this is a sudden inspiration by samantha.

i saw them in Council room while doing duty, and like sam, i couldn’t resist but pick up the little blobs and play with them [and make them hug; that's what they're here for]

so i spent the next half hour amusing myself with the tiny figurines. [and now i think of it, it sounds very silly]. of course, the pics don’t have nice lighting like sam’s; they’re taken in school–what romantic lights do you want?! besides, they’re taken with my phone. thanks to sony ericsson, they probably look nicer but still, it’s quite blur.

an overview of the work

flower bed!

this particular piece of work was my favourite amongst several other works at the exhibition by (mr?) Chun Kaifeng and Kaiqun called For Mr. and Mrs Children.

more information about the exhibition at

http://www.new.facebook.com/event.php?eid=24315893196&ref=mf or

their works at http://www.nextstoplaputa.com/  or

http://unfinishedadventures.wordpress.com/2008/07/03/the-new-long-kang-part-ii/#more-78 or, google it.

This piece of work is entitled Race for the Prize by Chun Kai Qun. It was inspired by the artist’s childhood pastime of racing paper boats in the “long kangs” (drains), and as his brother Kai Feng puts it, they wanted to “bring something mundane to a professional level”.

(at this point something going “doainnggg” in my head and hey, I know what exactly I want for my little house!)

The 3 dimensional work shows a not-so-much-noticed long kang, made painstakingly out of cement in a closed loop transformed into a racing track. More blatant were the “start” and “finish” gates, which were constructed with rather raw materials-twigs, as well as the little coloured flags which we always see at the racing seasons.

The Long Kang is filled with flowing water, which I thought was pretty amazing. It literally brings out what goes on in a Long Kang.

The race course is decorated with obstacles, such as “spikes” made of sharpened twigs, water wheel gates, gushing water…and so on, as seen in the photos. The “finish” gate is decorated by a bed of flowers and before you see the flowers, you’re greeted by this steam of mist. Ever so dream like. More interestingly, the race circuit is completed by billboards of their apparent sponsors, such as “Nookia”, “KoKo Kola”, and “Nikey”.

I like how the race course makes use of so many materials which are natural, like the twigs, the water, mist, the pretty flowers and the grass, though the grass and flowers are fake. To me, it is like something fanciful and dream-like, almost slow, laidback, which juxtaposes the speedy race. The numerous “obstacles” also prove to be a distraction along with other fanciful stuff growing out of the sides, such as mushrooms, which contrast with the “modern day” adverts on races. I can imagine miniature humans or elves or fairies (because of flowers and mushrooms) or the likes of it taking a slow stroll around the race course.

Well does it remind you of our soon-to-come F1 night race?

To quote MR Chun kaifeng again, “take silly things to the extreme to bring out the message” or something like that. It’s pretty late and my brain is not functioning. In fact, it hasn’t functioned for the entire day.

Wait, so how do I apply that to my coursework? And have you figured out who the 2 artists are? Hehe.

*edit

if you look at my final coursework, im heavily influenced by this piece of work!

Ant series

ahh, so this is the 故宫！

bit uneven in here eh?

*raises head up*

ahh a rare clear sky!!

this was taken at the museum too. a group of little kiddies happened to pass by. they looked REALLY CUTE so i decided to snap a shot at them. well there’s a lot of motion in the picture, but this boy in the centre just happened to be staring curiously at the camera, so bingo! haha.

see the irony in this? it shows an axe upon which a tree-ling grows. well sorry for not noting down the name of the artist and work, but we were in a rush to follow the guided tour! in the next post!

had a hard time getting this one (i cropped it! so it’s kind of pixelated) . this is one of the artworks found in Beijing at the 708 Art District. i had a lovely time there with huikin and mr gan (though the others were bored out of their minds.) Sadly, photography is restricted. we took this outside the warehouse (yes it’s a warehouse-turned-gallery; the entire district is). more infor at http://www.798space.com/index_en.asp

prints on canvas depicting the 100人民币note, though ironically with organised prints of stars. if i remembered correctly it was a combination of the American flag and the money note. political message? idk.

there was another one beside this one. it was black. prints again, this time depicting the Hiroshima bombing during WWII. you know, the mushroom cloud. and it also had the “stars”. hehe. sadly we weren’t able to get a pic of it.

when i visited the place again a few weeks later, the canvas had been removed!! ):

another rare picture . these posters are a few of the terracottas in the gallery. they sure caught our eye! there are alot alot alot of miniature ones inside! and they’re painted in some sort of artform, like popart, marilyn monroe the icon, and so on. so it was really interesting, like a combination of something eastern and traditional, with the western and modern.

and the cheeky sculptures.

more photos refer to Huikin’s wordpress.

she was carrying an arty umbrella…

school on Monday morning. the window was supposed to capture the reflection of the morning clouds. i thought it was interesting was it showed different levels; the interior of the classroom, the exterior view, as well as the reflection of the sky.

and a little ghoul at the SAM.

my neighbour’s pretty bougainvilleas..^^

 well literally. haha.

it was my dinner..if you couldn’t tell.