A Day at the Lake

So, I am not aspiring to be a traditional painter, let alone a traditional Chinese painter, but sometimes I do enjoy drawing landscapes and architecture. I used to really like doing portraits, but I do not like dealing with getting a model to sit, so anyway. I sat down at Xi Hu (West Lake) this afternoon with the intent of doing a sketch. Another guy sat down beside me on the bench. Before I knew it, there was a huge crowd watching me. And I mean like 20 people! I couldn't even see what I was drawing anymore! I hate to get all ethnographic, but the Chinese are so curious (and no wonder, condsidering their opportunties for foreign travel are usually nonexistent), when I am in the store and need help, the same thing occurs-I end up surrounded by 8 people all trying to decipher what I am saying (which after 20 minutes, they find to be entirely inconsequential and they disperse, muttering under their breath). It is somewhat embarassing, but often I only have to be looking at something and I notice that people come up to also have a look at what it is I am so interested in. This can very good for business! It is funny. So, despite a half-assed drawing, I made a few friends today, who helped me with Chinese and chatted for a long time about all sorts of things. I guess noone has anything to do right now so they just go and sit by the lake. It is nice, and while I was drawing everyone was very quiet, which I really like- Chinese people seem perfectly comfortable to be in company without necessarily having to talk the entire time, which I feel very comfortable with. I find the need to fill silence with chatter very tiring. There was a very somber moment when a girl mentioned that she understood the Hangzhou accent because she is Hangzhouren (from Hangzhou), another guy said he had more problems with it because he was from Sichuan province, and had been here 8 months. The others started saying, "Earthquake, earthquake." The man (who was probably early 20s) said that indeed, he had lived at the quake's epicenter. He had lost his home and family. It was a very awkward moment. I keep thinking about it and of course wish there was something I could have done, but of course there was nothing except to express my condolences. What a heartbreak, and how quickly everyone is expected to simply move on. When the rest of us left, he remained alone at the bench.
Not going to brag about this one.

From my window

Perhaps I have neglected to tell you that I live above a row of high end car dealersips. These include: Porsche, Ferrari, and Maseratti. Last weekend, they unveiled a new Porsche SUV. The cermony took place almost right under my window, so that hanging the camera out got me these pix, try not to get too excited, I did not meet the gilded performers.

Golden Week next week!

October 1 is National Day, which is like Independance Day for Americans, celebrating the founding of the People's Republic of China. There seems to be a good chance that we will all be celebrating this one day (j/k-, though possible). Almost the entire country gets a whole week off, and there is an incredible amount of travelling. I expect it to be packed here in Hangzhou, considering its popularity as a tourist destination. My roommate has taken a 30hour train to the tropical climes of the most southern provinces, which makes me jealous, as it looks like paradise, but I have been so busy learning Chinese that I will welcome some time to use for drawing and exploring Hangzhou more. I had not realized that China's Great Canal runs through here, and I look forward to visiting the museum dedicated to it. I think I will also try to make a couple shorter trips, possibly to Suzhou or Nanjing- any recommendations?

Roberta Smith

Art critic from NYT has article, very much echoes my sentiments about the gimicky abundance of everyday-object-art (to be polite).
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/26/arts/design/26live.html
"Lack of utility and rarefied exquisiteness are seen as the shortest paths to being art. Astounding feats of technical skill result, often accompanied by a weakness for all things trompe l’oeil.
This is not so much art or craft as acrobatics."

Luke Homitsky

Tuesday, the 16th was Luke's performance at the Grand Theater Gallery, Shanghai. It was a great location, right nextdoor to Shanghai Art Museum, and the opening was very well attended. Luke had judged the main exhibition of younger artists and so presented an award at the ceremony (which was very elaborate, sponsored by the clothing designer Mark Fairwhale). Titled "M-Forever," the exhibition's theme was human life adapting to an aquatic world in the future. Luke adapted his endurance painting accordingly:

Shanghai MOCA, saving the best for last

Of all the artwork I saw during my weekend in Shanghai, these bonsais were my favorites. They have been cultivated by the artist Shen Shaomin. As you can see, they are a laborious "Living Installation." Each individual bonsai is accompanied by an painstakingly detailed book about the creation and maintence of the tree. When a collector purchases the plant/book pair, he/she has the choice of whether to continue with the shaping, or let it return to growing freely. I really think that these artworks display a beautiful balance of brutality and peace.

Shanghai MOCA: Butterfly Dream

Chen Shaohua: "Ink Video"

Shanghai MOCA

Xu Zhongmin's "Cloud No.1"

Shanghai MOCA: Xu Bing

I know some of you will recognize the name Xu Bing, a Chinese artist who is probably best known for
""A Case Study of Transference," consisting of a performance by two live breeding
pigs. The pigs engage in the performance in an enclosed exhibition area filled
with books with texts in various languages. Unreadable characters are printed
to cover the bodies of the two pigs. The text on the male pig resembles written
English, while the text on the female pig resembles Chinese. During the
performance, the two animals mate inside the exhibition area.
When the performance is staged with live animals, the artist goes to great
pains to select pigs that will be prepared to mate on cue. It has been performed
both inside and outdoors. Xu Bing has exhibited documentation of the
performances as photography, video, and installation pieces at various galleries
around the world."- from http://asuartmuseum.asu.edu/xubing/2006_Catalog.pdf
visit that site for more great info and pics from Xu Bing.
Here in Shanghai MOCA, Bing has created another language mediating artwork, "Book From the Ground," with a sort of board of pictogram-like words with words and symbols separating two computers where users can "chat" through text, which the computer then assimilates into the language and translates if recognized. From my own personal experience creating interactive work that relies on the viewer, I have encountered a lot of difficulties getting viewers to take part, and really operate the interface smoothly, and I think this was a sort of sticking point here, which may or may not have been part of his intention. I doubt it, but the piece was still effective as the language on the board demonstrated what seems to have been already achieved... (?)


Strange multi-media sculpture by Lee Tzu-Hsun
Traditional vs modern issues, current architecture vs. mysticized landscape again showing up in paintings by Wang Mingxian

Interlude

While I am trying to figure out how to upload video on here, I would like to introduce the world to the new drink I have invented. It is called the Bloody Mao-ry. Unfortunately the color is not as red as it should be. It consists of: a unique melange of juices that I have only encountered here, including (from what I can see in the picture on the bottle) tomatoes, strawberries, and one more as-yet unidentified red fruit. Now, I don't like wussie drinks so its gotta be doctored up with something, and I use the deliciously strange liquor recommended to me by the old lady at the corner store that tastes quite like alcoholic soy sauce. My roommate reckons its meant for cooking. Anyway, could be an aquired taste. Remember, you heard about it here first.

Shanghai MOCA: Butterfly Dream

I believe this is Wang Mai's "Exploitation of Works of Nature"- if anyone notices any mistakes in my attributions please let me know, I was writing info down on such a small piece of paper, that I hope I dont get artists/titles mixed up.

This is more traditional in the sense that it is representational, but Cao Jingping's "Sunset, The old summer palace in spring," is undeniably beautiful.
detail from above.
Liang Binbin's "Divorce self from reality and act blindly," exemplifies what I noticed as a strong interest of the Chinese artists in using stainless steel. How do you guys feel about the way it has been hung? It was nice that such a huge, heavy object was slightly swaying in the gallery, but it still seemed as though it was not planned as well as the rest of the piece...

Shanghai MOCA: Butterfly Dream

Turn to Shanghai MOCA. Less people, more light, less quantity, more quality, and NO SUPERFLUOUS LABELS EXPLAINING TENUOUS CONNECTIONS TO AN OVERARCHING THEME THAT IS ALREADY CLICHE. And all of the artists were Chinese, which I thought was impressive, proving that China is perfectly capable of producing a well-rounded exhibition of internationally viable contemporary work. After Luke introduced me to a book about Chinese performance art by Thomas Berghuis (Performance Art in China, (Hong Kong: Timezone 8, December, 2006)), I am more familiar with the constraints of working here... I was surprised to read about how much provacative art had sort of eluded the authorities (then again- this is a benefit of performance- as an event, the its temporal nature means that it can exist without tangible form- its mighty difficult to destroy things that are not physically bound). Anyway, the exhibition lacked the juicy provocation of some western exhibitions, but I actually found this refreshing. No shock-art, and perhaps less "loaded" imagery. Personally, I get bored with the same tired sexual references (It seems to be those that are most overused/"shocking").
These works are by Jeff Da Yu Shi, who really received a lot of space (assuming I have got the right artist for all these images under this post), and worked in various media. The sculptures seem to be sort of anime-Boccioni.

Shanghai Biennale! WRAP-UP

So as you may have garnered from some of my sharper comments, the Biennale was... ok. It certainly could have been better, but, hey, Shanghai's contemporary art scene is definitely still in its fledgling stages, and these things world wide have a tendency to get over-curated and bull-shittified. Besides that, there was so much there, that there had to be something to satisfy you. Tomorrow I will begin posting some pictures and video (yes, exciting, right!?) from the exhibition right next door at the Shanghai MOCA (Museum of Contemporary Art), which at least I thought was much much BETTER!!! For now, I am off to enjoy the Hangzhou nightlife as I am a young and fresh 30 year old male (meaning its my b-day). Dunno if I'll be taking the camera, but if the stories are repeatable, find them here... same time same place! CYA

Shanghai Biennale!

These beautiful photos by Korean Kim Sangril were accompanied by some ridiculous drivel about 1 dimensional identity. Then again, perhaps my identity is simply too multi-dimensional to understand.

digital painting by Chen Yun (China)
Wish I had gotten the name on this artist, but the series' title, which I really liked, and perhaps expresses some of the exhibitions' theme most poignantly: "Don't Get Left Behind"

Shanghai Biennale!

Paintings "Missing," and "Traveler," by Liu Ye
The Chinese museum-goers are huge fans of posing in front of paintings, often rubbing right up against them. Security guards were not a noticeable presence.
This hideous thing should bang the migration theme into your head one way or another- movement one way or another. The masses enjoyed getting inside (there was a line, like people expected it to actually take off I think). A fun waste of money I guess. Wonder if there's a collector for it lined up after the exhibition ends. I would pay my entry fee again to see it compacted.

Shangai Biennale!

I have so many pictures from Shanghai, that it will probably take 2-3 days for me to post them all. But before I leave you today, I wanted to introduce you to my friend Andre, from Moscow. We are not only practising Chinese together, living on the same floor, solving the international crisis surrounding Georgia, and reviewing great old reggae movies together (see the Rockers) but I think we have also found the solution to the problem gripping America right now. Surely you have all now heard about the court case attempting to ban trouser sagging?! What, no, you say? Well, Andre here (who wants to be a male model for some extra cash, and has the looks and style to make it happen) could have defused the whole debacle before the thing ever even hit the courts- the answer (I feel the anticipation)- FAKE SAG PANTS!!!!!! File under things you never needed to know existed if you dare, but chances are they'll soon be catching on like...uh.. like all those other great Russian styles we know and love Stateside yippee!

Shanghai Biennale!

And who might make an appearnce but the old faithful Lawrence Wiener! Gotta love how on the title card it reads the title, then "language and materials referred to" for media, and naturally the dimensions are variable.

The installation below is by Chinese artist Wang Qingson. Believe it or not they are all made of copper, and cleverly painted Oldenburg-style! Of course the title card had to point out some cliched notions of population movement blahblahblah. I would have rather had some background on the artist, something that was sorely missing from these exhibitions that are supposedly trying to introduce the world to Chinese artists.