Travelling to China for the Probe show was a fantastically unexpected experience. Before leaving for Beijing I had no idea what to expect. Upon returning I couldn't imagine it any other way.

How often do you get to feel first hand that art is important? I'm not talking about art with messages, political angles or social critiques. Of course the content counts, but Probe worked because it produced energy.

RAPT, my work, requires a certain level of audience participation. It rewards viewers/users who come with a keen edge of interest, a willingness to engage - and in Beijing they came en masse.

When you create work with the specific intention that the viewer has to be present to get something out of it, no reproduction can replace the impact of being there.

One of the objectives of RAPT is to preserve it as a public experience not a private investment. Probe illustrated the value of these beliefs. Being on site, in the midst of the intense interest being generated, with dialogues developing from reactions to the work was phenomenal.

Above all the community of creative people and the level of invitation that was extended to us by them will be my most lasting impression. What appears to so many people as a very opaque culture, was made much more accessible through the effort and openess of the people we met and worked with.

The amount of enthusiasm generated in Beijing through the exhibition is reflected in the inspiration I brought back with me.

Justine Cooper

'Probe' seems like a pretty good word to sum up our experience in China. It was a two way probe with a gratifying amount of interest being shown in our work and an opportunity for us to meet local 'official' and 'unofficial' artists, which was a bit confusing as the 'unofficial' artists were mostly introduced to us by 'official' curators. A lot of the work we saw was encoded in some way and required a background explanation for us outsiders. I was reminded of some tactics employed by Eastern European artists during their struggles to work within a culture of control.

It was also an opportunity to test our interactive work on a gallery audience, most of whom hadn't much exposure to this form, so we were fielding the usual 'is it art?' questions from one part of the audience (who mostly stood aloofly off to the side) while some others were getting into it and playing.

Beijing was intense and social, hard work and fun. An alternative expression to sum up the experience might be 'a whack on the side of the head'.

Leon Cmielewski

Probe

I am very happy to have participated in 'Probe', an exhibition curated by Linda Wallace at the Australian embassy in Beijing. The response to the exhibition by the Chinese public was overwhelming; I certainly did not expect the large crowds that attended the opening, the forum and the artist talks we gave throughout the duration of the exhibition. I felt there was genuine interest in the work and in the ideas brought up by each artist's piece. I belive that the structure and format of the exhibition itself allowed for this kind of consideration. A large component of the visiting public seems to have been made up of students which I always feel is a good sign.

I have to admit I did not know a lot about the art scene before I arrived in Beijing. Even though Linda hinted at it, I did not foresee the significance that an exhibition like 'Probe' could hold for the local arts community. I feel that there was value in the discussions 'Probe' initiated in Beijing, not only in terms of the technology used in making the work in the exhibition but also in terms of the ideas each work brought up. For example, my work 'Protein Lattice' spoke about the impact of new medical technologies on our definition of what is considered natural and what is considered artificial. Given that these new consumer-oriented, medical technologies are mostly a preoccupation for the more commercial, western world (for the time being,) I think that my work initiated some cross cultural dialogues. Also, the technology that I use in my work is available in China but it is mostly used for more commercial pursuits. I feel that 'Protein Lattice' may have been a good example for how this computer technology could be used in a fine art context.

'Probe' was very well organised: I arrived in Beijing and all I had to do was install my work. Linda had arranged for the transportation of the art works and through Brian had sourced the materials needed to efficiently install the works. The pre-publicity for the exhibition obviously worked to bring people to the show and the opening went off without any hiccups. We were all very well looked after by the cultural officer Anthony Taylor and his wife Lorraine who had originally worked with Linda to bring this project to fruition. All the sessions were well organised and had full support from the embassy's cultural department staff, Linda Hao, Mabel Kwan and Kaman Ng.

One side benefit for me was that I was able to learn a bit about the Chinese art scene when I was in Beijing. I was able to meet very interesting artists like Sheng Qi, Jiao Ying Qi and Li Yongbin. It was very inspiring to witness the dedication of these artists and to see how they support a contemporary art practice under quite difficult conditions. I would like to think that now that contact has been made, there could be opportunities to further develop these bonds in the future.

Patricia Piccinini

Nov. 1999