Took the El into Evanston this morning to meet old classmate Beth for lunch at Olive Mountain on Davis Ave. Beth is looking great these days - had 10 sessions of rolfing, has steady work and is writing and meeting with a group of our classmates at Art Institute on a semi-regular basis. Lar picked me up and we went to see the exhibition of contemporary Chinese photography and video work at the MCA Chicago. Fantastic stuff - work by Zhao Bandi, Zhang Huan, Song Dong, Wang Quigsong, Liu Tianmiao and Hong Hao in addition to across the hall a separate exhibition of Fiona Tan's work. Song Dong's piece was a photographic series documenting his performance of taking a large wooden seal and stamping the river. Zhang Huan also showed a series of photographs called "family tree" in which the artist has his face inscribed with calligraphy, until in the last frame, his face has become completely blackened by ink. Liu Tianmiao's work was a huge fabric piece printed with a photograph of the artist without hair. In the fabric are tiny knots breaking up the surface connecting to behind the surface string that gathers together into a long braided hair like piece. Several photographers in this exhibition evoked the Chinese scroll thru a horizontal landscape presentation of their photographs - taking a strip of negatives and enlarging the entire sequence. A wonderful actual scroll piece by Hong Hao - a reproduction of an ancient scroll "Spring Festival on the River" with collaged cutouts and photographs of figures inserted into the scene. Another striking image: "Night Revels of Lao Li" by Wang Qingsong who appears in his photographs - an updated interpretation of an ancient theme - a night of debauchery and revelry staged with recurring characters throughout the wall length frame.