My blog
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green inspiration
Saturday, Oct 6, 2007 8:46AM / Standard Entry
i was just in bali last week.
the undoubted highlight of the week was spending time with john hardy, the jewelry designer, who recently sold his very sucessful jewelry business, so he could become a full-time eco-preneur.
in the twenty years john has lived in bali, he has trained an artisanal work force of 1000 balinese to make jewelry, for export to such tony retailers as neiman marcus and saks fifth avenue. far from exploiting them, he has taken their traditional skills of artisanal craftsmanship and honed them for a demanding international market. 700 of these craftsman report to work every day at john's compound which is almost entirely green/sustainable and, literally, constructed of only bamboo and natural timbers with only the scantest use of unfriendly man-made components such as concrete or tar. on top of that, the kitchen's fires utilize sawdust, with food cooked in the same stoves as those used by the UN, which require only one stick of kindling to remain fired. the list of examples of green living goes on and on. john is a real doer. not just some slick hypocritical bullshit artist.
but that's the tip of the iceberg: he's now building a large eco-compound on several hectares in ubud, overlooking a river, comprising a school
http://www.kulkulschool.com/
conference center and several residential/hotel cottages, entirely made of bamboo with nary a trace of concrete. or even tar to flatten the connecting roads. it's damn difficult and the the process is one of daily trial and error, because, being a visionary pioneer, he has no one's footsteps to follow. the keystone of the entire thing is BAMBOO and john's belief that the demand for bamboo is set to explode with the interest in and importance of green building. thus, he is now staking his fortune, and, indeed, life on it. (by the way, john needs a CEO for this new business, the complexities of which are too great to outline here. he has asked me to help him recruit someone who is, at bottom, a very good businessperson who preferably has an mba or significant business experience. not a granola-cruncher, but an hbs type in his/her mid-30s. i promised to help him. if you know anyone suitable (and stellar), please let me know through this site and i will be in touch.)
aside from the actual content of his life, i was more deeply affected by the fact that, above and beyond all, JOHN IS A SERIOUS DOER, not just a talker. how many of us can lay a claim to that? i mean, how hard is it to muster the minimum motivation to write your weekly blog entry -- let alone repudiate conventional life to become a dogmatic eco-warrior. so, yeah, wow, even though most consider me a very serious doer, i'm a pallid wannabe in comparison to john.
so, here's to you you, john -- JIA YOU! (i chose that expression, of course, to be as ironic as possible : ) ) many happy returns and may our lives begin to resemble yours - even a little bit.
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gross...but engrossing
Friday, Sep 28, 2007 7:34AM / Standard Entry
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post mortem on shanghai
Friday, Sep 14, 2007 10:28PM / Standard Entry
last week, i went to shanghai to supervise shanghai tang's participation in the opening festivities of the ShContemporary art fair. it all went swimmingly well with our sponsorship of wen hui, a celebrated performing artist from beijing, who staged a fantastic dance piece loosely themed around the Silk Road, during the opening night party. the fair was incredible. curated at the highest level by the legendary pierre huber, who was one of the original founders of art basel, arguably, the most influential art fair in the world. this inaugural show of ShContemporary is the opening salvo in a new era of art appreciation on the mainland, i hope. the best thing was the number of international galleries and visitors in attendance, something completely lacking in hong kong, especially in the art scene. the crowning crazy moment took place at pearl lam's sit down dinner for 250 at her g's club. replete with drag queens, dignitaries, luminaries and, generally, all manner of characters larger than life, it was a moment when the international world let its hair down for at least 2 hours! as for the art, because of huber's demanding curatorial perspective, it was truly world class, with the best of chinese art on show rather than the nakedly exploitative commercialism and mediocrity one sees on, say, hollywood road! i'm not sure whether i'm sad about this at all, but only 2 hk galleries and about 15 mainland galleries were invited to participate, out of 120. it goes to show at what level most art dealers are operating in greater china: in the long run, their unapologetic commercialism will come back to slap them in the face. and rightly so! part of me is absolutely revolted by the bubble gum aesthetic of chinese contemporary art, but part of me is also absolutely fascinated by its open worship of pop culture and easy ideas. after all, chinese art is the looking glass through which to examine the modern chinese psyche, cankered with materialism and ambition in every walk of life. as lorenzo, the founder of ShContemporary said, it's pointless to judge art. it just is. it's a reflection of society more than anything else. i tend to agree with him that it's a waste of angst to feel sad about the passing of art as we knew it. but being an avowed purist and champion of things old fashioned, i continue to seek redemption through art. silly silly me.... when i write something like that, i have to ask, at the same time, what the fuck am i doing in hk?
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i actually find that my times in shanghai are the most taxing of my life. it's the result of being surrounded by diehard workaholics in need of nightly relief. the latter inevitably assumes the form of all-night bacchanals! by the end of three days, i tend to be a trembling, sleep-deprived, cigarette-toting wreck. hard to believe but, whereas i retire by 11 oclock in hk most nights, i have trouble going home before 3 am when in shanghai! what keeps me hooked is the anonymity and desperation of the partying. hk is so self-conscious and pretentious in comparison. believe it or not, when in hk, i'd take dusk til dawn, a dive bar in wanchai with a great cover band, any night over kee club! i say that despite the fact that i only go to kee and am a good friend of christian, the owner. but i know he'd forgive me because he's a genuine buddhist who disavows exactly what he's selling anyway! The Paradoxical Club Owner. (nb. he's now building a healing spa in austria!) it's all too hong kong for words!
me, with dan feng, who is starting her own gallery in beijing, standing at the entrance to the fair.
me with insane friend, philippe koutouzis, who is in charge of marlboro gallery's chinese contemporary art business. (marlboro is the biggest private gallery in the world and represents francesco clemente, balthus, francis bacon, etc.)
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ShContemporary Art Fair
Monday, Sep 3, 2007 8:31PM / Event
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the REAL shaolin temple
Sunday, Sep 2, 2007 9:26AM / Standard Entry
justin guariglia, a fab photographer from new york, who actually shot shanghai tang's kung fu collection campaign with philip ng a couple of years ago, is coming out with a beautiful book about the true shaolin monks. to me, it's a big event, because there's never been a beautifully produced book on the subject with excellent production values, that you'd be proud to give anyone. up until now, the books, the corpus of which i know very well, have blurry photos, crappy paper and definitely no decent layout. you wouldn't put them on your coffee table for sure! besides that, justin, a kung fu practitioner, personally studied and lived at the temple for many months to take these pictures. far from swanning into zheng zhou and demanding access to the monks, he immersed himself completely in the process.
http://www.aperture.org/store/books-preview-bio.aspx?ID=590
btw, i have met the grand master (Fang Zhang) of the shaolin temple on two occasions, one on one. just to disabuse everyone of what the entire set-up is: in fact, less than 80 monks actually live at the original temple in zheng zhou, with only 50 actually continuing to train and practice martial arts. the kung fu practice is actually passed down in secrecy (unfortunately), virtually guaranteeing that the practice and knowledge will dwindle to zero with time. surrounding the monastery are many schools purporting to teach "shaolin kung fu", but, in fact, these are neither seeded nor endorsed by the actual temple. the fang zhang is trying to bring the monastery and practice into the modern world. actually, shanghai tang created their logo (3 years ago), based on a symbol of bodhidharma (the original monk who came from india to establish chan or zen buddhism in china at shaolin), carved on an ancient stone stele at the temple. this is the only legally, recognized logo of the temple, internationally protected under trademark law. to be instrumental in its creation and registration was an enormous honor. i hope to be involved with Fang Zhang and the temple again, in the near future, in projects to conserve the history and tradition of the temple.
i recently gave up the practice of kung fu myself, after two years, unfortunately, because of serious ACL sprains in my left knee (from skiing). until november of last year, i was practicing monkey-style (hou quan) with master chow keung (who is one of only 2 exponents left in the world of this school). i can't explain how i feel about kung fu, but the practice is intensely personal and you make of it what you want. i will be hard to replace it in my life, although i have recently begun looking for new, if different, experiences.
