Immortal Jellyfish
This site-specific work is part of Space Regeneration Project's exhibition, Not There. The exhibition took place in the unoccupied and partly demolished site for the foreign creative consulting company PAE Media Group in Beijing's Chaoyang district. The building complex, completed in 2008, was used for barely 6 months before a land dispute lead to the company vacating. The structures were partially demolished and have been sitting unused. The grounds are visited now mostly by one man, on behalf of the land owner, who is followed around by the area's feral dogs and one very fat white cat.
For the month of November, 2013, the grounds were once again occupied by a group of artists, responding to and augmenting the site through painting, sculpture, performance, and social interaction.
Immortal jellyfish are currently living in every ocean of the world. These tiny creatures (the size of a pinky fingernail) are the only known organisms with the ability to de-age. They achieve this through a process called cell morphigation, in which cells are essentially repurpose. Adults can become polyps again. By repeating this process, these jellyfish are theoretically immortal! In our dream of immortality can we too practice cell morphigation in some way? The PAE Enterprises grounds accumulate plastic as time passes and the buildings crumble. This is my hope for the immortality of this place.
