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On the Foreigner trail, you never know what to expect. Try being a foreigner in your own country some time...

Last hurrah

It came, it went, it happened. And not that much of the evening spent on the pole. Thanks Ben for the In&Out, and Steve for the memories! Unfortunately I never made it to the US the following day. More to come as Foreigner departs one great continent for another...

Art roundabout

With an extra day to kill in Beijing due to unforeseen circumstances, I find myself posting a final mishmash of art worth looking at. Leftovers from ArtBeijing and the best of visit to Songzhuang. I particularly liked the way the gallery in SZ labeled the art - with chalked walls. Pity I lost the small square of paper that half of the artist's names were written on - Yi Gang maybe you can help?? That will also remind me to talk about the Island Project at a later date. Apologies for the uncredited work.
Wu Jun Yong (strange and dark animations that seem to be obsessed with repetitive copulation)

Ji Dachun (minimalist shellac painting)

Lia Jianhua (porcelain headless figures "Game")

Dong Wook Lee (Benz figurines)

Mao Yan (ghostly pale figure paintings)

Lou Shenyi (fluoro pink scribble painter - fresh)

Hanglei (digital photography as genre painting)

Gu Dexin (black & white stick figure animations - chop off my head machine)
And more.

Rock and ror or night

Xiao He, Hang on the Box, AK-47 and a bunch of others I don't remember. Strangely short sets of 3 or 4 songs. But most importantly, 3¥ (50c) beer! Thanks to Moya for the intro, and Yi Gang for my new Chinese music collection.

More from the art world

I've been to a LOT of shows in the past couple of weeks, but I am still turning up people and things I like every now and then. Here's some more for the collection. I think I won't go to too many more - there is Art Beijing, which I have managed to get a Press Pass for (as an Arts Writer no less). I think I am supposed to have a translator with me, but oh well.

Chen Lingyang - ignoring the figure, she takes these amazing late night photographs of the city - you look into them and virtually all you can see are the few lights still on, which create a kind of constellation across the skyline.

Clare Maugeais - obviously not Chinese, but some good work anyway. I saw some long permanent-pressed silks of black+white cityscapes - more interesting than these.

Zhu Wei - beautiful prints, great colours.

Yan Cong (aka 'Chimney') - soft sculpture wonderland and quirky illustrations. I particularly like the collage work. What's also intriguing is they look very much like a female made them, but the artist is apparently male.

Zhang Jianhua - these are made from rice - can you believe it? Full marks for gimmick factor - they are also exquisitely beautiful.

This sort of POP work is everywhere in China, and sells for obscene amounts of money. I did like this work by the Luo Bros. - the lolling pig tongues are quite mesmerising.

Forgot to note this sculptor, but I have seen his work in several galleries. This is my favourite.

These photographs were taken by a Danish woman, I think. They are all double-sided interiors of siheyuan (traditional Chinese courtyard houses) - I just like the way they were hung.

This is the view into a well-known Chinese artist's studio. I was wandering around this factory complex during an opening that was happening nearby and chanced upon this. Apparently this artist, as well as many other famous Chinese artists, treat their studio as a sort of factory. There are many assistants; they come to complete a certain number of pieces per day/week; they don't talk to anyone - it's like a job. I found that strange, but I suppose when foreigners are paying 200K per painting it becomes a bit like that. These 'famous' artists become astonishingly wealthy very quickly - buying Hummers and black BMWs, investing HUGE studios - I'm not sure what else they do with the money, other than move overseas.

Full

My head is so full of all the things I've seen over the past week - to the point where I can't curate anything of value right now. I think I need to purge, so don't bother reading this: no streetlight villages; the 'star artist' factory line; lost, lost and lost again; leg ripped off by a giant mongrel dog, with Paris Hilton-style sidekick; man my ass is sore from biking; tired of taking photos I just want to look; xiao he oh my god; girls in matching sailor suits; fashion, what fashion?; nanluoguxiang hutong silent so soon; nightclubs no photos; fattening beer + fattening food seem to cancel each other out, or maybe my eyes are getting bigger; it's loud in spain and soft in china but no less emotion; neck tie on silver chain; for next time Caochangdi Jiuchang Feijacun Saojiacun; don't want to shop or where to start; Lao Hanzi not so good second time around but it is a holiday week; music like I've never heard a million times before; how can you be original when you wear a nirvana shirt?; if not beijing bikes then why not beijing bike bells (belles)?; do I really want to be on holiday - I think so; pomegranate takes 30 minutes to peel; red lacquer is possibly the sexiest thing on earth; how do you tell a nice girl from a prostitute?; rock in a concrete desert; is she a lesbian? it's so hard to tell these days; I still don't see Mao; have I given up fighting the language or do I simply know enough to get by?; the red dreams - shouldn't be reading burroughs, and why do my books keep connecting in strange ways?; not bothered by weird meat, strange fruits or the smell of piss; ready for some clean living?