On Friday Nov 20^th I arrived in XiYan town in Yu county,  Shanxi for the funeral of Zhang Xiantu. She was the last surviving member of a group of comfort women that sued the Japanese government in 1995. In 2007 a top court in Japan recognized the crime but rejected the compensation claims.

I came to Shanxi because a few weeks earlier in Beijing we had a major contemporary group exhibition which I co curated with Fion Gunn “Intimate Transgressions” dealing with the issue of sexual violence as a weapon of war (click here for previous post). This large group exhibition will continue to visit cities in 2016 within China and Asia before going to Australia and Europe.

One of our artists Gao Yuan had researched the comfort women in Yu county for her photography and video work and we had chosen Gao’s portrait of Zhang Xiantu for the large poster outside Inter gallery in 798. Once I was kindly offered a car ride from Beijing by artist Meng Zifan and Jiang Yuchun there was no question, I was able to go.

There were stone slabs on one alley way which I was told was likely to be 300 years old. And so I couldn’t help thinking that there would have been little change to this impoverished village since the war. On entering the family farm-yard there was a fire burning wood to welcome and offer warmth for visitors, this is where I met with the funeral musicians huddled around the fire.

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Wednesday morning (Aug 26^th 2015) was a special marker of my five years  here in Beijing. Three large Ginkgo works were installed in the entrance that welcomes and directs visitors to the Orthopaedic Nurses station. The three paintings were unveiled by the Ambassador of Ireland to China Paul Kavanagh, Professor Wu Yu-qing President of Huaxin First Affiliated Hospital to Tsinghua University and Professor Daniel Porter head of the Orthopaedic centre.

Click here for the link to the hospital We chat post in Chinese 

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The two artist exhibition “Reciprocal Plane” 同一平面 opened on August 8^th  (the first day of Chinese Autumn) showing work by Shanghai artist Huang A Zhong and myself.

With Xiao Yan Ling and Prof Huang in the orange shirt

Many thanks to CRI China Radio International for this video clip.

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The café, perched above the 798 art district, was empty, giving the sunlight a golden opportunity to shadow wooden tables. The setting seemed apt as across the table from me sat Chen Qingqing, a leading light, in more ways than one, of Chinese contemporary art.

With a major exhibition, “Fantasy Museum” showing at the Yuan Art Museum, her first in three years, Qingqing is relishing the chance to show her work, which focuses on wooden drawer installations, fiber hemp grass garments and light boxes, to a new audience.

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Students at Tsinghua  University  Sculpture workshop. 

Having sat for four sessions this week for clay sculpture class of Prof Pan Yiqun at Tsinghua, it was a good exercise for me to learn to sit still for a change. My friend Pan Yiqun has been a long time participating artist with the annual Irish Wave exhibitions, even before I joined  many years ago.

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Each IRISH WAVE  exhibition is theme based and also interlaced with a poem of WB Yeats as 2015 celebrates his birth 150 years ago. The Beijing shows will be opened by Alan Kelly TD, Irish Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government and the Ambassador of Ireland Paul Kavanagh will also be present.

“They will not hush, the leaves a-flutter round me ”  Oil on canvas, Ginko leaves 110 x160 cm

This post takes a look at some of my work that will be showing in the various shows. The following post will look at the highlights from these group shows once they have been installed over the coming days)

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President Higgins State visit to China.

I have always admired orators, well spoken words can take us out of ourselves, giving a shared experience rather than an isolated one. They are non material and work beyond and outside routine categories and yet can deal with daily experience in a transforming way.(*) The arrival of President Higgins to Beijing embraced and expressed many aspects of culture shared by the two countries.

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Line Image/Luo Ying

I wanted to share a few  new things I have learned about traditional chinese painting after going to see my friend Luo Ying’s exhibition .

Luo Ying is an Irish Wave artist and is currently showing both painting and ceramic work at the historic venue of Prince Kung Mansions.

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There once was an art camp in Hunan, at the foot of the Wuling hills………….

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