Sunday I visited the Power Station of Art. The building was originally an industrial power station and was made into an art gallery in 2010. My host, Holly, said it is called the Shanghai MOCA, but the building clearly says Power Station of Art.
This leads me to a point that has been building in my brain all week. It is impossible to fully experience a place if you don't speak the language. For example, I'm sure I would have learned a great deal about Chinese music and culture in general if I could have understood the speaker at Saturday's concert.
So even though I'm here in this beautiful city and seeing the sights and hearing the sounds I'm like an animal or a blind and deaf man who only experiences a tiny part of the whole. I felt the same way at this art exhibit.
The artist is Li Shan, of whom i have never heard, but who is very famous. In 1993 he gave up traditional art and started working with DNA and how it can be manipulated. His work includes images of combined life forms, and also actual manipulation. One of the exhibits was a field of corn growing in a vast array of milk crates. Another was the same with rice. The explanations were only in Chinese so I have no clue what the manipulation was.
The work was beautiful and moving. Sometimes repulsive. Part of the exhibit was pages from Li Shan's notebooks. I really wanted to know what he was saying but I'm illiterate.
So much beauty.
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