Day Fourteen

My stomach still hurt the following morning. I was meeting Ivy Zhou, an old friend who was a partner in a major Beijing law firm for lunch. So I decided to start working on completing the second woodcut. Li Gang dropped by and we went over where to put hangers on the undersea critters sculptures. He also advised me that his patina specialist would stop by later in the day to put a sulfuric compound mixed in water to patina the bronze sculptures.

Ivy arrived almost on time and did not get lost like she normally does when she comes to this part of Beijing. We visited for a short while and during the visit we were joined by Li Gang’s wife, Heying. We then went off to look at the new studio which was right next to The Green T. Room, a famous restaurant in downtown Beijing, which had just opened this branch in what was to be the hot new artist’s district. I’ve heard a number of rumors that 798, also known as the Deshanzi Art District, has some serious environmental problems. It was formerly a munitions factory and they supposedly dumped large amounts of mercury into the soil. Not only is it toxic but it is supposedly extremely flammable. When I asked people why they did not close down 798 immediately, the response I got was that they will probably do so after the Olympics. In fact, the government is subsidizing the development of a number of gallery sites outside of 798 including a large gallery complex right next to the Art Village, which is where my studio will be. This is one of the reasons I chose that particular location for my studio over others.
The Green T. Room is very elegantly designed. You park your car in a lot covered with white gravel. You then walk through the type of white concrete maze which leads to a large white gravel area with a path around the area to get to the restaurant. Ivy explained to me that white gravel symbolizes peace and harmony, and you should not step on it, so we took the border path to the restaurant. Everything in the restaurant is white, including the waitresses’ uniform. The waiters are dressed in solid black uniforms. The food is elegantly served at Upper East Side prices. For example, we shared an appetizer of sliced pears with walnuts and goat cheese. The plate was presented with a beautiful white vase with an orchid in the center, which was promptly removed because we wanted to talk. In any event, Ivy really liked the restaurant and was happy that I was coming to Beijing on a more regular basis.

After lunch, she had to go downtown and I wanted to get back to work on finishing my preparation of the small bronze deep sea critters sculptures for the patina work. The more casting residue I was able to remove before the patina was put on, would make it far easier to finish the sculptures. This is because the casting residue is very difficult to see immediately after the patina work. Also to remove the casting residue after the patina has been applied is not a good idea because the tools used in cleaning could damage the patina.

Li Gang then told me that there may be a gallery interested in showing my glass castings done at Tsing Hua University. Apparently, our prior discussion in which he advised me that there had been no showings of glass in the Beijing area other than a students/teacher show at the university triggered this. Because, I previously responded that the first gallery to show this type of work could get a reputation for showing leading edge work and would enhance the reputation of that gallery as being willing to take chances on new ideas. It took two days for the power of suggestion to work. I then worked with Li Gang’s employee on applying the patina to the small bronzes of the deep sea critters and the small version of Long and Slender.

Li Gang was in the process of making pinhole cameras out of various sizes of cardboard boxes. When he purchased an old pinhole camera, he was given approximately 10 pinhole lenses. He was experimenting with different size pinhole cameras to see how the pictures changed based on the size of the box/camera. Apparently, you put a negative or film paper on the side of the box opposite the lens aperture. In this type of photography you get totally different perspectives and proportions.

I then went off to have dinner at Dongshen’s and Li’s . She had prepared certain foods which he said would make me feel better. It was a very interesting dinner. It started with the type of chicken soup with miniature sea cucumbers, which I explained to them is a food we do not see in the United States. There was a special salted cured fish from a lake near her home town. I asked her where she brought the fish. She explained to me that she got the fish from their apartment in downtown Beijing. They live in this artist community from the late spring until the fall and then move into the inner city because the heating is not so good in her unit at SAC. During the winter they come out to their artist studio at SAC on the weekends. They also had a type of pickled garlic which they told me I had to have because that would make me better. Many people in the artist community eat raw garlic with their meals.
There was a type of Western bread in a basket on the table. I also noticed that there was peanut butter and jelly, but decided not to say anything. When the meal was just about completed Dongsheng brought out some cheese that they had purchased at Jennie Lu’s. The reason they had to go to Jennie Lu’s for cheese was that dairy is not a part of the Chinese diet. They asked me if I like cheese and what did I eat it with. I told them that we often had cheese on crackers with cocktails before dinner or sometimes cheese is served as a dessert. Dongsheng then proceeded to show me why he preferred cheese on bread rather than crackers. First, he spread the cheese on the bread; on top of that he then put on peanut butter and jelly. He then folded the bread and told me that this is his favorite sandwich. He asked me if I ever had this type of sandwich. I said sort of. When I grew up I was often given peanut butter and jelly sandwiches to take to school for lunch. Sometimes we would add mayonnaise, but I had never had it with cheese. He asked me if I wanted to try this combination. I said I would but because of my stomach I did not want to push my luck.

Dongsheng speaks very little English, but he had a number of questions. Who was the most famous Chinese artist in the United States? After some thought I responded Xu Bing. They were very familiar with his work. They asked what other Chinese artists are famous in the United States and I said that I could describe some of their paintings but I could not put the paintings together with the proper name of the artist. We discussed why. I think one of the reasons is that the recent popularity of modern Chinese art has been confined to the art galleries and art auctions but not to the museums. He also asked me who were the most famous Chinese persons in the United States. He then made a request which I agreed to. If I locate any pictures of Chinese persons in American magazines I would cut them out and bring them to China on my next visit. Dongsheng specializes in a unique type of art. He uses photographs of famous people as part of collages. But even more interesting is the way he uses an image of a well-known person such as Marilyn Monroe painted in outline, with a superimposed maze - like cut out, which are both then painted on glass.

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