construction scaffolding in 798

so i like building scenes...

and i like visual grids...

and i like the potential visual energy of impending disaster...

...so you know how when you are walking up broadway from union square up towards 23rd st.  there is a whole block of a new york standard--the union implemented scaffolding.  it's meant to protect the pedestrians passing underneath from being killed by any materials that might fall from the steel scaffolding above, which is being implemented in the surface renovation of some mid-range mid-town skyscraper.  it creates a sidewalk cocoon topped by corrugated steel and you feel relatively safe until you realize that the whole thing is being anchored by some plywood shims evening out the legs of the whole structure.  well in china, all the engineering is based on bamboo poles bound together by twine.  entire skyscrapers are built with a bamboo framework of scaffolding surrounding it from the sidewalk on up.  the chinese are either genius or they realize the exact social and economic cost of a workman in a country of 1.4 bill.

street area in 798 zone

interesting entryway into gallery--real nouveau neanderthal.
these yarn wrapped trees were scattered around 798

venus de milo meets zinedine zidane

unidentified gallery in 798 district

this is one of the smaller gallery spaces we saw and you are only looking at about a quarter of the space.  throughout the 798 the ceilings are soaring and skylights pour in great natural light (despite the generally overcast, smoggy air in beijing).

chinese chicks kick ass!

not to mention the fact that there are so many beautiful women in china--and i don't even have yellow fever.  chinatown in nyc has got nothin' on the ladies of mainland china.  

another massive gallery called "798 space" in the 798 district

note the original industrial tools (green bits on the far right of pic) that have been preserved from days of munitions manufacturing.  the space was designed and built by east german architects and engineers in the bauhaus style.  the light was amazing.

the original propaganda messages can still be seen on the vaulted ceilings.

street scene from 798 arts district

this area still has some of the industrial rawness and edginess that caused it to be a draw to artists and art collectives in the first place.  like most art scenes, this area was initially compelling to artists for its huge spaces and low rents.  nobody wanted it until the artists moved in.  of course, now you have big galleries jockying to get in the game.  seems china ain't immune to the gentrification game.

“theme: what is the problem” sculpture show at 798 sculpture hall.

maybe the problem is such vigilant security?  ol' boy was out cold when we went in and hadn't moved 15 minutes later when we walked out the door.

“theme: what is the problem” sculpture show at 798 sculpture hall.

tell me this thing wouldn't kill at "bass wars".  i had a friend in my undergrad days who called himself "the new hoffy" (?) who participated in bass wars.  he came in second one year when he cranked his woofer to the point where it cracked the windshield on his ford ranger.  according to his version of the story, the winner blew out his windshield.  apparently in either vehicle the pressure was enough to cause hemorrhaging and internal bleeding.  real practical, right.  "the new hoffy" also decided to remove his seat belts from said ford ranger so that he couldn't get a ticket for not having his seatbelt buckled.  gotta give that one another (?).

“theme: what is the problem” sculpture show at 798 sculpture hall.

please refer to commentary on previous posting...

“theme: what is the problem” sculpture show at 798 sculpture hall.

another one of those "form or function" type conundrums.  also calls into question the institutional theory of art validation--it's in a gallery space, after all.

“theme: what is the problem” sculpture show at 798 sculpture hall.

installation or storage area?  the answer will go with me to my grave.  maybe imi knoebel is really chinese rather than german?

"theme: what is the problem" sculpture exhibition at 798 art center exhibition hall

this was a massive exhibition hall that can be utilized for a variety of events.  in this case, we caught the final day of the 798 arts festival.  this hall housed a show of sculpture and installations.  the space was immense and raw, and there was some pretty cool work in this space.  i thought these pieces were in a  western classical style of chinese peasants with great ceramic surfaces, not to mention the colourful, truncated bits.  they have a kind of baldessari thing going on (if he were chinese and made figurative sculptures).

unknown gallery and artists in 798

i saw so much art and the spaces were so overwhelming that i failed to note some of names of artists and galleries.  while there was definitely a broad spectrum in terms of the quality of work on view, overall the 798 art district experience is pretty amazing.  closest thing i can compare it to is the art barf that art basel in miami beach has become, but that's only for 4 days.  this is a permanent fixture in the beijing art scene.

how you like the simian riff on damien hirst?  seems like everyone is biting that game.
i was a little more impressed with the beuys reference.  instead of fat this was basically a burned wax candle chair.  pretty sweet homage, actually.

so the chinese eat a lot of strange critters (more on that later) but one might gather from this series of images that they also sleep with some of their strange food stuffs.

long march space in 798

don't know this artists name, but how 'bout that propaganda collage?  probably some history lessons in there for the sino mind (westerners can just appreciate the kitsch).

zhan wang at long march space in 798 (www.longmarchspace.com)

did i mention that beijing rocks?  i know... bad joke.  but it's funny that at one point i was contemplating making metal rocks for an outdoor sculpture exhibition.

grand hyatt, beijing

the thing that is so compelling about symmetry is that it exists in the deliver/reviled divide.

heroic pose/social realism gone wrong

fact of the matter is that i should have been crashed and burned, buy charlie spaulding (from earlier pace meeting) just happened to wander in late to the the bed bar and proceeded to take me out on the town until 4:30 in the a.m.  little wonder that a week or so later i still don't know what day or time it is inside my rattling walnut of a brainisphere.

hanging at the bed bar with my new hong kong homeboy andrew wong (he is a vicious designer of all things garment).

i'm a fleabit peanut monkey

all my friends are junkies

that's not really true

i'm a cold italian pizza

i could use a lemon squeezer

what would you do?

but i've been bit and i've been tossed around 

by every she-rat in this town

have you babe?

well, i am just a monkey man

i'm glad you are a monkey woman too

(for the record, it was a monkey woman and the presence of the mask was inexplicable, maybe it's the year of the monkey? and no, andrew is the furthest thing from a junky)

purple nurple

turns out one of andrew's friends friends was having a birthday party at the bed bar.  in attendance were many members of beijing's illustrious designy/artsy set. note my attempt at acceptance with the funky flourescent scribble lights tracing across the eyeballs of the guy on the right.  maybe the open bar didn't really help matters considering i was strung out as it was.  

roofie cross hatch

those of you that know me well will realize that this is a typical bcbphoto shot (plenty more where this came from).  this is the human eye view of the sky from the courtyard of the bed bar in beijing.  

karma sutra on my suit, brah!?!

after an amazing meal (unfortunately not memorialized due to sleep deprivation induced camera abandonment) of peking duck served three ways (insert obvious "fuck a duck" joke here) my friend andrew wong and i went to bed bar in beijing to meet some of his old parsons pals.  as i focused on my own yellow river i became intrigued by the illustration posted above the loo.  i'm all for acrobatic sex maneuvers, but if you're going to illustrate them can't you work with sexier models?

beijing commune at 798 (www.beijingcommune.com)

poor view of show at beijing commune.  this space was leng lin's pre-pace gallery gig (which he still operates) that allowed him to become "mayor" of the beijing art scene.  on the shelves are identical (save for the editioned number on the spine of 1-10,000) blue books. 

murikami at pace. first show was called "encounters" and featured a comparative exhibition of portraits from asian and western artists.

front windows of pace beijing gallery. the space is sick, the light is awesome and the vibe is super energized with potential.

at new pace beijing gallery (from l to r) silent chinese guard, charlie spaulding, arne glimcher (as depicted by chuck close), marc ecko and leng lin.

straight from airport, first meeting is with leng lin at new pace gallery, located in a bauhaus designed former munitions factory in 798 district.

don't mess with the rmb (fyi, $1=8.2). mao is on every denomination. still a hero on the mainland.

beijing banksy (?) strikes again. if 798 arts district is any indication there are plenty of graf artists practicing their craft in beijing.

performance artist or saran wrapped shopping mummy? language barrier precluded any explanation. seen on streets of 798 arts district in beijing.

first sculpture encountered at entrance of 798 arts district. tiger bunny! it's got fangs! it could eat an apple through a picket fence!