Pouring Tea until it is all expaporated

Bu’s Tea Project includes durational art performance, public interactive performance (at Nexus Arts 2022, at Woollarah Gallery at Red Leaf 2023), multi sensory installation, sound scapes, performance video, time based painting, mapping and sculpture.

Performers Jingwei Bu, Lisa Myeong Joo, Henry Wollf and audiences. Woollarah Gallery at Redleaf. Photo by Hårvard Sagen and Jacqueline Angius Salvatore

Tea Project at Woollarah Gallery at Redleaf, Sedney (2023)

In an immersive space created with tea scent, tea ceremony sound, video, painting and tea pouring platforms, Jingwei and her collaborators engaged in the repetitive motion of pouring tea upon a platform of white paper in a series of interactive performances over five days. Throughout, gallery visitors are invited to sit down and pour tea with guidance from the artist. As the tea leaks and drips, the paper stacks are transformed—moisture and tannins making their mark and crafting the final installation.

Tea vessels are made by Sydney-based ceramist Montessa Maack.

Performers Jingwei Bu, Jasmine Deng, Truc Truong, Eleen Deprez, Philipa, Ray Harris and Nicholas Folland. Photo by Aston Hawkins Nicholls.

Tea Project at Nexus Arts Adelaide, SA (2022)

Pouring Tea Until it is all Evaporated continues Jingwei Bu’s ongoing exploration of responsive, cross-cultural exchange, labour and time-based practice.

Over a three-month period, between May and July in 2022, the artist welcomed visitors—some 70 people drawn from friends, associates, peers, and strangers—to the studio to drink tea with her and share their tea knowledge and experiences. Each time, Jingwei would prepare, steep, and serve tea, communicating her knowledge of Chinese tea and entering into a cross-cultural exchange with her visitors.

The act of pouring tea in Buddhist Chan meditation teachings is used as a tool for achieving enlightenment and letting go of one’s obstinate intention. Approaching the residency as a demanding, durational inter-personal challenge that required the artist to be present, open, disciplined and responsive in tending to every stage and element (from preparation to cleaning) with mindfulness.

The detritus of each visit – from the tea-stained paper on which the tea was served and the tea leaves themselves – were collected by the artist and transformed into materials for an installation-based exhibition at the residencies' conclusion.

A sound component, a five single-channel audio works, located in the gallery ceiling, documented key moments from the ceremony process. The sound of water drops, at boiling point, poured and the chatter of conversation invited visitors to the space to experience themselves as conductors directing sound according to their movements.

A durational performance in which the artist sat on the floor, unsupported and cross-legged for 90 minutes pouring tea as a single action expanded into a performance series in response to the installation itself and included members of the public joining Jingwei to pour tea collectively.

click to read exhiBition essay by Rayleen Forester

‘Connecting The Connections’, 2022-2023, pencil on tea soaked timber boards. 210 x 180 cm. The top six panels are permanent collections of The Hospital Research Foundation after winning the Emerging Artist category of the THRF Group-Creative Health Art Prize. Photo by Sam Robert

Water #4, 2023, tea water on raw canvas, three brush strokes forming the character of the word for water in the Chinese language, Jingwei’s name stamp found in her late mother’s suitcase, the passing of time between 16 April 2023 to 5 August 2023, 102 x 96 cm with frame. Solo exhibition ’The Shadows of Time’ at Aptos Cruz Galleries.