bcbchina

Inside "The Peak" Atop Victoria Peak--Hong Kong

2010-02-21T12:06:00.000-05:00

I hate to make broad, all-inclusive statements about a culture that consists of 1.3 billion people, but I feel pretty safe in concluding that the Chinese love nothing more than a gawdy, overdone, indoor shopping experience.

Inside "The Peak" Atop Victoria Peak--Hong Kong

2010-02-20T00:51:00.000-05:00

Light wall adjacent to escalator inside "The Peak".

Ooooooooo... Aaaaaaaaah...

Inside "The Peak" Atop Victoria Peak--Hong Kong

2010-02-19T15:45:00.000-05:00

Bubba Gump Shrimp Company...really? I love that this Chinese dude is rockin' the "Stupid Is As Stupid Does" T-shirt while selling the exact shirt to some American tourists. What? They ain't got no Bubba Gump in Omaha? Might beat out "My Parents Went to Hong Kong and All I Got Was This Lousy T-shirt" as worst tourist gift T ever... Of course, this is America's gift to the world.

Fake Stump Atop Victoria Peak--Hong Kong

2010-02-18T03:42:00.000-05:00

Nothing says country park in Hong Kong like a plastic stump.

Inside "The Peak" Atop Victoria Peak--Hong Kong

2010-02-17T15:05:00.001-05:00

This mega-mall/restaurant complex sits atop Victoria Peak, the highest point in Hong Kong. With all of the beautiful natural trails that allow sweeping views and vistas of the city and harbour, locals and tourists alike swarm to this indoors of awful...

"The Peak" Atop Victoria Peak--Hong Kong

2010-02-16T15:39:00.000-05:00

This architectural wonder was built atop the highest hill/mountain in Hong Kong. Nature and spectacular views weren't enough of a draw, I guess...

Man Mo Temple--Hong Kong

2010-02-15T14:23:00.000-05:00

While the sound of the fans and mobile phone ringers is a bit distracting, you can get a sense of the interior temple space from this video.

Man Mo Temple--Hong Kong

2010-02-14T14:01:00.000-05:00

Outside of the temple people could burn offerings and wishes in the sacred incinerator flames...

Coils of incense hung from the ceiling. The air was intense with the scent of incense. You like what I did there...?

Man Mo Temple

2010-02-13T13:50:00.000-05:00

Man Mo Temple is one of the oldest Buddhist temples in Hong Kong. I loved the fact that it was nestled among the narrow, towering high rises that pervade the island... Everything and everywhere in Hong Kong is slim and vertical except for this one cloister of tranquility.

Call Me...

2010-02-12T13:37:00.000-05:00

Saw this phenom all over China. People write down phone numbers right on the wall. What happens when you aren't there and want to make that call, though?

Andy is Still Dandy (Warhols)

2010-02-11T13:30:00.001-05:00

So say you're a tourist and you fear that the street vendor will send you home with a calligraphy manuscript that he claims to be the words of Confucius but you fear it might actually be some off-colour limerick... How embarrassing would that be? No fear, the same vendor would be happy to sell you a genuine reproduction of Merlin Monrow. Real quality... No joke... You buy...

Open Dissent in Hong Kong

2010-02-10T13:18:00.000-05:00

I saw these Falun Gong protest posters all over Hong Kong. From what I know, the Chinese government considers Falun Gong a cult and has severely suppressed the practice and practitioners. Not sure what the text says, but the disturbingly graphic images seem to depict victims of torture. I didn't see anything like this on the mainland. Although Hong Kong has reverted back to Chinese rule, the government seems to have take a laissez faire approach to this little cluster of islands that are home to much of the economic and commercial braintrust of this region of the world.

Dinner at Hurricane Bay Part 2

2009-11-21T11:15:00.000-05:00

Huge prawns covered in chiles.
Family style, complete with lazy susan.
Some sort of lobsterish/shrimpish cross-bread fried and powdered with cayenne pepper.
Fish heads, fish heads, roly-poly fish heads...
Gelatin with floaty bits, served as dessert. As many of you know, I don't favour gelatin-based foods.

Dinner with the HK Ecko office in Hurricane Bay

2009-11-20T10:54:00.000-05:00

Some of our HK counterparts
Yes, that is a whole duck head...
I love scallops and these were some of the best I have ever eaten. They were covered with glass noodles and loaded with garlic.
Some sort of chopped up spiny lobster which was then deep fried.
Overall, the food in China was fantastic. Hurricane Bay is located right on the water (obviously) and the waterfront is lined with restaurants serving the finest fish available. We all know seafood is best served fresh and these restaurants all have massive banks of fish tanks in front of them holding a variety of seafood. There were some fish in the tanks that had to weigh 100+ pounds. Unfortunately, I waited until after dinner to shoot pics of them and our meal involved so many courses that by the time we were finished all the tanks had been shuttered.

Ham-A-Lama-Ding-Dong...

2009-11-19T10:48:00.000-05:00

This shop sold all manner of exotic (to my eyes) food items. At first I thought these smoked ham hocks were some sort of special dried goose...

Crab Rap, Yo!

2009-11-18T10:43:00.000-05:00

These poor crabs were wrapped up and sitting in a bin at a street market. I couldn't confirm whether or not they were definitely alive, but the fact that they were so tightly bound led me to believe that they were. PETA would have a field day...

Hong Kong highrise

2009-11-17T10:28:00.001-05:00

A typical view of the exterior of many buildings in Hong Kong. The city is vertically overbuilt with tall, narrow, nondescript structures many of which seem to have cobbled on additions and upgrades. It seems that all of these A/C units, along with their requisite pipes, ducts and cables, were a total afterthought

look at the size of that f***ing cobra!

2009-11-15T03:03:00.000-05:00

yum!

2009-11-14T09:58:00.000-05:00

sooooo, i know it's supposed to be a pig, but doesn't it look like a roasted rat? it's the maraschino cherry eyes, right?

..and then there was bird nest based desserts...

2009-11-13T11:50:00.000-05:00

so apparently they boil down the nests of swallows, which are saturated with the birds saliva, to make a delicious, fruity, gelatinous concoction. my friends didn't explain this to me until after i had eaten about half of the dish. in turn, i tried to explain the obvious "spit or swallow" joke. my chinese friends were either offended and just played ignorant or they just really didn't get it... apparently, it very good for your skin (not even kidding).

hong kong noodle shop

2009-11-13T11:47:00.000-05:00

a light lunch of aromatic street food, i was pleased to join andrew and his lady for some savoury noodle soup and steamed vegetables. delicious dishes.

hong kong street food

2009-11-12T09:35:00.000-05:00

the large square blocks are literally called "stinky tofu" and they smell like your body odour after 10 days of backcountry camping. surprisingly, the taste is not that bad. however, during consumption i found myself repulsed by the smell to the point where i couldn't finish my block 'o' stinky tofu.
and you thought grade school lunch was fraught with "mystery meat"...
i think this was some sort of fermented or rotten egg that was then breaded and fried. after the stinky tofu i wasn't really in the mood to experiment...
when you are with a local and he can't even figure out the identity of the squiggly items on the right it is a clear signal to stear just as clear.
delicious tripe and other parts cooked in a fatty juice. another one of those dishes that surprises you with it's pungent aroma.

no parking, baby...

2009-11-11T10:29:00.000-05:00

seems obvious enough.

grand hyatt hong kong

2009-11-10T09:25:00.000-05:00

seemed like a pretty nice place. the "when" makes it seem inevitable, though.

hong kong street shots

2009-11-09T10:08:00.001-05:00

"game over" mr. money bags was perfectly appropriate considering the u.s. ecomony was shitting the bed while we were galavanting around china...

copy cat googly eye cru

2009-11-08T09:54:00.001-05:00

so the brooklyn-based googly eye cru is ubiquitous enough to have a chinese/hong kong knock off. my friend malia is the queen of the cru and she has definitely dropped some of her stickers during her travels to the orient... to see some pics of the real deal check out the link. googly eye cru

hong kong airport terminal

2009-11-07T10:08:00.001-05:00

check the structural elements on the ceiling of the hong kong airport terminal. don't really understand the engineering going on here, but i'm keen on the visuals...

motel 168, as seen from hong kong airport

2009-11-06T09:58:00.000-05:00

see how space age? just showing off...

illlicit carry-on items

2009-11-05T09:49:00.002-05:00

some items that are apparently banned on flights from mainland china to hong kong. it was always the little things that reminded you of the oppressive government policies...

shanghai airport en route to hong kong

2009-07-21T01:45:00.003-04:00

so all over china you can find chicken and duck wings sold pre-cooked and individually vacuum packed for your gastronomic delight. we finally broke down at the airport and bought a package of duck wings. when you break open the seal, there is a strange, yet familiar odour that emanates... then you notice the congealed duck fat encasing the wing... reminds you of crappy vienna sausages... you hesitate... you bite... and you realize that fried scorpions aren't really that bad. i love duck, for god's sake. i wanted to eat and enjoy. instead, the combo of the duck wing and a few chicken flavour pringles (also available in airport gift shop) sent my appetite packing for the night. here you see alison and andrew enjoying their wings. andrew is marvelously oblivious in his ipod distraction.

after hours--shanghai

2009-07-21T01:35:00.002-04:00

the indomitable lin lin of jellymon with her equally intriguing friend. this shanghai crew was really fun, very cosmopolitan and definitely up to speed on all fronts. there were aussies, canadians, chinese, japanese, europeans and us americans all hanging out and talking about making and doing the things we will all be reading, blogging, hyping in the coming years. although our stay in shanghai was brief, it was the most comfortable city as far as cultural atmosphere goes. strangely enough, the local art scenes still seemed to be in its infancy relative to beijing.

after hours--shanghai

2009-07-21T01:10:00.002-04:00

went to a spot after delish duck dish for drinks and to meet with a group of shanghai graffiti artists. this is a guy named SEAF sharing his black book with us. it's strange that graffiti even happens in china, considering the generally represssive government. however, according to these guys the police don't do anything as long as graffiti is only going up in certain places and neighborhoods. another instance where the government seems to be looking the other way while a creative culture takes hold in the younger generation.

peking duck in shanghai?

2009-07-21T01:00:00.002-04:00

seems out of place, but it was as tasty as in peking/beijing. cut in front of us and served in three distinct courses. chinatown ain't got nothin' on this. and the chef looks like a ghost!

thrasher on the streets of shanghai

2009-07-21T00:49:00.005-04:00

i came across this scene on the way to and from moca shanghai. some young shaman in a thrashing trance state above his sleeping eldery family member? all i know is that i was in the museum for at least 1.5 hours and i have no reason to believe that he ever wavered. unless, of course, he was just putting on a show for me...

hello pizza shanghai

2009-07-21T00:47:00.002-04:00

"hello? pizza?"

moca shanghai

2009-07-21T00:32:00.003-04:00

despite what you may think you know about the quality of chinese manufacturing, chinese artists are creating a lot of sculpture out of cast resin and metal with an incredibly high level of production value. granted, material and manufacturing costs are tremendously lower in china, and young chinese artists are taking full advantage. i saw quite a bit of sculpture throughout the galleries and museums in china that was ambitious in scale and finish. i was not always sold on the concepts, and some pieces definitely derived from the work of popular western artists, however i found the initiative and enthusiasm commendable. some pieces of interest, from top to bottom:

1. "the desire of a mosquito" by zhuang kolkoi, resin complete with mosquito sound effect

2. "finger pointed childish ox" by wallace chan, carved from obsidian

3. "divorce self from reality and act blindly" by liang binbin, koons-like cast metal with a hirst-like title

moca shanghai

2009-07-20T23:14:00.002-04:00

this piece was pretty cool. as you can see, it is scaled model of all the plumbing fixtures and lines on a given floor of an apartment building. the piece was tall enough that you could walk underneath.

moca shanghai

2009-07-20T23:12:00.001-04:00

FIRE CAT!

moca shanghai

2009-07-20T22:56:00.003-04:00

after visiting zhang huan, a local friend of andrew wongs from his parsons days took us to moca shanghai (museum of contemporary art for the art nubes--sorry if that sounds snooty).

her name is lin lin and she runs jellymon (www.jellymon.com) with her boyfriend sam jacobs. they have some good stuff and apparently lin lin knows everyone in the world. after my return from china i was at a party and the hostess had a polaroid of her and lin lin sitting together. it was one of those classic "how do you know lin lin?" "how do you know her?" moments... she and sam had designed a nouveau tea room in the cafe area of the museum. adjacent to the tea room was a wall mural that looked half finished. however, it did sport the likeness of andy warhol and terry richardson (?). never got the full story on that one.

zhang huan studio--shanghai

2009-07-06T21:00:00.002-04:00

i couldn't take pics inside the studio, but i got some shots of the surrounding industrial park.

zhang huan studio--shanghai

2009-07-06T20:57:00.003-04:00

i generally don't go for the celebrity pic, but this guy is an art star and a swell fella, to boot.

zhang huan studio--shanghai

2009-07-06T20:45:00.002-04:00

he is also executing large scale "paintings", which are also made of incense ash. apparently, he collects ash from temples across china. he then has his assistants sort the ash by tone, texture and colour. then the ash is dropped onto the surface of the canvas to produce surprisingly precise images. again, the stability of the surface is a mystery. there must be some sort of binder, but the surface still looks delicate and light.

zhang huan studio--shanghai

2009-07-06T20:19:00.004-04:00

zhang huan was also working on several buddha sculptures. the large hand is mad of copper and/or bronze. the figures are made of compressed incense ash collected from the buddhist temples. clearly, this is a very tricky material to utilize. one might assume that he would use some sort of binder, like resin, to hold the ash together. however, the surface seems to be much too delicate and soft for that to be the case. the end result is quite impressive.

zhang huan studio--shanghai

2009-07-06T20:13:00.002-04:00

i saw a version of these sculptures at a pace wildenstein show in chelsea about 2 years ago. they are called "giants" and are large-scale bio-morphic figures that are covered in full cow pelts (hooves and all) that are attached to the forms via large, visible staples. if memory serves, the images that show the high, trussed ceilings must have been shot in his studio at some point. there were two more of these "giants" completed in his studio space.

zhang huan studio--shanghai

2009-07-06T19:45:00.002-04:00

we were fortunate enough to be invited to visit the main production studio of zhang huan, one of the most famous artists in china. he came to international prominence as a performance artist in the 90's (including the performance of him walking through new york in a suit made of cuts of meat pictured here). more recently he has been working in large scale sculpture and painting. while zhang huan was very friendly and accommodating, he requested that we not take photographs in his studio. however, i did find several images online that depict the projects (or at least the types of projects) that we was executing in his studio with a society of assistants.

shanghai

2009-07-06T19:40:00.002-04:00

this image was on a sign in the m50 art district. not sure if it was related to an art exhibition or gallery, but it caught my eye. check out the nuggets on that dead donkey. damn! now that's good eatin'!

shanghai

2009-07-06T19:24:00.003-04:00

while the government is very strict about topics of sexuality and pornography, i was happy to see that not all of the sex toys produced in china are for export only... if you zoom in, you can clearly see pink phalluses and nipple clips from the street--neat!

island 6 arts center--shanghai

2009-07-06T18:40:00.002-04:00

i was diggin' on this sofa at island 6.

island 6 arts center--shanghai

2009-07-06T18:34:00.004-04:00

this may have been my favourite piece of art that i saw in all of china. the expression on the dogs face is priceless.

shine art space--shanghai

2009-07-06T18:25:00.002-04:00

there is an art district in shanghai called the m50. our first stop was the shine art space where we saw a series of large scale paintings and installations by zhong biao. andrew wong was a good sport and mirrored the seemingly ubiquitous outstretched arm pose of the camera phone generation--what a card.

massage time--shanghai

2009-07-02T17:20:00.002-04:00

we got into shanghai late night but andrew wong and i decided to head out to a massage parlour anyway. while i'm sure there are plenty of happy ending spots in shanghai, we went to one of the nicer, legit, spas in the city. it was a different from any massage experience i have ever had. the attendants lead us down a candle lit hallway to a private room. they proceed to give us a change of clothes consisting of lightweight, pyjama type pants and buttoned shirt. then they take our food and drink order. i think i had some soup and tea. after a relaxed snack, two men came in to inflict rigorous, dry massage on us. i'm pretty sure it was the most intense massage i have ever received. final bill...less than $20 US.

cao chang di--beijing

2009-07-02T15:23:00.004-04:00

i was nearly as impressed by the roof structure as i was by the art work at boers li gallery.

cao chang di--beijing

2009-07-02T14:28:00.002-04:00

this is the boers li gallery. the space was immense and seemed like it could have been an airplane hangar at one point. the artist is song kun, from inner mongolia. her work consisted of very simple graphite drawings, cut-outs and small objects on paper. the frames reminded me of mathew barney's self-lubricating plastic frames. overall, a mixed bag. some pieces were impressive and others disappointing.

cao chang di--beijing

2009-07-02T03:42:00.004-04:00

another of the hologram sculptures. obviously, this is a chinese honky rooster.

cao chang di--beijing

2009-07-02T03:26:00.006-04:00

at pekin fine arts. these hologram boxes were done by a japanese artist named kohei nawa. the effect doesn't translate incredibly well to video, but in person these images seemed to pop open out of their lucite boxes with a hyperreal dimensionality. this is a hologram sculpture of a spotted panther

cao chang di--beijing

2009-07-02T03:03:00.004-04:00

not sure of the gallery or artist, but i enjoyed looking at this piece. so simple, yet so intriguing. just cascading plumes of smoke mirrored along a central axis, no sound. the piece was projected on a 12 foot tall wall. i watched it for a while...until i felt the vertigo.

cao chang di--beiing

2009-07-02T02:47:00.004-04:00

another great gallery in cao chang di was pekin fine arts. they had several large halls dedicated to large scale video projections and installations. while 798 had the soul of the old front and present, cao chang di had more of a slicked out chelsea vibe. impressive spaces not trying to hide their white box aspirations. this video installation was interesting. the calm music juxtaposed with the classroom propaganda atmosphere. i don't know what the text said, but the irony still registered

cao chang di--beijing

2009-07-01T15:01:00.005-04:00

another video installation an han ji yun. gotta love the dog spouting/spitting truisms on the nature of humanity and god. this installation had several (about 8) projections on the walls in one room. each projector showed the dog "writing" the same text in different languages and alphabets. not only is the pup eloquent, but also multi-lingual

cao chang di--beijing

2009-07-01T14:39:00.004-04:00

this video was on display at han ji yun gallery, which is a south korean based gallery. don't recall the artists name unfortunately.

cao chang di--beijing

2009-07-01T13:37:00.002-04:00

another one of those instances where you want it to be an art installation, but it turns out to just be the storage area of a gallery. maybe i'll start making "storage area art".

cao chang di--beijing

2009-07-01T13:30:00.004-04:00

no story here. just a pic that i liked taken in cao chang di.

cao chang di--beijing

2009-06-30T20:51:00.002-04:00

a little walk through cao chang di. i wasn't kidding about the prevalence of red brick and white stone trim...

cao chang di--beijing

2009-06-30T20:46:00.003-04:00

the galleries in cao chang di tended to be more international in flavour. several galleries from europe and other countries across asia were representing. overall, i think i appreciated the work in cao chang di more than 798. 798 was very chinese--from inception to representation. for example, what's not to love about this little mounted marble mammal?

cao chang di--beijing

2009-06-30T20:43:00.002-04:00

even superman needs acupuncture sometimes. i'm all for suspension of disbelief, but if bullets can't hurt him, how does ya gets them needles in? man of steel meets ancient chinese secret...

cao chang di--beijing

2009-06-30T20:37:00.003-04:00

cao chang di is another area with several galleries located about 10 mins (by car) from 798 district. this area is more residential and mixed use than 798. most of the structures seemed to consist of the red brick and white stone compounds shown in this series of images. i just like this sequence of the guy walking with the long pole (insert penis joke here).

mausoleum of mao zedong--beijing

2009-06-29T18:37:00.003-04:00

apparently, there is a pickled mao in the middle of tianaman square. unfortunately, the mausoleum was closed the day we visited. i think there was a demonstration scheduled for the square the following day and paranoia was in the air. as you can imagine, the government doesn't mess around when it comes to tianaman square. there was security everywhere, even in evidence before the grand social realist statues flanking the building.

street food--beijing

2009-06-29T18:32:00.002-04:00

i'm not sure what most of this stuff is... various parts, eggs and unidentifiable seafood. i do know that the red cubes that appear in the top picture are some type of fermented pigs blood.

street food--beijing

2009-06-29T18:29:00.002-04:00

starfish and various types of 'pedes (centi- and milli-).

flash fried before you eyes...

street food--beijing

2009-06-29T18:21:00.002-04:00

maggot, grubs and locust, OH MY!

street food--beijing

2009-06-29T16:34:00.003-04:00

so i finally bit the bullet (so to say) and decided on a skewer of small scorpions. as you hear at the end of the video, they tasted like fried.

2009-06-29T16:31:00.003-04:00

small scorpions, big scorpions, crickets, OH MY!

the big scorpions seem to be a popular item...

street food--beijing

2009-06-29T16:26:00.003-04:00

some sort of shrimp-like shellfish that i had never seen before. encountered this a few time in various cities in china. taste and texture is somewhere between shrimp and lobster. the red things in the top picture (next to the shellfish) is the heart of some small animal. mmmmm...

street food--beijing

2009-06-29T16:18:00.002-04:00

like in many cities across asia some of the best, and most exotic, food can be enjoyed fresh from the kiosks of street vendors. beijing has one famous stretch of wangfujing street that is renowned for its variety of unusual food items. i started with some of the largest oysters i have ever enjoyed. they were heavily seasoned with fresh garlic, peppers and onions. delish...

forbidden city--beijing

2009-06-29T16:13:00.002-04:00

at the far end of the city is a garden featuring a variety of gnarled, ancient trees and some period sculptures.

forbidden city--beijing

2009-06-29T16:10:00.003-04:00

CHECK OUT THE THRONES!!! there weren't any lights on in the building that housed the thrones, so the flecks on the images are dust particles that my flash was hitting. did i mention that the air quality in beijing is awful?

forbidden city--beijing

2009-06-29T15:10:00.004-04:00

here is some video footage of one of the courtyards in the forbidden city. keep in mind that this courtyard is flanked on each side by courtyards of equal size and that there are several more of these courtyards beyond... don't mean to keep harping on this point, but this place was massive!

a link to a map of forbidden city http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Forbidden_city_map_wp_1.png

forbidden city--beijing

2009-06-29T15:00:00.004-04:00

some images of forbidden city to give you a sense of scale and level of architectural detail. some areas were a bit rough (mostly old stone staircases) but for the most part the place was fairly well restored. the royals had it really good.

forbidden city--beijing

2009-06-29T14:49:00.003-04:00

we checked out the forbidden city, which was the imperial palace for nearly 5 centuries starting in the early 15th century. the scale of this compound is indescribable. i walked into the first massive courtyard and thought to myself, "this place is immense". i soon realized that we were only in the first of many courtyards of that scale. apparently this site covers almost 8 million square feet. it just kept going and going. perhaps the world's first McMansion. here are some shots from the front entrance. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forbidden_City

stone yard visit--beijing

2009-06-29T14:42:00.002-04:00

one final shot from the stone yard. i just liked these dancing figures hanging out in front of a nondescript warehouse.

stone yard visit--beijing

2009-06-29T14:37:00.003-04:00

check the hippo table. get it? the glass top is like a pool of water cooling the oversize mammal. speaking of water, they served us hot plain water in paper cups. mmmmm...hot plain water (you have to do your own homer simpson for that one). also, pictured is the showroom that is fashioned to look like some jigsaw puzzle of a western courtyard, complete with false doors and windows, all of which they are willing to produce or provide for the right price.

stone yard visit--beijing

2009-06-29T12:48:00.002-04:00

gotta love all the religious statuary being produced by chinese infidels for upstanding christian consumers in the west. let me know if you need a marble angel statue...i have a hook-up. check out the nun statue with the pink elephant. not sure if they were intentionally placed in such close proximity, but somehow it works!

stone yard visit--beijing

2008-11-24T19:33:00.001-05:00

just one of several facilities of this size on the premises. and yes, that's me looking pretty scruffy. i'm pretty sure i was the hairiest man in china during my stay.

stone yard visit--beijing

2008-11-24T19:29:00.002-05:00

the craftspeople live amongst their work with their families. at lunch time everyone stops at the same time, sits down and eats together. never mind the micro powder dusty bits that permeated the environment.

stone yard--beijing

2008-11-24T19:28:00.000-05:00

stone yard visit--beijing

2008-11-24T19:23:00.003-05:00

ceiling of one of the warehouse buildings at the stone yard. what do they hang off of those strings exactly? and why wasn't anything hanging at the time of these pictures? strikingly suspicious in my estimation...

stone yard visit

2008-11-24T19:19:00.003-05:00

need a location for your next horror slasher film project?

dinner at source in beijing

2008-11-24T18:49:00.002-05:00

this was the primary reason for wandering into the hutong. this place served one of many incredible meals i ate while in china. i had heard it many times before i went there, but after experiencing it firsthand, i have to agree that "chinese" food in the u.s. is a poor imposter. i'm not even sure how they can call it that. i tried ordering sweet and sour pork everywhere i went, only to draw blank stares from waiters. i wanted to believe it was because i was speaking in english but, in fact, i think i was just asking a stupid question. and no, they don't have such a thing as fortune cookies in china. another made up american food item.

typical hutong courtyard

2008-11-24T18:46:00.001-05:00

i'm sure this was dressed up a bit when it was converted to a restaurant, but this is a typical hutong courtyard.

as seen in a beijing hutong

2008-11-24T18:25:00.004-05:00

hutongs are the traditional neighbourhoods built in beijing. they consist of smaller courtyard residences linked together by a series of glorified alleys. often the homes are without plumbing and therefore share a neighborhood public bathroom. i experienced one, and despite the squatting toilet, i found the facilities impressively pristine. these neighbourhoods are increasingly being torn down to accommodate new roads and high-rise construction.

the cars parked in the alleyways seemed to all incorporate an esoteric wheel protection system (speculative). not really clear as to what function the placement of debris against the tires of a car might serve. i think it must just be a chinese thang.

won ju lim: 24 seconds of silence at ucca

2008-11-11T17:50:00.003-05:00

this was a fairly ambitious installation from the korean-american artist, won ju lim. it was installed at ullens center for contemporary art, a non-profit exhibition space in the 798 district. born from the collection of the ullens family, the space has been open for only one year and already boasts a strong exhibition history or contemporary chinese and asian art. www.ucca.org.cn

interesting poster wheat pasted in 798 district.

2008-11-10T20:57:00.001-05:00

i was talking to peachy peach about kissy kiss.

photo mural

2008-11-10T20:52:00.002-05:00

not sure if this is an image from the recent earthquakes in china, but it's very powerful imagery either way.

metal rocks!

2008-11-10T20:49:00.000-05:00

an xiaotong at long march project

2008-11-03T15:30:00.002-05:00

the same artist who created the small historical tableaus also had this 4 sided (pyramid) video projection of claymation type action. some of the narrative was set in the environments from the sculptural objects and some took place amongst other original stage sets. they reminded me of william kentridge drawings/films in their form (although scultural rather than drawn) and simmering political commentary.

an xiaotong at long march project

2008-11-03T15:08:00.003-05:00

even in china we were inundated by daily news of the stock market going down the shitter. it was interesting to find a scale model of the trading floor, complete with the famous bull sculpture, in a gallery in beijing. the artist had several other tableaus that seemed to refer to specific, perhaps esoteric, events or periods of chinese history.

living quarters near 798

2008-11-03T14:47:00.001-05:00

this seemed like some workers quarters/apartments within the 798 district.

construction around 798

2008-11-03T14:29:00.002-05:00

i like construction. i like cranes. i like china. (if a and b, then c). apparently a boutique hotel is being built in the area. not sure if this is it, or not, but how long before beijing gets its version of soho?

luo brothers

2008-11-03T13:48:00.001-05:00

take one part kitchy crafty chinese ceramics and throw in a healthy dose of western consumerism send ups and you get the luo brothers.

luo brothers

2008-11-03T13:47:00.000-05:00

luo brothers

2008-11-03T13:46:00.000-05:00