INTERNATIONAL architectural and design consultancy, Woodhead, is sponsoring two Western Australian artists’ residencies in China, with work being exhibited at the Shanghai Hong Miao Gallery. Woodhead, which employs 400 staff in Asia and has an office in Perth, has set up the residency to enhance the cultural exchange between Australia and China. The artists, Laurie Smith and Torsten Knorr, will use the five-week practicum to paint landscapes. WA’s Australia Business China Council president, Duncan Calder, said any initiative that furthered the nation’s relationship on a social and cultural level with China would complement ongoing business efforts. “Deeper relationships beyond the economic are really important, particularly with Chinese people who have a high reliance on the warmth and trust with people they deal with,” he told WA Business News. Woodhead, the WA Department of the Arts and the Western Australian Trade Office, have sponsored the residency as part of the China Design Forum, where leading designers meet with academics in Shanghai to value-add to clients and investigate innovation in the rapidly maturing property development industry in China.
