Research and Other Investigations from China

Girls’ Generation K-Pop Factory Girls for The New Yorker

Clipping from The New Yorker's Factory Girls article featuring Girls' Generation.

I am going to be playing catch up over the next month or two – lots of new work and clippings to share. These images are from an awesome article for The New Yorker delving into Korean pop music (aka K-pop). I flew down to Jakarta to witness a massive stadium concert featuring some of the biggest names in K-pop from S.M. Entertainment and take portraits of Girls’ Generation. The nine member group consists of Taeyeon, Jessica, Sunny, Tiffany, Hyoyeon, Yuri, Sooyoung, Yoona and Seohyun. It was easily one of my most stressful photographic experiences. The management closely grooms these girls for years and try to control their media presence very closely. They were suspicious of what The New Yorker would detail and didn’t provide me with any information on how to get into the stadium properly. I was lucky enough to find a sympathetic security guard who let me into the backstage area where I only had fifteen minutes to set up all my lighting gear and another fifteen minutes with Girls’ Generation to take the actual photographs. Luckily they had some nice pink satin backdrops that worked well with my ring flash. Girls’ Generation knew how to pose for the camera as well, of course. The New Yorker Photo Booth blog interviewed me about the shoot here. These are some of the hottest up-and-coming stars in K-pop.

Girls' Generation perform live in a Jakarta stadium for an S.M. Entertainment showcase of Korean pop.

Girls' Generation pose before their big stadium show in Jakarta

Shanghai Awakes: White+ on The Bund

The Pudong skyline at dawn in Shanghai, China.

This is a bit of an oddity. I would go so far as to call it an accidental music video. Last September I ended up on The Bund at dawn in Shanghai. This should happen at least once in your lifetime. Ostensibly I was there to photograph a performance by the talented and capable Olek, whose crocheted work I first encountered in New York City this past summer. After she failed to initiate a crocheting enterprise, thanks to the Shanghai Public Security Bureau, I stuck around and watched the sun rise in all its glory over the imposing Pudong skyline. Slowly but surely the entire city awoke around me. My favorite part are the old guys walking backwards for exercise. I find their physicality a strangely fitting metaphor for the urban development occurring around them. It was a beautiful sight. I mashed up the video from that morning with a live performance of White+ recorded at the now defunct D-22. Check out the results below.

The bull on the bund at dawn in Shanghai, China.

Sound Kapital Heads Down Under

Sound Kapital at Carriageworks in Sydney, AustraliaSound Kapital at Carriageworks in Sydney, Australia

I am getting onto a plane for Australia in a few hours. This is my first time heading down under – very excited. This Friday evening Carriageworks, a huge art and cultural center in Sydney, is going to present a program on my Sound Kapital project. I am giving a short talk around 6PM followed by a performance at 8PM by three amazing bands from Beijing: Nova Heart, AV Okubo/AV大久保, and Xiao He/小河. An extended selection of my work documenting the underground music scene in Beijing will also be projected during the concert. It should be an awesome evening all around. Check out the links to Carriageworks above for ticket information and videos below for previews of the bands.

Duck Fight Goose Releases Sports at D-22

Duck Fight Goose releases its debut album Sports at D-22.

I always like to brag about Beijing being the center of the music universe in China. It is rather hard to dispute. The only band that throws a wrench in my argument is Duck Fight Goose. Hailing from Shanghai, they are one of the best bands in China, hands down. Their new album Sports, recently released by Maybe Mars, should put them more on the map not only domestically but hopefully internationally. I love the math and prog rock influences and genuinely feel it could be a breakout album. Han Han, the lead singer and general impresario, is taking the band in a wide array of directions. Their live performances are also extremely tight – check out footage from the Sports album release party at D-22 below. So, onwards and upwards with Duck Fight Goose, and may they continue to instigate a renaissance of sorts in Shanghai.

Duck Fight Goose releases its debut album Sports at D-22.Duck Fight Goose releases its debut album Sports at D-22.

Duck Fight Goose releases its debut album Sports at D-22.Duck Fight Goose releases its debut album Sports at D-22.

Domus Mixtapes: The Sound of Beijing

Looking out on Beijing in the morning from my bedroom window.

I just completed a Domus Mixtape for Beijing. You can hear it over at Domus or on SoundCloud. I drew exclusively from Maybe Mars and Modern Sky for the music as well as a live recording of Zhang Shouwang/张守望 of White+ and Carsick Cars fame. There is a lot more music out there in China, of course, but this is definitely some of my favorite material. Sort of the soundtrack to my life over the past four years. Below is the accompanying text, track list and some portraits of the performers included on the mixtape from Sound Kapital:

The hardest part of the day in Beijing is getting out of bed. Gazing across a smoggy skyline and watching the hectic traffic below is reason enough to hide under the covers for a few more hours. It is a dystopia – maybe even a nightmare. That is why I embrace the night. The sky remains a muted black, and I can seek out sparks of life in the darker recesses of the city. Beijing’s mutating urban landscape can only be matched by its shifting artistic climate, especially in the realm of sound. Desperation breeds discontent, and voices are emerging to express it. Every weekend features full billings at a growing number of performance spaces across Beijing: dive bars near the universities, small coffee houses hidden amongst the hutongs, larger concert halls in defunct government buildings, or experimental enclaves adjoining fish farms on the outer edges of the city. Beijing’s erratic social landscape is now molded by the Internet and mobile phones instead of more closely controlled media channels such as television and radio. Those with idiosyncratic tastes readily connect with each other and access an exponentially broader realm of music from both home and abroad as they continue to pick apart the past fifty years of western pop, rock, jazz, punk, electronic, and experimental music with increased vigor. The performers on this mixtape constitute a formidable new wave of artists striving to expand their creative limits in an autonomous and compelling fashion. Even though it is too early to tell what may come of the innovative strides made by these musicians, there is no doubt that they will continue to break ground within Beijing’s nascent artistic landscape, helping to push the boundaries of an already expanding realm of independent thought and musical expression in China. In the end the city resists description. Outside the smoke-choked bars everything is layered in a fine coat of dust. Whole neighborhoods disappear and find their way deep into your lungs. That’s the problem. The city gets inside you – fills you to the brim – consumed by a monstrous flow of people and infrastructure. It’s savage but enticing. Six million people flocked here over the past ten years and half a million are expected each year for the foreseeable future. The implosion is just beginning. The nebulous heart of the middle kingdom skips along to ever irregular beats.

Tracks:

01. My Great Location – Rebuilding the Rights of Statues/重塑雕像的权利

02. Some Surprises Come Too Soon – P.K. 14

03. No. 6 Space Ship – AV Okubo/AV大久保

04. Sand Hammer – Hedgehog/刺猬

05. Sunday Girl – Ourself Beside Me

06. Flu – Snapline

07. You Can Listen You Can Talk – Carsick Cars

08. Golden Gate – Duck Fight Goose/鸭打鹅乐队

09. This Side Down – The Offset Spectacle/憬观:像同叠

10. To Die – Soviet Pop/苏维埃·波普

11. The Earthquake – 24 Hour/24小时

12. Hospital – Guai Li/怪力

13. Beijing is Not My Home – Demerit/过失

14. Intro/Outro/Transitions – Zhang Shouwang/张守望 live at D-22 on November 22, 2011

Sound Kapital Portraits: HedgehogSound Kapital Portraits: AV Okubo

Sound Kapital Portraits: Ourself Beside MeSound Kapital Portraits: Guai LiSound Kapital Portraits: 24 Hours

Sound Kapital Portraits: LiqingSound Kapital Portraits: Zhang ShouwangSound Kapital Portraits: Liweisi

Sound Kapital Portraits: P.K. 14Sound Kapital Portraits: Offset SpectaclesSound Kapital Portraits: Demerit

Sound Kapital Portraits: Snapline

Vice in Beijing: The Creators Project Returns to UCCA

Tatsuo Miyajima was showing alongside The Creators Project Beijing event at UCCA.

The Creators Project is one of the best live multimedia events to come to Beijing. Curated by Vice through an unlikely Intel partnership, this year’s second installment took over UCCA with massive art installations along with an evening of performances from an impressive roster of bands and solo acts. The Creators Project really provides an important platform for international interchange between artists, designers and musicians. Their dedication to the Beijing scene is also growing every year and helped arrange New Pants’ appearance at Coachella and also flew out Queen Sea Big Shark for the Creators Project event in New York City. The video below features installation pieces by Mick Rock and Barney Clay, Joao Vasco Paiva, United Visual Artists and Tatsuo Miyajima. I am already looking forward to next year.

Mick Rock and Barney Clay collaborate on a new David Bowie video for The Creators Project Beijing event.Tatsuo Miyajima was showing alongside The Creators Project Beijing event at UCCA.Fuhan, lead singer of Queen Sing Big Shark, strikes a pose in the United Visual Artists installation during The Creators Projects Beijing event.

Supermarket opens up in 798 for The Creators Project Beijing event.Yang Haisong of P.K. 14 works up a sweat at the Creators Project Beijing event.Zhang Shouwang performs a solo set at The Creators Project Beijing event.

The Creators Project takes over 798 in Beijing, China.