meza-DesPlas, our Installation Director, lead her team in unpacking shipped works on the 13th and created a detailed and thoughtful plan that was accepted almost in total by the gallery director Wang Yi Gang. On the morning of the 14th, gallery staff were still de-installing the previous exhibit, which meant a very long day for our installation crew, who were joined by the remaining delegates. As pieces started populating the walls and floors, Wang Yi Gang and many of the gallery staff members began smiling and sharing with us their excitement about how all of the works - the Chinese and those from the US - were creating an impressive exhibition. It was exhausting work in the reduced number of hours we had to install, but with much cooperation, we completed it by dinner.

Three of our delegates were unable to travel with us - Jill Waterhouse, S A Bachman, and Audrey Chan - hdue to family and personal health issues. Audrey had planned on helping us blog. Blogging became difficult due to very challenging internet connections. Even with. VPNs, the intermittent and overused servers prevented reliable access. Our documentation crew continued to focus on photographing and video.

Sherri Cornett
Director, Half the Sky: Intersections in Social Practice Art