beijing okay

 

Song Dong's bed frame maze, which spilled into another room

 HOTO, a tremendous pagoda bejeweled with gem-like LED counters

"Ashes to Ashes, Dust to Dust," in the main hall

 Ariel giving me peace signs, eerily

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There is a very good show up at Ullen's that Ariel and I went to see featuring two very accomplished sculptors.

Song Dong is the current Chinese art world darling, and for good reason.  His large scale installations and sculptures made up of broken down Communist-era furniture are just so completely topical.  The unfortunately titled "Wisdom of the Poor" contains carefully arranged flotsam that is so evocative of the traditional Beijing hutong; arranged round bricks of coal, neat piles of spare wood, a carefully leaning piece of discarded furniture, which all lead to a maze like room composed of carefully stacked wooden frame beds.  A vitrine of soap cakes, artfully arranged in colorful, building block patterns, saved and appreciated, is every bit about poverty.

Japanese artist Tatsuo Miyajima had several aggressive LCD light pieces, the most affecting being another poorly titled piece, ("Ashes to Ashes, Dust to Dust") which was a large room simply covered in blinking counting down lights.  As they count down to one, they disappear, but seem to reappear twice elsewhere.  This adds up until a "critical mass" of lights is created, and they suddenly completely shut off plunging the entire room into darkness.  An affecting, spiritual piece.