What is the mirror? Talking to the mirror in the heart

Song Dong leads a performance workshop inspired by the question 'What is the mirror?' The class meets for three mornings over a five-day period to undertake a series of meditative performances and discussions. On the final day participants discover the answer to the question 'what is the mirror?'

Please note, this free event does not require a ticket but spaces are limited and will be allocated on a first come, first served basis.

Song Dong (b.1966, Beijing, China)
Song Dong's art, which has always contained autobiographical elements, is a sustained quest for self-knowledge. In his performances, photography, video projections and 'life art' (his term for installations), Song combines a sense of the absurd with a deep involvement in spiritual experience. 'I am interested in interior things,' he says. 'It's the mutuality between heaven, earth and the human being that resonates with me.' Much of Song's work reflects on the relationship between the Taoist concepts of Being and Nothingness. Two recurring themes and motifs are water and mirrors; the insubstantial and the illusive. As a personal ritual and a meditative practice, Song keeps a diary written in water on stone; inscriptions that rapidly evaporate, leaving no trace. Many of his video works concern mirrors and mirroring and are, in various ways, explorations of the self, as well as investigations into the unreal and the illusory. In these works, he contemplates the nature of representation and suggests that beyond the false images that mirrors present it is inner identification that is important.