Well, great news – have just got of the phone to organhaus after a week of trying to get in contact. They are an art space in Chongqing – I am hoping to spend a month or so there – exploring the funeral criers of chongqing. Probably head there later of november. http://www.organhaus.org/. There seems to be a three bed apartment and studio. Yang Shu, the director has already emailed me back, so now it just a matter of organising timing.
“Dear Tina
yes ,i did talk with nikun (curator in organhaus) this afternoon. meantime there is artist from Turk will stay here too,so ,if you find out this Ok, you can come in 20thnov to mid Dec.we need charge 200 dollar for keep the apartment running ,water ,elec, gas , so on. is that Ok for you?all the bestyangshu”
Have also contacted Lijiang Studios in Yunnan Province. Not sure what this would lead to.
Went to Laurens Tans studio last night for a bbq. http://www.octomat.com/ Laurens is a great australian artist working in sculpture and video, now based in Beijing. Laurens, and his assistant pheabe, put on lovely bbq – was a really interesting night. We met with Brian Wallace from the Redgate Gallery, http://www.redgategallery.com/ – and his parents were there too. Brian has an interesting insight into Beijing – he has lived here for 29 years, and started the Redgate Residency Program, runs the Redgate Gallery. After talking for a while, we realized that Matt and I know his brother and his childhood friends from Port Douglas. Small world. He has invited us to his place tomorrow night.
When we are not at openings, we are ending up at the Fodder Factory for dinner a lot of nights. This is a little restaurant in the village. It has mostly great food, and an english menu which is easier than point and hope for the best method we usually have to use. The restuarant seems to be a gathering place for a lot of local and visiting artists. Through our dinners here we are meeting a few of the other artists doing residencies in Beijng and those who live here.
A lot of the expats living here talk about inexpensive studio space, cheaper accommodation, cheaper art supplies and materials, cheaper to get things done. A lot of the artists visiting talk about the vibrant community, and also the commercial nature of the residencies. For the price we pay for our studio in Chao Chang Di, (which is pretty run down), we could get a three bedroom fully furnished new apartment with a gym/pool down stairs. The residencies bring in a lot of money for the gallery spaces. Therefore, it surprises me that they don’t put any money back into them – the offices and gallery spaces are spotless, yet the residency spaces look like they have seen a lot better days. On the other side, the galleries do not recieve any government funding. Talking to Platform China, there is a much foreign interest in ‘chinese’ work, a lot bought for investment – resulting in an art scene that is highly commercial.
