Rising In Liverpool

November 3, 2010

Su-Chen Hung, an artist I shared a lot of yurt-time with in Mongolia, is showing her new work at: The Independents Liverpool Biennial 2010, from Wed. Oct. 27 ~ Sun. Nov. 28, 2010 at Wolstenholme Creative Space, 11 Wolstenholme Square, Liverpool, UK. Su-Chen’s piece is created with red sewing thread and 3059 sewing needles. Of her work she says: Are the four images echoing each other in their positive and negative forms or have the figures on the wall just arisen from the floor? This exhibition, curated by Priya Sharma and Caroline Smith, showcases the artists’ varying concepts and reactions to the unique environment of WCS. They …

NAVIGATE, night of all souls

November 1, 2010

On October 30th 2010, I created an installation for the Night for All Souls at Mountain View Cemetery to honour my father who passed away this year. My father loved sailing and so I made a boat and four sails which were installed in the Celebration Hall courtyard. The boat hung from a concrete wall; the bow faced the pond and the stern could be seen on approaching the building. It was at once, floating in the air and piercing through the wall. The basic form was constructed from Willow branches (grown in my yard) and covered with handmade paper …

Knitting Cattails

October 22, 2010

No I am not knitting the tails of cats, but the Cattail plant, which I harvested from the pond on Granville Island- and yes the maintenance guys were very happy to let me do that because it is very invasive and they have to go in with hip waders every year and pull a bunch of it out. I then washed and dried the long leaves and stored them in the rafters of my basement. To use them for weaving or in my case knitting and crocheting, they have to first be soaked to make them pliable. For now i am experimenting …

Studio Garage Sale

September 21, 2010

Sunday October 3, 10:30 am to 6 pm, at Island Studio, 1551 Duranleau Street on Granville Island in Vancouver BC. #32 on Map I am cleaning out my studio and have many items that may be of interest to artists and crafters. I need to make room for storage and must get rid of the stuff i have collected over the years when i was doing more assemblage works. For example i have doll hands, plastic fruit, shoes, cast paper bits, masks, plastic moulds and wooden print drawers. I also have some picture frames and i have a booth structure …

Beijing Art

September 1, 2010

The abundant and vibrant art scene is what I really enjoyed in Beijing. Contemporary art is blooming in this smoggy overcrowded city and its energy is infectious. I visited the 798 gallery district, were we saw the Hope Tunnel installation at the UCCA gallery where the the train is a genuine artefact from China’s 2008 Sichuan earthquake, responsible for the deaths of 68,712 people. In the Chaoyang District I visited the Li-Space gallery and saw the exhibition Get Moving, which seemed to be critical of the art star complex of Beijing. At the Art Today Museum i saw the large photographs of Yan Zhixiong …

Mongolian 360 Experience

August 31, 2010

My experience of Mongolia was defined by the region of Bazriin Chuulu where the Land Art artworks were created and the people i met there. Mongolians are happy go lucky and so my favorite and most informative experiences happened by accident. For instance, one day after being lost in the desert for several hours, roaming the landscape in Mr. Tsegmid Puntsag’s SUV, we came upon a site which has a tiny well of holy water. That day i also learnt about Lama Zavaa Damdin who was a Gobi Buddhist scholar and a hermit during the socialist purges. Tsegmid also pointed out the …

Mongolian 360 National Gallery Exhibition

August 26, 2010

The trip and installations in the Gobi were followed by a 3 day symposium and exhibition at the National Gallery of Modern Art in UB, where we were put up in a 4 star hotel. This was an extreme contrast to the camping situation we had in the desert but many of us were happy to have warm showers, electricity and green vegetables! The exhibition functioned mostly as a review of the installations in the Gobi and consisted mainly of photos of the work. Some of us had additional work installed in the gallery. I for one brought my felt …

Ulaanbataar

August 25, 2010

First let me say that Mongolians are beautiful, inside and out. They are generous, welcoming and readily smile and laugh. Ulaanbataar on the other hand is an ugly, grimy, crazy city. The driving is insane and congested. The craziest thing is that everyone is a taxi- it kind of like hitchhiking but you pay people to give you a ride. One just stands on the side of the street with their arm out and random people will pick you up. I never did this on my own because i don’t speak Mongolian but we did it as groups sometimes. One day …

Modern 360 Mongolian

August 21, 2010

My second project was derived from the first one. The empty circles cut out of the felt spoke to me about the inevitable modernisation of Mongolian life; how the traditional Ger is being replaced by modern houses and apartments. This felt piece was purchased at the market and it was used, that is, it was once a ger covering. I hung it on the rocks as a temporary installation and then i had an artist, Megumi Shimizu wear it as a sort of house/cape. Megumi is a performance artist and she participated in several artist’s pieces on top of her …

Land Art project

August 17, 2010

My first project: East/West Fir This project was conceived in Canada and then adapted to the Mongolian landscape. It consists of three rings, which represent the diameter of old growth Douglas Firs. The smallest ring represents the size of Douglas Firs today and the second and third outer rings serve as a reminder of the giant forests, which were logged a hundred and fifty years ago when the white man first set eyes on the shores of Vancouver. By contrast the smaller the Siberian Fir tree native to Mongolia is symbolized by a series of circular felt pieces in the center. My …

Gobi Desert, Green!

August 17, 2010

I think one of the first things that struck us when we arrived at the Ger Camp in the Gobi was that it was green! I think we were all mislead by the word desert, even though this is the north end, we did not anticipate so much green. It is not grass exactly, more like wild scrub brush that survives in the red sandy soil. Many of the plants smelled of sage or marjoram and so some areas were very pungent. We were told that there had been quite a bit of rain this season, which caused the plants …

Camel Man road

August 17, 2010

We arrived at our camp in the Gobi desert after a very long, bumpy, dusty ride on an old bus. I did not realize that the seat belts were used to keep you in your seat because the huge potholes every few meters will make you hit the ceiling! This was 10 hours on a dirt track, where in typical Mongolian fashion, the driver got lost many times. At one point we stopped a man herding camels from a motorbike, gave him a cigarette in exchange for some directions. On the way i also saw many wild horses, eagles (spotted …