SONG DONG: WASTE NOT
Row upon row of toothbrushes, bars of soap, drinking straws, cigarette lighters, balls of string, stuffed toys, old shoes and newspapers are a poignant arrangement of an entire life.
These 10,000 domestic items are the treasured possessions that Chinese artist Song Dong’s mother collected and hoarded and over five decades. The title of his installation, Waste Not, refers to his mother’s relationship with the material world, like many who grew up in poverty throughout the Cultural Revolution. Song Dong’s mother, Zhao Xiang Yaun, refused to throw anything away in case it could be re-used, and her frugality slowly developed into hoarding. Following the sudden death of her husband, the resulting emotional breakdown took her habit to the extreme. The objects began to fill her house and clutter her life, and any attempt by her children to tidy and remove the collection only served to fuel their mother’s unhappiness because, as she saw it, all those disposed objects could one day have served a use and found their purpose.
It’s a visually confronting installation, with thousands of everyday objects brought together to tell the story of a life, and a family. The scale of the collection is astonishing, and the smaller details are moving and even sometimes disturbing – she had kept every bottle cap, every scrap of fabric, every plastic bag. There’s a profound intimacy in examining the contents of a person’s house, and as we sift through the old plates, cutlery, and broken pens we can’t help but feel a special affinity with Song Dong and his mother.
Song Dong conceived the installation to give his mother, “space to put her memories and history in order.” These objects were her memory, and in the original showing of the work in Beijing in 2005 she helped her son arrange each item. Song Dong says of Waste Not, “Through this work I wished to reconnect my mother with people and give her a new start in life.” Sadly his mother died in 2009, but before her death she was thrilled that all the things she had saved and kept had not been wasted, and instead had been put to such good use as art.
Jan 5-Mar 17, CarriageWorks, 245 Wilson St, Eveleigh, free, sydneyfestival.org.au
