- So we're just three days into installing
Song Dong's Waste Not project,
which is a project where the artist presents his mother's house
and 10,000 objects that his mother has collected.
- 4A has been working with Song Dong for probably about a decade now
and because he's a very important, contemporary Chinese artist,
he's one of the key artists from the 2000s period,
we've had a working relationship with him.
And so when we knew that this work was available,
we were very keen to try and bring it to Australia
because I think it's a once in a lifetime work and a very important work.
- In 2002, my father suddenly passed away.
So since that time, the whole family is a kind of deep sad.
So my mother is silent and stays at home.
She didn't want to talk with other people
and put so many things, like here,
full table and full room.
I asked her why.
She said she doesn't need empty room
because she said, "Your father is not here.
So if I store the stuff so I can get the memory,
I feel your father is still there."
So for me, I think that is really touching me
and letting me think a lot.
- The project started through a partnership between Carriageworks
and 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art,
and both Aaron Seeto, the director, and I had both felt very passionate
about bringing this work, Waste Not, to Australia.
It's travelled all around the world.
It's been presented in the Museum of Modern Art in New York
and it's come directly to Sydney from the Barbican in London.
And everywhere it's been presented, there's been huge audience response.
It's been quite overwhelming emotionally for audiences
because the work really tells the story of how his mother, the artist's mother,
dealt with the loss of her husband, Song Dong's father.
- It's huge. It is the entire contents of the artist's mother's house,
so it requires a very large floor plan.
And we're very happy to be in a space like Carriageworks
because the artist really loves
the history that he can see within the architecture.
And working with Carriageworks in Redfern, in the city,
is also a very interesting proposition.
- (Lisa) We had to bring in two 40-foot shipping containers.
And to rebuild this house is incredibly detailed
because it's over 100 years old,
it's been reconstructed over nine times
and it's all the original nails that are putting it back in place.
- So we use the home to organise things
and set up in the gallery space.
And at the opening,
so many people came in there,
and a lot of normal people.
The people saw the work.
They said, "This is not your home, it's my home."
So we have a lot of the same story to share.
- It is considered one of the most important pieces of contemporary work
to come out of China in the last ten years,
so it's a very significant work to bring to Sydney.
To have something and nothing is the same things.
But when you know the story,
a lot of things are talking about the social, about a memory, about a time.
So you can feel, "Oh, OK, so many things in one object."
I think that from each object you have a different story.
- (Aaron) This is probably one of his biggest works
that he's made in his career,
and it's a very important work
because it really reveals his conceptual practice.
So it's not just about the object
but it ties him to the history of his family
and it also ties audiences into the history of objects.
So when they look at the work,
they can begin to see their own personal lives reflected in the objects.
Before, I think that the stuff, for me, is rubbish.
I hate them very much.
They spend a lot of energy and space.
But when I work with my mother,
I feel that is the love,
it's not an object, it's the memory.
So now I think that is our family
and for me, also, these are very important things.
It's not rubbish, it's love.