Writer Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) once said “I put my talent into my work and my genius into my life”. I packed my bag for Ordos, Inner Mongolia to join a new group of artists for the exhibition Paper. Supreme. ( click here for previous post on this exhibition) Together we travelled and explored grasslands and deserts, making observations and getting to know each other. This post will show the highlight photos of the various tours and visits we made.
Ordos Theatre on the left and the Culture and Art Centre (the blue building) on the right where ‘Paper :Supreme’ exhibition continues till September 28th 2017. After the installation of the exhibition at the Ordos Cultural and Arts Centre we crossed the expansive flower gardens to the huge structures of the Ordos Museum -the brown bulbous sphere and next to it the three tilted books building , the Ordos library.
Later that night a visit to the city fountain and light show showcased entire buildings with LED screens synchronized to carry moving imagery.
The next morning we were out in the wilds, well the wilds of the Ordos prairie grassland resort that is!. Greeted with a cup of Baijiu (which has to be emptied) and the highest symbol of an honorary greeting the sacred blue scarf . Blue is the most scared colour in Mongolian culture representing the eternal blue sky.
With Liu baolin, Wang Nan li and Zheng Yuanwu and others.
Watching the horse performance with Zheng Yuanwu, Wúxiūlíng , Sun Feng , Sun Kan and Zhang Tingqun.
Mongolian Wedding Performance
One of our band of artists, Zhen Yuan Wu was invited to act the role of officiator and delivered a great speech and drank the obligatory cups of baijiu.
Wúxiūlíng says goodbye to grasslands as she ties up her scarf.
The next stop was the Desert resort of Xiangshawan had all kinds of activities such as sky lifts, sand slides, wire sailing, camel riding and of course plenty of playing around.
Li Qiang chats with the camel herdsman
Mr Xièbǎozhōng gave us a tour of his printing factory (Inner Mongolia hand print culture technology co., LTD) where there was a museum.
Three antique printers stood as sentinals below three important figures.
China’s four great inventions are… paper, the compass , gunpowder and print .
Cailun is considered the God of Paper , in 105 AD the emperor officially recognized his method of making paper
Around 5,000 years ago tribal leader Cangjie was inspired by the traces of animal prints and bird claw marks and he is considered a Daoist god of character making.
Bisheng introduced the individual clay print blocks sometime between 1041 -1048 AD. This was much more efficient than the page print saving money material and time as character are used repeatedly. His method only became popular after his death. More recent print units were displayed at the museum.
Another interesting visit was to the Mongolian Origin which is a replication village and an imitation of the Yuan Dadu palace. These places are often used as film sets. My fellow artists had plenty of tapping and touching surfaces guessing how different sections were made and what materials were used.
A big thank you to curator Chang Feng and Mr Xièbǎozhōng for this wonderful trip and to Mr He for facilitating the details. A special thanks to all the artists: Lǐhóngjūn， Wángxiàojīn， Sūn kǎn， Lǐjiāru， Lǐ qiāng, Lǐhóngbō， Zhāngtíngqún, Wángnányí， Liúbǎolín， Wúxiūlíng and Zhèngyuánwú who enriched this particular journey with knowledge and fun making it an unforgettable adventure.
