Beijing Boyce

Call me crazy, but my Saturday visit to Timeout’s “affordable art fair” in Dashanzi felt a bit like buying souvenirs in Silk Alley. True, no vendor tugged at my sleeve, but the place crawled with laowai drooling for bargains and snapping up those pieces of art that evoked China, whether it meant themes involving flags, monks or the Cultural Revolution.* Art imitates life, as they say, and had only the city’s sellers of Chinese character-adorned t-shirts set up a booth near the gallery, they coulda made some kuai.

The art fair is a weeklong event and features some 600 pieces of art, each priced at 8000 kuai or less. And to be honest, the “art fair = souvenir market” feeling was brief. Timeout bigwig and art fair organizer Tom P. said about 50 diehards were waiting when the doors opened on Saturday morning. They scooped up some of the better stuff - one guy blew past me, in a panic, as he sought the order counter - and then the masses, most of them more interested in viewing than shopping, flowed in during the day. All in all, the art fair was worth waking up early for, and I recommend people check it out before things wrap up at week’s end.

By the way, Dashanzi is glorious during this time of year - not too hot, not too cool, green sprouting all about. I ended up on the Cafe Pause patio for a good four hours, sipping my way through a regular coffee, two Cappucinos, a Galianno espresso, and two glasses of wine. Holding me there was the pleasant weather, the interesting people passing by, and the fact I was too caffed up to go anywhere - the latter might qualify as performance art in some circles…

* Among the exceptions was what seemed to be a pair of giant and modern clothespins - yellow and blue-green - on a traditional Chinese chair, with one either stepping ever-so lightly on the other or getting to ready to hump it. It’s hard to tell, but then again, isn’t it all relative?