Charles Hecht | Writings

Day 6 Saturday
August 19, 2006

It is another very hot day in Beijing and I am off to work with Len, one of Li’s assistants who is a former print maker. When I got to the shop at 9:00 Len was already setting up. We decided to initially do one of the African fish masks, the one that was dark on top with black teeth first. Initially he had done a print with Li Gang and I felt the color was too light, but it did show the grain of the wood. But, it wasn’t a particularly pretty grain. Len on his own did a second artist proof adding a little turpentine to the ink, and it was a much sharper and darker image. I went with Len’s version because it worked better with this particular wood cut. We ended up doing 14 prints. We then started to work on the exact opposite mask which was the mirror image in reverse of the first fish mask.

That went a little slower because the carving was not as precise and it was a more difficult design to work with since there was much more white in the design. We finished about six of those and then decided to go to lunch. Len did not want to go to the Artist Inn and signaled that he wanted to go into town. We walked to town and I went to a restaurant that I had never been to in Sou Jao Cun. He did the ordering. The food was excellent but it was far too many dishes. I was stuffed after the second dish. The first dish was a type of very thin sliced potato that was sauteed with hot peppers. The second dish was a traditional beef stew with mushrooms and vegetables. It was exceptionally tasty. They then brought out a chicken and mixed vegetable dish which was primarily scallions, which was also excellent. Finally, there was an egg drop melon soup. It was too much food. Len insisted on paying.

We walked back to the studio and finished the second set of prints, limiting those to twelve prints. We then started to work on combining the two. Once we had agreed on how they would set up to reflect each other Len tried to print it cross wise. It did not work as the teeth in the masks became very blurred. I then suggested that we do it in the opposite direction so that the rolling element in the press went with the direction of the teeth. Li Gang said it couldn’t be done that way because the press would move the wood. I said let’s give it a try and if it doesn’t work then we’ll build a structure behind the two masks to put them together. But it did work and it looked fantastic.

We then took a break because we had to go to an opening at Li Gang’s and Lennart’s gallery in 798. The opening featured Tony Smith, an Australian who now lives in Beijing and worked as a special projects director for the Red Gate Gallery, Maggie, an Australian print maker/artist and Elizabeth who was raised in Austria and now lives in Melbourne. It is part of the continual new push for cross cultural exhibitions. Both Maggie and Elizabeth were in Beijing working on an art intern exchange program with the Red Gate Gallery.
There were the usual set of speeches by dignitaries. The opening was well attended. After the opening Li and I went downstairs to Ren Jie’s studio. At night the studio converts to an experimental theater. I have always liked Ren Jie’s work. The use of only black, shades of black, and white work for me. He combines the traditional calligraphy techniques with a modern abstract approach. He had just had some of his works on paper exhibited at 2 Lines Gallery. I was familiar with one of the pieces and asked to look at that piece if it had not been sold. It still looked terrific and I had decided to buy it. I was also interested in one of the oils that he had done. He is now working on more oils on canvas than ink on paper because a gallery owner had recommended this strategy. I was glad that I got both. Unfortunately I somehow forgot one of the packages of the travelers checks so I had to make arrangements to come back another day to pay him for the two pieces.

At that time Ivy Zhou and two of her young friends came to the gallery. As usual Ivy got lost again and we spent 30 minutes getting them to the gallery. After looking at the material at the 2 Lines Gallery and inviting them down to where Ren Jie works, they said they wanted to see more of 798. We wandered around the 798 art district for the next hour. Christopher, was the son of two clients of Ivy, Sherry was his wife. Christopher was extremely fluent in English and very perceptive. Sherry was very shy. After a while Ivy got bored and said that she was bringing them to her home for some cold drinks. I said that I was going on to the dinner that the artists were throwing after the close of the show.

In the morning Li Gang told me that he had just decided to take a vacation with Mei and Wendy, and was leaving the next day. There was a lot of unfinished business. He said that he would make arrangements to have one of his workers pick me up and take me to the airport. Inside I had a sinking feeling I was only here for eight days and there was a lot still to do, some of it totally outside of our control, such as waiting to meet the glass people from Tsing Hua University. Dong Hai Guan had apparently gone off to an art fair in another province. His phone was “power off.” Hopefully he would contact me and be able to meet with me before I had to return. I wanted to see how the glass sculptures looked to determine what should be in a show in New York, and what shouldn’t be. Basically, Li Gang and I agreed that I would write out everything for him concerning what needed to be shipped back to the states, what we were going to keep in China to show, etc. Apparently the school year was beginning on September 1 and in view of the recent death of Mei’s mother after a very long and painful illness she felt that they needed a vacation and they hadn’t had one that year.

After the show the artists and a number of other people went to dinner at the fish restaurant which I went to for my farewell dinner last time. It was very good. The air conditioning for the private area we were in broke down, so it was extremely hot. For some reason the group was very muted. Fortunately I sat next to John and Melissa two ex pat Australians. John was a writer and loved to ride racing bikes. Melissa was a reporter for a Chinese radio station and was a spokesperson on the web. Her new specialty area was XinJiang, I told her that I was reading a series of articles by journalists entitled “XinJiang B China’s Muslim Borderland,” by Frederick Starr as the editor and I found it an extremely interesting book. We then discussed what was happening in XinJiang and she is to call me tomorrow to get the data because she wants the book. Apparently there is very little published about what is going on in that region.

After dinner, Li Gang drove me back and we discussed various ways of improving the finish on the four small bronze sea creatures. Li gave me some ideas and the keys to his studio. I was able to find some rags and a small wire brush etc. I went back to the apartment and first I tried a terry cloth and water to rub the finish to see if that would change it.

(Click on image to enlarge)

I really did not like the look. I then tried the wire brush on the underside of the flat sea critter that seemed to work well and I worked on wire brushing the four small sculptures gently for the next two hours. It was a big improvement. I was off to sleep by 11:30. The temperature at that time was 87 degrees. Fortunately the fan worked.

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