SHANSHAN JIANG
Collect but Not Test:
Residency in BroomhillWater, Paper and the Origin of Floating Surface Translation
Shanshan Jiang (Anne)
Broomhill, Norfolk, UK52°45'31" N, 1°05'52" E
Field research / water sampling / paper-based translation / ink painting
Project Summary
Collect but Not Test: Residency in Broomhill was a field research project in Broomhill, Norfolk, and an important turning point in my practice. During the residency, I worked with water samples, coordinates, field notes, paper, ink and temporary outdoor working structures to investigate how water could become more than a subject of observation.Rather than testing water scientifically, I collected it as a material witness: a record of time, direction, place, touch and environmental condition. The project developed through walking, writing, water sampling, paper contact studies, ink wash experiments and early floating-surface tests.This residency became the origin of Floating Surface Translation, a method that later developed into my current research on urban water interfaces and hidden water systems. It marked the shift from representing water to allowing water, paper, ink and site conditions to participate in image-making.
Collect but Not Test
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Collect but not test became the central attitude of the residency. I collected water samples from the site, but I was not interested in testing them as scientific data. Instead, each sample became a small index of place: a container of direction, date, weather, reflection, bodily encounter and environmental memory.This distinction was important. The project was not about proving the condition of water through measurement. It was about asking how water could carry the presence of a site into paper, ink and image.
Water samples collected as site records, not scientific test material.
Field Archive
The field archive included water samples, compass readings, coordinates, photographs, handwritten notes and material observations. I recorded the site through repeated looking rather than rapid documentation: the direction of water, the texture of mud, the shadow of trees, the movement of reflected light and the changing contact between paper and surface.The archive was not a neutral record. It became a way of noticing how water, ground, vegetation, weather and the body continuously altered one another.
During the residency, the stream edge became a temporary field studio. A chair, brushes, bowls, water containers, paper and improvised supports formed a mobile working environment. This temporary setup allowed the act of painting to move away from the fixed studio and enter direct contact with water, soil, vegetation and changing light. The field studio was fragile and provisional. Its instability became part of the method: the artist’s body, the water’s movement, the uneven ground and the surrounding vegetation all affected how marks could be made.
Paper, Water and Contact
Paper became the first surface of translation. I tested how paper could receive water, shadow, sediment, pressure and movement from the site. Some works were made through direct contact with the water environment; others were developed later through studio-based ink wash experiments.These studies were not attempts to reproduce the landscape. They were tests of contact: how a surface changes when it is placed between water, body, air and ground.
Later development of this method has been refined as a contained and non-invasive process.
Floating Surface Translation: Origin
The Broomhill residency became the starting point for Floating Surface Translation. I began to test a temporary floating working surface where paper, water, ink, gesture, ripples and observation could meet on site.At this stage, the method was still provisional. It emerged through practical questions: how can paper remain close to water without becoming fully submerged? How does ripple affect the timing of a mark? How does the body’s position change the pressure of the brush? How can water act not only as subject, but as a condition of image-making?These early tests later developed into a more controlled method for my current project Threshold Index: Glasgow Urban Water Interfaces.
Works and Later Development
The residency generated ink wash studies, colour wash experiments, field notes, water sample records and material tests with soil, sediment and handmade paper. These works opened a visual language of seepage, suspension, sediment, residue and surface memory.Broomhill became a bridge between earlier environmental observation and my current research into urban water interfaces. The project shifted my practice from painting water as image to working with water as an active force in the formation of images.
Project typeResidency / Field ResearchLocationBroomhill, Norfolk, UK
Coordinates52°45'31" N, 1°05'52" E Year 2025
Materials / methods Water samples, field notes, paper, ink, soil, sediment, temporary field studio, Floating Surface Translation
Related projectThreshold Index: Glasgow Urban Water Interfaces
Related research context
GroundWork Gallery / Fluid Earth