For some reason last night, just before sleep time at around 1am, I thought I’d look into re-designing my blog. Who knows why I thought at this hour it was appropriate to do this as it is never a simple process! I don’t even have jetlag anymore so I can’t even blame that. I woke up at 9am this morning too. This change was largely inspired by seeing a few other bloggers do the same in the last week, and a thought that I am about to give my business card out to professional types as I am co-curator for the group exhibition ‘NOW INK’ that is part of the ShContemporary 2012, Shanghai’s somewhat high-profile art fair, opening this Thursday late afternoon, thus, my blog is about to be shared far and wide. I didn’t think the 2009 construct, used from day one of blogging and as shown below, was interesting, unique or, let’s face it, contemporary enough to represent “me” anymore.
After literally hours and hours of searching, previewing, testing and trialling formats and styles, including ‘Mixfolio’, ‘Esquire’ and ‘Autofocus’, and getting incredibly frustrated at times with technological glitches, I got to the one in use now called ‘Oxygen’. It was 4am this morning by this point. I wanted it to be super clean-cut, minimal and with more of a portfolio/magazine style to it. I wanted a good balance of image and text, as ultimately my blog is more written with visual accompaniments…more about reading my experiences, thoughts and of course, words. Also, it needed to be easily searchable with clearly visible social networking links to my professional curatorial work in order to raise their mutual profiles. As you can now see there are Facebook “Like” buttons for the Centre for Chinese Visual Arts (CCVA) and Chinese Arts Centre on the right hand side. It would be great to hear your feedback on the new look. Any comments or suggested changes would be greatly appreciated.
I have a day of writing ahead with very tired eyes. I think most art people in Shanghai, well in East Asia, have the same “lack of sleep syndrome” at the moment as September to October is one of the busiest and most exciting times in the contemporary art world calendar with the 9th Shanghai Biennale, ShContemporary 2012, The Fourth Guangzhou Triennial 2012 and the Gwangju Biennale 2012…and let’s not forget the Liverpool Biennial 2012 and the Frieze Art Fair back in the UK. Looking forward to seeing them both when I’m back in October. Until then, it’s time to ride this slightly dazed, sleepy kingdom out for the next month with art, parties, exhibition openings, events, networking, and giving talks and tours. Who’s with me?
Rachel Marsden's Words 