China | 15.08.11

Walk in the park

The sculpture Cloudstone was uplifted about 5 this morning while I slept and will be assembled along with the other sculptures in stone, metal and fibre-glass in the northern park. The park has been developed over the past 18 months or so. The sculptors whose work will be cast in bronze have been busy painting the fibre-glass casts of their work to simulate the patination they desire for the finished work. It may take up to 12 months for the works to be cast into bronze so the fibre glass replicas will be substituted in the first instance.

There have been some strange sights as the fibre-glass sculptures have been moved to various parts of the University. The Architecture and Civil Engineering university has over the past month provided a huge amount of space for the sculptors to do their work. No sight has been quite as strange as the 5 metre high Praying Monk created by a Greek artist which I spied roped in a horizontal position at the back of a truck. It reminded me of Gulliver and his adventures with the wee folk of Lilliput.

No artists are permitted to be present during the assembly stage as the organisers feel it is too dangerous for us. The real reason may well be that it would be an almost impossible task to satisfy the specific requirements of the 100 sculptors, each demanding the best possible location for their work, so best keep them at arms length.

A Polish sculptor and performance artist provided some light entertainment this afternoon which transformed the usually chaotic, dusty, noisy work site into a performance stage. Having frightened the life out of a gold fish he proceeded to ensnare people, bikes, sculptures and sundry other objects in what seemed like and endless ribbon of red cloth. Like a magician he produced what appeared to be bottles of Vodka (or was it water) and poured drinks as a reward for many of the appreciative crowd.

We left the work site mid-afternoon and spent some quality time in a nearby park; I chose to meditate by an extremely large lotus pond with the lotus in blossom and the light wind ruffling the lotus leaves. They do parks extremely well from what I have seen in this Provence. What they needed to complete the picture was a first class coffee shop! All in all it was an easy day today ending as it did with a walk in the park.