Day Thirteen
I woke up with an upset stomach. I did some more
work on the new woodcut and then met with Kogen and
Li to make sure that I had the correct wiring
instructions so that work could commence. That took
over an hour with calls back and forth to their
Chinese banks to make sure that we had exactly the
right information. If the information is not 100%
accurate it is my experience that there are problems
in transmitting and/or receiving wired funds to and
from China. I did not want to start off on the wrong
foot with a contractor. Li and the contractor felt
it was a good idea if we had a contract. My
experiences in China have indicated that formal
contracts and their enforcement are a fiction. But,
if that’s what Li and Kogen wanted then I would try
to do it for them.
Towards the end of our meeting Deng Yagao and his
wife, Grace Young came to my unit. I introduced them
as two young lawyers working for a prominent Beijing
law firm. I think this triggered the request for a
contract. Yagao then volunteered to translate the
contract that I was to draft. Grace and Yagao
started taking pictures of some of my sculptures.
They took me up on my suggestion to visit some of
the other artist’s studios. We felt this would be a
good contrast to the historical art we were going to
see at the new Capital Museum. After that we went to
look at my new unit and the area where my studio was
to be built.
They were not hungry for lunch and my stomach was
still upset so we made the decision not to have
lunch and have an early dinner after going to the
museum. This museum has only been open for a few
months and took almost 7 years to build. Although
it’s focus is on the antiquities, it is very modern,
with a large downward pointing copper bullet
occupying almost half the space. Inside the bullet
is a spiral staircase, much like the staircase in
the Guggenheim. Because it was a weekday and part of
the hot season, the museum was almost empty. First,
we saw a room dedicated to how Beijing was created
and developed in conjunction with the art for each.
period. Yagao next wanted to see antique ceramics
and pottery. By that time it appeared that Grace had
enough and I was really hurting. Grace suggested a
foot massage, which she said would make me feel
better. Since my feet were also aching, I thought it
was a great idea.
But, Yagao wanted to look at two more rooms. I
requested that one of the rooms be the calligraphy
section. Both of the rooms were on the other side of
the gallery.... the inverted bullet section. As we
were walking up and down the ramps it reminded me
very much of the Guggenheim with a couple of major
differences. First, the ramp in the Guggenheim is
open in the center while there is no open center in
the Capital Museum. Basically, the exhibit rooms are
in the center of the bullet, which means that each
room is relatively small. There are seven major
types or schools of calligraphy and each of those
schools was illustrated in this exhibit. The works
were terrific and I really enjoyed it.
I have never had a foot massage, which Grace and
Yagao found it difficult to believe. Grace loved her
massages and Yagao liked them but not nearly as much
as Grace. We went to the Palace, which is apparently
a very famous massage parlor. The foot massage was
for approximately 45 minutes. My feet were really
killing me from the museum, but felt much better
after the massage. We then went for back massages.
That did not do anything for me. We then went off to
a luxurious restaurant called LAN. It was difficult
to find within the building, which housed a number
of restaurants. The inside of the restaurant was
very tastefully and luxuriously done. The only
drawback was the ceiling which was basic industrial
painted dark gray had pictures which were hung from
the ceiling parallel to the floor. It was not great
art to start with, and this is not a great way to
look at art. Also, the music was extremely loud, but
we were told by the waiter that since the music is
piped in to all of the restaurants by the building,
they could not turn down the volume.
My stomach was still hurting and I told them not to
order anything for me except the equivalent of
chicken noodle soup, which I was able to locate on
the menu. I would then sample whatever they ordered.
One small bowl of chicken soup filled me up. Mango
ice cream served over small pieces of watermelon,
with all the pits removed, resting on chopped ice
tasted delicious. I then took a taxi home. On the
way to walking to my compound I stopped to talk to
my neighbors. One of them invited me over for tea
and I declined explaining that my stomach hurt.
Twenty minutes later one of them knocked on my door
and gave me special pills which they said would
help. That was really nice. I took the pills and
slept for 12 hours.
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