Travels In Qinghai Province
We are leaving town early, on the advice of the driver who is anxious the road ahead may be bad. It is a beautiful morning, the sun just creeping over the valley walls. We boiled water and milk, ate bland fried bread, and left the hotel smoothly. The shops haven’t opened yet, though the street […]
The Qinghai Quanxi – Travelling In China
It is one of the real joys of traveling, when one finds ones self in a string of friends, families, contacts and compadres! This is guanxi. It makes all the difference. I had a pretty stressful departure from Beijing, where I timed my airport arrival to perfection, to find that I had got the wrong […]
The Artists And Artisans of Beijing
One of the key pleasures and insights of staying with my friend Simon in Beijing was being able to get a chance to meet a few of the big name contemporary artists he deals with on a regular basis. His many years of experience and totally immersed language and cultural skills have put him right […]
Writing In Taxis In Beijing
Beijing is massive, as you might expect. The centre of the vortex in many respects …and on many levels. The capital city of the words biggest population and the soon to be, (if not already), the worlds most powerful global empire could not be anything but what this is. A labyrinth of human activity on […]
There Is Only One Party In China
Flying through the smog at 160 km/h on the train to Beijing… The enslaved landscape is a green blur, interspersed with cityscapes of apocalyptic proportions. Concrete factories, cooling towers, apartment block construction and destruction all flashing by in the murk. Yet there is hope, a landscape of wooded hillocks with a forest of the biggest […]
Video: Preparing For The Burn!
Aragorn and the team filling The Great Fire Ball Sculpture of China with wood in preparation for the 13th August Full Moon burn!
Video: Hammering Inside The Fire Ball
Aragorn’s first video of the Great Fire Ball of China
Update On The Day to Day
The sculpture projects continue at a relentless pace. More and more of the artists have finished their bronze pieces. When I say finished, it means they have been cast in fiberglass and painted to look like bronze work. These sculptures will be displayed at the final ceremony and later taken to the foundry to be […]
Interview by Virgin Islands News Online
I was recently interviewed by Virgin Islands News Online (VINO). Below are the answers I gave. To review the full published online click on VINO Questions: 1. Is this the first time you have been asked to build a fireball overseas? Maybe give a summary if there were others? No, this is not the first […]
Visits To The Changchun Parks
Changchun is famed for it’s parks. Being pretty much a totally post World War 2 city, the concept of the garden city was obviously part of the equation. Generous allowance for parks, lakes and open air recreational civic space was factored in to the plan. Great, you might think, fresh air…..well forget that bit, but […]