Year of the Rat
Out with the old, in with the new. I've been simultaneously playing catch up while trying to relax. Sorting through the detritus of 2007. Evidently, it's the year of the rat and this is my year. I've risen from winter hibernation and now that the new year has begun (by this I mean Tet, or Lunar New Year since I've already reneged my Gregorian calendar New Year's resolutions), I'm back to blogging after two months.
Saigon 2008 has been busy with visitors and conversation including Russel Storer, now with the Queensland Art Gallery; Joselina Cruz of the Singapore Biennale, Joyce Fan with the Singapore Art Museum and most recently curator and critic Jang-un Kim.
I participated in a panel discussion, Living the Local, at Galerie Quynh in January. It has in many ways changed my attitude toward art production in this city. The event was organized by curator Zoe Butt during her Asialink residency and she has since returned to The Long March Foundation in Beijing. Fantastic conversations, all of them.
Writing and Writhing
There's been a concerted effort to stick to meeting deadlines, often only by the skin of our teeth. I recently finished a performance art proposal that if accepted, will allow me to return to the United States for the first time in four years. I may return home to find my mother has adopted another child to replace me. Hiroko Kikuchi and I have developed a performance work, that strangely seemed effortless and completely in line with our recent individual work despite not having met in nearly 5 years. This evening, CET and I finished an installation art proposal.
I've committed to writing two papers and one article for 2008 for different organizations. One for the Singapore Art Museum and the other for the Mekong Project Journal.
Lifelong Learning
I've decided that I will spend much of 2008 trying to learn new things. Like the things that fall under the category "before I die". So, I've bought a guitar and started a garden. Now how's THAT for productivity! A bunch of us have decided to pool our knowledge in group tutorials. Tammy Nguyen has volunteered to kick start the learning with a day of mixing pigment to create homemade gouache and oils. We're even going to make egg tempera! Yummm.
I'm also continuing my double life as a university lecturer and to keep the new new, I've made a completely new course reader for my class, updated with contemporary design and art texts. I'm actually proud of that.
CET has been painting and shaping up her art travels. We spent last night experimenting on how to make traditional Burmese architectural models out of the left overs from packaging styrofoam. We now have a temple. Tomorrow she has a meeting with the Asian Cultural Council at 8:30 am. It's 4:30 am now. Even with the coming a new year, some bad habits are hard to break.