Day One
The flight to China in November 2007 was uneventful
and the plane arrived on time. A young cardiologist
from New York City, Yi Ming Yang, sat next to me.
His life story was very interesting. He was
apparently one of the top high school students in
China. He was offered a scholarship to Taft, a very
fine prep school in Connecticut. He went on to an
Ivy League college, then to medical school at
Columbia and is now a cardiology surgeon at a major
hospital in New York City. He was returning to China
interview students for the program that initially
enabled him to study and stay in the United States.
It was "give back time." He was also going to spend
time visiting his mother who lives in Beijing.
On my way to the studio I made the traditional stop
at Jenny Lou’s to pick up some groceries to get
through the first few days, and to make sure that I
had plenty of food for breakfast. The studio was
just as I had left it. Because it was almost
freezing, I immediately made arrangements to have
coal delivered. I also arranged for China Mobile to
install the phone line so that I could have a high
speed Internet connection. Kogen had already
installed a telephone jack, but I noticed that the
hot water heaters for two out of the three bathrooms
still had not been installed. Kogen said he would
come the next day to discuss what still had to be
done. I was too tired to go out to dinner and went
to bed at 6:30 p.m. It was quite cold in Beijing and
the furnace was not operating because I had no coal,
but I slept well.
Day Two
Sunday
was my day to get organized so that I could spend my
remaining time on creating new art. I was told that
the phone company would arrive sometime between 9
a.m. and 5 p.m. Certain things are universal.
Fortunately, the telephone installer arrived at
about 11:00. My Internet was functioning within an
hour, but I had to go to the local bank on Monday to
pay for the phone service, since it was only good
for 24 hours. The installer could not understand why
I did not want a traditional phone. I then went to a
local restaurant for lunch and then to the Pickled
Art Center to see Tracy Heneberg’s sculpture show
which was closing that day. I saw Tracy at the show.
All of the pieces were very good and some were
outstanding. One of them was a bronze cluster of
large mushrooms that were arranged so they could fit
into a corner. Another was an aluminum casting of
similar mushrooms. I had not realized that Li Gang’s
foundry could also cast in aluminum. There was also
a circle of snapper heads done in resin. I enjoyed
Tracy’s description of how he created these pieces.
All of the pieces were based on food. He had to work
around the clock to get everything done for the
show. That night the show was being moved to another
gallery at the Central Academy of Art.
Next, I rode my electric bicycle over to the Beijing
International Arts Camp, known as SAC, to visit some
friends. It was very cold and only one person was at
home. Li is no longer focusing on sculptures
utilizing commercial pipe fittings. Her husband is
still doing castings of the downtrodden workers from
the country working and living in Beijing. This
sculpture subject matter is now being done by many
artists. He was one of the first ones to focus on
this subject matter.
I was very tired and the front brake of my bicycle
was not working, as I learned when I had to fall off
the bike to avoid crashing into the Pickled Arts
Center. Each time I repaired it, the repair only
lasted for a few minutes. It was time to call it a
day. I was ready to go to sleep at 6:00 p.m. When I
got up five hours later that evening, I sketched
some ideas for new sculptures and read parts of a
new book, "Our Brave New World," which discusses a
new economic paradigm of the platform company and
platform economies of the United States, Great
Britain and Austria. The principal author, Charles
Gave, has a provocative way of analyzing economic
statistics and developing trends. I also did some
office work and went back to sleep at 3:00 a.m.
Earlier that evening Li Gang called to invite me to
a group show at the Central Academy featuring new
chair designs and concepts. He was going to pick me
up at 1:30 pm. It was now nice and warm in the
studio. |
