So this past Saturday I went to the Beijing ArtWalk with the other teachers. It's a monthly event held in the art district in the northwest part of Beijing (on the 5th ring road, so also out in the boonies). When I studied abroad, we went on a class field trip to the 798 art district at DaShanZi. This time around, we went to the JiuChang art district, which is right next to the DaShanzi area. JiuChang is literally alcohol factory (it's called this because the art galleries and studios are at the site of an old alcohol factory). Since it was the first ArtWalk of the year, there were lectures, different types of FREE wine at each gallery, free snacks, all the galleries were open, and many of the artists were in the galleries. I was still feeling pretty sick, so I was sniffly and icky most of the time, but I had a really good time.
This is the gallery of a Korean artist, Park Seo-Bo. He gave a speech in the gallery and I got his autograph. His stuff was real minimal, with great color.
This was taken in one of my favorite galleries. It was a series of photographs, showing the interior of Shanghai and Beijing homes, with the view of the city outside the window.
The series is about the contrast between life inside the home and outside the home. And about how young people focus so much time doing meaningless activities. And obviously, there's a lot more going on here.
This photo is from another one of my favorite galleries. I'm a really big fan of Chinese contemporary art, especially photography. This exhibit focused a lot on the ways Beijing is changing, hence all the stuff about construction (and you know how I'm fascinated by all the construction going on here).
This picture is from an art installation. It was a really fun exhibit, since it was really interactive. The viewer walks through the gallery in a prescribed path, reading parts of a story as we walk through the exhibit. It starts off with the death of an emperor, and then we walk to a forest and we read about the story of a hero. And finally it ends with an overtop display about how we should all fly to the moon, and make more and more and more money (obviously a comment on materialism and the Olympics).
I liked this sculpture outside one of the galleries.
This gallery had paintings of stills from Hong Kong movies. And this giant installation of a tumbling Jenga tower. Also in this gallery were cloths that were handpainted. Really impressive.
I thought this was adorable. Is it just me or does this dog look super optimistic?
After dinner in DaShanzi at the Cave Cafe (where I ate fettucine alfredo with salmon, yummy!), we went to Alfa Lounge across from worker's stadium. I had a daiquiri. It came in a martini glass. I went home early since I was still sniffling like crazy.
Then on Sunday, our students invited us to go sing KTV with them. It was soo much fun. The students brought an entire table full of food for us. When we first walked in the room, the kid (his name is Gavin) on the right was passed out already. Turns out he had started boozing early in the afternoon and was wasted by 6 pm.
This was taken during my favorite song of the night. I forget who sings it, but it's this crazy Chinese dance song, and the chorus pretty much is comprised of repeating xu xi xi xi xi xu xi xi xi xi again and again as fast as you can. We just jumped up and down, dancing like crazy. My kids are great. I love them. I wish I could actually communicate with them. Too bad I can't practice speaking Chinese with them. I know I could actually be friends with some of them, if only we could actually talk and understand each other.
