I wish I could read them. I haven’t had access to a secure line since my first week here, but thank you anyway. I am so grateful to have such a lovely group of friends! I miss you all very much and look forward to spending my 33rd with you upon my return.
PS
Let me know if you know anyone who needs a summer sublet.
I am currently looking into residencies here either for the summer or fall, for about 3 months.
(May – July) or (Oct-Dec). Wish me luck!
MORE ABOUT BEIJING:
http://www.chinaculture.org/gb/en_map/2003-09/24/content_21529.htm
This weeks visited sites of historical and cultural importance:
(check out my flickr for some images)
Now, that I have been to 798 a couple times, I thought it was about time to branch out to the other artist communities, such as Song Zhuang & Caochangdi Village.
I first heard about Song Zhuang on a piece on NPR. They have been running one show a day on Beijing every morning before 9 am I think. Well, I would never have guessed how huge and developed the complexes are. Song Zhuang, like many other art spaces began popping up in 1997, so these places have been around a while.
Song Zhuang
It is the trek and might be worth hiring a driver for the day from Beijing or take the subway like I did to Tongzhou Beiyuan, then find a cab out front of the station and strike a deal. Of course someone who speaks Mandarin would be your BFF on a trip like this! The cab ride is another 20 min or so. And when you arrive, you’ll begin to see signage and art shops. We stopped into a small gallery that we had a phone number for through our Wallpaper Guide to Beijing. Rebueno Gallery was in what looked like a strip mall, so we were slightly disappointed on first look at the exterior and surrounding architecture. But as luck would have it, the gallery is run by an Chinese artist named Sunrise, who speaks English & was glad to talk to us about the area and show us her private collection and some of her work. The work is mediocre on the most part, but there are a couple jems and her work is very collectible. Besides her name and likable paintings, she had a dog named Kafka, which melted my heart. I'm bringing home a catalog of her work for those who are interested. Below is a photograph of her bedroom. Her gallery: www.rebuenogallery.com .
The Song Zhuang Village is huge. Not really village size anymore. There are a number of larger institutions and galleries to see, but unfortunately not everything was open when we were there.
People seem to clear out during the winter months. I collected a flier but it is all in Chinese.
Read more about Song Zhuang Village click here.
Caochangdi Village
On the other hand this is easy to get to by cab ride from central Beijing. It is surrounded by very gritty streets and neighborhoods, so depending on where you are dropped off, you may think you’ve hit a patch of countryside, but don’t worry. You are in the right place. Follow signs for Art Channel. They have made a nice trail of flyers to help you. Once you find it, it feels like an office complex, but what is happening inside is very exciting. I imaging in warmer weather the resident artists would be easier to spot, but it is and has been freezing the whole time I’ve been here. I attended an opening at Art Channel and Pekin Fine Arts. This is my favorite so far for a location to have a residency. Just 10 min north of the infamous 798 Dashanzi Art district, this place seems less commercial and more about art production than purely exhibition. Close enough and far enough to work!
Art Channel
Fluid – Solid: Group show featuring work of resident artist, Marc De Malsonneuve & Aurelien Chen. Chen’s photographic work showed modern day urban China through the theme of water: aquariums, rain, and dew. Marc De Maisonneuve showed projected video and an installation that stole the show, titled something like the two goldfish I fell in love with. A small tented area in the center of the gallery that you can enter and enjoy an intimate moment warmed by hanging string lights and magnified by a wall of mirrors. The tent material is everyday wrapping plastic in red, blue, and white stripes.
Pekin Fine Arts
Pekin Fine Arts is a Beijing-based private consultancy and art gallery established by Meg Maggio in November 2005. Ms. Maggio is a 20-year China resident, arts writer, curator and director of Pekin Fine Arts gallery, in Beijing. Ms. Maggio acts as advisor to leading museums, corporations and individuals on collecting and exhibiting contemporary art. (Source: Pekin Website)
Office dA Architects: A Site Specific Installation (These guys are out of Boston!)
Perry Hall: Paint Video and Sound Drawing
Suling Wang paintings.
*NOTE: As I am referencing other writing, I have signified NOT MY WORDS in grey text.
FASHION & MONEY
2005
Vogue China launches fall of 2005.
China's in vogue so Vogue's in China
In a "Business of Luxury" summit organized by the Financial Times and held in Shanghai earlier this year, luxury retailers from all over the world said they expected China to have 250 million potential purchasers of their goods by 2010.
(Source: China Daily 2005)
2006
China's hunger for luxury goods grows:
Booming nation expected to be No. 2 buyer by 2015
By Jehangir S. Pocha, Globe Correspondent
(Source Boston Globe, March 21, 2006)
2007
The Luxury Goods Market in China
According to a Merrill Lynch report, China had 235,000 millionaires in 2003 and that number is estimated to be rising by 12% per year. In addition, according to the China Brand Strategy Association, 175 million Chinese people can now afford to buy luxury products. By 2010, this number is projected to reach 250 million.
Merrill Lynch estimates that by 2014 the Chinese could become the largest source of luxury goods purchases, accounting for 24% of industry global revenues. The demand for a high quality of life is increasing dramatically, especially among successful businessmen and politicians.
Camellia Universal Ltd (China Business & Investment Advisers) is consulting with mainly British and American companies on doing business & investing in China. For more information, please visit on http://www.camelliauniversal.com
(Source: http://www.theknowledgenetwork.co.uk/newsdetails.asp?no=991)
2008
China is becoming largest market for luxury goods. With a growing middle class, hundreds of thousands of Chinese (US Dollar) Millionaires + 66 Billionaires, and a booming tourist industry, the malls are filled with lux boutiques!
http://www.nswbusinesschamber.com.au/?content=/channels/International_trade/Country_information/China/chinas_new_luxury_market.xml
Vogue cost 20 RMB at the local newspaper stand.
Exchange rates: yuan per US dollar
7.2 (2008), 7.4 (2007), 7.90 (2006), 8.10 (2005), 8.26 (2003)
http://www.xe.com/
READ THIS, it is fascinating!
http://www.camelliauniversal.com/About%20China.html
CYCLING IN CHINA:
HOT LOOK
Look expands partnership with Chinese fed
- like selling coal to Newcastle?
In the last several years the epicenter of world bike manufacturing has moved from Taiwan, which produced the vast bulk of the bikes that fuelled the early-90s mountain bike boom, to mainland China. China has shed its image as the country where millions of heavy, crude Flying Pigeon bikes churn out of bike factories and on to the streets and become the place where your next carbon fiber frame might well be built.
With the increasing sophistication of Chinese bike making, it's no surprise that French frame builder Look is rather pleased to have extended its cooperation with the Chinese bike federation to include road and triathlon bikes.
Look already supplies track frames to the Chinese federation, but as China gears up to host the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, the deal has been extended to 2010, Look announced shortly before the world championships in Bordeaux.
And as Look is always very proud to point out, its high-end track frames come from its HQ in Nevers, France.
Look has also announced that it has opened a 200 sq metre store in the heart of Beijing, at the Workers Stadium, and recently sponsored the first event of the China-Look Cup, a stage race of which the final took place in Beijing in the presence of thousands of spectators.
So far, Look's partnership with China on the track has yielded an Olympic silver medal, won by Jonghua Jiang in the women's 500m time trial event at Athens. In Bordeaux the China/Look team added to the tally with two bronze medals, both won by Shuang Guo in the women's sprint and keirin.
(Source Cycling News)
Brief desc.s for those of you who are not bike geeks:
Click Here
Guess what my top choice would be!
Cruiser
Hybrid
Road Bike
Track Bike
Mountain Bike
Correct answers will be rewarded with special calling cards, frequently slipped under the door, offering services like “pressure release massage” and “Spanish rider” (loosely translated). They are quite charming.
ART IN BEIJING
Shopping for residencies:
There are some great opportunities, but you must have your own funding & the cost of a live work space at these residencies will put you back btwn $1000 - $2000 per month, not including purchasing your materials, feeding yourself, and flying yourself over! But if you can afford to get yourself here, you are golden.
Producing and fabricating will be much more affordable that at home, making much more possible. I am hoping to find a residency that can host me for the summer or fall of this year. Hopefully, I can make it happen by securing some funding and making sure Meta has a nice retreat while I travel.
*For those of you willing to pay your way and want to come make art with me,
please pipe up! I’m sussing things out on this end. I promise you will have so much fun!
Imagine Gallery
Studio $1,050/mo
Room 404, No.28, Dongsishitiao, Dongcheng DISTRICT, BEIJING
Fax: 0086 64385747, Telephone: 0086 13910917965
Red Gate Gallery Residency Programs
Studio $1300/mo
Beijing International P.O. Box 9039 , Beijing
Fax: +(8610) 6582 4861, Telephone: +(86) 137 010 787 21
VIS A VIS artlab – Beijing
798 art zone, Jiu Xian Qiao street 4, Chaoyang District,Beijing, Beijing
Telephone: 0086/1300 39 34 167
Platform China Contemporary Art Institute
Studio $ 1,300/mo
No.319-1, East End Art -A, Caochangdi Village, Chaoyang District, Beijing
Fax: 86-10-6432 0091, Telephone: 86-10-6432 0169
beiLAB / Theatre in Motion
Provides studio space.
Dongcheng District, Beixinqiao, Dongsi Beidajie, Dongsi Shisi Tiao 95 4 Ceng, Beijing
Telephone: 008613522494457
Art Channel Artists Residency Program
Studio $1,020/mo
Cao Chang Di Village No.249-3, East End Art Zone B, Beijing
Fax: 0086-84507859, Telephone: 0086-13521714691
Beijing Studio Center
Studios $2,500/$2,000/$1,500 monthly
Dashanzi Art District Beijing, Beijing
Fax: 008610 8959 5102, Telephone: 008610 6436 9371
Important Art Dates in Asia for 2008:
ART HK 08 (Hong Kong)
May 14 – 18, 2008
7th Gwangju Biennale (South Korea)
Sept. 5 – Nov. 11, 2008
Okwui Enwezor, Artistic Director
Might plan to go, if any one else is interested in meeting me there in October.
SATURDAY NIGHT
FEB. 2, 2008
We are having a Chinese New Year and Housewarming at Henry’s this Saturday night. I wish you all were here to join us, but as it is, we are half a world away, so I offer another option for celebration.
EAT UR HEART OUT
Thailand or bust!
I’ll be sunbathing in Phuket this lunar New Year! For all those less than spectacular new years experiences and this past one being spent sick as a dog inhaling second-hand smoke in a cabaret bar watching the likes of Madonna, Cher, and Elton on a video screen…I deserve this dream vacation! Don’t worry, I will take you there with some photos and colorful stories upon my return.
(For Ladies Eyes only)
Um, about the unmentionables, I would recommend Samantha at Eric Paris Salon in Sanlitun. I have to say it was the most painless experience. She was a master of the craft. Even compared to the Russians in New York & especially much better than an actual Brazilian woman in Brazil. I pinky swear.
TAKING HOLIDAY
Everyone working in China, yes, even the hard laborers are given a week or sometimes more to celebrate the lunar new year, where they can go visit with family. It may be their only chance to do so, as many work far, far, away from home. For many this is the only holiday they will get all year! Lets hope the snow doesn’t keep anyone from finding their way home this winter. Recently, the papers reported some blocked railways.
Gonxi Gonxi!
