Day 9
It was another sunny day in Boshan. What a contrast to my previous visits where it seemed to rain every day. I met Sun Yan Hao’s wife at 7:00 a.m. outside of the hotel. She had no breakfast snacks but told me that we were going to stop on the way to the foundry to have breakfast. On one of the side streets we stopped to have breakfast at the equivalent of the local diner. The food was prepared inside but everything was served outside on the sidewalk. There were temporary tables and Chinese style stools for approximately 25 people. Everyone orders one of two types of dumplings or a stuffed bun along with a choice of two soups. The place was extremely crowded with people going to work or parents feeding their children on the way to school. She ordered one dumpling, one stuffed bun and a type of dumpling soup for me. She had two dumplings and another kind of soup.
This outdoor “ diner” was fortunately located in front of and between two buildings, one of which was set back because of a curve in the road. As a result there could be a seating area without interfering too much with pedestrian traffic on the sidewalk. Sitting on a Chinese stool, which is only 8 inches high, and eating at a table that is not much higher is not easy. For some reason, I was able to get comfortable but dreaded the thought of getting up at the end of breakfast very clumsily. The food was very good. It was much better than the breakfast that they serve at the hotel. I noticed that the hotel dining room was again not open at 7 a.m. when I left that morning.
At the foundry, I initially picked up the glass scrap from yesterday, which I asked them to leave. Yesterday’s colors were black, yellow and dark blue. I decided not to use any of the clear glass scraps because I did not think they would show up well on the type of concrete floors I intended to use for “Meng Po Le” a.k.a. “Shattered Dreams.” I then spoke to Sun Yan about shipping the scraps with the sculptures to my studio in Beijing. She said she understood.
They were having a problem with one of the molds for a small glass vase. It was very interesting to see how Qian and the glassblowers were trying to solve the problem. With an imperfection in the mold, there is poor quality in the final product. Finally, after cleaning the mold, burning the mold and re-sanding the mold, it seemed to work. There are a number of special-purpose tools at the foundry which you only discover after spending some time there. There is a lot of preparation of materials in advance of the glass blowing.
We did a number of sculptures on the new mold utilizing dark green and dark blue. Some were just the pure colors. Others were the use of these colors as a base with white frits. I hope they come out well. I also found the right size metal rod to make a slight indentation in the “face” of the spermoid to give a suggestion of eyes. Once the sculptures are delivered I will see whether this slight modification works. We also did a series of sculptures that had a white base with green frits and followed that up with a white base and dark blue frits.
The three of us went off for lunch at the same restaurant. Soia was in a vegetarian mood so we had only vegetables and tofu. It was more than enough and it was very good. I felt satisfied but not stuffed. After lunch some businessmen from New Zealand visited the foundry. They were looking for a place to do art glass and were very surprised to see a glass. They stayed to watch us create one sculpture. That they had a number of questions about doing this kind of work in China and working with Aimei. They were quite surprised that there was this type of flexibility and innovation in doing glasswork in China. They said that this was the kind of thing they were hoping to find. They were staying in Zibo, so it was not possible for us to get together for dinner.
We also did some free-form glass at the end of the day to be used for my conceptual pieces back in Beijing. I hope that Sun Yan truly understands that these glass scraps are to be put into a box or boxes to be delivered with the already formed sculptures.
After the foundry closed down, I went to see what they were doing in the bead making room on the third floor of the company’s office building. They were again making owls and some of the people were making small components for larger sculptures being formed at the foundry. I took a taxi back to the hotel. The driver loved to use his horn. So did Sun Yan’s wife. Boshan could use a law fining people for improperly using car horns. Tomorrow the foundry is using the same colors as today. I will need to come up with something creative to vary the color combinations.
After answering e-mails and speaking with Leslie, it was time to call it a day. Tomorrow would be my last day at Aimei. I tried to get a train out that evening but was unable to because there were no available seats. May 1 is a major holiday and people use that to visit family.
Day 10
There was no rain but the pollution was terrible. Sun Yan Hao joined his wife and off we went for breakfast to the same place that we had breakfast yesterday. I had her change my order to two dumplings and we also had hard-boiled eggs along with the soup. The place was still doing a good business, but it was not nearly as crowded as yesterday. They have an ingenius method of preparing and serving soup. A small metal bowl is lined with the ubiquitous plastic bag. The soup is poured into the bowl. If you take out, they just lift out the bag and give it to the customer. If you are staying to eat at one of the temporary sidewalk tables and stools, then you drink the soup right out of the plastic bag lined bowl. Under either scenario, the bowl is ready for use again without washing.
There was a coal delivery that morning and apparently the workers who usually helped to unload the coal truck were not available so Qian, the production manager, and Soia, the assistant production manager, helped unload. This, coupled with their other chores preparing for the day’s work, postponed starting on my sculptures for almost 2 hours, so I studied some Chinese and started to visualize how I was going to put together “Meng Po Le.” We managed to do three sculptures before lunch, but one of them was not right so we destroyed it on the spot.
The three of us went off to lunch at the same restaurant, which is within walking distance of the foundry. We discussed motorcycles, the cost of travel to and from the United States, how business was picking up at the foundry and they were installing a second major furnace. I noted that the existing furnace appeared to need a lot of repair work. I got no response. Qian’s daughter was finishing up at a two-year college and he wanted her to continue her studies at a four year college, but she did not know what she wanted to study if she continued with her education. After lunch we are able to complete a number of Crocodile Fish using opaque green and black frits for these sculptures. After paying Aimei for this fourth group of sculptures created on this trip, we all went off to dinner. Two of the master glassblowers joined us. Liu, who had given me a lift on his motorcycle back to the hotel and Gao. Also present for my farewell dinner were Qian, Soia, Mr. Sun, his daughter Sun Yan, his son, Sun Yun Hao and Dong. The restaurant was located near the “Great Wall,” which is different than the Great Wall near Beijing. It was built many years ago to defend the town from invaders.
I was teased that I was not afraid to talk Chinese with anyone at the foundry. My response was that no one at the foundry spoke English so I really had no choice. Everyone agreed and we had a good laugh. Sun Jie Jie noted that we had a number of conversations in Chinese, which we had never had before. I explained to him that a simple one-on-one conversation was something that I thought I could handle, but when there are many people talking at the same time and they are talking very fast, I have great difficulty in following the conversation. I can recognize a number of the words but since the Chinese language is contextual, I was unsure of the precise meaning of even the words I thought I understood. They also teased me on my pronunciation of the word “yu,” which stands for fish. For some reason I just cannot enunciate this word correctly in Chinese no matter how hard I try.
There were 9 of us and there must have been at least 40 dishes. Everyone was stuffed and there was enough food left over to feed the watchdog at the foundry for the next week. Although the persons at this dinner were all of the “higher-ups” at the company, it was my observation that amongst the workers, as well as Mr. Sun and his daughter, there is a tremendous sense of equality. Soia is friendly with the night watchman. Qian is friendly with everyone no matter what their position. So is Sun Yan. Mr. Sun is more reserved, and Sun Yun Hao did have some conversations with Gao and Liu. This was the first time that I saw him interact with anyone else at Aimei, other than members of his family. During the lunch break, the new activity for the male glass blowers are games of go, with lots of kibbutzing. The master glassblowers mingle with the apprentices and junior glass blowers based on friendship. The women workers tend to stay to themselves, with some knitting. In previous occasions one of the women glass blowers, who was very pretty, hung out with the male master glass blowers, but she was no longer working at this foundry.
Day 11
There were still problems in the hotel dining room so I had to skip breakfast to get to the Zibo train station on time. The air pollution was even worse today. Beijing has very little air pollution by comparison. Understanding how to get on the trains made catching the train much less stressful. On the side of my seat was an electrical outlet to permit use of the computer without using up your battery life. My seat mate, a businesswoman from Zibo, had already taken the outlet for her computer. I now know why she made a special effort to get in the front of the line for entry onto the train from the platform. We didn’t talk much, but at the end of the trip she insisted that the next time I come to Boshan that I give her a call and she and her husband can tell me all the good restaurants and things to do in the Boshan area.
It was good to get back to the studio and I immediately focused on completing my latest woodcut because I was going to the printmaker tomorrow morning. I decided to take a break and just as I left my front yard Egret, Shen Jingdong’s girlfriend, rode by on her bike and invited me over for tea. The three of us had a nice talk and agreed to continue our conversation at dinner. I went back to do some more work on the woodcut.
Egret no longer liked Jinbanwai and suggested a new restaurant. Since we had Jingdong’s car we had much more flexibility. We went on Shunbei Wei almost to the Airport Expressway. There were a number of cars parked on a temporary dirt lot in the middle of nowhere. I later found out that the road leading to the restaurant was under construction and no cars were permitted on the road. The homes in the area were not new and it did not appear to be a wealthy area. We took one of the alley ways off the road under construction and there was an archway which we walked through. The entrance to the restaurant was through a peaceful bridge over a beautifully landscaped series of ponds. The restaurant was extremely elegant and very crowded.
We went up stairs and had a private room on the sun porch. Lu Coral, a.k.a. Egret told me that they had decided to get married at the end of this year. They were going to Spain for one month on a residency program in July and then were planning to come to New York in August. They were concerned that Jingdong’s career in the military could make it difficult for him to get a visa. She thought that this was the first residency program for a Chinese artist in Spain. I told her that Li Gang had participated in this type of program in Valencia last year and that they should get in touch with him to answer any questions that they had. Jingdong knows and likes Li Gang and felt much more at ease after hearing that Li Gang had a very good experience.
We had a Chinese chicken hot pot dinner. Every part of two or three miniature chickens was accompanied by potatoes, carrots and cabbage in a beef broth. Because Jingdong was driving and I was going to work with sharp chisels later that night , we decided not to drink beer. It was delicious. The last time I had chicken hot pot with Martin I thought the food was very ordinary in a depressing and unclean atmosphere. What a contrast! After dinner Jingdong and Egret wanted to show me a proof of a new book focused solely on Shen Jingdong’s art. The three paintings of Fu, Lu, Shuo had been photographed before they were shipped to me in New York and were included in the Latest Works section.
Back at the studio, I started to do some more work on the last wood cut. It was not going well so I called it a day and went to sleep. I checked my e-mails and then Skype. Leslie and the twins had tried to call me while we were out to dinner. I tried to call them back but was unsuccessful. I felt badly that I missed their call. Maybe we can hook up the following evening.
Day 12
It was another beautiful day in Beijing. There wasn’t a cloud in a perfect crystal blue sky. 318 Art Park is far enough away from the main pollution in Beijing so the air is much better here. We had a difficult time finding the printmaker. Lu had previously e-mailed a map in Chinese to me. I showed it to Huang, who said it was no problem. Seven phone calls and one hour later we finally found the printmaker, whose studio is less than 3 miles from where I live. I had six woodcuts. After studying the woodcuts, he said he preferred to use hand printing rather than machine printing and would charge me the same price. He also said they did not have the right inks at this studio. He would have proofs for me tomorrow morning.
We returned to my studio after a stop to put more money into my cell phone. At the printmakers we discussed doing a silk screen print of an idea I had for a show entitled “Let’s Play Together Derivative Works of 100 Artists” being directed by Wu Hong and curated by Shen Dingjong and Lu Coral. To photograph the images I wanted to use, Lu Mong, the printmaker, let me borrow a large canvas and some white paper as background. On the front of the t-shirt, I would have a red and blue Chinese Dragon spermoid facing each other with the slogan “Life is Good.”
The same two sculptures in a slightly different position but still facing each other would be on the back of the T-shirt with the Chinese characters “Shenghuo shi hao,” which is also “life is good.”
It sounds like a fun show and I hope that my idea is accepted.
A very simple looking new restaurant had just opened up a few stores away from Jinbanwei. I wanted to try it. There was no one there except the staff. But everything was sparkling clean so I gave it a try even though it was a hot pot restaurant and I was not in the mood for a heavy meal. Hot pot is meant to be shared by lots of people. I wanted time alone to draw out my idea for this new competition. There was no menu. The waitress had a print out describing each dish and verbally told you what was available. I was able to order dumplings and a vegetable, not knowing exactly what to expect. Rather than a traditional plate of steamed or fried dumplings I received two large dumplings, one filled with vegetables and the other with lamb. These were the type of dumplings that were served in Shandong Province. The waitress asked me if I liked them. I said yes and told her that they reminded me of food that I just had in Zibo/ Boshan. She laughed and called over the owner who told me that these dumplings were from a recipe given to him by his grandmother who lives in Zibo. They then brought out two more of the same dumplings and as a chef’s treat two dumplings that were stuffed with some type of seafood filling. They were also excellent. The sautéd spinach with garlic was also excellent. I took home two dumplings for tomorrow’s breakfast. The total cost for this excellent lunch was 10 RMB.
Back in the studio I photographed more of the sculptures from my third trip to Aimei as I was going to put them in a safe place away from the main work area so that Mung would have been necessary room to work on the approximate 100 new sculptures I had just completed to be delivered in two weeks. I then went to Judas’ studio for the opening the show by two young Spanish artists staying at his studio, Laurita Siles and Edurna Gonzalez Ibanez.
Judas had just returned from Spain with his wife and was staying at their apartment in downtown Beijing until his studio was available. There was lots of energy and talent in Laurita and Edurna’s works. They had been caring for the show for two months. One of the Spanish persons at the show explained to me that the musical instrument on the back of the delivery bicycle was based on a traditional way of communicating in the mountains in the Basque area of Spain. The two artists then demonstrated this music in a carefully choreographed presentation. There was also loads of traditional Spanish food- a spicy sausage wrapped in some kind of vegetable, a potato and egg type of frittata, Russian salad, fruit, cheese, and lots of beer and red wine.
I met lots of interesting people and saw a number of old friends. Judas has a way of throwing great parties. People would wander off from the party and then drift back. I did that on a number of occasions because some of my friends wanted to see my latest works. Others wanted to see my studio. After four hours, most of the persons left were Spanish and many had too much to drink, so I returned to my studio. As I was leaving Judas’ studio, a young couple that I briefly talked to asked me how do you get to see the studios in 318. So I explained the basic rule and our first stop was Hong’s studio, which is right next to mine. We then came over to my studio.
They met in college in Hungary and she was involved in fire dancing as a way to earn money. After they started living together he joined her in certain performances. They started to do street shows throughout Europe during their college break. Eventually they decided to do this is a career.
They had no one to teach them so their performances were unique. They wanted to upgrade their level of performances so they decided to sell everything and come to China to go to circus school and bring their act to the next level. The level of acrobatics in China is far and away superior to anywhere else. Russia and Cuba also have good acrobats. In contrast, French trained acrobats are very theatrical but the level of skill and degree of difficulty of their acrobatics are far lower. They believe that there are two principal reasons for this. First, the communist countries encourage this type of activity by starting acrobats at the age of 3 and making them practice 15 hours a day, seven days a week. That is all they know how to do. Secondly, they are willing to take chances which others are unwilling to take because they value life less. They believe their act is very popular in China primarily because they are foreigners.
The circus college did not really help him with their fire act, but it was a big help in dramatically improving their acrobatic skills because they had not tried any acrobatic movements until both were in their mid-20s. Tonight, they were going to try out a new act and Alex, the French filmmaker whose studio is three doors from mine, is supposed to film this new event. So we scouted out some locations for this shoot. They decided that the area in front of my studio would probably be the best if I could turn off the lights on my large Long and Slender sculpture. I told them just knock on the door and I would turn off the lights.
With all of the food being served at Judas’ opening for the two Spanish artists, I did not need dinner, so I did some more work on the competition and worked on this diary. I was also hoping that Leslie and the twins would call as their parents have set up Skype on their home computer. Tomorrow would be a very busy day. I waited until approximately 10:30 PM and then went to sleep when they did not call and Jeff was not signed on for Skype. I found out the next day that they were on Skype and had tried to call me at the precise time I was in the studio with Skype on. For some reason on Jeff’s computer it said that my Skype was not on. Well so much for technology’s efficiency.
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