Beijing

I’m doing an art residency project in Beijing for most of the month of August at the Ku Art Center. It has been refreshing to spread out and make new art works in a studio that’s about twelve times larger than my space in Tokyo. Although the space is raw it has inspired a lot of new ideas for me as I am working on new drawings and photographic works. I have been re-immersing myself in the world of ink and paper (refreshing!) and paying close attention to emptiness. Studio view 1:

I’m working on a new series of grass paintings that will become large scrolls hanging from the ceiling of a former silk factory for the 15th Kiryu Saien Exhibit in Gunma opening the first week of October. The simple shape of a blade of grass is taking on more and more meaning as I spend time “calligraphing” its shape and documenting the blades with a camera. Here is a sample of the works hanging in the studio:

I was most impressed by a studio visit with Jiang Guandong, an artist who is also a Taoist teacher. After a delicious bijou filled evening we exchanged studio visits and transcended our lack of a shared language with a nearly pure visual communication. Experiences such as these have perked my desire to tackle Mandarin when I get back to Tokyo.