Trip 2: Week 9 Living in the Village

Aromatherapy

Revolution Rock

I'm listening to the Clash on the speakers I borrowed from Henry. Sitting at my desk in my studio. I'm alone in the gallery. No one around. Playing music as loud as I want to! Windows open. Raining on and off all day. It is gray and cooler than most Beijing summer days.


After Hours

The Velvet Underground. Makes me think I could play bass. I love this song. The smell of lavender and peppermint is starting to emanate.


Mellow Doubt

Teenage Fan club is reminding me of college and the boys that bookmark points in my life. It was about the time I began to seriously think about studying Art. I had always had a camera in hand. It was my way to keep people at a safe distance and keep my hands busy. The camera helped me make my mental notes the way people scribble in journals. I didn't feel comfortable mis-spelling and rendering thing inaccurately for documentary purposes. Now, I feel less like there is one way or perspective or sight line or truth. I juggle a couple cameras when I shoot. It would help to have go-go-gadget arms, but instead I carry a very large purse.


Here are some photos of my new space:






The view out of my window:



Not bad, eh?

I am considering seriously moving to this area for my year in Beijing. We looked a space yesterday. It was the second time looking at the same space. I fell in love with it the first time I saw it. Henry is more hesitant because it is hard for him to imagine the possibilities of transformation. He is considering the commute and the rawness of an old factory space. I am loving the idea of creating my own space from the vase emptiness. It would make the move out here so worth it. The built in community. Living in the heart of a burgeoning new art center.

Cross your fingers we can strike a deal with Henri, the artist and developer of this complex.

Can you image...


This is the half I would live in with Henry. Up the stairs and to the right. The ground floor of the red brick building will be gallery space! Yeah, its hot.

Inside. I am photographing from where the door would be. Through the dwarfed door would be the kitchen and bath. The elevated section would be my work space. The foreground would be living and bedroom with the furniture being made on wheels to be able to convert the space at a moments notice!
Bookcases and couches and tables on wheels. And I could imagine it and have it built out. This is the China I had heard about...

and wanted to come for. I could live out my dream here. If I could just find a good temp home for Meta, I could move forward without hesitation. Hopefully, Henry will work out something with Henri and we can go for it!

XXX
from CaoChangdi

Trip 2: Week 8 Meta Issues

Should I stay or should I go?

Controls:
Henry
Su
Meta

Variables:
Home for Henry
Home for Su
Home for Meta
Length of stay in China Henry
Length of stay in China Su
Pet Relocation Specialists
Caretakers for Meta
Rental of Apt in Brooklyn


Possible Scenarios, saying I can sublet my Brooklyn apt for market value:

I. One Year Away [Most feasible]
Oct 2008 - 2009, Su & Henry share a home in a dog-friendly district.
Meta stays with Su's family for the year.
Oct 2009, Su & Meta are reunited in New York & Henry stays on in Beijing for one more year.
Oct 2010, All reunited in New York to begin a new life together.

II. Two Years Away, loosing Meta [Most undesirable outcome]
Oct. 2008 - 2010, Su & Henry share a home in a dog-friendly district.
Meta stays with Su's famliy for the year.
Oct 2009, Meta finds a new home, ideally staying in the family.
Oct 2010, Su & Henry return to New York without Meta.

III. Two+ Years Away, relocating Meta to China [Most unpredictable and risky]
Oct. 2008 - 2010, Su & Henry share a home in a dog-friendly district.
Meta stays with Su's famliy for the year.
Oct 2009, Meta is flown to Beijing with one month in quarantine.
Unknown future date, We reverse commute Meta with another quarantine in the States and
we all return safely to New York, hopefully.



Can someone please present me with another option I am not seeing?

I have been distracted with this and therefore not as productive and writing,
but I start my residency this Monday, so I will be able to focus more.

Maybe I need a Pros and Cons list?

Please call me with any guidance or advice or sympathy.
This is the toughest thing I have ever been faced with in terms of a life decision.

Does it have to me a Henry or Meta situation?
Hopefully, a solution that makes us all happy will present itself.
Possibly a part time home in Atlanta to help my sister and mother out.

Any great dog walkers or pet sitters in Atlanta you know of?

Trip 2: Week 7 Progress

MADE IN CHINA

These images are made with an original Holga S. These plastic cameras were created in 1982 in Hong Kong with the intent of offering the working class of China an option to record events and create family portraits. The camera uses 120 film because 120 b/w film was the most readily available film at the time.

During my time in residence in Beijing, I am focusing on making composite images with the Holga. The images are double sometimes triple exposures. The layering of the images care meant to encourage the viewer to make connections and draw conclusions about the relationships they see.

I aim to look at the idea of the natural and its' relationship to cultural consumption. Every culture has a different relationship to nature, as an idea. Here I'm looking at everyday objects as the iconic, to see how nature is employed and shaped as a cultural idea.

These are the first batch of an experimental mode of working. Though I have always worked in more of a straight documentary style, I was inspired by the Holga's simplicity and the ease in which I could manipulate images in camera. Each layer literally sheds light on the film and I hope creates an image that inspires contemplation the way many of these objects are meant to.

Trip 2: Week 6

From my new "Made in China" series using the Holga.
Stay tuned...

This weekend I discovered the "Fish & Bird Market."
Location: Qingta Hutong (west of Lu Xun Museum)
Fuchengmennei, Xicheng District

I decided I couldn't pull out my camera to record this spectacle because it wouldn't do the feeling justice. I just had to be there in the moment and take it all in. Something I am learning to do more and more.

Imagine walking down a small alleyway beyond the main city street toward the unknown. It is always an adventure to seek out the new. Even if it is something very ordinary to some, this small city block area is a spectacular cultural phenomenon. It is not on a very obvious path and is just beyond the length of time one would normally wander into an unknown alley, but we were certain that just underneath the skyscraper within view was a wonderful world of the Fish and Bird Market I had read about. There are moments when you know you have wandered off the normal tourist path because all of a sudden the street seems quieter than normal and all eyes are on you. Seems appropriate as I was seeking out a spectacle myself.

The road curves and then narrows toward this small market. The sound of birds and smell of animals in cages alert you to your imminent arrival. Ah, the destination has arrived. I was drawn first to the little miniature pigs and then the bunnies then the chinchilla. I am an animal lover, but I am fond of some more than others. The chinchilla is originally from the high Andes in South America. This cute and especially soft little guy is often bred in captivity for his fur. Sometimes being blessed with too much softness can be a curse. There are rodents of all kinds. As well as, worms, crickets, minnows. Hard to say where where the line of pet, bait, or food lie. There was some evidence of an organizing principle as you walk into a small building that houses equipment for fishing. The further you walk in, you find yourself in the middle of a maze of aquarium holding every variety of what I would the Goldfish. I still haven't looked in to the relationship between Goldfish and Coy. Are they from the same family? Are they essentially the same fish but with bigger tanks that allow them to grow to sizes like small puppies? I've heard they can cost as much as small cars and are treated as special pets in some circles. I guess I would name mine too and make long rambling streams for them to roam, had I land to do this on. The reality is that I have always been fascinated with ponds and aquariums. The idea of keeping fish and underwater life. If I were to choose, I'd say I lean towards salt water, but would love both. Anyway, besides dreaming of a huge wall of fish in my bedroom one day, seeing this kind of market really depresses me. I worry that these places only exist because people like me are fascinated with keeping things. Taking home symbols of nature to create a fiction. I hate myself for wanting it in a way and for wanting to see the market place that feeds these fictions. Its the same as hating zoos for how sad the animals seem, but always having to go to see. I don't try to agitate the animals by tapping on the glass or yelling at them or hitting their cages with sticks, but I always see people who do.

I've taught my nephew and niece (my brother's kids) that it is not nice to do any of these things. That it upsets the animals and we should treat them well for being specimens for our study. That we are obliged to learn about them because we have taken them from their homes so we might "know" something more about Nature. I think the most people learn is about their own natures. Do you feel sympathy, curiosity, disgust, awe, empathy? Its all very adult so the most I can say is "please do not tap on the glass". It is their home and how would you feel? As they watch the other children bang the glass.


I saw a lot of kittens in cages. They were dehydrated little muffins (this is what I like to call cute and cuddly animals who are often bought and sold as "pets"), piled on top of one another in the blistering Beijing sun. Some bunnies in individual cages that are just big enough to keep them in one position and their feet gripped around the wire cage bottoms. They must think we are horrible to do this to them. Then there are the animals I would put in the "curios" category, such as exotic colored frogs, all kinds of turtles, slugs, bugs, baby birds. The bigger singing birds at least get to sit up high in birdhouses. They are showcased for their beauty. Color, plume, and song. The hierarchy of the animal species represented here on this Saturday Morning measured in freedom of movement.

There weren't any other obvious foreigners as far as I noticed. It was just us (that is Henry & I) and all the caged animals that did not belong there. The highest selling animal that was priced and available for immediate viewing was the "Exotic European Cat" for 860 RMB. Grey and listless it was an adult cat curled up in a comparatively luxurious cage all to himself. The only thing that seemed maybe "European" was that he didn't have a squishy flat nosed face like the ones that are all over the pet store scene here. (Check out my flickr from my first visit to Beijing).

The sweetest moment was as I rubbed the snout of a little black and pink piggy from the edge of his cage. Little piggy kisses. A moment that I am not sure gave him as much pleasure as it did me, but that I will remember. As we left, Henry told me that the woman following me had been asking if I wanted to buy a dog? I still suffer from heartache when I think of my muffin back home. But as much as I want to save all the animals from another day of the purgatory I imagine, I cant. I have committed to one back home. And though I am not with her now, there is no room for another in my heart right now. She is fortunate, as am I, that my sister loves dogs too. But this is her first and she already has two human babies. I am hoping that they are all bonding and falling in love with each other. As I know living together can be hard and love is a responsibility to care for each other. I hope they are falling in love. Until then I will feel like a bad mother. That I have abandoned the baby I raised. But I hope that one day I can look back and know I made the right decision to follow my heart to China. Even if it meant leaving a muffin behind. I just have to believe she is happy and in a better place than with me at the moment. Maybe because she is still young, she will adjust easily.

Trip 2: Week 5

The sweetest thing I've seen in a long time.




Go ahead and take a moment.





Henry and Matt taking a peak behind the scenes at the development in progress. (Jan 2008)

Henry's recently published feature on a new development project south of Tianmen Square, called Qianmen (front gate). It is a recreation of the neighborhood circa late 1950's, known for its colorful cultural life. The reality is that they had to erase the remnants of the past to hyper color an new version with modern international brands to take the place of local businesses and homes only the nuevo riche or foreigners can afford. The billboards of the plans that advertise its imminent opening, look like a Disney world exhibit.

And check out the multimedia piece that accompanies the story. You might find the voice of the woman's translation vaguely familiar!


Food this week:

Lotus Root

莲花

This relaxed Thai restaurant is a great find. It lies tucked away in a developed hutong on the northwest side of Di'anmen Dajie, just before the road forks into Gulouxi & Guloudong dajie. It is about midway through toward Houhai lake and just across from a sunglass store where I found two hot new shades!
It had open windows toward the street with relaxing mello western tunes to set the mood. There is a house cat that roams around and welcomes the guests and flowing mesh and hookah pipes at the tables to lend to a "den" like feel. A good date place with solid food. (Just watch the heat!)


Baihe Vegetarian Restaurant

百合素食

When you walk into this restaurant, it feels like you've entered an old scholars home. Walls of books and a private dining room if you had a large party to feed. Otherwise you are scattered around the living room with a few other guests, both Chinese and foreign, enjoying a veggie version of their favorite dish. It is low key and out of the way of a lot of hustle and bustle. For a quiet night out after OD-ing on meat elsewhere.


Art this week:


Touchme by Blendid, 2004
Effectively a xerox machine of light. You can see my after image.


National Art Museum of China (NAMOC) hosts it's first major media art show! Synthetic Times opened June 11, with the help of a couple key international players, including Barbara London (MoMA). The show is impressive in scale, precedence, and content. This show is supported by the government of China, so raise your hands for that.

A couple highlights of the show:

Henrik Menné
56L (2004) consists of solid glue, a fan, iron, a heating element, and an engine. The dimensions of the work are variable (machine 180x150x150 cm).

Anthony McCall
Between You and I (2006) a ‘solid-light’ installation.


The show was accompanied by a series of panel discussions concerning how to archive media works to panels of curators & artists speaking about their work.




VARIATIONS
Experimental theatre performance
Egg Gallery, Caochangdi, Beijing
14-15/06/2008

I also attended Open Studios at Caochangdi's Art Channel and went to see a performance in the village. Chatted up the artist who was staying in the room I am hoping to stay in come mid-July. There is no air conditioner, but other than that the room is sun filled most of the day and over looks a garden. Not too bad. I'll have my private bath, so all in all, it should be a great place to work. The artist there currently is an American Sculptor, Jacob Stanley, and a Japanese Installation artist, Takeshi Ota. I headed over to a performance directed by Alessandro Rolandi being help close by at Egg Gallery with the director of Art Channel. It was a spectacle involving the three women performers, a hired cycle and wagon, experimental music, and the swarm of audience members with cameras filling the empty space the performers created. It has an air of experimentation, but the audience is so overwhelmingly accepting, it leaves you with feelings of only pleasantries. I'm hoping to make some noise while I'm there. I hope I can ignite some interesting dialog, as well as, cultivate a supportive audience. It is a little terrifying getting back on the horse, but I can only grow from putting it out there. I've just been circling start and am ready to hit the track running.

Meanwhile, I am taking it all in. All the back and forth about China and the Olympics. I'm glad to report that it is more complex and interesting than what you'll read on the surface. Tensions are running high, even within the group of friends I hang with. Everyone speculating and we will all just have to wait and see. We are all outsiders afterall. The hope is that there are enough of us left after visa crackdowns to have a good time and let the spirit of the Olympic games prevail. But anything can happen between now and then. Stay tuned. And read my friend Matt's Olympic blog. He has some good insight into what is happening leading up to the games!

Ciao for now.

XXX

Li Jing (trying a Chinese name that also means "Crystal")

aka

click here.