For a more relaxing holiday (and to save money as travel this holiday is expensive), I visited friends, Amber and Michael, in Shunde. Our holidays don’t always coincide and I have not seen them in months. We met at brunch and then I traveled to their place in Shunde.
We watched movies, walked around a local village and found great food to eat.
Okay, these are rats. We didn’t eat them but this is some of the original Cantonese food in the area.
I then went to panyu to participate in a bike tour. We started at the Shawan ancient village and visited a local artisan who carves wood.
The side of the house has oysters embedded in the concrete to help with cooling and to deter insects.
From there, we ride on Phoenix bikes reminiscent of old Chinese bikes (but safer). We traveled to Baomo gardens, approximately 16 km.
Another short ride and we ended at an old sugar processing plant that now has art installations and some artists in residence.
A great mini vacation with friends and fresh air visiting ancient towns.
Cycle Canton also had another tour last weekend. Fei Gallery was created when a land developer had to put in a parking space but resented it. So he used half of the space for an art gallery and also a permanent installation. Outside the building a three sided surround was built with windows taken from old Hutong houses torn down from up north. He also collected artifacts to put in the windows. The locals pointed out that in the South they use different household items so he asked them to donate representative items.
I made a quick video walking around. I thought you could see through to the other side but there is indeed a mirror inside the windows.
Looking down from the second floor you can see PVC tubes that allowed you to see to the other side of the window wall where a wet market used to be.
Inside the building is art displays and a cafe.
A diorama made inside of an old TV.
We then cycled through the streets of Dongshankou. This is a very old part of the city with many beautiful buildings of mostly colonial style as foreigners chose to live here and build missionaries and schools.
The Triple Rooster is an art gallery and a cafe. I chose to drink coconut coffee which had large blocks and shavings of fresh coconut in the coffee.
Mao Tse-tung lived up here in the second floor of this building.
The Baptist church is also found here and which is unchanged from when it was built. It also has a balcony inside facing the pulpit for members or a choir. It is still currently in use today.
More images of riding around Dongshankou.
We ended at Kui Yuan gallery that is next door to wherethe Communist party headquarters was founded. There was some great art by Guangzhou artists. The floors are original and show the tile work of the day.
Before we went to see the terracotta warriors, we ate at a restaurant nearby. They had lots of warrior copies. Clarence, the guy who rented us the apartment was our tour guide.
This is used to cut hay for the horses
The Terracotta Warriors in Xi’an, are life-size terra cotta sculptures in battle formations, reproducing the imperial guard troops of Emperor Qin Shi Huang (259 – 210BC), the first emperor of the first unified dynasty of Imperial China. He conquered the 6 warring kingdoms in the east and took them over to unify China. He was a brutal emperor. Each warrior was different and resembles his army.
It was a funerary project started at the time at the age of 13 to protect him in his afterlife. He became emperor at 22 and resigned for 37 years. He ordered the construction of the Great Wall and his 100 km high mausoleum in the mountain.
Found in 1974 by farmers digging a well, it is considered the most important archaeological find of the 20th century. They were discovered many times before but since this area was originally Taoist, many thought that it would be bad luck to dig it up as they thought it was a temple or were afraid something would happen to it. There were too many farmers in 1974 there to keep it quiet and as the cultural revolution had happened there was less chance that it would be destroyed.
All of the warriors have their hair in a bun. This is characteristic of Taoist people.
The figures vary in height depending upon their roles, with the generals being the tallest. Flowing rivers were simulated by using mercury in his tomb. The soils there do show mercury contamination.
Originally the warriors were half under ground and then a roof was put on. They took the forest away to make pits. After they were buried, the erosion of clay over time buried them deeper at 8 meters. 72,000 slaves were used to build this.
Xiang yu created an uprising after he died and broke into the mausoleum. However there are other theories. The weapons, chariots, and roof were made of wood and generally you burn the body and things for the afterlife. Some believe that they were burnt first then buried. The flank guards face out to protect the guards and they were the statues more intact. Theory is that the clay is harder on the outside than the inside and therefore did not collapse over time like other areas. If it had been broken into and destroyed, those flank men would not have stayed in such good condition.
This section is just being excavated. They remove pieces to put together in a different section, then place the warriors back in position when finished.
Imprints of the wood beams in the clay. Chariots were made of wood and not survived. Warrior with hands holding in front are holding weapons.
The vanguard is along the front of Pit 1. They are the archers. Others are holding spears. Those that have the armor is the infantry.
Those facing it were flankmen to watch the sides.
This cutout area is where coffins were buried long before 1974. Heads are missing around where the coffins were. When they dug, they would cause damage to the warriors. Back then when they found a piece they thought it was from a temple because of Taoist past beliefs. They did not mention what they found.
Coffin inside still in this one part. The wood is gone, but the bones remain.
All the warriors were broken this way and then restored.
Area of restoration as they search for pieces. All of the warriors are numbered by GPS.
Each warrior is 150 to 300 kg.
Remains of the burnt wooden ceiling from 2200 years ago. But maybe burnt as Taoist burial first then buried.
Imprint of wheel from a chariot though the wooden wheel is long gone.
Print of crossbow.
Horses.
Workers scanning pieces.
Pit 3 was found in 1976. This is the original ground level. The picture below shows how they were found at the beginning.
Bodyguards of the emperor.
4 horses with 4 people for a chariot. They used colors and sounds (drum, gong) to tell movements like retreat and direction to move.
The ramp at the bottom left was used to bring the warriors in by chariot. There were 11 entrances.You can see the grooves from the chariot at the bottom of this area.
Given the area, it would have been better to bury so if these in a cave. It would make sense why they would create a wood city as there is a burning ritual for burial.
This tomb is from the Han dynasty. Holes in the chat were created with an auger to determine the she and whether there were warriors present.
Kneeling Archer was one if the most interact pieces. It was preserved better as since it was lower to the ground there were less forces from the top.
Officer.
The representation if the horse show they had saddles back then but not stirrups. This was an archer.
To small bronze chariots were found and signify the carrying of soul back to palace. This was found on the other side of the tomb and they face westward as the sun sets to the west.
Xi’an had been the capital of many dynasties as this was the seat of power after this first emperor reigned.
We traveled 5 hours to get to Dunhuang from Zhangye. Dunhuang is a city oasis which just pops out of the Gobi desert sand.
The next morning we took a short trip to the Modao Caves. I am glad to have been okay if a tour as the number of types of tickets are restricted. Mogao means high up in the desert.
According to Tang Dynasty (618 – 907) records, a wandering monk in 366 AD had witnessed a vision of thousand Buddhas under showers of golden rays. Inspired, he started the caves construction work that spanned ten dynasties. Mogao Caves are also known as the Caves of a Thousand Buddhas.
This is the largest treasure of Buddhist art in the world. The earlier caves are more of the Indian style of Buddhist depiction with more Chinese style in later works. Each dynasty can be distinguished by the colors and cultural depictions in the paintings. It also have a glimpse of culture, politics, religion, and the arts. There are 492 caves from the 4th to the 14th centuries. They were actually forgotten for 500 years with some vandalism. Only 20 of the caves can be visited. No pictures are allowed and groups can only enter certain caves as long as temperature and humidity are stable there.
Caves 23 of the Tang dynasty show workers in the fields.
The unique artistic style of Dunhuang art is not only a blend of Han Chinese artistic styles assimilated from ancient Indian and Gandharan customs, but also an integration of the arts of the Turks, ancient Tibetans and other Chinese ethnic minorities.
The discovery of the Library Cave at the Mogao Caves in 1990, together with the tens of thousands of manuscripts and relics it contained, has been acclaimed as the world’s greatest discovery of ancient Oriental culture. This significant heritage provides invaluable reference for studying the complex history of ancient China and Central Asia.
It depicts Mount Wutai with a large scale map that depicts daily life. The Grand Buddha sculpture is from the Tang Dynasty which shows elegant architecture.
Caves 16-17 are 3 stories restored in 1906. They found sanskrit manuscripts of medicine, astronomy, and geology. Only 8000 exist in Gansu and Beijing; the rest being taken by explorers to other countries. They were held in cave 16 a non-descript monks cave off of 17, which can be seen here: https://www.e-dunhuang.com/cave/10.0001/0001.0001.0017
Monks living area today are caves with no murals.
Song dynasty preserved the murals on the outside facade of these caves.
In cave 259 you can see architecture from the Wei dynasty. There is an influence from India and gabled ceilings. The sculpture is 5th century. It boasts alot of blue from Afghanistan (Lapis lazuli) and the sculpture is the Pensive bodhisivata.
The 9 stories pagoda was built in the Tang Dynasty but only colors have been restored. The Buddha is 35 m high. It was the 5th largest Buddha in the world but 2 in Afghanistan were bombed by the Taliban so now it is the 3rd largest. It is the future Buddha known as Maitreya. This is the bodhisattva who will appear on Earth in the future, achieve complete enlightenment, and teach the pure dharma.
Paintings found around it were destroyed when the roof collapsed.
All the years that Ryan went to school here, I so had not seen the Warhol. That changed today. I airways need to read about art as I am not wired that way and struggle to understand various art concepts.
I am familiar with some of his works but did not know if his artistic range.
Paint by number as a piece of art and important pop culture.
His perfected blotted line technique.
A gangsters funeral.
Elvis.
Iconic Campbell soup.
Silver pillow clouds where you interact with the art.
Pop culture of the 70’s.
Use of color and images in the background distort the fruit objects.
Mao Tse Tung
I actually lived the Warhol. I rarely read artistic concepts or try to understand the purpose of art.
After a few days with Becca, I am now staying with Ryan and his fiance Ky. We visited the Mattress Factory (http://mattress.org)
This is a series of buildings that are art installations. They are art that takes a while from where the viewer is also part of the art through interactions with it.
Many rounds used mirrors for illusions.
Mirrors around a window changes what you see through the window and an object centered there as well.
Murals on the walls.
There was an exhibition from Greer Lankton who is transgender and an addict. Her art is pretty spot on for gender and other social issues. A very provocative set of works. Many of her pieces have sexual overtones.
Another artist James Terrell had light installations. The first one you were sure it was a projection. But it is empty space with a light installation inside which you see when you try to touch it.
His second light installation is a projection.
There are great views of the city from the balconies.
Like many other museums, even seating weaves art through it.
Other installation pieces used life artifacts and included movie and sound…
Even cleaning a small part of a window to peak through the outside…
In the third house…
Loved this one on evolution…
On the way to the 3rd floor, the stair rail ran water down bringing water from the outside in and using elements of nature.
On the 3rd floor, as you peer through windows your are sissi part of the installation for others looking and interacting…
For this one, I had to walk around for quite some time. First, concrete on the 3rd level is amazing the floor can take the weight.
Second, where you are walking around the bohemoth of the sphere changes what you see. The moon, a rising whale…
I struggle with understanding art but loved looking at the different installations and what the artist envisions.
I’m glad my son was able to take time to take me there.
