Today has been a ‘bitty’ day and I have not achieved as much as I would have liked – I am aware I only have three weeks left and I need to get on with things!
I spent the morning doing washing and sorting out some things at home, then I started on some drawings and worked more on a small woodcut. In the afternoon YanYan brought his artist friend Cai who is applying for the Breathe residency at the Chinese Arts Centre. YanYan asked me to read through his statement which had been translated from Mandarin to English by a translator machine – the grammar was terrible and made little sense at points, so we went through the whole document, and hopefully now it is better.
Cai and his friend Bo Ping took me out for dinner to say thank you which was very kind – I had my first cucumber soup. Afterwards we went to the opening of an exhibition at the Organhaus gallery (www.organhaus.org) where a South Korean artist exhibited a photography exhibition. The artist Lee Sang Woo took a photograph for every of the 62 Chinese Divinations. Visitors to the exhibition played a small game with sticks that gave you a number of dots which matched up to a code on a photograph and lead you to your divination. My photograph was of two old monks on architecture, and my divination was ‘if you work hard and are good to your friends you will do well’.
Afterwards we went to meet ‘Mr Lee’, who has a very impressive DIY printmaking studio just off the main street – he has built printmaking equipment for every process. I am continually surprised everyday here by the commitment and innovative approach to the arts.
