One of my photographs from the amazingly ridiculous Kangbashi district in Ordos was featured in Conde Nast Traveler this past month. The building shown is the Ordos Museum designed by MAD architects, one of the preeminent Chinese architecture firms founded by Ma Yansong who previously toiled as a project designer for Zaha Hadid Architects. The building itself remains a wonder to behold as its irregular shape clashes with the geometrical grid that binds the rest of the newfangled district. Whether or not it will see any use is the real question now that it finally opened. The municipal government can barely get people to stay put in the Kangbashi residential developments, let alone consistently fill up over 40,000 square meters of exhibition space. The flagship cultural center of Ordos will probably accumulate more sand from the Gobi desert than actual visitors. Anyway, I will be featuring more photographs of MAD buildings in the near future thanks to my first assignment with The New York Times Magazine. In the meantime, you can check out some extra photographs I took of the unfinished interior.

Earlier this year Alexei Perry Cox of the Handsome Furs contacted me out of the blue about using the name of my book, Sound Kapital, as the name of their new album. Since most of the songs were related to their experiences in China, she thought it would be a cool way to pay homage to the alternative music scene and further their connection to the Middle Kingdom. I quickly consented, of course, after which Alexei made a further request to include my photography in the album design. She proposed to juxtapose my blueish Tuanjiehu waterpark series with an orangish nightfall Portland series photographed by Bradley Sellers. The results are quite stunning. Moreover, the music is great and getting solid reviews by Pitchfork and Spin. This is the first time I contributed to album art outside of Chinese bands, and I am proud to have provided the name of my book to their own musical ventures. The Handsome Furs are touring like mad right now in support of their new album. I am lucky enough to catch them on August 18 at the Bowery Ballroom. Rock it out if you can.

This is just a small note to all the CCTV Headquarters enthusiasts out there. The night time is now the right time to check out the stunning building. After sitting in the dark for the past few years, the authorities that be finally turned the lights on the CCTV Headquarters. Its smaller sister, the Television Cultural Center which was supposed to house the Beijing Mandarin Oriental Hotel, still sits in ignoble darkness as repairs begin after the devastating fire that gutted the building last year. For now I must only enjoy half the CCTV complex lighting up the Beijing skyline.

There was a spot of bother in France these past few months when Murakami took over the ornate halls and salons of Versailles with his superflat sculptures. Apparently his playful and questionably subversive installations did not go over well with a handful of descendants of Louis XIV and other royalists who consider the UNESCO World Heritage estate sacrosanct (check The Economist, The Art Newspaper and Culture Kiosque). This isn’t the first time that a contemporary art exhibit at Versailles has been called into question either. Jeff Koons’ giant lobster was met with similar grumblings in 2008. Laurent Le Bon, the curator of the show, seemed very conscious of the foregoing dissent and wrote an almost apologetic introduction to the exhibit. He tries to separate himself from the “clashes” of historical heritage and contemporary work presented at other cultural institutions. Instead he claims Murakami’s fantasy world compliments the paradise created at Versailles and allows the viewer to reassess the nature of its baroque trappings. Murakami himself implores visitors to let down their guard and take on an impish persona for the exhibit: “I am The Cheshire Cat who greets Alice in Wonderland and chatters on as she wanders around the Chateau. With my playful smile, I invite you all to the Wonderland of Versailles.” In my humble opinion, I thought the overall effect was fabulous. I know it was my first visit to Versailles, an overwhelming place in and of itself, but seeing Murakami’s hyper colorful and surreal sculptures placed amidst the intricately painted ceilings and molded walls of Versailles bowled me over. Aside from the forceful visceral nature of the exhibition, I feel that the impetus behind Murakami’s art and Versailles are very much the same. At the heart of both is a drive to cater to the most elaborate and luxurious sentiments of their respective eras. Although the aesthetics of opulence from 17th century France and 21st century Japan differ mightily, Murakami and the legendary team of artists behind Versailles created some of the most grand, over-the-top, pop imagery of their times. No matter what, the controversy behind the “clash” or “harmony” of the Murakami Versailles exhibit will continue to drive up ticket sales before it closes on December 14.