Since it's Saturday, I had the rest of the day to explore. What to do? Yesterday, I had seen signs for the Shanghai Mart Art Fair while on my way home from the health exam. The fair ends on Sunday so I thought that today would be a good time to go. I didn't know where it was located b/c i had seen it on my long taxi ride back to the office. I was so good, looked the event up on the internet and figured out how to take the subway there...only 3 subway lines. Getting to the right stop was easy but as soon as i got to the street level i realized i had made one BIG mistake. I have written the subway stop name but totally spaced on writing the address of the event. Dumb me. So i decided to walk until i found it. I walked up the street a ways, around some blocks, down the other direction from the subway stop, more blocks south, a few blocks east and still no sign of this art fair. To the right, this is a pic me really frustrated but still not willing to give up just yet. I asked several ppl if they spoke English and if they could help me with directions but none of them knew of this place i was trying to get to. So, i walk some more. I hailed a couple of cabs but none of them spoke any English so i could explain where in needed to go. Then i got a text from Donald, he'd just gotten in to Bend for the weekend...maybe he could look up the address for me and text it back my way.While waiting to hear from him, i attempted to hail one more taxi to see if i could finally get on that spoke English. I didn't get a cabbie with English skills but instead got a smart one that signaled for me to get in the car and he made a phone call to the taxi helpline (a number that you can call, explain where you are going and the phone operator translates it for the cabbie. Keep in mind that i still didn't have an address b/c I hadn't heard back from Donald yet. I told the operator where I was headed to and this guy could not find it anywhere in Shanghai. He told me there wasn't a venue called the Shanghai Mart. About to give up and get out of the cab, i got the saving text message from Donald with the address that I was looking for. I gave it to the operator and he translated it to my new cabbie friend. Donald, you are so good to me, thanks for the help!! After about 1 1/2 hrs of wandering aimlessly, i got to the art fair. Totally worth the trouble. The fair was originally started as a way to increase the awareness of Shanghai based artists but has since added works from around the world. Here are some pic of art that I enjoyed today.
Shape of Life - Cube ($7000)
My Favorite of the show- Artist: Han Juliang, Motive Power: Advanced
This just makes me giggle
Andy Pants, this painting made me think of you
This one is for you, Heather. Mixed media, made of paint sample chips
Only $12,000 USD
Faith, do you think this squirrel is cute?
On the way home, i decided to go buy a camera. I will soon have to give back the loaner i-phone back to Columbia and would need a way to document my experience in Shanghai. I found the highly recommended photograghy shop and managed to bargain with 2 non English speaking sales people, got the camera that I wanted for a fair price. Good thing i got this camera b/c then i had a way to take good night pictures of the GIANT fireworks that were set off just outside my building this evening. What the heck?! I guess China doesn't have laws about setting fireworks off in the middle of cities late at night. It's not like you could hide these from the cops since they were above buildings and it's not like you wouldn't hear them echo for miles... so loud it was startling.
Tomorrow I have to move out of my apartment for a week while maintenance is being done on my unit...
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