20 LIFE Thursday, March 31, 2016 CHINA DAILY

NEW YORK EXHIBITION TANGIBLE EXPRESSION

After shifting from commissioned to do a work for a group exhibition, The Drop­Urban music to visual art Art Infill,inNewYork.Shepresented recorded sounds with pictures of 10 more than a decade different places in New York, includ­ My art­making is about ing the noise of a construction site, ago, Ai Jing achieves and a peaceful afternoon in Harlem repeated experimentation — the northern section of New York both recognition and City, where people walked in the sun and failure ... I enjoy the and the music of Bob Marley played. satisfaction on two Thesameyear,sheheldhersoloexhi­ process of making the bition, Ai Want to Love, in New York. sides of the globe, In 2008, Ai left New York and imagined real with my hands.” established a studio in Beijing, Chen Nan devoting herself to working as a pro­ reports. Ai Jing, musician­turned artist fessional artist. Marcia Levine, special projects isual art has become Chi­ director of Marlborough Gallery, nese singer­songwriter Ai first met Ai in New York in 2015. She Jing’s passion over the flew to Italy to see Ai’s exhibition, past decade. Dialogues, at the Ambrosian Art VIn November, she will stage her Gallery of the Veneranda Biblioteca solo exhibition, Ai Jing Back to New Ambrosiana Museum in Milan. York, at the Marlborough Gallery in With the themes of industry, New York City, with nearly 30 art­ nature and technology, Ai created a works created over the past decade, “dialogue” through her works with including sculptures, oil paintings selected masterpieces at the muse­ and installations. um, which is known for its collec­ The works on display include My tion of 12 manuscripts by Leonardo Mom and My Hometown, a tapestry da Vinci. of wool patches knitted by Ai’s “I was amazed by the beauty and mother and bedecked with the strength of her works. She showed English word “Love”; The Tree of us that art could connect East and Life, an installation work showing a West in a cultural way and we want lonely raven perched on a leafless to present her works to the people in oak tree made of tens of thousands the US,” says Levine, who is in Bei­ of disposable chopsticks; and oil JIANG DONG / CHINA DAILY jing this week with Ai. paintings under the group name I She also says that the gallery, Love Color. which was founded in 1946 with two “New York is an important city for spaces in New York as well as loca­ my transition from a musician to an tions, such as London, Madrid and artist. I always want to revisit the Monaco, has been working closely origin of my passion for visual art with Chinese artists since the 1990s, with my own works,” says the including the late Chinese­French 46­year­old artist, who announced artist, Zao Wou­ki. the exhibition at the National Muse­ “Ai is very special as a contempo­ um of China in Beijing on Tuesday. rary Chinese artist because her In 1999, she started learning works show a mixture of Eastern painting with renowned Chinese and Western influences,” says Chen contemporary artist Zhang Xiao­ Lyusheng, deputy director of the gang. Years later, Ai had reached a National Museum of China, who level high enough to hold a solo curated Ai’s exhibitions in Beijing, exhibition, I Love Ai Jing, at the Shanghai and Milan. National Museum of China in Bei­ Looking back on her journey as jing in 2012 and again at the China an artist, Ai says that she often asks Art Museum of Shanghai in 2014. herself two questions: What is art? A native of Shenyang, Liaoning Why I am making art? province, Ai learned music with her Ai Jing will hold a solo show in November in New York City, where she had lived for years and started her pursuit of visual art. Works on display will include the “My art­making is about repeated father, who plays the erhu (a two­ installations The Tree of Life (left) and Wave. PHOTOS PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY experimentation and failure. Usual­ stringed bowed instrument). ly, I go through starvation, sleepless Her debut album, My 1997, sold nights and anxiety to finish one more than 200,000 copies within including in Hong Kong, Taiwan of the songs for the album while liv­ lived in the Lower East Side from a kaleidoscope to me. It was not just piece. But I enjoy the process of one month of its release in 1993. and Japan — a rarity for mainland ing there. 2002 to 2008. She had her studio visual enjoyment, but also awaken­ making the imagined real with my Her second album, Once Upon a singers then. Her apartment was near Central and honed her skills as an artist ed my desire to use visual art as a hands,”she says. Time on Yanfen Street, was another She first went to New York in 1997 Park, where the tall buildings and there. new expression, which music could success, which brought her recogni­ to seek inspiration for the album, graffiti gave her imagery of a vibrant “I often went to museums and gal­ not deliver anymore,”she says. Contact the writer at tion outside the Chinese mainland, Made in China, and she wrote most and experimental art scene. She leries in New York. The city was like In the summer of 2009, Ai was [email protected]

CASH CUTS LIVE SHOW US schools Horses prepare for stardom in Beijing approach By CHEN NAN

Hollywood Normand Latourelle, co­founder of the Montreal­based Cirque du Soleil, has dreamed of coming to for assistance China since childhood. “I once asked my mother: ‘How By ASSOCIATED PRESS can I get to China.’ She said: ‘Dig a in Los Angeles hole in the kitchen, and you will be there at the end of it’,” Latourelle Miles from the Hollywood Walk recalls. of Fame and the red carpet, Steve Decades later, he has not just Shin belts out tunes on a piano arrived in China but also brought scarred with nicks and love notes Steve Shin (left) instructs a group of students singing during a music class his 30 horses, who are the stars of written in scratches, teaching chil­ at Stevenson Middle School in East Los Angeles. AP Latourelle’s brainchild — the multi­ dren how to sing. media spectacular, Cavalia. In scores of other middle Cooperating with the Chinese schools, his students might have In 2014, the district hired former Warner Bros has provided funding investment company Sinocap, Lat­ already learned how to read the TV writer and producer Rory Pul­ to improve auditoriums at Bur­ ourelle and his team, including his notes on a scale. But years of cuts lens as its executive director for bank schools. Sony Entertainment son and tour manager, Mathieu Lat­ have stripped arts classes from arts education. He has since hired Pictures has run career workshops ourelle, will stage the show in Bei­ much of the Los Angeles district, an arts teacher at every school. at Culver City schools. jing from April 28 to May 8. leaving many children in the Pullens is convinced his work in To date, the Los Angeles district Cavalia is a mix of acrobatics and world’s entertainment capital with a district that has 90 percent has confirmed partnerships with equestrian arts, and Chinese audi­ no instruction in music, visual arts, minority students will one day help Nickelodeon, Sunset Bronson Stu­ ences will enjoy it in a white tent, dance or theater. diversify Hollywood — a widely dios and Sunset Gower Studios. called the “big top”,that covers more The multimedia show Cavalia will be staged in Beijing in April. When Shin arrived for the first discussed goal after the criticism of Most of the donations have not than 2,000 square meters and is PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY day of class, he quickly realized this year’s all­white list of Academy reached students yet. pitched at a height of 35 meters in many of his students were starting Award acting nominees. He has In Shin’s class, students get by Beijing’s Chaoyang Park. from zero. already met with Paramount, Uni­ with the bare minimum: an over­ During a recent visit to a farm philosophy of understanding the me,”hesays.“Eachhorsehasadiffer­ “A lot of them didn’t even know versal and dozens of other industry head projector displaying lyrics more than 40 kilometers from needs, the preferences and the ent personality. Some are curious, they were going to be in a music leaders to solicit help. across the screen, two micro­ downtown Beijing where the horses emotions of the four­legged stars,” and some are aggressive.” class,”he says. “It is well within all of our pow­ phones and two standing lights are kept, Latourelle says that he says Latourelle, who has 46 years of Latourelle says: “Keith communi­ Now the second­largest school ers, if we work together, to remedy placed in front of the class to make found the animals were resting and experience in creating and staging cates with the horses with soft voice district in the United States is try­ that by really addressing the deep­ a stage­like performance space. grazing peacefully there. live spectacles. commands and body movements. ing to enlist Hollywood studios to rooted symptoms and not just try­ Shin calls on students as if Most of the equestrian team of Cavalia was born as an idea He is on the ground, and the horses “adopt” schools and provide stu­ ing to put in a couple remedies on they’re performing in a real concert about 20, including a veterinarian, around 15 years ago to pay tribute to have no saddle, no rope, no bridle, dents with equipment, mentorship the surface,”Pullens says. in front of their peers. On a recent health technicians, grooms and a the bond between the animals and nothing. It’s a very beautiful and and training as a way to reverse the The renewed push for arts edu­ afternoon, they sang everything farrier, are training the horses on a people. emotional number in the show.” layoffs that have decimated the cation in LA comes as new federal from Mexican ballads to angst­rid­ daily basis. Each horse performs for Keith Dupont is one of the riders Chinesedirector­actorZhangGuo­ curriculum. education policies stir hope that den songs by Adele. roughly 12 minutes. The rest of their in the Beijing performance. The Bel­ li attended the ticket­sale launching The financial picture is slowly schools will begin shifting more Terry Quintero, 12, had never daily activities include warmups, gian joined in Cavalia five years ago ceremony in Beijing on March 17. He changing. The arts budget has time and money toward classes been in a music class before and recouping, grooming, going to the and quickly became a star in the says he was amazed when he grown to $26.5 million, about 40 such as dance and drama. now dreams of becoming a profes­ paddocks outside and free time. show due to his gentle, patient and watched the show in Canada. percent higher than five years ago, Film and music studios have sional singer. “The Cavalia approach is based effective way of communicating “I am very eager to watch it again but still a fraction of the $76.8 mil­ chipped in to help Los Angeles When she’s singing, Quintero on training methods designed to with the horses. He is working with in Beijing. It’s a huge operation to lionsumthatwasonceavailablefor schools before, but their contribu­ says, she leaves everything that’s make sure the horses enjoy train­ six to eight Arabian horses. bring the show to Beijing — for the arts. For the next school year, it tions tended to focus on the troublingherbehind.“Whatmatters ing as well as performing onstage. “I love the horses and the stage. example, there are more than 4,000 will increase to $32.3 million. schools directly in their backyard: right now,”she says, “is this class.” The horse training is based upon a The job is a perfect combination for tons of sand in the venue.”