Redirection and Network Timeout

A solid day of woodcutting today, and I am glad to say I have completed cutting all three. The third one is simpler and more of basic layout that I am going to draw into, but it is different from the others so I am interested to see how it turns out. The second one has quite an illustrative element to it, which I has been developing into also the drawings.

It has been pretty quiet today, apart from a visit from Peng Bo ( a painter I have mentioned before and has a studio at Tank Loft). I am getting up early tomorrow to get the studio to the new campus to print them hopefully.

No new pictures today, and the unprinted board does not take a good picture – but I will hopefully have something to show you on the blog tomorrow.

No hand cuts today – phew!

Today has mainly been occupied by cutting, and although I have done a lot of woodcutting in the past few months in preparation/ practice, I overestimated that I could get both A2 boards cut in two days. This slowness is also in addition to extra surprise visits and a lunch out today, which although enjoyable, I felt I could not get out of. The director of 501 is away for a few days so I am hoping I will be able to get a lot done. I am hoping now to print on Thursday – so it will be a long day of cutting tomorrow.

Not much report today, aside from the lunch and morning visit, I have taken breaks by chatting to family and my partner on skype at home. I have also been speaking with Huang Lin, an interesting installation/painting artist and Director of Normal Space, which is an exhibition space, also in the Huang Je Ping Art Centre.

It is Day 13, and today I have mainly been drawing and cutting my second woodcut board in the studio so I do not have a lot of daily information to tell you.

Whilst doing this I have reflected on my progress so far in relation to my project plan I submitted to the arts council.

For week 1 I had the following goals –

1)Photography and drawing of local digital and physical architecture.

2)Internet navigation interviews.

3)Blog documentation.

I feel I have undertaken necessary research of architecture locally (which is not traditional, and has been constructed in the past 10-15 years), and have sourced the Ciqikou traditional town, and created a series of drawings from social networking sites that I have discussed with locals. There is another site I will visit later this week, but as I am relying on YanYan’s assistant for help I have had to wait until she was available. I feel however, that I have more than enough information to work with for now. Navigating is a little difficult, as no travel information is in provided in English so you have to try and remember or match up the characters when getting from A to B.

As I mentioned previously, 99% of traditional architecture in the local area has been demolished to rebuild new tall buildings, many full of apartments. Although I was aware of the development, the scale and speed of this has surprised me enormously. My original proposal focused on the controlled grid pattern of the traditional town, but such towns are very few and far between now. I was interested in how the traditional town layout controlled access to the city by high walls, keeping the most important people and places within the centre of the town, within another walled area. I was also interested in how this related to the control by the top of the hierarchy, or government, as control of movement on-line is controlled by the PRC.

Researching into censorship has been both clear cut and difficult, and some of the information I have sourced I have decided not post on-line for now. As it stands the censorship on-line is the way it is – for most days here I cannot access Blogger, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Wikipedia, Posterous and any other UK based user generated content website. However, on one occasion, I could access Wikipedia, and today I could access YouTube for an hour or so. Research and discussion has gleaned that as soon as the sites became popular in China, they were cut by government. Through discussion, I have sourced Chinese only equivalents of all of the above, where you must have a Chinese name and details to register. Many of the younger people I have discussed this with, just believe that you cant get it in China, like it is country specific product, such as a local speciality (this obviously goes against the libertarian ideology of the internet as a space without walls and divides). The strict rules on censorship reflects ‘real’ life rules upon creativity and free speech.

The research into navigation has also been difficult, as my Mandarin is very limited, and the people who have been translating or have been communicating with in English has been limited, or it has at times in been difficult to grasp abstract ideas. These are also sensitive issues, that people are hesitant to discuss.

Writing on the blog has provided a suitable and welcome place to reflect, outwith peers here, and conversation with friends, family and peers at home.

In Week 2 I hoped to achieve the following:

1) Attend Woodblock Printing Workshops

2) Source materials and meet with artists

I have managed to do both, although I think my approach to woodcut is different and less methodical to the Chinese approach. Sourcing materials has been convenient, due to the many shops. Meeting with artists has been constant and ongoing, and a few are now coming to my studio to see works in progress, and it seems to be a positive response which is good.

Tonight I went for HotPot again with Wan Jung – I ate intestines and throat – I think the jury is still out!

I feel like my project is starting to get going again. Today I have bought the materials that I need for the installation, and went on a few walks to consider where I could do an external work (or series of works), and collected a series of discarded architectural materials to use for my internal installation. I have started to spray these and arrange them within the studio. I have also made the decision to use the original boards for woodcut that I bought from the SFAI, and getting another one cut would create delay and it could be difficult to source paper. I am trying to simplify logistics due to time pressures and my inability to speak little Mandarin.

We also decided today to open my exhibition in the studio here at HuangJePing Art Centre on the 28th June. It is really not long and I have a lot to do! Lists, lists and just work through it. I thought it would be easier to have it here rather than across town like the previous artist.

We also had a few visitors today, Ping Bo came back to see us, and one of YanYan’s students came to say hello to me with her parents. Afterwords we went to a studio complex on the hill, where we visited the studio of Li Xiaojing. She is one of the few female artists I have met yet, and she is my age. Her paintings and animation combine naive illustrative elements within a melancholic and dream like environment.

I am back at the SFAI on Wednesday to print so I had better get going!

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.