Chinese art at the Ashmolean Museum

On Friday, I went to Oxford for the first time, spending some time at the Ashmolean Museum. The Museum's vast collection of objects is shown off wonderfully by the new extension to the building which brings light, brightness and freshness into the Museum's space. It also has some lovely undulating staircases.

Museums are usually vast: vast spaces - so many objects, so much to see, explore, learn. I'm always drawn to small, discrete spaces. At the Ashmolean, my favourite gallery was the Khoan and Michael Sullivan Gallery of Chinese Paintings, a lovely wood-lined, split level gallery showing Chinese painting and art through time and artefacts relating to painting, calligraphy and illustration.

The first 'painting' I saw wasn't actually a painting, but a papercut by Bovey Lee. I love the delicacy, intricacy and sheer attention to detail in these papercuts.

The calligraphy and implements on display were equally beautiful, fascinating and ornate. Imagine all the images made by these tools through time. All the images below come from the Ashmolean's online collections website Eastern Art Online.

Porcelain brush rest

This Chinese porcelain brush rest (something I never knew existed, but a very handy invention) dates from either the 2nd half of the 16th century or the first half of the 17th century.

Brass seal

This seal stamps calligraphy design, and dates from 1749.

Calligraphy

And this calligraphy, while pretty recent (dating from 1990), tells the story of artisan Wang Xianzhi's response to his new-found fame.

Look at all the Ashmolean's calligraphy objects.

7 Brilliant Shanghai World Expo 2010 pavilions

I think World Expos are rather fascinating - a great big gathering of nations all showing their countries to the world. It's a great big geography funfair! It's Eurovision for architects! (thanks Mr Clapham Omnibus) Ergo, it must be amazing.

Later this year, the 2010 World Expo is being held in Shanghai - with some amazing pavilions being built to showcase individual nation's landscapes and cultural outputs. Here are some of my favourites.

The Russian pavilion has 12 towers with white, red and gold designs inspired by traditional Russian womens' costumes. How very babushka.

The Israeli pavilion has two forms clasping on to each other - one modern, futuristic, constructed and one traditional, vintage, natural.

 The Swiss pavilion is a technological masterpiece with an interactive LED facade and electronic outline of the country's pictogram. But my favourite part is the chair lift on the rooftop.

The British pavilion is a striking piece of sculpture by artist Thomas Heatherwick. It's very striking and dramatic.

The Finnish pavilion looks modern, sleek and very Finnish minimalist cool. It's named kirnu - a giant's kettle - and its surface will resemble fish scales.

The pavilion for the United Arab Emirates is shaped like a sand dune.

The Polish pavilion has a designed inspired by Wycinanki, the Polish traditional folk art paper cut-outs.

To see just one of these buildings would be amazing, so all of them plus many more all on one site must truly a marvel to behold.

(All images come from designboom - click on them to see full postings of the pavilions)

Photographs of Chongqing, China

With the Olympics now over, China is slowly fading away from our sights.

Many cultural institutions held China-themed events over the summer (e.g. where I work) but these are coming to a close. I went to see what may be the last of these - City of Ambition, Ferit Kuyas's amazing photographs of Chongqing (at Photofusion).

Appropriately, the images are shrouded in haze - it's unclear whether this is early morning mist or pollution. Massive, ambitious constructions and buildings can be seen, but only their structures and only from a distance. Up-close detail is obscured.



With China supposedly revealing itself through the Olympics, this theme is interesting.

The landscapes are desolate, empty, almost eeries. For the most populated country in the world, there's a surprising absence of people in the photographs. In one image, however, a prominent person: a security guard standing to attention.

Chinese construction sites

Zhou Jun's photography (on display at Mayfair gallery RossiRossi until August 29) shows the massive construction happening in China.

The black and white photographs show landmarks such as the new Olympics Bird's Nest Stadium, the Forbidden city and CCTV tower.

Swathes of red streak through the photos too - highlighting scaffolding or barriers or coverings. Red is a Chinese colour, not only suggesting communism, revolution and power, but also celebration and occasion.

The red lifts the photographs beyond a mere record of construction, giving an idea of how politically, culturally and socially important these landmarks are.