Right outside the Beijing TokyoArt projects in Beijing's 798 gallery district was some serious water problem that had about 15 guys in blue jump suits down in a trench wrestling several rubber hoses and muddy pipes. The gallery going public, uniformly dressed in black, hobnobbed their way through the mess to the table with a lot of orange colored snacks displayed. Art? or refreshment?
Inside the gallery, mountains. Feng Boyi, one of the busier indie curators in China helped put on Yuan Shun's outer worldly installation Soft Landing - a moonscape complete with smoke machine. Hovelling about the scene was the artist himself clad in a space suit (something with uniforms today). Song Dong, Feng Boyi, Mu Chen and Shao Yinong watched as the orange-snack chomping audience viewed the installation and then photos of the installation and then drawings of the installation. I give this exhibition a star, happy face, an A- for effort, something like that
Yin Xiuzhen, watching her and Song Dong's child climb on the mub mountains, tells about her recent trip to NY where she participated in Brooklyn Museum's Women's Work exhibition which included a seat at a recreated Judy Chicago Dinner Party table. While the geusts were females from all over the world (a great opportunity for global art girl talk) Yin only spoke with Lin Tianmiao who also spoke Chinese.
Carol Lu one of the youngest/oldest, most promising curator/critic/no-it-alls about the scene (married happily to Liu Ding- one of the most promising young/old artists of his generation) curated "The Weight of Reality" at Marella Gallery which sported salami sandwiches (being an Italian outfit and all). The Weight was Wang Jianwei I guess who just by proximity one can feel the Weight of Reality. He exhibited an archaic, early 90's video which besides looking very vintage-conceptual was esoteric to the point of unwatchablity. Over dinner he reminisced about the days where all the artists could fit into one room and everybody was poor but passionate and exhibitions were indeed renegade or maybe the government was just too intolerant and couldn't really see the dollar value in it. Wu Xiaojun, also in the show departing altogether from photography, showed a neon sculptural thing which was almost knocked over by a German two year old; and Li Yu & Liu Bo showed some light boxes depicting, in different degrees of surreality, discontent with things in general. In the background Bea and Javier argued about being late to a "Get it Louder's" architecture/urbanity forum out in Yuanmingyuan 's East Gate architectural outpost. Wengwei and Pauline Yao the other two members of "The Contractors" posing very pop-starish by the salami sandwiches whispered about band non-practice.
And then there was the overcrowded livery cab ride to dinner with Ros from Universal Pictures where Pauline is curating an exhibition and having interim headaches with the egotistical, anxious and eternally absent bosses.
But that's Daily Life in Beijing's burgeoning art world or maybe it's just the Weight of Reality or Real Estate or maybe its Dailg Life who knows?
No comments:
Post a Comment