Nothing comfier, nowhere better to put down your weary head, if you are weary enough...
Thursday, September 3, 2009
Postcard from Shanghai : Huai hai Lu
Nothing comfier, nowhere better to put down your weary head, if you are weary enough...
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
getn there
...another late night, but earlier than last night- just time to squeeze in an update. Large format canvasses going well- though the first took three times as long as I'd hoped- lots, and lots, and LOTS of drawing to do on it. Looks ok now though. Just finished a superb chinese fat kid. Well, the theme of the exhibition is 30 degrees, in honour of CHINA having opened her doors 30 years ago this year. Ill be exhibiting alongside artists from Studio Rouge as a collaboration- which is cool co they got some very cool artists on their books, like my favourite locals Chen HangFeng and Greg Girard
Teaching a full day again tomorrow, so Ill be shattered and ratty. Feeling good about the painting, though- finally resolved my urge to draw and a large scale canvas, after 10 years of trying.
Nice.
Teaching a full day again tomorrow, so Ill be shattered and ratty. Feeling good about the painting, though- finally resolved my urge to draw and a large scale canvas, after 10 years of trying.
Nice.
Saturday, August 29, 2009
...ps
...but the new diamond formation fancied by Ancelotti is not helping our Fat Frank's strike rate- he barely gets a shot on, even against Burnley. Tsk!
Shanghai Saturday Night
The average Shanghai Saturday usually culminates, in the shanghersey household atleast, in a night of tins and football. Initially curtailed by the collapse of the filipino satellite network, or atleast its sneaky tunnel into the chinese mainland, this has been a hit and miss activity. Many a night was ruined towards the end of last season by the intermittent coverage, which eventually expired altogether over the summer.
However, the handy collapse of Setanta in the UK has been cited by some as the reason that all matches are now covered by Shanghai LIVE tv. Such a joy to witness every single game, with sedated and rambling but uninspiring chinese commentary, which by the sound of it discusses the quality of the pies in the cafe at stamford bridge more than the free flowing attacking play. None of your South American Goooooooooooooaaaaaaaaaaaaaaal over here then. Its charming in its own way, however, and I even pick up the odd Gao-le and Dao-le-ma.
However, the handy collapse of Setanta in the UK has been cited by some as the reason that all matches are now covered by Shanghai LIVE tv. Such a joy to witness every single game, with sedated and rambling but uninspiring chinese commentary, which by the sound of it discusses the quality of the pies in the cafe at stamford bridge more than the free flowing attacking play. None of your South American Goooooooooooooaaaaaaaaaaaaaaal over here then. Its charming in its own way, however, and I even pick up the odd Gao-le and Dao-le-ma.
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Drowning
Oh Dear.
I am now seeing the error f my ways in taking on a few more lessons Graphics teaching- I was thinking of the money and now all I see is an endless sea of staff meetings, petty school commitments and my art sliding down the toilet.
Still worse, I have just been approached to produce a commission for an expo in Xintiandi, and don't know if Ive now got time to do it
Fight on, I say- Fight on!
I am now seeing the error f my ways in taking on a few more lessons Graphics teaching- I was thinking of the money and now all I see is an endless sea of staff meetings, petty school commitments and my art sliding down the toilet.
Still worse, I have just been approached to produce a commission for an expo in Xintiandi, and don't know if Ive now got time to do it
Fight on, I say- Fight on!
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Postcard from Shanghai : Moganshan Lu
Graffiti is tolerated on one street in Shanghai, near the arts district M50.
Frog Face
Usually a playground term to describe many of my first girl friends, this blog title actually refers to what I encountered on my walk home from the gym last night. Having caught up with the family at the pool (I had been at the studio in the day) we headed home because of the torrential rains and thunder storms that have become the summer norm in this humid city.
As we passed the shops and stalls of wulumuqi lu, my attention was caught by a polystyrene tray dowsed in blood. This in itself is not unusual- nearly all the market shops at the lower end of wulumuqi lu sell live meat of one kind or another, and the patrons regularly crouch on the pavement to gut, skin or dice whatever fish or innard happens to have caught the attention of a hungry Chinese worker on their way home. This was the first time, however, that I had seen the frog seller actually preparing his fare- the huge bull frogs huddled in netted bags always seem a particularly slow seller, but I dont know whether they are priced out of the regular dinner range, or whether they just taste about as good as they look (I rather suspect the latter)- anyhow this was the first time I'd seen this marketeer in action. In his polystyrene tray were the usual pools of watery blood and random meaty scraps, but I was delighted to see neatly arranged along one edge, loosened froggy faces, deftly skinned from their neckless bodies and saved on one side, broad mouths almost smiling. Again, my limited domestic culinary skills mean that I am still in the dark as to whether they are saved as a delicacy, or because they are distasteful or poisonous. Call me Mr Fussy if you will, but I hope I never find out.
As we passed the shops and stalls of wulumuqi lu, my attention was caught by a polystyrene tray dowsed in blood. This in itself is not unusual- nearly all the market shops at the lower end of wulumuqi lu sell live meat of one kind or another, and the patrons regularly crouch on the pavement to gut, skin or dice whatever fish or innard happens to have caught the attention of a hungry Chinese worker on their way home. This was the first time, however, that I had seen the frog seller actually preparing his fare- the huge bull frogs huddled in netted bags always seem a particularly slow seller, but I dont know whether they are priced out of the regular dinner range, or whether they just taste about as good as they look (I rather suspect the latter)- anyhow this was the first time I'd seen this marketeer in action. In his polystyrene tray were the usual pools of watery blood and random meaty scraps, but I was delighted to see neatly arranged along one edge, loosened froggy faces, deftly skinned from their neckless bodies and saved on one side, broad mouths almost smiling. Again, my limited domestic culinary skills mean that I am still in the dark as to whether they are saved as a delicacy, or because they are distasteful or poisonous. Call me Mr Fussy if you will, but I hope I never find out.
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
At last
Back in the big dirty one. Loving it!
Humidity is around 90%, its 36 degrees, thunder storming noisily and raining hard... Having been away my eyes are opened once again to the wondrous victorian street life here, its like a phizz cartoon on every corner.
Off to the studio this morning to do some interviews for a visiting film company, though i suspect as usual thy will be looking to interview ninky nonk artists not boring european ones. I may sellotape my eyes into slits, to complete my racist slander and disenfranchisement.
Oh, and Ive found a way round the Firewall/greenDam. Very happy now.
Humidity is around 90%, its 36 degrees, thunder storming noisily and raining hard... Having been away my eyes are opened once again to the wondrous victorian street life here, its like a phizz cartoon on every corner.
Off to the studio this morning to do some interviews for a visiting film company, though i suspect as usual thy will be looking to interview ninky nonk artists not boring european ones. I may sellotape my eyes into slits, to complete my racist slander and disenfranchisement.
Oh, and Ive found a way round the Firewall/greenDam. Very happy now.
Friday, August 14, 2009
Behind the Plastic Lens
Have been storming around the country with my trusty Diana F+. My kids have been particularly patient as I have used them repeatedly as part of a new project. Bless 'em!
Blimey
t's been such a long time. Its been impossible to post since tightening of laws and strategies here and there. Still, back in the UK temporarily, so have the liberty of making a post or two.
Unfortunately there's not much to tell. Despite travels aplenty, merrymaking and happiness do not a story make.
The gallery have just increased the wallspace by a thrid, so the walls are looking empty... I have a couple of projects on the go, but only in my head. A nice photography number, based on some fantastic pictures I have seen of the photography of charles lutwidge dodgeson. Using the kids as models, and plenty of storytelling, thought the thread I am unsure of.
Back to watercolours too. Probably Chaim modelling, holding animals and skulls and witchcrafty stuff like mobile phones, trainers and chopsticks in polystyrene tubs...
Unfortunately there's not much to tell. Despite travels aplenty, merrymaking and happiness do not a story make.
The gallery have just increased the wallspace by a thrid, so the walls are looking empty... I have a couple of projects on the go, but only in my head. A nice photography number, based on some fantastic pictures I have seen of the photography of charles lutwidge dodgeson. Using the kids as models, and plenty of storytelling, thought the thread I am unsure of.
Back to watercolours too. Probably Chaim modelling, holding animals and skulls and witchcrafty stuff like mobile phones, trainers and chopsticks in polystyrene tubs...
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
The great Dr Lee
Topo much to say here right now, about how great this man is, but needles to say anyone with a doctorate in graffiti and youth culture is pretty ok in my books. Here's how the man drops science...
Nicholas Hersey
Synaesthesia
Sofia Coppola’s 1993 Lost in Translation, is a story of alienation in a foreign country and is the story of an attempt by Bob Harris (Bill Murray) and a lone female, Charlotte (Scarlett Johansen) to find for a short moment, a kind of transcendent coherence within a foreign cultural space that has left them both losing their grip on the local reality. Synaesthesia is about the translation of one sensory form into another, but it is also about creation because in translation one register is always incapable of exhausting or even managing to communicate that of another. There is always the creation of something else, a kind of third space where another meaning appears.
Malcolm McLaren knew about this too with the creation of Punk. The bringing together of domestic icons into a new context manifested a new countercultural meaning, this was a new space created, not out of nothing, but of the myriad of cultural baggage swimming in our own heads.
Hersey explores this third space. Using a range of images– some edgy, some ambiguous, some personal– he creates a palette of ‘imagery for redeployment’. These images created over a period of time are both Hersey’s own images and monikers for our own.
Whiling one’s way through the forty images one finds each one striking a chord to a greater or lesser degree, begging the viewer’s own desire for order, coherence and meaning. This is a primordial moment, a deep-seated desire for order amongst chaos, searching for the gestalt, the synchrony, the moment where it all gels. This is the essential human conundrum: to find meaning in the chaos of the everyday.
In the work, the viewer’s own selection of images does not leave them alone. Instead the viewer is unnerved by them, the way their patterns interfere and the way comfortable combinations become uncomfortable as the third space, new messages in this moment of bricolage miraculously appear.
Hersey’s images catch us unawares. They seduce us into liking and disliking things we don’t quite understand, naturally we romp through the images imposing order on them, and magically and unexpectedly we are revealed.
Dr. Andrew Lee
Nicholas Hersey
Synaesthesia
Sofia Coppola’s 1993 Lost in Translation, is a story of alienation in a foreign country and is the story of an attempt by Bob Harris (Bill Murray) and a lone female, Charlotte (Scarlett Johansen) to find for a short moment, a kind of transcendent coherence within a foreign cultural space that has left them both losing their grip on the local reality. Synaesthesia is about the translation of one sensory form into another, but it is also about creation because in translation one register is always incapable of exhausting or even managing to communicate that of another. There is always the creation of something else, a kind of third space where another meaning appears.
Malcolm McLaren knew about this too with the creation of Punk. The bringing together of domestic icons into a new context manifested a new countercultural meaning, this was a new space created, not out of nothing, but of the myriad of cultural baggage swimming in our own heads.
Hersey explores this third space. Using a range of images– some edgy, some ambiguous, some personal– he creates a palette of ‘imagery for redeployment’. These images created over a period of time are both Hersey’s own images and monikers for our own.
Whiling one’s way through the forty images one finds each one striking a chord to a greater or lesser degree, begging the viewer’s own desire for order, coherence and meaning. This is a primordial moment, a deep-seated desire for order amongst chaos, searching for the gestalt, the synchrony, the moment where it all gels. This is the essential human conundrum: to find meaning in the chaos of the everyday.
In the work, the viewer’s own selection of images does not leave them alone. Instead the viewer is unnerved by them, the way their patterns interfere and the way comfortable combinations become uncomfortable as the third space, new messages in this moment of bricolage miraculously appear.
Hersey’s images catch us unawares. They seduce us into liking and disliking things we don’t quite understand, naturally we romp through the images imposing order on them, and magically and unexpectedly we are revealed.
Dr. Andrew Lee
still at it
...a few days to go to the opening of the new show, and im still scratchin away! Bought some nice big sheets of aluminium dibond coupla days ago, and spent this evening arousing some textures, then tickling in some imagery that should arouse suspicion and confusion. Having been lucky enough to have a press release written for me by the amazing Dr Andrew Lee, I have been inspired to complete some larger format pieces to complement the smaller ones already set for the show. You can read his release later, as I havent got it to hand right now :(
Anyway, from pseudo biblical references to girls holding kittens, all the allegorical imagery is in there, hopefully proving some more 'transcendent coherence' as Dr Lee puts it. Will upload pics soon!
Anyway, from pseudo biblical references to girls holding kittens, all the allegorical imagery is in there, hopefully proving some more 'transcendent coherence' as Dr Lee puts it. Will upload pics soon!
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