Went to drinks at Brian Wallace’s apartment on Sunday night. Laurens Tan and Feabe came by with their driver to pick us up – we then met up with doug lewis and Jean Klimack (currenlty exhibiting at Where Where Space). As I am sitting in the front passenger seat, with Pablo on my lap, with no seatbelt, weaving in and out of crazy traffic in unbelievably large highways, while laurens chain smokes cigarettes with the car windows up, I wonder about all the rules we seem to leave behind when we leave our own country.
Brian, who is director of Redgate – has a great apartment on the 19th floor near the Watch Tower, – amazing views over beijing. He has recently purchased the apartment next door as well – so the view now extends to about 270 degrees over monstrous highways and never ending buildings, all the way back to the mountains on a clear night. The city looks like a monster from up there – you can just hear a constant hum. Brian’s apartment is filled with artwork he has collected over the last ten years or so – but he has lived here now for 27 years. We met a lot of Australians who have made Beijing there home. We also met a lot of the redgate artist in residents – the artists seem to keep returning year after year. Was a great night.
Dissapointing news about my work I wanted to do in Shenyang. After a few phonecalls by Viki – tracking down the mall in Shenyang, we came to the conclusion that the store that opened in July 2010 has shut down. The store allowed women to come in and bash apart appliances. After paying 30 RMB, they are given a baseball bat and helmet, and then allowed to bash things apart for a few minutes to vent a bit of anger. I was going to spend a few days up there shooting women bashing things. It shut down a few months ago apparently. No one is surprised by this – shops come and go here quickly. Its ashame, as I had just found a shenyang based translator.
On the otherhand, we spend time on Sunday searching for Barber shops. Matt and I started shooting Barber shops when we were in Turkey, and we hope to continue here. We have found two willing barber shops. These shoots will start today.
I need to start marking out time – Its all going too fast, and I think I will need more time in Chonqing.
We had a huge day yesterday – we ventured over to the Summer Palace – palatial gardens and temples over the other side of the city. A log bus ride and two subway changes later – we arrived. We thought monday may be a nice quiet time to go – but it was filled to the brim with chinese tourists. I am not sure when you may find this sites quiet – maybe in the dead heart of winter. The crowds are a bit overwhelming, and Matt starts to get frustrated and a bit antsy. We staid a couple of hours and we all had icecream, looking over the lake. However, pablo was causing a traffic jam of people as lots of people were stopping to photograph him. He doesn’t really understand all of the attention.
We then stopped back in 798 to buy batteries for my new mic, string and needles for our event on Wedensday night. We founds Jenny Lou’s – a supermarket that sells western food just off 798 – and stocked up on coffee and also weetbix for pablo. Nearly 8 AUD for weetbix – but pablo loves it for breakfast. We bought some cheese and bread for pablo so we could make toasted cheese sandwiches. Western food here is really expensive, and a huge luxury, but sometimes essential. We tried going with out coffee, but it just didn’t work out well.
