Xin Cheng Phone: +49 15215801304Email: summerxc@gmail.com http://xin-cheng.info | http://small-workshop.infoOccurred in New Zealand or Germany unless otherwise stated

LanguagesChinese Mandarin (Native); English (Expert); German (Basic)

Education 2016-2019 Master of Fine Arts, HFBK Hamburg, Germany (graduating summer 2019,

Dissertation Title: Encountering Everyday Resourcefulness)2005-2007, 2010 Bachelor of Fine Arts (First Class Honours), University of Auckland, Auckland

(Senior Scholar Prize in Fine Arts) 2001-2004 Bachelor of Arts / Bachelor of Science, University of Auckland, Auckland (Senior Prize

in Biological Sciences)

Awards, Prizes, Residencies2017 In Solidarity: Living, Making, Together, research residency with Design for the Living World,

Mexico City, by invitation of the Goethe-Institut Mexico, supported by HFBK Hamburg 2017 Arts Council New Zealand Arts Grant for postgraduate studies at HFBK Hamburg2016 New Zealand Japan Exchange Programme grant for Zero Yen Tour with Chris Berthelsen2015 Asia New Zealand Foundation and Arts Council New Zealand grant for residency at Seoul

Museum of Art, South Korea2014 Arts Council New Zealand grant for residency at Utopiana, Geneva, Switzerland 2014 Asia New Zealand Foundation arts grant for residency at Sa Sa Art Projects, Phnom Penh,

Cambodia 2014 Chartwell Collection grant for residency at Enjoy Public Art Gallery, Wellington (with Kirsten

Dryburgh) 2013&7 Stazione di Topolò, Topolò, Italy 2010 Senior Scholar Prize in Fine Arts (honours) and Critical Studies Prize, Elam School of Fine Arts,

University of Auckland, New Zealand2008 Residency at Nordic Artist's Center NKD, Dale, Norway (with RM project)

Jobs, Curation2018 Gastreferentin, HFBK Grundklasse Design, invitation by Prof. Valentina Karga2018 Hot Terms Lexicon editing team, Floating University Berlin, Berlin2017 Performer for Festival Avant-Garten by Juan Dominguez and Arantxa Martinez (SP) & stage

building assistant, Internationales Sommerfestival Kampnagel, Hamburg, Germany

2016 Furniture and interior design, Yume Nomad Hostel & Residency, Kobe, Japan2016 Guest tutor and sculptor in residence, St Cuthbert’s College, Auckland 2016 Lecturer for the course Living, Making, Together, University Without Conditions, Auckland2014- New Zealand ambassador for Stazione di Topolo & co-curator for Topolò World Tuberculosis Day

Concert 2014 Park concept design, James Watson Reserve, Auckland Council, Auckland (with Chris Berthelsen

& Eleanor Cooper) 2007-2012 Co-director, RM project and gallery, Auckland (supported by Arts Council NZ).

Projects include:

Late Lunch: Models for an Artist in Residence Programme (co-organiser, 2011); RM Flag Project (co-curator & project manager, 2010); RM Performance Series (co-curator, 2009); Instructional Works (co-curator, 2009); Fashion Fianchettos, a workshop by Otto von Busch (SE) (organizer, 2009)

2007 A Research Show, Window, University of Auckland, Auckland (curator)2006 Onsite Manager, Wellington ArtBox, Toi Poneke Arts Centre, Auckland

Selected Projects 2019 Materials Flow, Bodies Move, collaborative installation and performance at Frappant, Hamburg

(upcoming, initiator and organiser)2018 Elastic Action, performance with Britta Huntemann, Tautology show, HFBK Gallery, Hamburg2017 Stazione di Topolo XXIV, Italy

workshop with Soeine Bac (KR/CA): Ascoltare con il coprpo, diventare tut’uno sound installation with Ziggy Lever (NZ): Il vento, altri aspetti (respirando e assaggiando l’aria)

2016 a welcoming terrain for relaxing, making, eating and being. Together, Changing Lanes, Auckland Art Week (with Chris Berthelsen)

2016 small modifications, Dunedin Public Art Gallery, Dunedin (with Chris Berthelsen and companions, curated by Andrea Bell)

2016 Installation design and audio publication for split/fountain book show at C7C Gallery, Nagoya, Japan (with Chris Berthelsen, Midori Kadokura, Youhei Shimada)

2016 Sustainable Body Play (collaborative performance with Clare Luiten), White Night Greenwoods Corner, Auckland Arts Festival, Auckland

2015 People are the most precious things we can encounter, installation and collaborative performance with Soeine Bac, Bohyung Jeon and Lucia Choi, Nanji Exhibition Space, Seoul Museum of Art, Seoul, South Korea

2015 Rustavi Toolkit for 124,908 (group project curated by Tara McDowell, facilitated by Ash Kilmartin) at 2nd Tbilisi Triennial, Tbilisi, Georgia

2015 Starting something we cannot finish #2 for Space Vac, collaborative performance with Passing Josh and the audience, Space Vac, Seoul, South Korea

2015 Agency in the breathing world, research project and workshop, Howl Space, Tainan, Taiwan 2015 Makeshift, split/fountain, Auckland (installation and collaborative activity series) 2015 on enjoying our gardens and other wild places, headland Sculpture on the Gulf, Waiheke Island

(with Chris Berthelsen, invited by Sue Gardiner) 2014 Making-do, public walks, workshop and collaborative publication (with Chris Berthelsen and

companions), Artspace, Auckland (curated by Caterina Riva) 2014 starting something we cannot finish, workshop and A Stimulus Terrain! for Widening the Margin of

Play, installation designs and workshop for split/fountain's distracted workshop at 26th International Biennial of Graphic Design Brno, Czech Republic (with Chris Berthelsen)

2014 Fabric Forms, participatory performance at Sprint independent publishers and artists' books salon, Milan, Italy (facilitated by Caterina Riva, with Giovanni Riggio, Luca Bosani and Martina Ramponi)

2014 Three Fires to Warm the Cockles of Your Heart, garden events and making workshops at Utopiana, Geneva, Switzerland

2014 Gleaners' Garden (with Kirsten Dryburgh, featuring performance by Daniel Beban & Sascha Perfect), Enjoy Public Art Gallery, Wellington

2013 From the Northeast, performance at the festival Stazione di Topolò, Italy2013 S/F project at the Physics Room, furniture design and installation, Christchurch (with Blaine

Western & Michael Parr) 2012 A view from the top with a view to looking up, common sense and associates (with Daniel Webby,

Ivan Mrsic, Phil Dadson, Karin Hofko & John Radford), St Paul St Gallery, Auckland (curated by

Vera May)2012 Furniture design for split/fountain at the Tokyo Art Book Fair, Tokyo, Japan

Selected Shows 2017 In Solidarity: Living, Making, Together, MUCA Roma of the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de

Mexico, Mexico City2017 Politics and Love for The History Show, Kunstverein in Hamburg (with Design for the Living

World)2016 Sacred Economies, Malcom Smith Gallery, Auckland (with Chris Berthelsen and Clare Luiten,

curated by Balamohan Shingade)2016 Light switch and conduit: The Jim Barr and Mary Barr Collection, Dunedin Public Art Gallery

(curated by Lauren Gutsell)2013 Freedom Farmers, Auckland Art Gallery, Auckland (curated by Natasha Conland) 2012 Sustenance, split/fountain, Auckland (solo) 2011 Mixtures, split/fountain, Auckland (solo) 2010 Unpacking My Library, Te Tuhi Centre for Art, Auckland (curated by Stephen Cleland) 2009 Article 27, the Physics Room, Christchurch (curated by Richard Dale for the Human Rights

Commission)

Workshops, Community-building activities2018 Everyday Resourcefulness lecture and workshop for Grundklasse Design, HFBK Hamburg, with

Professorin Valentina Karga2018 Deep Listening/Void workshop for Floating Symposium, Floating University Berlin (with Felix

Egle)2016- Small Modifications workshops with CampusCosmopolis, ZusammenKUNFT, Berlin; with

Rancho Electronico, Mexico City, Mexico; at Gulaschprogrammiernacht (GPN) by Chaos Computer Club, at Hochschule für Gestaltung Karlsruhe, with Gartendeck St Pauli, Hamburg; at Open Source Circular Economy Days, Berlin

2017 organised two discussions on Solidary Economy and Societies at urban garden Huerto Roma Verde, Mexico City, Mexico

2016 Reimagining the city: society made with cardboard, workshop for Beauty is in the Street, Objectspace, Auckland (with Chris Berthelsen)

2016 Shelter: Temp Arts Emporium, children's school holiday workshop, Corban Estate Arts Center, Auckland (with Chris Berthelsen)

2015 a convivial afternoon, workshop with FabCoop makerspace, Seoul, South Korea2015 Thinking and making home remedies for frugal and friendly living, workshop at Sustainable Living

Centre, New Lynn, Auckland (with Chris Berthelsen) 2014 Widen the margin of play! workshops, Sa Sa Art Projects, Phnom Penh & Angkor School,

Kampong Cham, Cambodia

Teaching, presentations, discussions2018 Performative lecture at Floating University Berlin Open Weeks, Berlin, Germany (with

Andreco)2017 Performative lecture at Chaos Communication Congress 34, Leipzig, Germany2016 Artist talk and workshop at Leipzig International School, Leipzig, Germany2016 making-do(ing) on the shelter crisis, some recent stories from Japan, 17 Tory St, Wellington2016 Multiple Layers and Modes of Living, Sharing Together, RM, Auckland2016 Working together, artist's talks for Elam School of Fine Arts and Whitecliffe College of Art and

Design, Auckland; Massey University School of Art and Design, Wellington; Design School, Dunedin Polytech, Dunedin

2015 artist’s talk at Etat Forum, Taipei, Taiwan;

Tainan National University of the Arts, Taiwan; Sookmyung Women’s University & Kookmin University, Seoul, Korea

2014 Border Crossing, workshop for Bachelor of Visual Arts sculpture class, AUT University, Auckland (with Chris Berthelsen)

2014 On Art and Participation, panel discussion with Aura Seikkula, Ben Vickers, Antonia Manoochehri, FuturePerfect, Grinda, Sweden

Writing & Publication Projects2018 An unfinishing alphabet of confluences, Floatzine #4, Floating University Berlin

Lexicon writing2017 Being Human, interview with Layla Tweedie-Cullen for designassembly.org.nz2017 Exercises in Listening with Ziggy Lever, edited by Richard Francis2017-8 Hamster Journal 1-3, Physics Room, Christchurch, New Zealand (with Chris Berthelsen)2016 - Ongoing column for Hainamana.com- contemporary Asian New Zealand art and culture2015- Makeshift pamphlet series, ongoing, various collaborators, split/fountain, Auckland2013 distracted-reader #1: Mixtures, split/fountain, Auckland (with Allan Smith)2013 Workbook, split/fountain & the Physics Room, Christchurch (with Blaine Western & Michael

Parr) 2013 “Touches”, Hue & Cry Issue 7, Wellington 2013 “A Typology of Forms that Hold up the Human Bottom”, Temporary housing + shelter, split/

fountain and Whatever Press, Auckland & Tokyo

Reviews & Articles2017 Makeshift Living, Megan Dunn, ArtNews New Zealand2014 Allan Smith, Art as permaculture and localist utopia, Artlink Australia, vol 34 #4, 2014 Daniel Satele, In The Wake of Catastrophe: Xin Cheng’s Art Survival Kit, Pantograph Punch2013 Nick Yeck-Stauffer, Xin Cheng, Freedom Farmers Newspaper, Auckland Art Gallery2012 Victoria Wynne-Jones, An Art of Making-Do: Xin Cheng Mixtures, Drain Magazine, 2012

Social Commitments and Volunteer Experience2018 Helper for Hallofestspiele and Schaltzentrale2017- Member of Gartendeck St Pauli, Motte Lebensmittel Retten and Cooking Social Club, Triade

Centrum fur Tanz und Performance and helper for Nordtanz FestivalHFBK Fermentation workshop with Chinook Schneider, Convivial Reading Group with Felix

Egle2013 AIESEC development internship for the Follow Sam education trail at Angkor Centre for

Conservation of Biodiversity, Cambodia, with design students from the Fachhochschule Münster, supported by Allwetterzoo Münster (DE)

2012 Endangered plant survey, Department of Conservation, Nelson Lakes National Park2006 Summer intern for the Kakapo Recovery Programme, Department of Conservation, Codfish

Island

Xin Cheng

selected works

http://xin-cheng.info

http://small-workshop.info

http://makeshifting.net

In a world of excess production and consumption, Xin Cheng reflects on a society of waste and planned obsolescence. Fascinated by the

makeshift, improvised creations of people who have made small, low-tech improvements to everyday living, Xin’s work explores ideas around frugal living, sustainability, somatics, and art-making as a social practice. Committed to taking art outside of traditional gallery

settings and into the community, Xin has undertaken fieldwork (research into the everyday resourcefulness of non-specialists), and initiated collaborative ventures in Cambodia, Taiwan, Korea, Japan, Czech Republic, Italy, Switzerland, Sweden, Germany, Mexico, and

New Zealand.

Xin was born in Kunming, China in 1983, and moved to New Zealand in 1996. She studied biology and psychology at The University of Auckland, before going to art school, where “the possibilities of

walking, making, seeing, opened out” to her. Adopting a discursive and investigatory mode of working across a range of disciplines, Xin’s practice includes walking, researching, workshops, collaboration,

improvising, publishing, furniture-making, and living.

Dry, Summer (lenses and laminates)

laminated flotsam and jetsam and formerly alive beings from Tempelhofer Field Rainwater BasinExhibited during the September Open Weeks of Floating University Berlin,

convened by RaumlaborBerlin2018

Walking around the cracking

hummus, picking up flotsam and jetsam into a bag, scattering them inbetween sheets of

plastic laminate, pressing

everything through a heated slot. Suddenly, trash and dirt became

a transparent surface, a surface,

unlike the water, can be safely

picked up, touched and put next

to the eyes, to see through. they

became lenses for seeing the rest

of the world with.

There are blindspots, filtered colours, muddles, blurs– is that

a petal, or a broken balloon? A

cluster of poly- styrene bubbles,

or dried up Wasserlinsen? The lacy wings of a dragon y, or once

upon a time a tampon?

Here are frozen glimpses of a

micro-cosmos, the human and

more-than-human, dried and

preserved. When they were immersed in water, we may

have worried about the liquid contaminating our skin. But for the algae and the schools of tiny

swimming bugs, this is the world

they dwell in.

Water, Spring (the grimiest surface revealed the most intricate

patterns)

drawings on paper, made by the confluence of water and wind and everything inbetween: car exhaust, pollen, rust, algae etc. at the outlet of Tempelhofer Field Rainwater BasinExhibited during the September Open Weeks of Floating University Berlin,

convened by RaumlaborBerlin2018

In-between Liminal Multiple adaptations Niches

Overlapping Piggybacking Rubber tyre reuse Sandwiching

Twisting U V Slotting

Wheeling X Zip ties Sliding

an alphabet of confluences from Floating University Berlin

Epiphytic Fitting one another Gap + filler Hanging off

Adding onto Balancing Coiling around Diagonal bracing

an unfinishing alphabet of confluences from Floating University Berlin

drawings on paper, made by the cA3 poster made for the Floating Zine #4, Floating University Berlin, July 2018drawings based on observation of construction details on site

Ongoing column for Hainamana.com–Asia New Zealand Art &

Culture

Writings & Images

Typeset and laser printed as gifts for people I encounter

2016-ongoing

http://www.hainamana.com/author/xin-cheng/

materials flow, bodies move Installation and performative playkit, in collaboration with Jozefina Frljić, Natalia Golubtsova, Abel Jaleta et al.

2018-ongoingExhibition at Frappant, Hamburg, July 2019

‘Building is a special form of suggesting.’An expansive, kinetic, performative installation.

A co-mingling of design ethnography, philosophy and poetry.

‘…the entangled mesh of materials in energetic movement, out of which the forms of things are continually emerging.’ (Anusas & Ingold)

A sensuous exploration of frugal materials, elasticity of space,

connectivities within and in-between our bodies.

‘To be playful is to allow for possibility…’ (J Carse)An invitation for convivial, tactile delights.

two-day workshop for Grundklasse Design, by invitation of Valen-

tina Karga

HFBK HamburgOct 2018

performative story-telling, resourceful improvisation, deep listening exercises to reconsider our relationship to the material surrounds

everyday resourcefulness

ongoing photographic research and current masters project at HFBK Hamburg

2007-ongoing

http://makeshifting.nethttp://tinyurl.com/makeshifting

Research on everyday resourcefulnessand improvisations, makeshift constructions, fixes and small modifications of private and urban spaces, made by non-specialists with frugal materials. Gathered from Asia-Pacific, Europe and Mexico, so far.

Practicing everyday resourcefulness

three making workshops Gartendeck St Pauli, Hamburg

with materials from the garden shed

autumn 2017 & 2018

‚A thing is not a fixed thing, but a stage in an ongoing process of transforming.‘

Beim „makeshifting“-Workshop könnt ihr mit Xin aus verschiedensten Materialien etwas Sinnvolles für euch selbst bauen - in einer spielerischen „low tech“-Art. Sie wird uns mit Beispielen aus Mexiko, Asien und Europa inspirieren...

Wir sind sehr stolz, die HfbK-Masterclass-Studentin Xin Cheng nach ihrem großen Erfolg im letzten Jahr ein weiteres Mal bei uns hosten zu können.Bringt gerne ein paar Snacks zum Teilen mit.

Small Modificationstwo workshops with hackerspace Rancho Electronico, Mexico City

March 2017What can we learn from small modifications and everyday resourcefulness around us?

What parallels could we draw between hacking in the digital and

physical spaces?

How could the makeshift creations from others be inspiring for our own lives?A hands-on, generative workshop that invites your participation on finding answers to these questions. We will draw inspiration from a resource of lo- tech hacking/making-doing gathered from Asia-Pacific, Europe and Mexico.

We will experiment with using them as tactics and tools in our daily

lives; share our improvisations and try out some 3D-mapping-kinetic techniques.

Two discussions on Solidary Societies and Economies

Huerto Roma Verde, Mexico City

as part of research residency and exhibition project In Solidarity: Living, Making, Together (En solidaridad: Viviendo y haciendo juntos), at Muca Roma (Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico), Mexico City, Mexico

2017

with

Karla Helena Guzmán Velázquez (GeoBrujas & Autogestival)Pensaré Cartoneras,

Claudia Caballero (Ferial Multitueke & La Escuelita),Rancho Electronico,

David Barkin (UAM),Boris Marañon (UNAM),Hilda Caballero Aguilar (UNAM),Paco Ayala (Huerto Roma Verde)

As a part of Klasse Potrc‘s research residency in Mexico City, I researched self-organisation, solidary societies, discovering, visiting and interviewing economic professors, hackerspaces, barter markets etc.

For the exhibition at Muca Roma, I organised two discussions on

solidary societies, and liased content for the section: ‚Archipelago of

Social Practices‘.

MUCA Roma was impressed by the communities that we had brought together, and continues the Archipelago project on their website: https://www.mucaroma.unam.mx/archipielago

I wrote an essay from the experience:

Many Other Worlds are Possible: chance encounters, gathering points, following the sweet potato rhizomes in Mexico City, published in our class

publication and on Hainamana http://www.hainamana.com/many-

other-worlds-are-possible/

Installation for distracted workshop, a split/fountain exhibition project as part of the Off Programme at the 26th International Biennial of Graphic Design Brno, Czech Republic, 2014.with Chris Berthelsen

A participatory installation and furniture, responding to the project‘s focus on activities fostering the creative process.Also ran workshop: starting something we cannot finish.

Furniture and installation designs for publisher split/fountain

left: Exhibition of split/fountain publishing at C7C Gallery, Nagoya Japan, 2016Publications presented on cardboard tunnels

collaboration with Midori Kadokura, Youhei Shimada, Chris Berthelsen

below:

Temporary Housing + Sheltersplit/fountain at the Tokyo Art Book Fair, Japan, 2012realised by Layla Tweedie-Cullen and Asumi Mizuooutdoor furniture for reading and resting, made from easily

accessible, locally-sourced materials: bamboo tied with bike inner

tubes, cardboard rolls, bucket and rope coil seats

furniture design and installation, size variable, 2013with Blaine Western & Michael Parr

for S/F project at the Physics Room Christchurch, New ZealandIn 2011 split/fountain was invited to facilitate a project at The Physics Room, but when the earthquakes struck Christchurch, plans were put on hold. split/fountain presented the project two years later in 2013, and diverted from the original proposal to expand on Temporary Housing + Shelter, a publication and exhibition project produced in collaboration with Whatever Press (Tokyo) for the 2012 Tokyo Art Book Fair.

For the Physics Room exhibition project, Xin Cheng, Michael Parr and Blaine Western improvised a display and furniture system constructed from a selection of raw materials locally sourced through TradeMe, exploring opportunistic forms and the versatility of materials in common usage. They considered the objectives of space through various interim structures to establish form in multiple configurations and suggestions.

distracted-reader #1: Mixturespublication,187mm x 250mm 156 pages, 2013,with Allan Smith, design by Layla Tweedie-CullenPublisher: split/fountain, Auckland, New Zealand.

(Photo: Motto Distribution)riso printed in an edition of 300. Sold out.

distracted-reader #1 Mixtures: Xin Cheng and Allan Smith, includes drawings, photographs and texts by Cheng, and drawings,

photographs and texts by Smith. The title Mixtures comes from a 2011 Xin Cheng exhibition at split/fountain. In this publication Cheng mixes memories of a Chinese childhood with recipes for

healthy eating, photographed pages of anthropology texts showing

Mongolian Yurts, and knitted socks from Scandinavia, images of ingenious low-tech merchandising stands in Cambodia, drawings of

stone walls, and a bread igloo. Smith writes about the copiousness

and fabricational inventiveness of Cheng’s practice, and about the accumulative materiality in the collages and architectural practice of ex-pat architect M.K. Smith. Allan Smith’s ‘un-illustrations’ set old school ink drawing and comic-book sequencing to work on the textured ‘push and pressure’ of a densely textured world.

RM Flag projectFeb-March 2010Co-Curator and Project Manager

Ten flags artists and designers from New Zealand, Korea, the UK,Belgium and Holland: Åbäke, Dan Arps, Claire Cooper, Clara Chon, Joseph Churchward, Tony de Lautour, Metahaven, mixrice, Warren Olds, Daniel WebbyAuckland, New Zealand

left: Åbäke (UK)bottom left: map design by Clare Cooperbottom right: Metahaven (NL)

Ten commissioned flags are flying on vacant flagpoles in Auckland city. The project partly motivated by the possibility to temporarily occupying an available space in the public domain. With so many of these empty flagpoles on significant buildings throughout the city we also saw the project as a way to shift our viewing experience in the city away from shop-front level, up towards the rest of the buildings that surround us.

I spent a whole spring and summer liasing between famous and

not-yet-famous artists and designers, persuading the only flagmaker in Auckland who still makes sewn flags to work with unconventional designs, researching the histories of buildings and convincing building managers, businesses and penthouse-owners to allow us

fly artistic flags on top of their properties. It felt like a gamble and at times–I literally had to hold onto a wobble old flagpole for dear life. Thankfully everything worked out in the end.

Propositions for Freedom Farmersmixed media installation with recycled materials and edible native plants

2013-2014curated by Natasha Conland

Auckland Art Gallery, New Zealand

Responding to the theme of sustainability and “artists growing

ideas”, I contributed a showcase of DIY, makeshift constructions and communal environments, sourced from research and travels, free for the public to replicate in their own homes.