‘Puddle Plasticity’ is a series of informative explorations of puddle accumulations within the city of Shanghai, plasticising and been plasticised by the metropolis, under effects of density, pressure, defect systems, and contingency.
The subtle reflections of the inverted alien city;
Their ghostly trails of immortality;
Are warnings of a major environmental concern.
Puddles are wonders that make us wonder.
The summer of ‘Shang Hai’ – a metropolis ‘above the sea’ was frequent in its monsoon precipitation accompanied by high levels of humidity. The buzzing actions of on-road transportations, heavy usage of air-cooling ventilations, accompanied by the sewage overflow in municipal streets, all of which delivers the vast and detested accumulations of various fluids on the city ‘s weathered surface.
From a broader perspective, it is a satellite view of the transient appearances and disappearances of the puddles, in the natural climate of heat and rain, and man-made actions of manufacture and destruction. They move about the terrains of the city like the Taoism philosophy of Ying and Yang, contrary on their initiator but interconnected amongst each other, and plasticising the grounds of the city.
Each opening of the puddles enables the citizens to see a new up-side-down world into the existing one they dwell in. No one is intended to step within these oddly ‘inverted cities’, and tend to drive their paths away from them, in fear of being ‘swallowed’ in the disgust of their fluids. Yet, what is presented before them is a satire by nature, a warning of a potential problem, which exists across the entire metropolis, under the effects of density and pressure. Whilst, the defect system is pushing Shanghai further into a period of contingency.
Flooding… the most feared disaster for the city.
Q: Is the city, which we have created, turning up side down against us?
Puddles are cheeky.
They are immortal beings, which can only be captured during changes of weather conditions, population density, or ground damage. This phenomenon emphasises on the rapid exhaustion of the city. Yet for city dwellers, walking along a path of puddles has become a rather common activity. They have conditioned to ‘walk around it’, ‘jump over it’, or ‘purely avoid it’. The children are not afraid of testing the waters, finding joy in them, but why do only the children see their existence to be unique and unusual?
Q: Are we losing awareness on simple things, like puddles?
Tracing out puddles.
The project of my action is to explore and trace out the puddles that have been plasticising the city; from major commercial districts to touristic areas like the bund. The act of tracing is to raise public and local awareness of the issue, as outlining their existence exhibits the problem’s permanency and immortality.
-Lucy Wang
Puddle Plasticity was exhibited at the Porosity Studio 2010 Exhibition @ Donghua University, Shanghai CHINA
