On Friday, Tae and I went to lunch with our Chinese class, which was really fun. It was a chance to get to know my tongxuemen (classmates), who I see mostly in class, at clubs, or standing by the window having a smoke during class breaks.
Anyway, I don't know any of them especially well, so it was fun to just hang out. I was really jazzed about talking to Sasha - she's a graphic design student from Belarus who will be in Dalian for three years, completing her studies comparing Russian propaganda posters and Chinese propaganda posters. I love graphic design, especially connected to politics and public art, and her work sounds really awesome. Our teacher, Ma Lao Shi, ate with us and it was nice to speak Chinese in a casual setting and not feel the pressure from class.
Then we got on a bus and sat in traffic for a while until we got the city center, where we went to a traditional tea ceremony. It was...boring. Not the tea ceremony, per se, but more the fact that the owners gave us a painfully long lecture on different types of tea. On a dry-erase board. All in Chinese.
After a while, I just tuned out and my thought process went through its usual progression:
1. This reminds me of a cool art installation/video piece/performance art I could do.
2. Come on. If you want to do that kind of stuff, you really need to go to graduate school.
3. Really, though? Who says? Don't I have the same right to make art as anyone else?
4. Boys
5. Sex
6. Food
You definatly don't need grad school to make amazing art! you should start filming instellations in china (But not near government buildings or police officers) that way you have a really good "How I became and artist" to tell at your future exhibitions. Picture it "Well when I was starting off In China..."
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