Design: Maeve Redmond
To accompany Peng Zuqiang’s upcoming exhibition ‘Afternoon Hearsay’, the artist shares a selection of recommendations for our Room for Reading.
“House A” (2016) by Jennifer S. Chang
‘House A’ by Jennifer S. Cheng
“Dear Mao,…”—every poem from the Letters to Mao chapter begins with this impossible address. But what follows are intimate reflections: falling asleep in a sun-bathed Texan car; the sound of a hand shadow; and history that, like coastlines, “change shape every so often.” These are letters both to and not to him at the same time, and he can be the you-know-who, or a long-lost friend. It reminds me of the need to write letters.”
Read three poems by Jennifer S. Cheng here.
Love in a Fallen City (1943:2007) by Eileen Chang
‘Sealed Off’ from Love in a Fallen City by Eileen Chang
“I came to Eileen Chang late; perhaps it took time to understand the complexity of the human psyche she is so skillful at portraying. In Sealed Off, two people encounter each other on a tram that halts when a Shanghai street is temporarily sealed off due to a wartime air-raid alarm in the 1940s. History repeats eighty years later in a different way. Who do you talk to, and how do you feel, when a city is sealed off, and cleared up later again?”
Read ‘Sealed Off’ here.
‘Glass and God’ (1998) by Anne Carson
‘The Gender of Memory: Rural Chinese Women and the 1950s’ by Gail Hershatter
“What people remember is the product of a continual process of reworking, recitation, invention, and sometimes carefully guarded silences that help shape what is said.”
“This book was important to my process while working on the piece: it taught me how to pay attention to the inaccuracies, misremembering, and forgetting within the research.”
Watch Gail Hershatter discuss her book here.
Details
In conjunction with our projects, exhibitions and events, Room for Reading offers artists we work with an opportunity to contribute to The Common Guild library and share the books and resources that have influenced their artistic practice.
Every artist’s selection is added to The Common Guild’s expansive reference library of artist books, catalogues, and cultural and critical theory.
Visit
Visit our Library space Thursday-Sunday, 12–5pm, during exhibitions to view Peng Zuqiang’s Room for Reading selection.
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