Capital Museum plus other stuff...

The day started with a visit to the Capital Museum which opened in 2006.  The building designed by Jean Marie Duthilleul and Kai Cui was really impressive.

Security was pretty tight!  We had to drink our water in front of the guards to prove it was safe.

There was a special exhibition of furniture from the Ming Dynasty.  The furniture was mostly made from Huang Hua Li - a type of wood that doesn't attract insects and so keeps well.

Lunch time!  Some of us tried Ma la tang.  After selecting fresh vegetables, meat and noodles, we watched as the cook prepared the dish by submerging in boiling stock and then adding spice to taste.

Yummy...

Back at the museum, although filled with Chinese objects, it was us that were becoming the star attraction.  Here is the famous Charlotte!

Soaking up some of the history.

Kirsty and LouLou checking out the exhibition space in the 798 District.  It's a quirky gallery and it's just around the corner from UCCA. 

Something I came across whilst on the hunt for materials in a huge commodity market on the outskirts of the city.

Bye for now Paulina and Helen x

Day 4: In the studio

Now that we have had some time to settle in, we are starting to think about developing our ideas for the exhibition. We started today by discussing the photos we took in the hutongs to give each other an idea of what we are interested in and what has inspired us so far.



Elaine and Paulina talking about their photos. Elaine is interested in the idea of the human hand on the urban environment - she was also one of the only people to use black and white photos so far.


One of our challenges is to find the materials we need - we had a brainstorm to think about what media we would be using, and where we could find it. While some of us will only need to visit wusidaije, where there are lots of art shops, others will need more exotic items. Helen, Louisa and Paulina went to find wholesale markets to search for their materials.


The view from our studio on the 9th floor - the temperature reached 37 degrees at its highest today.


Karyna discussing her ideas with Karen. At the moment she is thinking about layering and cutting away to reveal what is underneath, with a view to potentially designing a wallpaper installation.


Above, some of Karyna's initial ideas and experiments.


After seeing crickets and grasshoppers in tiny cages around central Beijing, I was inspired to create a character design based on the insects. Here is my initial prototype for a paper doll, experimenting with Chinese newspaper for the wings and to act as a balance to allow the doll to stand.


Elaine's first experiment with the idea of balance, using items from around the studio and nearby supermarkets.


And finally - a face from above!

By Josceline

Day 3: Beijing Fine Art Academy

Today we were fortunate enough to attend a guided tour of the current exhibition of artist Qi Baishi given by the curator Mr. Ma. This was followed by an afternoon of tutoring by a painter from the Academy, Mr Yao. We all got to try our hand at Chinese brush work techniques which was relaxing, but much more complex than Mr Yao made it look!

A reconstruction of Qi Baishi's workspace, complete with some of his actual equipment. He is one of the most famous Chinese artists, known for his radical approach towards the traditional brush painting method. The paintings were about capturing the 'spirit' of nature rather than its literal reperesentation.

Mr Yao demonstrated two styles of calligraphy - Caishu (slow) and Xingshu (fast).

Here is some detail from one of his paintings - "Pure Water and Fishes"

Detail of the ink and water container.

Mr. Yao's homemade wide brush. Brushes are made from a mixture of real animal hair - including wolf, pig and sheep but also can be synthetic.

"Lotus in the Rain"

Mr. Yao shows us how it's done...

...Karen the course leader has her turn.

Here we all our with our finished (!) pieces.

'Chinglish' photo of the day :)

Zai jian! Helen and Keri

Day 2: 798艺术区 Art District

The 798 District was once an old munitions factory and is now a 'creative district' teaming with art galleries, design studios, fashion studios and boutique shops and cafes.

The work of Tatsuo Miyajima exhibited at UCCA

with Elaine in front to give the scale

 

 

 

 

faces

You can't see everything in one day at 798,  here we are resting in the '798 Space', one of (what we think is) over 100 galleries

love this as a studio!

The Pace Building, with an amazing exhibition of Yue Minjun's work (sorry no photos allowed)

more more more

Club sandwich anyone!

The work of Ma Qiusha at UCCA, these are containers of her grandfathers beard trimming

there's little things like this everywhere

The work of Song Dong exhibited at UCCA

Day one: Hutong Photography Project

After lunch at BIFT we got back in the minibus (3rd time lucky!) and took a walk around the Hutongs North and South of Gulou East Street

The Hutong 100-to-10 image project: results to be uploaded tomorrow

Helen, Keri, Paulina, Charlotte, Elaine and Karyna & Josceline peeping from behind

We walked for 3 and a half hours meeting people who live in the hutongs, talking to them through our interpreters about their children, their day their vegetables, their dogs and their pet crickets and

Karyna, Methmn, Sharon, Meghan, Helen, Elaine, Keri, Paulina, Josceline and Charlotte

The vegetables were so GREEN!

Helen as on the look out and thought she had found for some interesting materials to work with

Day one: Learning some basics at our studio at BIFT

Practicing basic Mandarin at BIFT (the Beijing Institute of Fashion Technology):
You try to say: Qing wèn zài nǎlǐ Xiè xiè without laughing......
We are now all fluent thanks to our amazing teachers Methmn, Fanny & Sharon

Elaine discussing the history of the Hutongs or is she practicing her Xiè xiè's

Helen says 11!