Alternative Alternative Energy Presents:
Power Cycle
An exhibition of new energy ideas that power themselves.
March 4- April 4, 2008
Jonson Gallery
Artist talk and opening reception
Friday March 7
4pm talk, 5-7pm opening
www.alternative2energy.com
Alternative Alternative Energy’s first exhibition in Beijing was a great success! The opening of the show was on May 24, 2007 at Canon Communication Space Beijing, and it was well attended by photographers, artists, and environmentally-minded art enthusiasts.
Feel free to browse more pictures of the opening, or visit the Alternative Alternative Energy Website where you can see most of the images and videos that were featured at the exhibit.
If you’re in Beijing, please come by! It’s downtown, to the west of the Forbidden City in the Xidan area of Beijing.
五月 23 MAY - 六月 4 JUNE 2007
佳能交流空间•北京
CANON COMMUNICATION SPACE BEIJING
这个画展由美国富布赖特奖学金及大连医科大学摄影理论研究所支持并赞助佳能交流空间。
This exhibit is made possible by generous support from the US Fulbright Foundation, the Chinese International Photography Research Foundation, and the Canon Communication Space.
佳能交流空间·北京
CANON COMMUNICATION SPACE BEIJING
地址：北京市西城区华远街13号置地星座A座首层
Address:#13 HuaYuan Street XiCheng District, Beijing
开放时间：周一到周日 (10:00-19：00）；周二休息
Hours: 10am-7pm; Closed Tuesday
电话 Phone: 010-66033680
F2 Bar was the place to be on the Dalian art scene last Thursday night!
Despite the early hour, the venue filled quickly, especially the best seats at the front and the comfy couches. DJ Manifest had some technical problems, but he provided us with some tasteful tunes all the same. Friends and strangers alike seemed to enjoy the work, keeping the artist flitting about with various energetic art inquiries.
Videos and images featured at the event can be seen at the Alternative Alternative Energy website.
And for those who stayed beyond the photographs, the house covers band in glam 70s getup and the strobe-light lit dance floor kept the crowd dancing well into the early hours.
ENERGY ART: IMAGES TO INSPIRE A NEW ENERGY FUTURE
The first ever ENERGY ART event will be happening this THURSDAY April 26, 2007 from 6-8pm at the Shangri-La F2 Bar in Dalian, China. Join us for an evening of projected art and music. Images and video from alternative2energy a[2]e and music by DJ MANIFEST!!!
Draft beer 20rmb mixed drinks 30rmb free munchies.
F2 Bar Address: 66 Renmin Road, Shangri-La Hotel, Dalian, China Basement 1
Tel: 82525000 ext. 23
The hottest spot in contemporary art on the Hong Kong Art Scene is undeniably the Hong Kong Centre for Arts.
A day spent wandering through endlessly disappointing galleries of Hong Kong’s Soho Arts district wasn’t entirely fruitless. Amelia Johnson Contemporary yeilded suburban scenes from architectural models by Chinese photographer Xing Danwen, Konstantin Bessmertny’s strangely dark rennaisance-like comic books on canvas, and Larry Yung’s brooding glimpses of the depth of memory.
But the sheer energy of the Hong Kong Art Centre overpowered the wishful glamour of the Hollywood Road galleries. Half the building in a state of frantic installation by young graduating artists whose exhibit, “one show,” was scheduled to open the following afternoon. Too Art Gallery, a tiny space that floods into the adjoining hallway, showed the work of young sculptors with an irresistably tactile sense of materials. Chung Wai Lun’s obsessively meticulous “Drop” series, created with tiny drops of yellow gypsum, create grand organic forms but yet invite close inspection. Joe, Lui Long Ting turns tiny, delicate fishbones into fanciful forms that resemble insects suspended in space or, in another instance, pinned as if in a specimen case.
It is perhaps not so surprising that these students have as one of their teachers Tang Ying Chi. I had the great fortune of meeting her at an open studios event organized by the conference, and she welcomed us strangers with open arms. In her series Visual Veils, she creates unusual veils that cover the whole body, veils with holes, veils woven into glasses, and my personal favorite, an inverse veil that rises from the body like a collar, but continues up to cover the face completely. The fabric is subtly colored and barely metallic, entirely covered with manically crisscrossing machine stitching. The body of work was started in 2002, and remains resonnant with both the middle east confict and the continuing struggling for increased freedoms East Asia.
Happy New Year!
It’s a war zone out there. This picture utterly fails to capture the sound and stench of the most sustained quantity of firecrackers I’ve ever witnessed. They echo off the buildings and the hills, a constant din, sometimes far, sometimes right outside my window. They’ve been going at it since 8:58AM (well, that’s when I got woken up). It’s 10:45 and showing no signs of letting up… probably will only get worse as we approach midnight of the last day of the lunar calendar. Mostly they’re of the noisemaker sort, but there’s also lots of the colorful rocket kind, which is good enough reason for me to sustained from uncalled for walkabouts!
(Update– at 11:30 I did indeed venture into the war zone otherwise known as the sidewalk outside my door. It was bitter cold, but families with their boxes of gun-powder fueled goodies were undeterred, bundled up against the wind and using pavement or fenceposts as launching and lighting platforms. By midnight, the vibration of noise was so intense as to confuse the nerves into a sense of excitement. Any residual evil spirits are sure to have been thoroughly exorcised!)
1) Have you refreshed your “dui lian” (the banners above and on both sides of your door)? Your chinese couplets of renewal and good luck could be brush painted india ink on red paper, or if you’re in a hurry, you can buy a ready made set at your local foodstore or streetside vendor. To be really traditional, you’d have to have them painted on peach tree wood.
2) Have you posted square “fu” characters (which means “good fortune, blessing, and happiness”) on your door and over your windows? Even better, hang it upside-down (like mine)– the chinese for “fu upside down” is “fu dao le” which happens to be the same way you’d say “fortune comes.”
3) Do you have a brand new set of clothing to wear on New Year’s day? Especially important is new underwear, preferrably in red (local shops would be happy to oblige you in a shocking array of styles).
4) Do you have a large stock of firecrackers to frighten any evil spirits (or, a good set of earplugs, because all of your neighbors will have them, and aren’t shy about setting them off from early in the morning until late at night!)
5) Have you thoroughly cleaned and swept (because it is bad luck to sweep during the holiday week, you might sweep away your good luck)
After 3 weeks of travel in pollution stressed middle China, the tropical color and Portuguese-Chinese mix of cultures was a breath of fresh air.
Finally, the mysteries of the Chinese sleeper bus have been revealed. I’ve always seen them, parked in bus station lots or on sidewalks in front of train stations, and stolen surreptitious glimpses of dark interiors lined with beds. I suppose I could have sought out a ticket. But I generally avoid the myth of “sleeper” transportation, which, for me, is a misnomer for a sleepless night followed by a sleep-walking day. (Kudos to those who can sleep through all the bumps and bangs, or don’t seem to require rest!).
But to go direct from the smallish touristy destination of Yangshuo to Hong Kong, sleeper bus is the only offering. I bought the ticket, and was collected by a “guide” at 8:30pm. Together with a small bunch of roller-suitcase bearing chinese and two American students in Hong Kong bearing gigantic backpacks, we got led to a bus parked 200 meters away from the parking lot designated as the YangShuo bus station. Read the rest of this entry »
