Shopping Cart Chair

When I looked at the shopping carts at a supermarket last night, I suddenly noticed the proportion of the shopping cart resembles that of a chair. Why not design a shopping cart chair or convert a shopping cart into a chair? Would that be fun?

Later I did an internet search and found someone already had this idea. The following are ANNIE shopping cart chairs by UK designer Max McMurdo. He turned old unwanted shopping carts into beautiful and functional chairs. I wonder if they offer the option with wheels, 'cause some people may want an exhilarating ride:)

Feeling of Loss

It's been over a week since the deadly earthquake occurred. Too many touching stories emerged from the ongoing rescues, donations and mournings... I wondered what else I could do except donating some money at this moment? So I did this poster.

There are tons of questions and problems need to be dealt with, such as the building code, rebuilding or relocation, orphan adoption. Hopefully we'll grow stronger and smarter each time.

Plastic Bottle Flowers

This is the outcome of my surgery to a plastic bottle -

SprayMania

Two months ago I was spraypainting a lot of "treasures" I collected during some previous trips until I was completely repelled by the toxic smell of the paints. Those treasures include the unknown fruits I picked over a year ago in South Carolina. I finally found out the name of the plant: liquidambar styraciflua (American Sweetgum, Redgum) and its lovely fruit's nicknamed "space bug", "monkey ball", etc. A more exciting discovery was that there are actually such trees in my neighborhood, so I can collect more this year!

Being a North America native, sweetgum has been introduced to many parts of the world. In Gus van Sant's My Own Private Idaho, sweetgum ball is seen at a farm in Rome, where a native girl holds it in her hand and speaks out its beautiful Italian name.


Pine cone, is the other major "victim" of my spraypaint. I love these small-sized cones gathering on a branch - just like dried flowers after being colored!

Now I need to find "greener" ways to color them :)

Dark City

The other day I talked to JNo who just came back from Shanghai. He mentioned something very unusual to him, I guess to most Americans: All the lights on buildings are out at midnight everyday. Since his office was in a high-rise in Old Shanghai facing Pudong and he stayed up late a few times, it was quite dramatic to see all the lights go out at once and the city seemed dead. It reminded me of my favorite sci-fi movie Dark City (very comparable to The Matrix and The Thirteenth Floor, both came out a year after), in which everybody in the city falls into a coma when the clock strikes midnight everyday due to the alien's power -the city freezes as all the motion ceases. This filmic city always appears grey and gloomy because sunlight is blocked by the aliens. But the real sense of darkness here is not about the absence of light, or the absence of action, but the absence of memory due to the aliens' manipulation. Places like "Shell Beach" only exist as a faded image, an unreachable destination.

Compared to the quick switches between day and night in Chinese cities to save electricity, Vegas is the opposite: there is nothing suggesting the change between day and night when you are inside a casino, no sense of time - it is going on forever.

Thought on a Frozen River

When it snows the first time, everything but the river is white; when the river gets frozen and snow at anywhere else melts down, the first scene gets reversed: the river becomes the only thing that is white. This transformation happens so quietly and naturally, isn’t it like the Mobius band, switching to the opposite side without knowing?

When the river flows, it divides; when the river is frozen, it turns into a bridge, the same time, a stage – a stage for various activities (still risky though!). If you draw a section, there are actually activities going on at both sides of the frozen layer: human’s and the underwater lives’. What if it becomes a section of a building, either vertical or horizontal, the frozen layer is transparent? What about an underwater building showing the section of the seaworld/lake, dialogue between two different dimensions?

My Little Art Project

These fallen dried fruits can be easily found in the parks during my trip. The shape of the fruit looks like a cute lantern made by mother nature. I couldn't help bringing a bunch of them back to the hotel. I washed them first, and then microwaved for 2 min. Finally spray-painted two of them for experiment - felt like a cooking experience :)

The result was not bad. I'll get more colors when I go back to Columbus and make them into all kinds of fun stuff!