Artist in residence - Weimin He

To celebrate the historic Radcliffe Observatory Quarter (ROQ) project, Weimin He, the artist-in-residence of the Oxford University Estates Directorate, is creating a unique portfolio of drawings reflecting the unprecedented transformation of the site.

Starting in early 2009, Weimin's drawings are helping to chronicle developments on the Radcliffe Observatory Quarter site: from the demolition of the old hospital buildings to the current progress on the Radcliffe Infirmary and the Mathematics Institute.

Weimin is working on a portfolio of woodblock prints and is cooperating with a group of English poets to create a woodcut-poem portfolio. The finished work is due to be presented to the public in the form of an exhibition and publication.

He was trained as an artist in both north-eastern China and in Northern Ireland. He gained his doctoral degree in Belfast in 2005, the same year he moved to Oxford where he worked as Christensen Fellow of Chinese painting in the Ashmolean Museum. In 2008 he created a body of artwork reflecting the transformation of the Ashmolean Museum and had a successful exhibition when the Museum was reopened in 2009.

Weimin said, "My work is inspired by both western and eastern elements but is highly individual. The black bold lines are seemingly ‘written' on paper rather than drawn, reminiscent of Chinese calligraphy – especially the seal characters of the Han dynasty."

The University is obliged to have an arts strategy for major developments and Weimin's work is central to this.