Day 36- June 30th: IT'S COMING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Pic: my friend Alex's rodent (not sure what they are) but adorable!!! They tried to attack my fingers

Wow I can't believe it's June 30th already, last month flow by like a hawk. It's my 34th day in Budapest and my 39th day or so in Europe and I am really getting used to the life and the lifestyle here. I understand Hungary is not perfect but it does start to feel like home.

As I am doing a mapping of Budapest for my last art piece, I started to mentally revisit all the places I have visited and the streets I have wondered on. It's amazing everything is coming back so clearly and wonderfully. It like it had just happened last week. On the art work I can physically see I had cover a huge portion of the city and all the places I had visited and revisited.

I know my time here is ending in just over 8 days and I will be traveling to other parts of Eastern Europe and new adventures will be discovered but I feel this city will always be special in my heart.
Other than being a little sentimental about my last days in Budapest I had been busy all day making my art work, managing email and other typical tasks. I also saw a couple of my Hungarian friends tonight.

Day 31- June 25th: The dead have it all and the living have New York Palace!

Beata stopped by the hotel and checked on us this morning and she always tend to sneaks her way next to me or pop up around me. She is like a cat on the tippy toes. I am always surprise to see her or hear her talking near by and than realized she is right there, next to my face. I saw other artists work and it's so interesting and people are getting all sorts of different inspirations from being in Hungary. I know I will be doing more residencies around the world and this being my first and it will always have special place in my heart. I will never forget about these wonderful and meaningful experiences.

I tried to catch up with my blog, flicker, and email this morning and did a bit of research on fining hostels in Bratislava and Prague for my up coming travel before heading back to the States. I also went to the local post office and finally sent the postcards out. The postmasters even personally licked the stamps and put it on for me!!!! It's great but they don't use computers so everything is manual and each person takes up a good amount of time.

I than took the train to Buda side and had lunch at my friend's restaurant. This was my 6th time and he had been so nice and treated me all these times but I have also been teaching him English in return. I should really learn more Hungarian words but it is a very difficult language.

After lunch and English lessons, my roommate Andreas and I went to the Keleti Cemetery for a morbid art discovery walk. I really love this experience!!! I was amazed by how many beautiful century old tome stones are in this peaceful place. A wonderful collection of amazing art and sculpture work that's worthy of being in any world-class museums. We must have walked around for a couple of hours and took some pictures, some with strange poses that I think I might go to hell for. I did leave some flowers for the souls I disturbed. The place is so picturesque and the dead have it all. I thought about my mother briefly.

I suggested that we should have a drink at the New York Palace: a historic hotel and restaurant built by an American insurance businessman in the 1930's. Amazing building and wonderful interior, even though it's not my style of work but I very much appreciate it's beauty and details. Being in such space made me realized how the upper class must have lived and the opulence of this place really shocking. Everything is over the top, the scale of the building, the detailed of the interior are ll expensive and material used in building will sure last a few hundred more years. I notice that we were drinking water from Italy, eating Éclairs from France in a building called The New York Palace in Budapest, Hungary.

Sometimes life can be as sweet as the Éclairs I had at the New York Palace but usually one is more than enough.

Day26- June 20th: They asked why; I said Why not?

I had a few of interesting conversations with several different people today. They didn't know one another and came from different culture and social backgrounds. They all asked why have I decided to extend my stay in Budapest? What are the things I like about the country and the city? What the the things I do not like about the city?

This might seem a simple question but it actually involves a lot of analyzing. I know there is not one thing that would make me want to stay in Budapest longer than what I am supposed to. I like Budapest because it's real, human, and imperfect. It give you a sense of place but yet it is displaced on the crossroads of industrialized and socialist society. It's so unique because it's completely foreign and take me out of my comfort zone. It's lovely, beautiful when you look from afar but rundown, dirty and smelly when you are close.

People here are either super nice and go out of their way to help you or they simply don't care and scream at you. It's the city of two extremes and the city with hope. To me Vienna is perfect and what is there left to do when you live in a utopia?

I believe human being thrive on imperfections and Budapest is the place for thriving.

Day 25- June 19th- Life without Rudee

photo: in silence we stood.

After Vienna I was exhausted and slept till 2pm. I finally got myself up and moving and went to the cell phone store and recharged purchased more air time. Waled around mindlessly and came back to the residency for an Art opening! The work was interesting and it's by an children's book artist who lived till the age of 95. It's amazing how he painted with such innocence and child like at such old age.

Andrea (my new roommate) and I went for a long walk around the city, I tried to find the Artist Club where the last residency had dinner one night but was unsuccessful. So we end up getting a little lost but we did spend some great time on the Danube's bank and watched the rights across the water. It was a wonderful and peaceful experience. Later we went for a drink and chatted a little more.

We didn't talk the whole time, sometimes there is just silence between us but we did not feel uncomfortable or had the need to fill the space with sounds; at those moments we understood each other clearly.

Day 1, 2& 3 in Vienna June 13, 14 and 15th- Reflections

If there is such thing as a perfect world Vienna would be one; cultural, clean, beautiful, historic, and wonderful art scenes. everything thing that people dream about. I really love Vienna as a tourist just like how I love San Francisco as a tourist; at the first glance both cities are picturesque but the perfection of Vienna scares me a bit. Like many Americans dream of having that perfect white picked fenced yard, 2.5 kids, a dog and 2 mini vans. It might be someone else's reality but it's all too unreal to me. My first 2 days here have been wonderful!


Unlike in Budapest I no longer have to allocate time to schedule for peeing before being in public for a prolong period of time, public toilets are free and the Austrians are obsessed with cleaning. There are people and street washing trucks constantly cleaning washing the street all hours of the day. It seem like it's a impossible task but the city looks amazingly clean the cleanest metropolitan cities I have visited. People are so orderly here and I feel completely safe and there is no such thing as over charging here. It feels like i am in mega Mulberry st... that's what's so fake about it.
Can people be so perfect? can perfection exist?

I like Los Angeles and New York because it feels real but here not so much, this feels like Disneyland. I spent 5 hours at the Ludwig museum one day and viewed a wonderful special exhibition called "bad painting, good art" I really enjoyed it, i found it very humorist and understood the artists messages or the lack of.

It's a 9 story museum the architecture itself its ok and the interior was lacking other than the connecting catwalks. First floor was my last stop (entry level is on 5th floor) and now I really understand where the term "basement art" came from, Shocking!!!!!

I have never seen art like this in a major institution, photos of killing dogs and use its body parts as art and bodies on people's private parts.... ewww. videos of people eating, peeing and pooping at the same time (with zoom on the pooping part)... videos of self cutting and bleeding allover the place... photo of pretend death with animal body parts. All done in the 50-60's vienna no special effects, all real.

I don't think I have this much pressure and negative emotions viewing art. It's faces of death video! I did get the underlining message from the art works. It showed a tremendous amount of anger, social unjust, confusion and a strong desire and hopelessness to move away from the tradition and classical art form Vienna is known for. It's a painful message for the world to see but I am glad its documented.


I think this is why the perfection of Vienna scares me... The museum visit was symbolic: everything is nearly perfect until you reach the besement and for now I want Vienna to stay perfect in my memory so this time I won't venture down the basement.

Break For Art and maybe for Vienna too...

New art work by Benjamin Page: Art opening Aug 2ed, Budapest, Hungary.
additional photos and art work detail can be found on my flickr site.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/25548816@N07/


Dialog of a Modern Landscape


Stately classical buildings in the city, and beautiful historical houses in the country--Hungary is rich in architectural history and styles. The city does lack good cutting-edge modern architecture; and in villages outside of Budapest, modernism doesn't even seem to exist. This work sparks a dialog between geometries, and brings basic conceptual modern architecture elements like folding planes, translucency, and colors, inserting them into any Hungarian landscape.
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The Dolls of Hungary

Where does the water of the Danube came from? Where do the once beloved dolls of Hungarian children go after they have fallen out of favor? This piece provides a dramatized answer and interpretation for these questions. The disregarded dolls of Hungarian children rise from the garbage bins and forgotten toy boxes, and transform themselves into the romantic water of the Danube, thus becoming part of Budapest's organic landscape.

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Baby-kebabs; Deliciously, yummie!!!


In Hungary, puppetry is an important culture identity, and dolls are staples of people's daily lives. Some dolls are elaborately decorated and child-like in every way. They are collected by and played with by people around the world. This art piece is a attempt to dissimulate our feeling of seeing dolls as child-like, and disconnect our emotional attachments with lifeless dolls. The energy and attention is then shifted to the "real" and deprived children of under-privileged countries.

Day 25 -june 12th: the end, new starts

I slept in and didn't want to leave the room, spent a lot of time standing on the balcony and looking at different views of of the city.

I finally glued the last part of my art the my babies are all ready to be handed over to Beata. I did some touch up work so they will be in top shape when donate them to the residency. I didn't want to do too much today just catching up and finishing up the residency before I leave for Vienna for 5 days. Photos of my work and new city photos are uploaded on flicker now.

This is the 4th time I have eaten at my friend's restaurant and he has been so nice for treating me every time. It's a wonderful friendship and connection but i feel bad for just eat and leave.

I am not sure if I will be able to blog in Vienna so stay tuned. if not the pictures will be uploaded when have I return to Budapest.

Day 21th -June 8th: Working , sleeping and eating not in any particular order

pic: men at work: flyer handler in traffic



After staying out late and a little weekend drinking, my internal clock still wakes me up at 930 am just in time before they take the breakfast away at 10am.

It took about 2 weeks for me to completely getting over having cake for breakfast . Lately, I feel nothing when I see a large variety of cake all perfectly lined up on the buffet table each morning. Can it be that I am now an anti sugar zombie? I moved to the yogurt and cereal table and had a quick breakfast.


I than came back to the room and did a little thinking about staying in Budapest for a longer period of time. I think I want to do it because this is a significant event in my life; here being in eastern Europe and only saw a fragment of what it has to offer. I want to see as much as possible before returning home because I am not sure when will be the next visit would be.


I took a nap and finally recovered fully from my weekend hangover. Even with a population of over 1.4 million people Budapest still feels like a small town. The night life happens on Friday and Saturday evenings and Sunday most businesses are closed and there are not really a a lot of stuff to do other than drinking (which can take place anytime, any day or anywhere). I spent a couple of hours working on my last project and took the train to my friend's restaurant for ice cream and golush soup and for everyone's information: I had ice cream FIRST!!!!! hahahah it's great being an adult! I can do whatever I want.


It didn't take long before I left the restaurant and came back and worked more. I am pretty happy on how it's turning out and it's about 90 percent finished and just a little minor touch up and gluing it will be finish. Hopefully a wonderful collector will buy!

Day 19- june 6th: sort of uneventful

We had meetings on our residency for over 4 hours and went over our art work and statements as well as bio and pricing. Things are coming to an end in less than a week and i am still working on my last piece of art work, i hope i can make it in time before i got to Vienna.

I have talked to my boyfriend and decided to stay in Budapest for another month so it should be very interesting. I cant wait to do everything here in town and venture into other countries...

I work on my art for a few hours today and thought I would go down to the Danube for another wonderful sunset. It was sure amazing!!!! I didnt see the rent boy i winder what had happened to him. Later, I ventured into a bar and now sitting here .. why cant American bars have free internet access at the bars. it just make sense when they are no one but older men here... i guess I would pour myself another drink.

Day 18- June 5th: Music Of The Night

I worked a bit last night and finished one of my art pieces and went to the framer today. It cost 17,000 forient to get it frame (only 2,000 of that is labor and the rest material). This further confirm my theory that there is no mid price goods. The art works are finally coming together and I need to work more in the next few days.

I have been thinking about staying in Budapest for a longer amount of time, maybe a month more? I talked to my boyfriend about it and he is supportive of my decisions. He is always so encouraging and supportive of what I do. He is really good to me and it makes me so happy that he is my life and sad that he is far away.

The four of us and Beata went to a art opening tonight and mistakenly arrived 1.5 hour early so we made our way down to a coffee shop by Hero Sq. We all had a good time talking and waiting for our food which took about an hour.


The Art opening is in basement studio/ gallery space in a vintage building. The building is interesting but the quality of art work is spotty. There are several very nice pieces and a very strange 2 person band played; a loud experimental sound filled the windowless basement. Rudee wasn't feeling well so she left early; I think it's from climbing up and down the subway and building stairs. I hope she feels better physically so she can see more sights in the city before we leave the residency in just less than a week now :(.


I came back to the room and worked more on my art but had fallen asleep... it was 2:30am the eerie songs of the homeless woman awake me from the sleep. She sometimes sings in the park in early hours of the day from her drunkenness and her rusty off-key vocal resonated between the tall historic apartment buildings. It is surreal!

Day 17- June 4th: Lost and Found

Lost:
(I meant to write about this 4 or 5 days ago but haven't had a chance to)

It was one morning when I stated to plan my daily material hunt and site visits than I noticed my map is gone. I became frantic and started to panic because it became my perfect assistant and it was tattooed with notes, dots and routes taken. It's a young map but had aged gracefully with layers of tapes to keep it in shape. I felt this was personal lost, as if I have lost days of experiences. I than realized even the physical map is lost the mental map is still fresh in my mind.

Found:

I worked on my art today and did some writing. I spent a good amount of time in the park painting and prepping my art pieces for the next stage of production. I feel the sense of urgency to speed up my work as the residency is coming to an end. It has just over one week left.
Around 430pm I decided to take a break and visit the Terror Museum 2 locks away. It was a very unique experience and the museum is devoted to the history of the Hungary's Communist rule and Nazi period before the Communist occupation.

The museum is divided into exhibition “story rooms” and each room is design to reflect different historical events during the occupation. The museum is very well designed and modern. It really conveys the massage through its minimalistic design and color representation. It is so powerful it made me completely uncomfortable and I can sense the sadness and hopeless of these people of the time.
I had tears in my eyes as I walked through the exhibits, some imagery are too hard to watch and stories are too tragic to listen to.... this experience was nothing but the triumph of humanity and once again the Hungarian people found themselves.

This experience made me have a even greater appreciation for having been born in Taiwan, not China and for living in the United States.

Day 10- May 27th: Wild goose- chase and chopping off doll heads

Hot, hot, hot! It's been so hot the last few days and today is no expection; if not it's even worse. I got ready and made on my way to the university in search of the model making materials. It took me a while to find the “dot” on the map but on the way I discovered a wonderful market place and spent sometime there. I arrived at the university and from what students told me it's an Economic University and the Architecture University is across the river. Beata had sent me on a wild goose- chase. I walked over the bridge and realized that most faculty and student are gone for the day and I was asked to come back the next day. One positive note, I did stumble on the wonderful cave church and the beautiful Buda hills and park the church is in. I spent sometime there climbing the hills and looked at the wild flower bloom in this almost unbearable heat.

I feel like as if I am Alice in Wonderland looking for the curious rabbit in a strange but fascinating land of the unknown. Even though the process of material searching has been difficult but this also helped me on learned and see the city in whole new different light.

Later in the night I started making my art work by sawing the dolls head off!!! It's completely insane of me sitting in a hotel room alone holding a saw and cutting the dolls head off in the darkest of the night. What happened to the sophisticated designer from LA? This is such a unreal experience.

Day 6-May 23: Storybook day

Four of us decided to go to Hero SQ today: two of the artist wanted to try the Szechenyi Bath / Spa and Meagan and I spent a good amount of time walking around the beautiful sq. and the park ground. We also visited a castle! It was so picturesque and hard to believe a family of royalty actually lived there. I wonder what it was like; amazing, I am sure! We also walk through the Hungarian Agriculture museum (mistaken for the modern art museum) although it was also a nice to know how Hungarians have lived for the past 3000 years.

Day five- May 22ed: Lecture and Nakedness

Day of the presentation- I had a hangover from the night before and rushed to pull myself together for the lecture and slide show. Thankfully I am scheduled in the afternoon and it was amazing experience to have seen what other artists have done. My presentation went pretty well even though I wasn't 100 percent there.

After the presentation I thought it would be fitting to go to a historic bath for some relaxation. I took the Streetcar over to the Buda side and had a interesting time at the Kiraly bath (built 1566). The bath has an old historic essence oozing out it's very pores. The common changing area still has the old Soviet Union feel, everything thing is utilitarian; blend without personal identity. White floor tiles with baby blue accent borders, white paint with white changing cubical and wood mesh painted white as screens.

I walked through a seemingly endless hallway with paint peeling on the edges, as the wind whispered though my ears, came the centralized circular pool with a large group of men sitting on the edge of the healing water. The very same moment as the sunlight beaming down the shadowy interior through small fist size holes on the dome above, I realized most of the men around me are as old as the the building itself. To me they appear to be gentle, classic, with a sense of over easy comfort to public nudity.

After 2 hours spent in the bath I emerged from the water almost a brand new person. I walked the streets around Kiraly Bath and walked on the Margit bridge and watch the spectacular views this wonderful city has to offer.

Day Three- Work starts

We had our Art residency meeting today for 7 hours, went over the program's history, information, and what we are expected to do. We later drove to a hardware store on the outskirt of the city and did some material researching. I also realized I haven't had the need to speak a word of Hungarian... shocking how people are able to understand each other without the need of a common language.

I got a metal rod and needed a wire/ rod cutter for it at the store and got the wrong tool. I asked a worker and made a sawing action with my hand and he pointed me to the right tool. We didn't understand each other's language but we understood each other's hearts. That was beautiful.

It's been only 3 days since my arrival but I am starting to fall in love with Budapest and can see myself living in this beautiful city. I can's say the same about Taipei, which is totally ironic because I was born there and lived in Taiwan for 14 years. Life in Taiwan is either too boring in the country or too exciting in the city and Budapest is just right with a mixture of everything and very much like a larger Pasadena, which I totally adore.

Due to unexpected internet problems my blog and flicker sites will be uploaded once every 2 days instead of daily

Day Two- War and lost in Budapest

Today I got up early after sleeping for 12 hours. I went to the Nygugati station (hub) and it's attached Westend mall to shop for a SIM card for my cell phone. The train station is beautiful but I forgot my camera so I will have to go back for pictures, it also helps for being a 10 min walk from the hotel.

The mall is new and supposed to be the largest in Europe and it's just slightly larger than Glendale mall; America has Hungary beaten on this one. The mall design was blend, stores there were boring but I did have the most delicious melon ice cram there.

Very much like the Taiwanese, the Hungarians love their hot spring bath. Bath culture is wonderful here also. I lingered over the Danube river in the afternoon and took a great bath in Ruda's (established in the 1500's) and had a very hairy fat man massage my naked body for 22 USD (yes, I had to paid him, what a lucky guy huh). It was also the first time I worn a lion's cloth which it's much more homo- erotic than being nude (that's how hot springs are done in Asia).


I find the city pretty easy to navigate on foot or via subway. I wish LA will have a greater density of mass- transit system soon, very soon.

Although there are some Asians in the city but they are in such small number I find myself a hot commodity amongst some. I have been getting a lot of curious vibes and it's very interesting because I never encountered this before.

I wondered the city until 10pm walked through many nameless and pedestrian-less alleyways but made it back safely. I was a little uncomfortable and scared that someone might “jump” me. The organizer and travel book had repeatedly warned about tourists mugging, pick-pockets and credit card crimes, so far I still haven't felt 'that' unsafe.


i found ur right hand....

Benjamin Page: Lectures, Slide Presentation, Gallery Exhibition in Budapest, Hungary 2008-2009

If you happen to be traveling in Europe or planning for a great destination this summer I urge you to join me and other artists from around the globe in Budapest, Hungary for a wonderful culture and mind inspiring experience.

Benjamin Page in International Artist in Residency: Budapest, Hungary
*May 20th- June 13th, 2008 (Residency dates)

Lectures, Slides Presentation and Gallery Exhibition by Benjamin Page and Artists from around the globe all summer long.

• Lecture and Slide Presentation: 3-4pm, May 22nd , 2208 with topics and discussions on modern sculpture, assemblage, architectural and interior design.
  


• Gallery Exhibitions: Untitled art piece created during the residency will be exhibited at the closing exhibition in mid- June 2008, and is scheduled to be exhibited at Vizivarosi Gallery in Budapest, Hungary and Congress Center, Balatonfured, Hungary in the year 2009 (committed, exact dates to be determined).
  


• Residency Blog and Flickr: http://benjaminpage.net anytime.
  

International Artists Residencies Lecture and Seminar- Budapest, Hungary 2008:

This residency program and year long event is hosted and facilitated by Hungarian Muti- Culture Center; a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation.


Lecture will be held at: Hunter's roomVI. Jokai ter 9. Budapest, Hungary

*May 22, 2008

09:30 Beata Szechy, HMC
10:30 Lisa Erdman, FL, multimedia
11:30 Rudee Westphal, SD, mixed media
14:00 Megan Randlett, MA, mixed media
15:00 Benjamin Page, CA, mixed media

June 19, 2008

10:30 Odette England, UK, photo
11:30 Jenna Spevack, NY, drawing, installation
14:00 Howard M. Christopherson, MN, photo
15:00 Gregory Euclide, MN, painter
16:00 Niku Kashef, CA, photo, installation
17:00 Andreas Papanastasiu-Greek/UK, photo, painting, video

July 17, 2008

10:30 Candida Pestana, Portugal, painter, video
11:30 Hannah Verlin, MA, installation, performance
14:00 Holly Boruck, CA, painter
15:00 Marlene Vinha, Portugal, mixed media
16:00 Lana Ing Gabor, Canada, photo
17:00 Patricia Tinajero, TN, installation
20:00 Kristine Trever, VA, film

Exhibition and FilmFest by Hungarian Muti- Culture Center: opening reception: August 3, 2008 at 6:00pm

Sincerely,

Benjamin Page
Designer- Artist


Studio Functions
architectural, interior, graphic, environmental design

385 S. Oakland Ave. #101Pasadena, CA 91101
626 568 3641P
626 628 3741F
info@studiofunctions.com
www.studiofunctions.com

P.S. Many of you have asked about my HGTV appearance--it's still being scheduled and will email once I have more information.

It's been almost a year since I blogged on my Urban Pasadena blog but am back now or should I say "I will be back by before leaving for Budapest, Hungary May 17th."I am planning for a head- on full blog during my 4 weeks in Eastern Europe. It's very exciting to be doing my Artist in Residency program in Budapest.

It's really one of the last places I thought I would be doing art but it's going to be wonderful!I will also be leaving for Taiwan on May 15 and returning on May 3o. It will be diffcult but I will try to submit a blog or 2 during my stay.

Also stay tune for a new Flicker and a fully updated benjaminpage.net