http://philtinari.com my site Wed, 18 Aug 2010 03:55:41 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Dear Diary, Going back isn't quite what it used to be. I alluded to this in the letter that introduces the new issue of our magazine, but there was a time when for reasons of either age or geopolitics or a different information culture or all of the above I ... http://philtinari.com/2010/08/super-short-new-york-visit/ [caption id="attachment_208" align="aligncenter" width="520" caption="Cover, LEAP 1, February 2010. Shown: Huang Yong Ping, Sand Bank/Bank of Sand, 2000."][/caption] In light of Evan Osnos's link earlier today, I'm going to quickly post something to counter LEAP's lame slowness in getting a website up and running. This is the editorial statement (call ... http://philtinari.com/2010/05/manifesto/ [caption id="attachment_202" align="aligncenter" width="500" caption="Cai Guo-Qiang, Du Wenda’s Flying Saucer D on top of the Rockbund Art Museum, 2010. Photo by Lin Yi, courtesy Cai Studio"][/caption] Of course one sometimes does thought experiments that involve substituting Beijing for New York or London. They've become harder in recent years, but I still ... http://philtinari.com/2010/05/theleap/ On our cover this month you’ll see an image that might not make sense at first. From a corner, our photographer—Shanghai artist Song Tao—captures the workshop in which sculptor Zhan Wang’s stainless steel scholar’s rocks come to life. Under his direction, a team of highly skilled workers bring the unlikely ... http://philtinari.com/2010/04/leap-2-editorial-statement-ways-of-making/ So the non-controversy of the CCTV-as-genitalia Chinese web meme seems to have died down, as these things generally do after three days. Still I feel there are some interesting things to point out about the whole non-incident. First and foremost, the time lag is just utterly remarkable. The basic mimetic ... http://philtinari.com/2009/08/postscript/ [caption id="attachment_181" align="alignleft" width="499" caption="Wang Xingwei, Untitled (Hostess and Luggage), 2001. Oil on canvas, 200 x 200 cm."][/caption] After a week of slow connections in Shanghai, I finally saw the first of the new season last night, 5 1/2 days late if you include the time difference. Though I haven't read ... http://philtinari.com/2009/08/182/ The fatman came to our seminar. Since the two things he professes to hate the most (besides the thing he hates the most) are Shanghai and the academy, I didn't think he'd make it, and that was even before what happened last week in Chengdu. I didn't believe he'd come ... http://philtinari.com/2009/08/fatman-returns/ [caption id="attachment_169" align="alignleft" width="337" caption="Yang Fudong, The First Intellectual, 2000."][/caption] I spent last week in Shanghai for the first half of a theory workshop convened by a humanities center from the University of California system. The theme is "Designing China," and the speakers are a lot of the people whose names ... http://philtinari.com/2009/08/shanghai-postmodern/ As this seems to have become an even more regulated and regular subset of the cultural tourist itinerary than the 798 gallery prance, I think it's time someone set out some standards to insure that every curious foreigner comes away with a similar understanding of Shanghai past and present. Below, ... http://philtinari.com/2009/08/how-to-give-a-french-concession-walking-tour/ [caption id="attachment_131" align="alignleft" width="500" caption="Coastal City Mall, 2008, Shenzhen."][/caption] Yesterday was one of those magical Pearl River Delta days where the exigencies Koolhaas started proselytizing about a decade ago seemed to resonate even truer than I always imagine they must have at, say, the GSAPP or Documenta X. That old maxim ... http://philtinari.com/2009/08/shenzhen-state-of-mind/