Some photos I never got round to sharing from China

Miraslaw Balka: How It Is

Walking into the familiar turbine hall at Tate Modern, London, visitors are recently greeted by what appears to be an impressively large (yet not imposing - perhaps due to its 5 ft elevation from the ground) shipping container. Quite simply, the latest cross-genre minimalist-installation-sculpture by Polish artist Miraslaw Balka is designed to fit into its surrounding seamlessly and craftily.

However, walking up the ramp that leads into the dark abyss is simply magical. Greeted with your own fears, the moment when you reach out in front of you to mind your step - only to find that you can't see your hands in front of your face - is the moment that you understand the darkness in Balka's How It Is.

Mesmerising and poignant, the exciting venture into the unknown makes you appreciate what you can see in your life, and what there is to be unseen. This being said, the installation is not about blindness, but perhaps taking from granted everything you understand to be rational and explanatory in your own life. Furthermore, it is only when you are placed in an environment where everyone is blind, that you can bump into a complete stranger and share a special moment of apologetic sympathy and do nothing but laugh and move on. An experience shared.

The Truth About You

For a special person.

The Truth About You

She looks when you’re not looking
And she talks when you’re not there
She whispers in a silent ear
And all she writes is LOL

She’s got that way of telling you
The way she never feels
But when you go and hold her hand
You know it must be real.

‘Cause it’s the way she never tells you
It’s the way you never knew
It’s the truth behind the touches
It’s the fact that I know you.

It’s a truth its not suspicion
It’s a fact its not just talk
And I never thought I’d feel this
‘till the day that I met you.

You think they’ll never know you
Like I never knew you too,
But now that I have met you,
All I think about is you.


22:46, 7th March 2010.

Soon to be a song

Purple Haze / Midnight Lust

Purple Haze / Midnight Lust

Stare at the peacock
Feather in the dust
-A purple haze of starlight,
A shuddering of lust.

Stargazers, feather-blowers,
Pillows from a dove.
Held your hand for evermore
I think this must be love.

7th March 2010, 2:05am

China Day 4 - Banpo Village and Big Wild Goose Pagoda

After flying from Nanjing to Xi'an, the tired had started to set in.

Our first morning in Xi'an was spent skeptically exploring the excavations of Banpo Village: a supposed Neolithic village found buried and lost for years - excavated in 1950's. Some parts were a bit too good to be true. Also, it was hard to image the Neolithic settlers building their houses with bricks, as we saw in some of the pits. But, nevertheless, the snow had made the trees and rocks that surrounded the museum tranquil enough to give me time to relax and paint in the cold, although as usual any painting was rushed and scrappy.

That afternoon we visited Big Wild Goose Pagoda. Legend has it that monks once prayed for Buddha to bring them meat to eat and a wounded goose fell to the ground. So, naturally, they buried it, built a massive temple on top of it and the Chinese Buddhists have been vegetarian ever since.

However far fetched that seems, or rather however wrong I got the legend (don't hold me to this!) - the pagoda was awesome. Like a stack of boxes - each as mysterious as Pandora's - the pagoda towers above and pierces the snowy peaks of the goose-down clouds. At the entrance to the pagoda a gleaming golden Buddha flickers in the light of the fire-trough that lays in front of the entrance. Tourists and pilgrims alike light 4ft incense sticks and touch their fiery tips to crimson bees wax candles, filling the frosty air with the smoke that seems to follow me from temple to temple around my tour of China.

(PHOTOS TO COME)

China Day 3 - Nanjing

The highlight of day 3 (because I can't remember everything I did, was trekking the 392 steps to Dr Yat Sun's memorial, built high into the mountains (how convenient).

Here I had many firsts.
1: first mountain I have climbed.
2: first experience of the Chinese always looking unashamedly over your shoulder whilst your sketching
3: my first taste of warm Red Bull (from a boiling pot) - it's really good
and 4: my first taste of coffee and almond Dove a.k.a Galaxy. Which was almost as good.

China Day Two - Suzhou

Sketches from the canal boat

After a busy morning exploring China's most prominent Silk Factory and the beautiful gardens of Suzhou, we clambered off dry-land and sank into a frightfully low boat on Suzhou's intricate canal system that rivals western Venice. With a notably illiterate conductor attempting to flog us postcards the entire journey, we peered through the cloudy windows - the air outside making our eyes stream with its bitter coldness if we attempted to slide the windows open.

Along the journey a jumble of new and old buildings slid past our eager eyes. We slipped under low bridges made famous by the silver screen and finally docked at a stone platform littered with drying ginger. Needless to say, the rich aroma that arose was a precursor for the fragrant mix that spiked the air as we dodged the bikes (almost 9 million) that rode precariously down the narrow alleys - each corner revealing exciting dishes steaming heavily from doorways.

All along the way figurines and postcards were thrusted into our hands, with a member of my party famously being chased down the entire street and onto the coach by a fan-and-silk-handkerchief-wielding woman.

It is in Suzhou that I learnt my most valuable phrase: Bu Yao - I don't need it thank you