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Art
Monday, 15 March 2010 05:03 Written by Urbanatomy Enter the surreal fantasy world of Propellor Girl Taking his inspiration from the Victorian stories of his childhood, Shanghai-based photoartist Mick Ryan has conjured up a dreamlike fantasy world that is as strange as it is beguiling. The photo series, on display this month at Don Gallery as part of Ryan’s solo exhibition of B&W prints, features the devilish Professor De Wolfe, the witch queen Corvus, the world-crossing Uncle Gunnysacks and Propeller Girl, played by the artist’s own daughter, 10-year-old Ling Li.
        1/8     The influences behind Propeller Girl and Other Tales stem mostly from Ryan’s childhood, particularly the illustrated editions of Alice in Wonderland and other traditional Victorian stories. “I wanted to encompass the charm, but also the surrealism of Victorian anthropomorphic literature and art,” says Ryan. “Rather than quaint and cute, those stories were frequently surreal and dark. Images from traditional fairy tales from the likes of the Brothers Grimm had an elemental spookiness that is hard to explain. They often had many layers of meaning and were meant to scare children for all the right reasons, not like today’s stories that are all sanitized and child-friendly.” Ryan, who was awarded the prestigious Photographer of the Year prize in November by UK magazine Black & White Photography, also says he wanted a timeless look to the photos. “I didn’t want anyone to look back 10 years from now and think ‘That's so late 90s,’ so I also stayed away from any contemporary ideas and Photoshop trickery.” The Propeller Girl project started as an online photo series about three years ago, and Ryan will launch a 120-page hardbound book of the series to coincide with the exhibition. March 6 - April 11 (Opening reception: 4-7pm, March 6), Don Gallery, www.propellorgirl.com Add comment (0)
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Why I Write
Sunday, 14 March 2010 03:03 Written by JFK Miller In 1946, George Orwell wrote an essay entitled Why I Write detailing the forces which compelled him to put pen to paper. In this, our continuing Web series, we talk to China authors about their literary habits and reading preferences, and examine Orwell's question which lies at the heart of being an author – why they write Henning Mankell is a renowned Swedish crime writer, best known for his Inspector Kurt Wallander series of mystery novels. His latest book is The Man from Beijing. He is married to Eva Bergman, daughter of Ingmar Bergman.
Art
Saturday, 13 March 2010 11:03 Written by Emma Chi Our new series looks at the people who run Shanghai's art market - the curators. Our third curator in the series is 36-year-old Ni Feiqing (Michelle Ni) of FQ Projects which she opened in 2008 in a lane house off Huaihai Zhong Lu 
Literary Festival
Friday, 12 March 2010 01:03 Written by Urbanatomy Q&A with Rachel Kushner, an American National Book Award finalist. Kushner will be speaking at Lit Fest Saturday at 4 pm at Crystal Room, 7/F. Foreigners living in exotic climes, rich enough to lord it over the natives, ignoring the inequality around them and making plenty of money, until one day it all suddenly ends.  Sound like a snapshot from the last century of anywhere you know? But in LA-based art writer Rachel Kushner’s first novel, Telex From Cuba, we’re talking gringos, not laowai.An avowedly political novel, seen mostly through the eyes of two young girls, it’s about the end of an era in Cuba, and all the more timely with another era apparently on the verge of ending in America’s bete noire nation. Why did a story about revolutionary 50s Cuba need to be told?  Necessity is a tough thing to argue for, in the realm of literature. I can’t say it needed to be told, only that it hadn’t yet been told, at least not the story of the Americans who lived there, and the more I dug in the more I realized what a fun and complex challenge it would be for me to recreate a lost world, and to unravel some of the strings that implicated the Americans, in terms of their relationship to Batista’s government, which partly led to their own ejection from the place. And why did you personally feel the need to tell it? My grandparents had lived in one of the two American colonies that figure in the novel, so I had direct access to a lot of ‘material.’ I was looking at Life Magazine photos of my grandfather’s colleagues at the nickel plant where he was a manager. They’d been kidnapped by Raul Castro, and were slopping out of hammocks and puffing on cigars, playing fast-draw with loaded guns the Cuban rebels gave them, and it seemed surreal and funny and to have its own gravity, I thought, the situation of their kidnapping. Why choose this subject matter for a first novel? I didn’t want to write a semi-autobiographical something or other. I’m not saying there is anything wrong with it—it’s quite natural, and has been done beautifully over and over. It just was not my instinct. I reveled, actually, in this long (six year) vacation from the self, in terms of the place I went daily, to weave story. And in any case maybe my own process of locating the self is by traveling through other territories, ideas, notions, concepts, places. I’m not familiar with this specific expression “difficult second album” but I like its ambiguity: ‘difficult’ in the realm of aesthetics can mean more challenging and less mainstream, more interesting and maybe terrific but less popular, etc. That seems like an ok place to go, frankly. In fact I should be so lucky. The first novel is one’s only moment, in a way, to become, to prove herself and have a place in the publishing world. Once the writer has successfully done that, shouldn’t it free her up to take risks?
Art
Wednesday, 10 March 2010 09:03 Written by Urbanatomy Shanghai artist Maleonn's (Chinese: Ma Liang) White on White is at 18 Gallery this month. Maleonn hunted through flea markets for photos, ID pictures and personal letters - relics of other peoples' lives - for his installation. The name, White on White, references old photographs fading to white - the literal loss of memory.  "Those people in the old photos were forgotten by their relatives, so they were thrown away. It's very sad." Maleonn said. Some of the photos are displayed in operation plates - the kind surgeons use for organs when they cut them out of a human body. A sense of loneliness presides over the exhibit. The somber installation contrasts its creator's cheerful demeanor. "Theme and content are very important for me. I always hope my photography is like a poem, composed of several simple words, but showing extensive intent," he said. Maleonn has been studying fine art for more than a decade. He spent eight years working in film. And has been focused on making his own art since 2004. White on White will be at 18 Gallery from now until April 1. 18Gallery (at Bund 18)4/F, 18 Zhongshan Dong Yi Lu, by Nanjing Dong Lu (6323 7066) 中山东一路18号4楼，近南京东路 www.bund18.com |
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