Our time at LAFA is nearly up. The workshop ended yesterday, where all 80 students brought their food plate to the students’ cafeteria where we set up a gigantic dinner feast of colourful meals. The table was almost 45 meters long! We then had to chose which students to give special awards – something they seem to like a lot in China. So we did as we were told, although this goes a little against Danish teaching spirit as we know it. When we get home we’ll upload photos of the whole workshop on our website.
Today we went on a sightseeing trip organised by Miss Yu from LAFA’s Shenyang campus. We were taken on a 2 hour drive to a neighboring district, where Miss Yu’s parents live. Actually we weren’t quite sure what was going on as the driver got lost several times, but when we reached the destination and Miss Yu’s mother handed us swimming suits with matching swimming hats, we knew that we were in for another special experience! And true enough, the next minute we found ourselves submerged in a hot spring, in matching retro swimsuits and hats. None of the local guests hesitated to stare at us curiously, and consequently Mu is now in the possession of a handful of potentially dangerous photos. After the hot bath, we went to have a delicious huge lunch with Miss Yu’s parents. They had been preparing it for a week, and we were very touched by their kindness and hospitality.
Later there was an award ceremony at the packaging studio, where we gave the students awards in 6 different categories – it was quite like the Oscars! The president of LAFA, Mr. Sun Ming, came by and it was a great pleasure meeting him. Afterwards there was a lovely buffet and a lot of group photographing with the students. Now our cheeks hurt from smiling to the cameras.
Sweet Mu got all teary at dinner, thinking about our departure tomorrow. “Time is frozen and I have so many memories” he philosophically stated. We will surely miss him! We make a brilliant trio.
Just now a crazy thunderstorm broke out, so hopefully we can fly to Beijing tomorrow.
Student work
Student work
Student work in the cafeteria
Paper dinner for 80!
Cheers!
Here we are in yet another group photo, this time with Mu, Miss Yu and her parents
Today we got to see all of the students’ amazing homework assignments of carefully folded paper food, and we gave most of them a little talk about which direction to take their project. We were so impressed by their work! All the students are working on individual paper-meals, and tomorrow we are going to set up a huge dinner table for 80 in the students’ cafeteria. Hopefully this will result in a striking installation and some good photographs.
For lunch we discovered a whole new part of LAFA campus: an underground shopping mall and food court. This school is huge! And later Mu and Dong took us to Discovery Land, an amusement park close to campus. We tried some different rides, but stayed clear of the wild ones, as we were told that the roller-coaster recently ran wild and wouldn’t stop for 25 minutes, resulting in cascades of vomit. Brave Mu is doing such a good job in taking care of us – he even took the lead inside the haunted house, warding off all danger with a careful little voice saying “Hello Ghost?” while the rest of us followed cautiously behind. We were given 3D glasses at the entrance, only to discover that everything in there was three dimensional anyway and the only purpose they seemed to serve was to blind our left eyes.
Examples of paper meals folded by our students at the Packaging Design department. So nice!
Detail of paper food
Some of the students’ other work – they they are experts in folding paper
Students in class
We tried this one, much fun!
Our new press photo?
We are in China!
We arrived safely yesterday, and were greeted with flowers at Shenyang airport by Mu Xulong, the MA student at LAFA who initially invited us to come here. He is a huge fan of our work – and he knows everything about us! If we try to tell him something, he already knows… It’s quite incredible. When we got to the academy we had a welcome dinner with Professor Yafei Wang, a famous Chinese designer. After a fair deal of skepticism towards our closet vegetarianism they tuned into our needs and had extra vegetables delivered to the table. We feel very well taken care of here! Proffesor Wang also gave us tons of Chinese tea and a special tea pot which will be used all the time when we get back.
Today we did a guest talk at Lafa campus, for the students of visual communication, both under graduate and post graduate students. Most do not speak English but Mu did a fine job of translating our words. Later we were driven to the Dalian part of LAFA’s campus which is situated 5 hours’ drive south of Shenyang. Once again we received an overwhelmingly warm welcome, and had a delicious dinner with some of the professors, teachers and students. This campus seems huge – it will be interesting to see it in day light!
With Mu in front of a stone engraved with the LAFA motto: ‘Study hard!’
Professor Wang’s tea machine
At the guest talk
Lunch with students and Professor Wang
No, it’s not risengrød, it’s tofu!
Mu studying Hvass&Hannibal history
Hot!
Welcome dinner at Dalian campus
Our rooms are huge!
0 Comments China, LAFA, Luxun Academy of Fine Arts, Mu Xulong, Yafei Wang
We are very nearly ready to fly off to China, and we are so very exited! We will be flying directly to Shenyang where we will give a guest talk, lecture and a 3 day workshop at LAFA, Luxun Academy of Fine arts. And we have prepared some fun stuff and can’t wait to meet the students, and see how it all turns out. We’ll be posting news about our journey along the way, so check in to see what we are up to…