It is now Day 7, and I feel like I am starting to know my way around, and I am getting most of my materials together, research undertaken, and I now need to focus on really making work. I still have few traditional sites to visit for research, but I will have to wait a few days for YanYan’s assistants to be available.
Today has also been a very interesting day back at Sichuan Fine Arts Institute. I attended a wood block printmaking class with students, and three students with very good English were my guide – thanks to YanYan’s arrangements. It was interesting to see how a practical class was run, as well as their approach to woodblock printmaking. I brought along my own tools which everyone was fascinated by. I managed to cut most of my small test on their 2ply wood, and I will print tomorrow.
The host students took me for lunch in their cafeteria, and then we went to a lovely coffee shop in the campus, where one of the students worked part time. We had some interesting conversations about the internet and politics within the country.
After class the students showed me around the gardens of the campus – it is very beautiful indeed, with some very interesting buildings, especially the Library. We also went past an auditorium where Takashi Murakami gave a lecture the previous week.
I met up with Zhi Ling and Shu Wen before I headed back to my studio – the bus journeys today were long and I am tired so it is a shorter blog post tonight.
