Zhang Huan

Zhang Huan lived in Beijing for seven years where he completed his MA at the Central Academy of Fine Arts before moving to New York in 1998. Check out his website by clicking on the image above.



Zhang Huan currently has the work Ash Head No.1 in THE REVOLUTION CONTINUES: NEW CHINESE ART at Saatchi.

Ai Wei We

to see more works by Ai Wei We, click on the image above.

To read an article and interview with Ai Wei We by Mary-Anne Toy, click on the image above

X-Blind Spot, Yang Shaobin at the Long March Space

I like to create ‘problematic art’ which questions my personal attitude towards life.....For me, it is meaningful when art poses alternate perspectives to problems experienced in life.

Yang Shaobin

This is a fantastic exhibition and closes on the 18th of October. If you have not seen it yet, it is well worth a visit. The Long March Space, 4 Jiuxianqiao Lu, Chaoyang District, Beijing.

THE REVOLUTION CONTINUES: NEW CHINESE ART @ Saatchi

ELPIDA HADZI-VASILEVA: We Are Shadows

Over the past decade Elpida Hadzi-Vasileva has developed a reputation for producing ambitious and complex works in sculpture and installation. Central to her practice has been a desire to respond to the particularities of a given location, be it in terms of industry, community or (natural) environment. Hadzi-Vasileva’s compulsion for responding to location has enabled her to produce a staggeringly varied body of work incorporating sculpture, video installations, photography and architectural interventions that require a significant level of industry and resourcefulness.

Coming to a gallery near you in Beijing

doART. 261 Caochangdi, Airport Service Rd. Chaoyang District.

Young-hae Chang Heavy Industries

more drawings from day four

The next exercise was to reflect on what had been learnt from the weeks activities and demonstrate this through a drawing. Students were reminded of the key points covered in all the sessions and asked to choose their own subject. The subject should allow them to develop a drawing that explores their interests in the ideas, images and mark-making that came out through the project. The resulting drawings make clear the distance travelled this week. The vast majority of students automatically tackled some very abstract works that were both focussed and clearly intentional.

Drawing, day four

This is the last drawing class of the week. Following on from the previous sessions exploration of contact points, the session kicked off with the idea of exploring the absence of contact. Students were given an A4 sheet of paper and asked to do a representational drawing of an animal, bird, fish. However, this drawing must be done when you are in the air. No contact with the ground. This process produced some fantastic marks that demonstrate a struggle to control the media and bring form to the image. Click on the first image to see more images of the process.



Follow the link by clicking on the dog image to see a sample of some of the drawings that came out of this exercise. Unfortunately it is only a selection of the drawing just now, my camera powered down before I managed to get them all.

Drawing. Day three.

Today we introduced another element into the equation. The previous days were very much about an individual relationship with gravity. Today we introduced the 'other'. Students were asked to pair up and explore a pose that demonstrates a dependancy on the other to remain in equilibrium with gravity. The task was to draw an understanding of both contacts with the physical word, the ground and the other. Each pair of students would work on a large piece of paper placed side by side and draw their individual responses. This, in a way that the viewer would be able to recognise that there were two senses of self here at play here, held in a complex physical relationship.



Some very interesting things happened during this workshops. Some pairs of students used the pose to first of all restrain each other from drawing. This became a titanic struggle to put charcoal on paper, leaving something of the history of this effort in the marks left behind. A fantastic visual starting point to bring form too. I think the complexity of this workshop is very evident in the drawings. Check it out for yourself by clicking on either of the images.

English Class at CAFA

The joint course is taught in English. Students spend their mornings working on developing their language skills. The first session is an ESL class which deals purely with supporting everyone to get up to speed with English and prepares them of their IELTS exam. The second class in done in the studio, surrounded by the work from the previous days workshop. This class focusses on comprehension in relation to the specific language and terminology used in studio practice, particularly that used in the previous days workshop. This offers the opportunity to reflect on what has been learnt and to develops skills and confidence in articulating thoughts on abstract subjects.

Cai Guo-Qiang

Footprints of History: Fireworks Project for the Opening Ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, China 2008



Black Rainbow: Explosion Project for Edinburgh, UK. 2005

More thought on our second day of drawing

Todays workshop went very well. The task was to do two drawings side by side, one describing the point of contact with the ground after a jump and the other, a more extended contact (larger body surface contact and longer time) with the ground through just lying down. The students tackled this through the physical experience of both jumping and lying down. So there was a lot of jumping and a lot of lying down, all in the interest of trying to get closer to visualising what our relationship is to gravity. A hard impact relationship and a soft, more comfortable one. Click on the image to see more examples of the drawings.

Day two of the drawing project

Today we are exploring points of contact with the ground again. We are going to find a way of making visible the moment of contact when you land on the ground after a jump. As a contrast, we are going to draw the contact with the ground that occurs when lying down.

Day one of the drawing project

Well, did we manage to answer any of those very difficult questions we were asking. Maybe not yet, but we have come some ways along the road. A lot of very good drawings were produced today in response to the workshop. We do know however, that it is very tough to make the invisible visible on the first day of a project. Click on the image to see how close we got.

An introduction to Drawing- Making the invisible visible

For this project we are going to take a phenomenological approach to drawing. Phenomenologists tend to believe that objects in the natural and cultural worlds can be made evident and thus known. This project is going to look at how we can use drawing to communicate something of this through exploring and drawing our body’s relationship with gravity and space.

The questions we will ask are:

• Can we develop a mark making methodology that allows us to explore and communicate visually something of our physical existence without using the image of the body?

• Is it possible to draw what our relationship is to gravity/space and what it feels like?

• Can we make the invisible visible?

• Can we share an understanding of this abstract visualisation. 

Welcome

Welcome to the start of the new academic year of the CAFA-GSA joint course, located on the campus of the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing. This course is an exciting new collaborative project between the Central Academy of Fine Arts, China and The Glasgow School of Art, Scotland, UK.

This blog will act as a hub for information generated by the students and staff in relation to studio work and research. We hope you will find this blog useful and visit regularly to see how the course develops over the coming year.