it's a rainy day! so instead of going temple and more art enclave hunting I swapped it for tomorrow's programme of the museum rounds near the hostel. Unfortunately the Ferragamo exhibition at MoMA only opens tomorrow, but the Shanghai Urban Planning Centre(?) had 5 levels of related models and stuff, and one level of temporary art exhibitions incl Rembrandt's copperplate engravings/etchings/sketches.

The attention to detail and the time it takes to painstakingly render that on paper.. is a skill few of us have the patience for today, yet is perhaps at the very heart of art (at least in his day): that of understanding the world around. How lights works, how nature and plants grow, how animals move. I've been looking at so much art, of various kinds and from different cultures and times, and I realise, one of the reasons I've been rather stuck creatively is that I haven't been sitting down and not just observing and thinking, but also understanding and recording.

Before I started out on this trip, I had wanted to use it to resume precisely that, and had brought along a couple of pencils and a few copic markers with the intention of sitting in some garden or park or riverside and just drawing and trying to get back in touch with that I love the most - the hands on kind of creating. But the camera is both my friend and my enemy.

It's a tool to keep myself from forgetting where I'd been, the images are my view and impression of a place, and can be used later on to be the basis for other creations, but it is too easy and does not require the kind of effort and contemplation and study that sketching does. It is hard and sometimes intimidating to try and draw though. When there are hordes of people and tourists, it is hard to find the space both mental and physical to sketch, and the thought that there will be countless curious passersby looking over my shoulder at my scratches makes the thought of just taking a moment to snap and think 'I'll just draw from the photo when i get back' so much more inviting. But one never goes through on that promise, of course.

I then caved in and went to Raffles City Mall and ate pasta and warm choc cake at Bakerzin. Felt good to eat good food, though it cost the price of almost 2 nights' accommodation. Tried to go to the national museum after that, but it being a weekend and the museum being free, there was a horrendous queue for tickets, and I decided to give up and head across the road to the Grand Theatre Gallery instead. On the way there discovered that there is an underground shopping centre just beneath the National Museum. The Grand Theatre Gallery looks forbidding, but turned out to be free, and had many lovely pieces.

The thing about the museums and exhibitions here is that while I can't fault the exhibits themselves or even the curator ship, the settings are really not up to par. The lighting is patchy and often obscures or casts lights, shadows and unwanted reflections on the artwork, and the walls themselves show obvious signs of yellowing and even more obvious signs of putty patching up ho;es from other displays. And there seems to be no prohibition against taking photos in the galleries (with the exception of the Grand Theatre Gallery). It is irritating, but I guess I still did enjoy myself, because really, the art is good...

For now, I'll take a break and play with the hostel's resident cat family, and maybe do laundry (though not a good day -it'll never dry in this damp), and see if I can muster uo the energy to go either Pudong or west Nanjing road later tonight.. ciao!