Some newish WIPS

Some new work in progress shots

Some art news- revolutions within revolutions

The IHT has run a story on Zeng Fanzhi.

Quote: The Beijing-based 43-year-old artist was recently in Singapore for the opening of a major retrospective of his work. In an interview, he pointed out, with the aid of a translator, that the ideological changes in China have clearly influenced him, but his work remains personal: “I grew up in the environment of the Cultural Revolution and all these ideologies take a lot of space in my mind, but when I paint I just want to portray my inner feeling and the people around me. I’ve never been interested in my art becoming symbols of political ideas.”

The article is here.

In other news the FCC has organised an art lecture by Dr Jiang Jiehong, who is head of the Centre for Chinese Visual Arts (CCVA), based at UCE Birmingham Institute of Art and Design in England, where he is also responsible for postgraduate teaching and research.

The talk is called ‘the revolution continues- the revolutionary influence in Chinese art.’

 

“With Chinese artists now fetching astronomical prices on the international market, the days when art was seen as a little more than a propaganda tool can seem a long way away.  But a new book edited by Chinese art critic and curator Jiang Jiehong draws a direct link between the ‘mass art’ produced in China’s most politicized period, the Cultural Revolution, and China’s contemporary art scene. Burden or Legacy: From the Chinese Cultural Revolution to Contemporary Art, explores the impact of the art of that era on the new generation of artists. In his illustrated talk, Dr Jiang will look at how propaganda imagery helped give rise to genres such as political pop and cynical realism - and what role its influence plays in the Chinese art world today.”

 

1918 Art Space, 78 Changping Lu, by Xi Suzhou He Lu

7p.m., Tuesday, August 14, (Talk begins at 7:30), FCC Members free; Non-members 50 RMB

 

Also Art Basel has put all participating artists online. You can browse for hours…

 

Hot Paint Wips

Some work in progress shots…. preliminary titles include opiates of the masses, the good official.

World War 3 illustrated

While Ｉ　ｗａｓ　ｉｎ　ｔｈｅUK I picked up a copy of this magazine/comic “WorldＷａｒ　３ Illustrated.” It has some very graphic stories from Iraq, such as photos provided to one of the artists by a traumatised soldier, which are turned into a story.

If you were wondering where the underground political response was to all that is going on lately, this magazine at least offers something.
From their editorial blurb: “WW3 isn’t about a war that may happen, it is about the ongoing wars our so-called leaders have been waging all our lives around the world and on our very own doorsteps. WW3 also illuminates the war we wage on each other and sometimes the one taking place in our own brains.”

My main reason for picking it up is it had a Joe Sacco story in it. Joe Sacco is a journalist/ artist who travels around the world’s trouble spots.

Shanghai flash floods

Shanghai had some pretty intense rain this afternoon. Managed to take a few shots with the old camera phone. Where the roads dip towards the river a few cars and a bus got stuck. Back in the day it used to flood like this all the time.

India and Pakistan 2007

BBC radio has just broadcast an interesting 3 part documentary on the Indian Pakistan relationship.

” Crossing the Border:
Hardeep Singh Kohli makes a personal journey across the borders of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, setting his family’s history at the time of Partition within the wider context of the legacy of 1947 for the three newly-created nations.”

It is available to listen again here. There is a youtube video of the border closing ceremony here.

Silly season news

Now August is here the silly season is with us, as journos around the world scrape around for news, while most other people are on holiday.

Here’s a quick round up of the latest (mostly in the Sun, which never fails to disappoint during silly season):

Some people in Arkansas have had 17 kids, all named starting with the letter ‘J.’

“Bum pinching” is now a hot topic.  An intrepid reporter was ‘goosed’ by a passer by. All gory details are here.

Great White Sharks, now allegedly off the UK coast, are in the news. Another intrepid reporter lost his lunch on assignment to find some here..

Large woman stuck as tide comes in.

This woman takes photos of rabbits, which for some reason has caught media attention.

Exam grades are also a hot topic too. Here we have a story about how in US colleges , you can almost pass by only showing for class once in a semester.

And we will all soon be traveling in flying saucers, thereby adding fuel to the theory that aliens are actually time travelers.

This is actually quite good- a podcast of ’summer sensation’ Kate Nash and band.

Blog admin note stuff

Has anyone noticed this new news aggregator over at SH mag? Seems they have included Shanghai Eye in their feed! If we could only figure out how to do one of those counter thingys we’d actually know if anyone ever visited the site! We do have 1,592 comments, but they mostly seems to be about Viagra and stuff. hmm.

The East is red, the butt is numb, and other art news

There are some very cool hi res scans of People’s Opera here, together with some witty comments.

“a crack battalion of female sharpshooter-ballerinas were slaughtered en masse”

In other art news, once the sultry summer turns into a more torpid Autumn we can expect a busy art season as Shanghai becomes  the eye of the hurricane in a  veritable storm of art events.  Hotels will full up with mysterious sunglass wearing types, jetting in, as Shanghai’s artists put all their latest work on display.

So get out your diaries and start penciling in some dates.

Tatsuo Miyajima, C[1] F Protrusensitive No.1, SCAI. (from SH Contemporary)

The big one early on will be SH Contemporary, from September 7-9. Should be plenty of champagne and canapes. Go to the website to get your VIP pass.  You can browse some of the artists here. SH Contemporary hopes to be the major art show in the Asia Pacific region, so it should be good.
Not sure what they are up to, but ‘798 Avant Gallery‘ have made a nice website. View it here.

The aptly titled ‘buyartmagazine.com‘ has released its new title ‘buy art/collecting Chineseart.’ Unfortunately you have to pay for it. It is available here.

Aye Gallery has something on too, but its in Beijing.

Back to Shanghai, “NewＩｎｔｅｒｆａｃｅ　３＂ CHINART ’searching the future’ contemporary art exhibition is on September 6 (funny, thats the same date as the SH Contemporary show). Quite a plethora of artists lined up for it, and it is organised by the Red Bridge Gallery. As they don’t give away many details on their own site  I’ll exclusively give you the lowdown here: the event is opening at 4pm, at the Liu Hai Su Art Museum, 1660 Hongqiao Road, Shanghai.

Dita saying “byee”
OK that’s enough art news for now, except to mention that red net has put up an impressive gallery of Dita von Teese photos, you can browse here. The pixelation of the nipples is an interesting concept. And who got that job? Inquiring minds need to know.