In my last post I wrote about the pornographic flap over the CCTV Headquarters complex, the project that continues to knot a lot of knickers. And there is no sign that it’s about to let up. It has become the piñata that won’t stop giving: whack it again and it keeps spraying goodies in every direction.

Personally, the project has evolved into the finest example of accidental art that anyone could have ever possibly imagined. It’s as if yin-yang has taken up both form and formal residency in the CBD (Central Business District). Whatever ends up happening with the TVCC – short of letting it continue its public oxidation trip – I will miss the totality of the project’s oversized (and unintended) visual display of blistered, rusting Destruction cozying up to gravity-defying, high-gloss Order. Who could ever have dreamed that we’d wind up here?

Today I came upon a few photos of the TVCC I’d taken in April 2009, two months after the fire. Nearly everything seems to me to have an ancient Greek parallel, so as I looked over the photos I was reminded of Euripides’ tragedy Heracles (aka Madness of Heracles). This is the only extant play where Madness, the “unmarriageable” daughter of Night (it was the Greeks, and Madness was, of course, a woman), is a speaking character.  She shows up in the tow of the messenger-goddess Iris who, at that moment, was in the employ of Hera. Hera had it in for her namesake, Heracles (the glory of Hera: it’s complicated, and I just don’t have the time). Be that as it may, Madness is an unwilling participant in Hera’s plot against the greatest of heroes, and she wants no part in what is about to happen to the big guy, though without her input, nothing will. She requests that Iris (and by implication Hera) abandon the plan. No dice. When it comes to vengeance, what Hera usually wants is what Hera usually gets. I won’t go into the details, but suffice it to say that when Hera’s peplos was in a twist truly terrible things could happen. Ask Io! In Heracles’ case he goes full-tilt and murderously psychotic, killing his wife and two children before Madness takes her leave. To the Greeks, madness of this type was a temporary state. (For a very recent example of the visiting of Madness, read about LeGarrette Blount, a University of Oregon Ducks running back who punched a Boise St. player after the Ducks had lost to the Broncos in an American college football game, not, as it might sound, an animal war. A contrite Blount, who was suspended from the team said, “I lost my head.” Indeed. He ought to be glad he wasn’t at home.)

But back to Euripides: when Madness enters the play, she appears above Heracles’ house, and finally, after an unsuccessful attempt to dodge her duties, she settles down into Heracles’ home. I have an image of Madness being lowered, and residing for a time as a very odd presence within the building.

So, here’s to madness and the TVCC. I’m pretty sure it’s not pornography.

West face of TVCC, April 7, 2009, 5:49 PM.

On the afternoon of December 3, 2008 I went to Beijing and (surprise! surprise!) shot more photos of the CCTV Headquarters Building, 366 days – it’s a leap year – after I shot my fist photo of the building. Obsessions being what they are, it seemed to be a thing I needed to do. For anyone who would like to know what “preoccupation” really means, click on the CCTV photo link on the right sidebar to see the fruits of a year: 665 photos. There will be more once I have the time to spend to look at the rest of the photos I shot on the afternoon of the 3rd, as well as the morning of the 4th. As I have mentioned in here before, I am not sure what has kept me coming back to this building, though I have a better idea now than I had a year ago, though I am still unsure of how to put it into words. Suffice it to say that it most likely has something to do with Homer (the Greek, not Simpson, though come to think about it …), Rilke, James Joyce; the love of busses and lampposts; sunlight, moonlight and light in general; and a crazy little thing called love. And probably a thing or two more.

click photo for larger copy

Click photos to see larger view.

If your plan is to make a scene, I am asking you to review your reasons for coming here. If you are coming here to free Tibet, don’t bother coming. More often than not those who do the loudest wailing have no idea what that means to the lives of all the poor Tibetans in China who have no idea why things just got worse. All they really know is that things just got a whole lot worse. They don’t need your self-righteousness being played out in China. They don’t need your Olympic plans to make the world a better place. What may sound like a good idea in a well-lit meeting room in a comfortable Student Center, may, in fact, be the absolute worst thing you could possibly do.

To exacerbate an already bad situation, then hop on a jet and fly back home, is not helping anyone at all. No one needs false ‘heroics’ now, especially the indigenous Tibetans who are, more often than not, disregarded by everyone when it comes to promoting outside agendas. … The reality of life in the countryside is a lot more difficult than what you can possibly imagine it to be. Remember, it’s not about you. It’s always about them, so learn who they are and how their lives go down every day, which, at the moment, is difficult, to say the least. You should ask yourself if what you are planning to do would make life any more difficult for the lives of those who you believe you are helping. The saying, “First do no harm,” is actually not a cliché. Pay it some attention. There are other, more effective ways to make your voices heard.

One week into the Games and we’ve seen the self-righteous waving, swinging and unfurling of one thing and another by those with a higher message. It’s tiresome, counter-productive, and irksomely self-promoting. And now in what appears to be a piss poor piece of journalism, a story by the Guardian’s Jonathan Haynes, accompanied by an incriminating photo, tells us all that it has happened again, this time along the East Third Ring Rd. The accuracy of the story is highly questionable.

The photo shows a couple of folks swinging from ropes from the wall of giant billboards along the what appears to be the western perimeter of the CCTV Bldg. property, not the actual building as Haynes reports.

The pair abseiled down the building’s glass facade and hung their banner over an Olympics billboard with the slogan “Beijing 2008″ at 5.45am local time.

If, in fact, I am correct about the location of the pair – on one of the billboards along the East Third Ring Rd. – it would be virtually impossible to abseil down that side of the building and end up on the billboards. Tower 1 leans 6 degrees to the east, not the west, and to abseil from the building to the billboards would be a real trick, one that would have needed a boom, some expensive and cleverly rigged wires, and the creative direction of Zhang Yimou. It appears to me from the photo that the pair of self-promoting rope folks were near the new Jintaixizhao subway entrance, close to the CCTV Bldg, but hardly on it. I expect better of the Guardian. And if I am wrong, I will be more than happy to apologize to Mr. Haynes, though I think that the apology will be owed by them for their shoddiness of reporting.