My Dad tells a little story about my late Grandfather and their travels through China twenty years ago. It was one of those tours where you run about non-stop like a headless chook, which my elderly Grandpa found tiresome. After a particularly long day they arrived in Guilin late at night, he was grouching about the long journey. “Why would they bother to travel so far to this place? Just another city”. Disgruntled, he went to sleep. Early the next morning he awoke and drew back the heavy curtains the room, and was awestruck by the landscape in front of him. Excited like a child, he woke up my parents exclaiming ” Wake up! You have to see this!!”.
Visiting Peter Godwin’s exhibition Li River and Guilin at Defiance Gallery today, I experienced that same breathless wonder my Grandpa did back then in Guilin. I thank him for sharing with us with this series of painting, and for directing me down my little trip along memory lane.
Through the looking glass 