conceptual art at the 7 Days Inn
Thursday, June 28, 2007
Monday, June 25, 2007
脑浊 rock out! punk in beijing
went to a punk show the other night...headlining was Beijing's own Brain Failure. My students from CCA came too! one of them said it should have been required...haha
Friday, June 15, 2007
more models
This was taken by Constantine at the Beijing Urban Planning Museum where they have not only numerous models of the Forbidden City, the entire beijing city but also all the planned buildings that are currently under construction. that is me there in the little hole of the soon-to-be CCTV tower, designed by OMA Rem Koolhaas. right now construction is underway and you can see it rising up just beyond the East 3rd ring road.
Looking forward to going to the museum yet again this week with my *students* who arrive this sunday. Class starts on monday. Today Carol and I met up today to put together the reader with um...readings, maps, and other miscellany information. It is going to be an intense three weeks!! 11 students will be coming from CCA and we have planned first 2 weeks in Beijing and then will go to Hangzhou for a few days and then end up in Shanghai.
more to come!
Monday, June 11, 2007
北山石刻 Beishan
Beishan is closer in to the city of Dazu and while not nearly as large and magnificent in scale as Baodingshan, it definitely has it's moments. Intricately detailed carving (especially with regard to clothing and adornments) and a more intimate size and really set it apart. Sadly, partly due to the location on the cliffs, some carvings suffered a great deal of weathering over the years, not to mention looters who made away with heads and hands. I was joking with Constantine that some of those heads are probably lying in the basement of the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco!
宝顶山 Baodingshan
The carvings at Baodingshan are among the biggest and most impressive in the Dazu rock carvings area (near Chongqing). We took a dreary bus ride at 8am from Chongqing to Dazu (about 2 hours) and then a car the rest of the way up the mountain. At last it was quiet, we were surrounded by trees and foggy (smoggy) mountains. The rock carvings at Dazu (we made it to 2 out of 4 sites) have been declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. In short this means they are protected and maintained in the same way as the Great Wall and Palace Museum. Some of the carvings here, which range in iconography from Taoism to Buddhism to Confucianism, date from as early as the Tang period and are rich in complexity and craftsmanship. It is sort of amazing to imagine what they would have looked like with original paint and gilding. The large reclining buddha is a big favorite but I much prefer the 1000 armed avalokiteshvara...(sorry the picture didn't turn out so well) it is utterly breathtaking.
Friday, June 08, 2007
Sunday, June 03, 2007
北海公园 Beihai Park
From the yue gu lou 阅古楼in Beihai park (below): some amazing calligraphy rubbings from the Tang to the Qing period permanently on view in a cool round shaped building. All nice and good except for the method of display...the joints holding the glass bisects the horizontal rubbings, making it impossible to see any of them straight on. c'mon! does anyone think before installing them like this? utterly frustating, and yet somehow, I have ceased being surprised by these sorts of things anymore...
