ARTISTS TALKING

# 31 [5 October 2009]

Painting villageWe visited one of the many painting villages in the Xiamen area. This area  makes up 60% of the markets reproduction paintings. Its very strange to visit as we encountered many artists just making painting after painting for this cheapened mass market. This is a very different side to making than we are used to seeing.

# 30 [5 October 2009]

The Chinese Moon Festival is on the 15th of the 8th lunar month. It's also known as the Mid-autumn Festival. Chinese culture is deeply imbedded in traditional festivals. Just like Christmas and Thanksgiving in the West, the Moon Festival is one of the most important traditional events for the Chinese. The Moon Festival is full of legendary stories. Legend says that Chang Er flew to the moon, where she has lived ever since. You might see her dancing on the moon during the Moon Festival. The Moon Festival is also an occasion for family reunions. When the full moon rises, families get together to watch the full moon, eat moon cakes, and sing moon poems. With the full moon, the legend, the family and the poems, you can't help thinking that this is really a perfect world. That is why the Chinese are so fond of the Moon Festival. The Moon Festival is also a romantic one. A perfect night for the festival is if it is a quiet night without a silk of cloud and with a little mild breeze from the sea. Lovers spend such a romatic night together tasting the delicious moon cake with some wine while watching the full moon

# 29 [5 October 2009]

We were unable to visit Beijing for the 60th Anniversary, but we woke on the 1st of October and immediatly tuned in to watch the celebrations on TV...any sign of rain or clear skys??? 

The first things we watched looked like a show of military strength. Cannons were fired, mass's  of troops (all the same height in each group) lined the roads and into Tiananmen square whilst President  Hu Jintao  was driven past shouting commands. It felt like a never ending show of strength..tanks, misiles, troops, tanks, tanks more tanks more troops. Thoughts of N. Korea sprung to mind.

  "Even the weather co-operated with the celebrations; cloud-seeding the day before brought overnight showers to disperse the smog and bring in clear skies"

# 28 [5 October 2009]

The past few days have been windy, making it difficult for us to do our performance on the studio roof tops, today we had a go at it, but the wind had the better of us.

# 27 [5 October 2009]

Today Kang drove us two hours out of Xiamen to Cheng Wu, the village of the stone factories. We have many ideas for working in stone, juxtaposing it with bronze or steel. We couldn't believe the scale of some of the factories/shops. We were guided round one place in particular that had stone sculptures that were at least 30 ft high..it also had fossilised trees and stalagmites. Photography was forbidden inside the gates. We had a sudded strange feeling that we were standing between a mountain of stone carved to create things such as  Mickey mouse, Mary, or statues for temples.After visiting a few stone factories Kang, a sculptor and an owner for one of the stone shops took us for a delicious lunch over looking the harbour. Full to the brim of food and beer they showed us around a stone gallery where we were asked to sign a beautiful red book. Across the road from the gallery they led us through a small stone ivy covered entrance and into the original stone village. Later we discovered that one of the men showing us around had grown up in the village ..we took his photo in the ruins of his house. The village was incredible, unlike anything we have seen, quiet, quaint, friendly, unique, mysterious and old, very very old. The stone village is surrounded by a stone wall, Kang told us is was built to house soldiers, on top of the wall an old cannon lay in the flowers pointing towards neighbouring islands. They then took us to a beautiful beach, which to our amazement had a little waveWe were then invited to have tea at the shop owners place, we talked about trying to find a village that practiced rain dances to bring the rain but this was unheard of in the villages by the sea. After tea we drove back to the first factory we visited, a very small understated factory in the countryside, we took a sample of stone and drove to Kang's friend's (the stone carver and factory owner) beautiful house that overlooked the sea for more tea and talk. Kang drove us back to Xiamen, we fell in in and out of sleep, listening to his calm "pray" music watching the sunset over the mountains. We arrived back in Xiamen, once again overwhelmed by the kindness and visual stimuli we had experienced.

# 26 [26 September 2009]

'Discovering Slowness' private view at CEAC

Tonight was the private viewing for 'Discovering Slowness' at CEAC.
Discovering Slowness
Artists：Barbara Visser, Broersen & Lukacs, Gabriel Lester, Eelco Brand, Hans Op de Beeck, Job Koelewijn, Michal Butink, Oliver Boberg, Paul Kooiker, Raymond Taudin Chabot, Anouk De Clercq, Ine Lamers, Lon Robbe, Philippine Hoegen, Martijn Veldhoen, Dan Geesin, Marjan Teeuwen, Matt Calderwood.

# 25 [24 September 2009]

Performance in the studio.

Hang fish out to dry and other reminants from performance.

Dinner with Sandra Kunz (a contemporary swiss artist) Ronny Delrue (Belgium artist) Lei Wen (assistant to artist's)

Drink at the Thank you bar discuss future music/art event on studio roof tops

# 24 [24 September 2009]

Cofee with Ronny Delrue

Xiamen Ethnic Museum

Zongshan park and zoo

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# 23 [21 September 2009]

Setting up for first performance in the studio in the amphitheatre. See Clud Blog for images of work

# 22 [21 September 2009]

We felt we needed an alternative outlet to 'amphitheatre' project. We painted. We wrote. We read. We planned.