Shanghai art walk

Yesterday, I fell in love with Shanghai. I was leaving the main area of the Moganshan art district and could feel the city begin to open itself up to me.

I got off to a late start. C— slept in and I spent the morning lazing around. The sun was shining brightly through the window, and I could see clear blue skies through her living room windows.

I took the metro to the train station, emerging onto the plaza in front of the main hall. It's smaller than Beijing and less crowded, but still swarming with people entering and leaving the city. Some sat and waited.

I walked across the Suzhou River and then along its embankment until I reached Moganshan road. I ducked into a gallery, walking up the stairs to its cavernous space and began looking at the art mounted on the walls. I enjoyed a series by Pan Xiaoxiao and bought some postcards. As I walked away from one wall, it parted revealing bookshelves full of art books. I asked if I could buy one surveying Chinese artists from the 80s. I was told the books were not for sale, but that there was a bookstore on the ground floor of their building.

I asked for a price list for the works by Pan; they were out of my price range. I chatted with the gallery attendant who also liked her works. She was a Japanese fashion design student who had studied in Paris. Her Mandarin betrayed a slight Japanese accent, but was far better than mine. She told me she was from Kyoto and I told her how much I loved the city. She said I should contact her next time I was to go; she goes home during the May and October vacations. I told her if she were to come to New York she should look me up. She gave me her card and I jotted down my contact info for her.

I toured some more galleries, walking up and down narrow stairwells. Some of the original factory ducts and transformers had been left exposed, and labels had been applied to the glass walls explaining their use. The entire area was well-designed and the transformation felt more organic than what had become of 798, though Moganshan was also much smaller.

In another gallery I watched a video installation by Yang Fudong, the six screens alternating and juxtaposing images of life by the residents of Que city in the barren north of China with that of a pack of wild dogs. The black and white cinematography drew me into their stories.

Leaving the galleries I kept walking down the road, pausing to photograph graffiti that had been drawn onto a retaining wall. Further along, a photographer had posed his models against the backdrop of a large green alien attacking the city. I watched as he worked and then moved on.

I walked south to the Jade Buddha temple. There, people burned incense while monks chanted. Tourists took photos. I wandered through the courtyards and halls and then called my friend. She had just returned to Shanghai and asked what I was doing later. I told her I was having dinner with C— and she asked if I wanted to meet up the following night. I said that was perfect and we agreed to chat later.

Walking further south I ran into the malls surrounding the snack street. Just behind the main facade, there was a large courtyard with a multi-row housing complex. I asked the guard how much rent was in that area, and he told me to ask the building manager. It was late in the afternoon and I didn't want to spend the time.

I had a quick snack at Yang 'sfry dumplings and then continued walking south. I passed the JinJing towers, where my mother and grandmother had stayed six years ago and I remembered our visit to Shanghai with a mixture of happiness and sadness.

At Taikang road, I turned east and then ducked through a narrow entrance to find myself surrounded by boutique shops. The area was still a residential complex, but the locals had rented out all the ground floor apartments to shops and cafes. The sun was setting and lighted shop signs illuminated the narrow passageways. I wandered in and out of a few stores, and quickly surveyed others with the intention of returning another day.

In one, the shopkeeper started up a conversation. She said when I walked in she had first thought I was a westerner until she took a closer look. She said it was my shaved head and overall demeanor that had lead her astray. She asked me where I was from and when she found out my father was from Zhejiang, she told me she was from Hangzhou. She was a reporter who was in Shanghai minding the shop for a schoolmate. She was thinking of moving up here and was using the trip as a way to test the waters.

We talked about art and design in China. She said it was mostly foreigners who liked the designs in her shop and the art at Moganshan. I showed her the book I had bought of 80s artists and the black and white photos contained therein. She said foreigners seemed to like the gritty documentary photographs as well. It made me wonder what contemporary art artists were making for a Chinese audience.

Later that night over drinks C— told me that the art the Chinese buy are still the landscapes depicting mountains and water or calligraphy. We were at People 7, a beautifully designed Taiwanese tucked along a wooded street. I would have missed the entrance if C— hadn't told me where to turn. After walking up a short flight of stairs, nine tubes lit from within and arranged in a 3x3 grid presented themselves to you. C— told me you had to guess which disc to press in order to open the door. It was a mixture of Roman Holiday and Flash Gordon. I had to try them all before we were granted access; one disc opens another door behind which the word "Gotcha" is etched in glass.

We drank red wine suspended beside a courtyard of bamboo. I was surprised that so much space had revealed itself to me behind the narrow entrance. The bar/restaurant was two floors of heavy concrete lightened by a central atrium and floor to ceiling windows along the courtyard side. Above, they gave way to a skylight suggesting a greenhouse. A full moon had emerged from the skyline, plump and golden, and I held the memory of it in my mind as I gazed up at the tops of the bamboo grove.
Posted by eku at October 15, 2008 9:09 PM