Chinese Art For My Love

This afternoon we went to see 798 Art Zone, or Dashanzi Art District, is a part of Dashanzi in the Chaoyang District of Beijing that houses a thriving art community, among 50-year old decommissioned military factory buildings of unique architectural style.  It is often compared with New York's Greenwich Village or SoHo.  Beijing 798 Art Zone gathers of number of celebrities of art and culture, art institutions and enterprises in fashion.  Many important international art exhibitions, art activities, and fashion shows are often held there, which attract many.

One thing I love to do is to see art with my love, Bill.  I thought of him the entire way through wishing he could be here to see it with me.  This post is for him.  Take a look at these Chinese creations.  I hope you enjoy what you see.

This man makes everything out of all sizes of gauged wire. 

This guy was about 9 feet tall. 

This was one of my favorites.  It was huge.

I was thinking this might upset Jenny, but not as much as the packaged chicken foot snack I saw yesterday.  Pictures will follow on another post regarding food here people.

Lots of art featured subjects and commentary about former Chairman Mao and communism.

There were many Chinese paper artists here.

This optical illusion had red lines that shot straight out at you and moved around every time you did.  Plastics.

I can't remember the name of the stone right off the top of my head, but large green chunks of it decorated the inside as you can see.

We saw many works of art that had small designs all over it.  The designs that cover this image of Buddha were small pictures of vacuums, irons, blenders, and other appliances of modern convenience. 

This is a new friend of mine, Lindsey.  She is an art teacher from Birmingham, Alabama.  She is my new friend for life.  All of the teachers we are traveling with have.  They are a cool crew.

Not sure what this is made of.  It reminded me of Legos and a special little man that I will be seeing when I get back. 

 Cactus art was awesome and a favorite of mine.

 Beautifully hand crafted and designed Chinese umbrellas.  You could purchase ones for as little as 180 Yuan - or 30 dollars.

 A lot of statues around the area displayed the same type of characteristics and reminded me of Soviet style monuments and statue art in Kazakhstan.

 Scooters are everywhere in China.  This one had stickers all over it.

 

 Buddhist art is prevalent here.

 Contemporary furniture was on display.  This couch goes for about 12,000 US dollars.  It can be moved in sections we were told.

Loved this collection of old toys.

Graffiti art covered a lot of walls here and was really vibrantly colored.

 This man was painting on the inside of the glass.  It was incredible to watch him.  He was using a very tiny paintbrush with bristles that were bent in an L shape, so when he put the brush inside the bottle the tip of the brush would make contact with bottle face. 

Some of his creations are above.

 The color literally glowed.  All exhibits are in old factory buildings, and there was a good balance of created & natural light that enhanced colors. 

 Love the name of this exhibition.

 Well Nicole Thomas, here you go.  Pug art.

 Scenes around.

Old art.  Not sure what was being done with it.  These were huge.

It is 5 am Beijing time.  The sleeping has been going well, but I wake up at about 4:00 am everyday.  I am feeling good though and hope it lasts.  We are going to see The Great Wall today.