Day 8

The next day I had to make a number of business calls early in the day. We were to meet Abraham and Christina and drive with them to the international art fair. An hour and a half after we were supposed to leave, we finally departed, and we made a stop on the way since Christina had some banking transactions to complete concerning her visa.

My first impression of this art fair was that it was fairly similar to the prior year’s and that many of the galleries had returned. Some of them were showing the same artists and, in some instances, even the same pieces. Again, the Korean Galleries such as PYO appeared to have the strongest materials. At 4:30 we decided to take a VIP art tour, primarily because the bus would go to an area near my studio. Most of the galleries we saw had stronger materials then what was at the art fair. There was an interesting installation about the music of Tan Dun, and I enjoyed making “water music” in the installation. I got some good ideas from the way the composer transposed certain noises into music. I would like to go back to spend some more time there. There was a nice cocktail party with excellent hors d’oeuvres, which was a perfect way for us to leave the bus tour before it returned to the China World Trade Center.

We had to walk to the airport side road to catch a taxi. Somehow the taxi driver ended up going in the wrong direction. I had to raise my voice to get him to make a U-turn so we would finally be headed in the right direction. Leslie questioned whether the cab driver did this deliberately, since we gave him a map showing how to get to the New York Arts location, which is right in front of my studio. Jet lag may have caught up with Leslie that evening, because she was in bed within 10 minutes.

Day 9

I was supposed to get a delivery of my work table at 9:00 a.m, but wanted to see the fabricator before delivery, so the top could be finished in a way that would make it much more useful to me in the long run. This fabricator has the tools that can do this far more efficiently than my small portable grinder. I went over early to make sure to tell them how to grind the top so that weld straps could be easily removed. He had a number of questions, and told me that the table would be delivered in two days. I then took Leslie on a brief tour. First, we went to the Pickled Arts Center to show her the gallery where I had my first show in Beijing, and to show her my original living arrangements when I was initially invited to be a sculptor in residence. She was glad that she did not accompany me on those trips.

Then we went to Jenny Lu’s to stock up on some wine for gifts, some more shampoo, etc. Driving back on my electric bicycle without breaking any of three bottles of wine in the basket was a real challenge on these roads. As we were driving into 318 Art Park we made arrangements with a local gypsy driver to follow us. He was to wait a few minutes so Leslie could change, and then we would go to the China World Trade Center to see the rest of the CIGE exhibit. My contractor, Li Kogen, was on the corner. I thought I had told him that it was not an emergency, and that he could come over next week when Zhu Li returned from Tsingdao. So we went over the items that needed to be fixed and I left him an extra set of keys so he could lock up.

The second floor of the CIGE exhibit was supposed to be devoted to emerging artists, but it was really an extension of the downstairs show. That meant that this year’s show was much larger than last years show. There was a strong showing of Indonesian artists. Generally, their works use bright colors and strong forms. There were also some nice pieces by Chinese artists. After three hours I had had it, so it was time to return to the studio. Jetlagged, Leslie took a nap. I read a U.S. glass art magazine and then worked on finishing some wood cuts.

At six o’clock Ivy Zhou and Gong arrived. She wanted to know where I purchased my Chinese “antique” furniture, but I couldn’t find Xaio Wu’s business card. They couldn’t even stay for a drink because they had made reservations for 6:30 and it was a 40 minute drive to the restaurant. We had an elegant hot pot dinner, which included two types of fish, and then came home. In the interim, I received a call from Professor Wang telling me that my glass sculptures were going to be delivered at about noon the next day. I was quite nervous about how they would come out, especially since glass can crack easily and there is no way to tell how the colors will come out until the process is completed. That is one of the unique things about working with thick glass. Leslie read, I worked on the diary and then on some woodcuts. It was a good, full day.

Day 10

I got up early to go to the local steel fabricator to take pictures of its MIG welders and drew quite a crowd of curious workers. I explained to them that I was taking pictures so that I could purchase the right kind of welder at the store. I then went to the scrap pile to pick up a few pieces of steel rebar rod which I thought would work as inserts for the glass sculptures being delivered from Bashon later that morning. I then worked on finalizing four woodcuts and did some reading until either the sculptures or the telephone person came to hook up the phone line for the Internet.

The sculptures, Professor Wang and his wife Wang Pei arrived together, as he apparently had met the truck and guided it to my studio. We then unpacked the 10 boxes containing 34 glass sculptures. It was too early to make a judgment on whether they were successful, and there was some finishing work which was not done at the factory on the same spot on the tail part of each sculpture. The tail was very curved. Only one of the sculptures had a crack, which was small, apparently caused by something hitting the sculpture before it arrived at my studio. Rather than doing a series of 9 in dark brown with yellow accents, they did the series in blue. While we were unpacking, Professor Wang told me that his mother was diagnosed with terminal cancer. Because she is 80 and in frail health, he did not expect her to live for more than a month or two.

After tea at the studio and completing the unpacking, we went to the Wang’s home in a new section off the Fourth Ring Road. It is a three-story townhouse with a basement and a small backyard. Professor Wang said it was copied from an American design, and that the design worked for them. As you come in on the first floor there is a small room so everyone can take off their shoes and put on sandals. This opens into a bright and sunny living room, where we sat and had tea, along with some interesting fruits from Turkey. The Wang’s visited Turkey and Greece in January and February of this year. Because it was off-season it was not crowded and they really enjoyed it.

He then showed us the basement which has been set up as a bar and a workroom/showroom for his sculptures. He is primarily a ceramicist, and has been doing that for the last 24 years. He started working in glass eight years ago. His glass works were far more impressive than the glassworks of Guan Dong Hai featured in an article in Glass Magazine. The second floor consists of a bedroom, study and private bathroom for their daughter and a master suite. The third floor is his study and a porch overlooking his backyard. They have lived there four years and like it very much.

We then left for dinner. On the way they showed us the Olympic Park, the Olympic Village, the new swimming stadium, which is magnificent, and is adjacent to the main stadium known as the Bird’s Nest. It is already a tourist attraction for the Chinese, and they are very proud of the facilities they are going to provide for the Olympics. We had a beautiful dinner at a Beijing duck house. There is a set menu. Because we were in a private room, we could really talk. Pei does not speak any English, so we tried to speak Chinese throughout the meal. She and one of her assistants are going to be in New York for one day next month. If her very tight schedule permits, we will all try to get together. After dinner we took a brief walk along the Beijing equivalent of Fifth Avenue, except that it is a pedestrian mall. It was very crowded on a Sunday evening.

The National Theater complex is beautiful. It combines three separate venues with one central entrance area for the opera, concerts and ballet, and can also accommodate theatrical performances. The building is surrounded by a lake and much of the building is under the lake. As a scuba diver it is a weird feeling to be able to walk underwater without a regulator and tank. The opera we saw was Red Giselle. It is an updated adaptation of the classic. It began with classic ballet and then became very modern. We were seated in the first row, as the Wang’s went all out to do everything first class for us. There was no orchestra, but the St. Petersburg ballet performed well. The audience did not really seem to appreciate it, because the ovation was very restrained. I thought it was well done, an interesting and worthwhile adaptation of the classic, and that the artistic director should have received a much more enthusiastic reception.

Day 11

The sun was out but you could not see the sky because of the dust which was everywhere. The telephone installer came a little early and began installing the telephone line I needed to connect to the Internet. After an hour he said he had to run an errand and would be back in 30 minutes. I went off to Zhao Feng’s metal fabrication facility to check on the worktable, and see if he could fabricate the metal inserts for my glass sculptures. The table was almost complete, except for some cleanup grinding, but he was not there. I will return tomorrow morning to see if his company can fabricate the inserts in accordance with my design. The telephone installer told me the line was ready, but when we tried to get on the Internet it did not work. Apparently the discs he used to install the software were in Chinese, but all the software on my computer is in English. Manuela, Alan from the landlord and me, working with the telephone technician, finally got it working.

We then had tea with Manuella and her boyfriend Lueng Xue, who speaks no English. He is an artist who works in fiberglass and paints. He also studied glass sculpture at Tsing Hua University. They are both nice people and very helpful. He explained to me that very few people in China become involved in creating glass sculptures, because glass is so expensive.

Leslie and I then went to Li Gang’s studio at BIAC. When we arrived, he already had set up a full lunch on his new front porch. It was good to see him again, but he was exhausted. Because he took off two months to be an artist in residence in Spain, he was behind on a lot of projects. In addition, he had been working very hard to prepare for his one-man show at Red Gate gallery in 798. He then showed Leslie both of the studios, including the one I had rented from him. He had cleaned up his studio and totally rearranged and cleaned up the adjacent studio where his assistant now lives. We then went to the hardware store to buy water soluble emery paper. By that time we were ready to go home and get ready to meet Dagao and Grace.

The taxi driver got lost and I called Dagao again for directions, since I knew we were near where he and Grace used to live. We spent over an hour looking for a suit for me without success. We also looked for clothes for the grandchildren. This department store carried almost exclusively European and American brands. We then decided to have an early dinner. They had just bought their first apartment and were very excited about it. Dagao had also just finished working on an IPO for a large company to be listed on the A exchange in China. He explained that the listing features are very stringent requiring at least three years of earnings, which must be audited, and other criteria. The company was now waiting to be listed, at which time the stock could be sold. Leslie and I returned to the studio. Memorizing the phrase “qu geechang gaosue,” which means go to the airport expressway was important. From the Airport Expressway I could direct the taxi to my studio.

 Next >