Charles Hecht | Writings

Day 2 Tuesday
August 15, 2006

I was awakened by someone grinding fiberglass in front of Chao Khan’s studio, which is right next to Lennart’s studio. It was noisy and smelly. After breakfast I decided to wander around and pick up Lennart’s bikes that had been borrowed by the brother of the manager of the Artists Inn, a new joint venture started by Li Gang, Lennart and a Chinese businessperson. The manager has an attitude. I had tried to get Lennart’s bikes the night before but we were told they were unavailable. The manager grudgingly returned Lennart’s electric bike but forgot to give me the lock. When I went back to get the lock she pretended that I did not know what I was talking about. Fortunately, one of Li Gang’s employees was there she interceded and persuaded her to go get the lock. The Artists Inn occupied the former large studio rented by Letitia Gauden. When the government sacked part of SAC late last year Letitia was so angry she moved out of her artist studio and trashed it. They had completely rebuilt this into a small hotel for artists, with 8 bedrooms, two meeting areas, a dining area and a kitchen.

Also the Pickled Arts Center had not had electricity for over a month in many areas because of a serious flood. So occupying rooms at the Pickled Arts Center was no longer a viable option for a number of artists. I did not know this would occur when I made arrangements with Lennart to rent his apartment during my last visit.

Li Gang called and said that the large bronze sculpture, “Long and Slender” had been moved in from the foundry and it was now outside his studio, which was right behind the Artists Inn. I went to look at it. It is a strange feeling. It is one thing to create something and then it is quite another to see it in its completed form knowing that you have finished the basic work on forming the sculpture and that form could not be changed. I was trying to get used to it and decided to go off and visit Nathaniel who had moved into SAC from the Pickled Arts Center. I could not find him, but he then strolled into my studio and we had a nice visit.

David had said that he wanted to try the Artist Inn for lunch, although they had just lost their two cooks because they had gotten into a fight with the Dragon Lady. We met Denise and Nathaniel for lunch but we were an hour late and they were finishing as we arrived. We made selections from the buffet presentations as there was no English menu for the a la carte selections. The food was cold and tasteless. David asked the Dragon Lady if she could microwave our plates so the food would taste better. After a hassle, she grudgingly did so. Oxy could not wait, ate his meal quickly and left.

After lunch I met Li Gang and we discussed whether or not to weld two other large pieces together to make the sculpture more stable. Gang was concerned that children would climb on the sculpture because it was so invitingly set up. To him, it was the perfect “climbing tree for children.” I said to him that in America they do not let people touch the sculptures so that was not a realistic possibility, but we may decide to do it anyway because I was concerned about potential liability. Li Gang then brought out the four bronzes of the small sea creatures. One of them looked really good. The other three I am still thinking about. Li Gang was working on cleaning up a small bronze foundry commission that Abraham had given him for a Swedish artist. We then took that sculpture out to Abraham’s place.
Abraham’s place is about three miles away. That artist community which had come to a construction stand still four months ago was now building out very rapidly to beat new rules coming into effect on December 31. SAC, which had been pretty much decimated by the government raid a year ago had been rebuilt, the artists had moved back and it was once again a vibrant artist community. The same group owned this new facility. Abraham had taken two large units and combined them. There is a approximately 240 sq. meters in total. Abraham, Li Gang and I discussed a possible three person show at Abraham’s gallery space for the Swedish small animal sculptures, one of which we had just finished and delivered, my Sea Critters in bronze and Li Gang’s small animals in bronze.

(Click on image to enlarge)

We left Abraham’s place so I could buy some comfortable summer pants. I had brought dungarees to work in but it was much too hot for dungarees. The basic uniform of the artists was shorts, sandals and no shirt. It was very hot. We then went to the telephone place to make sure that I had enough money in my Chinese cell phone to make calls for the duration of my visit.

We then came back to SAC. Li Gang wanted to do some painting. I wanted to work some more on cleaning up the wood cuts and had made a decision based on discussions with Li Gang about my concern for the use of rifles in my Darfur Genocide wood cut. Li Gang stated that the rifles in the wood cut were a distraction and should be eliminated.
One of the beauties of doing a wood cut is that sometimes it is very easy to eliminate an element. I then did some reading, dozed off to sleep and eventually ended up at David’s place where he had some take out. Niko, a French jewelry designer who had recently split from his girlfriend and moved in with David on a temporary basis, joined David, Oxy and myself for dinner. They wanted to watch television. I came back to do some more work on the wood cuts. I was able to finally get in touch with Leslie because I was concerned about how her daughter was doing. We had a brief but nice talk and I went off to sleep at about 11:30.

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