A Day Off

Rob and I took a personal day on Thursday. The primary reason was to fully participate in middle and high school conferences. We had a chance to sit with Stuart and see some of his work and we also visited with each of Connor's teachers. Usually we try to fit this all in between teaching and breaks, but we decided it's much more enjoyable when you feel like you have time.

After the conferences we decided to go to the Museum of Modern Art. There is an exhibit there by Cai Guo-Qiang. This man is the one who created the firework display for the Beijing Olympics. His medium for art is gunpowder.

This is in front of the museum. Each of these rocks has been shipped over from Quanzhou, the artist's home town. They are inscribed with verses from the Koran - the same verses that are found on many tombstones in Quanzhou. Apparently there is a large Muslim population there.

We saw videos of how he does his artwork. He lays stencils on paper, then sprinkles the gunpowder on, puts a piece of weighted cardboard on top and then lights the gunpowder. This leaves black ash on the paper.

In the mindset of 'modern art' this was just one of those weird ones. There are hawks and a baby camel - are the hawks helping or hurting the camel is the idea.

After the museum we went out for a nice lunch at the Pearl. This spot has a lovely promenade and high end shops.