I found this still functioning elevator in Shanghai this past summer. It takes one up to probably one of the older contemporary galleries in Shanghai. I first visited in 2004. At the time I expected Shanghai to be country's art center. I spoke with Li Liang who is the proprietor and he assured me that it was Beijing. I a lot of good it did me since I lived in Tianjin at the time

This gallery is still there although I didn't think it was as impressive as it was the first time I saw it. Now that art makes money in China, artists are being less experimental. Fair enough, everyone want to eat and artists are no different. Perhaps it's the buyers who are at fault. If the buyers are more interested in experimental work, then the artists would produce it. Supply and demand. Ai Wei Wei has got it right, use design and architecture, functional things for money. Leave art as expression.

I've often thought that through one's expression they will have ideas and concepts that are applicable in the real world. I have realized that market economies are good for the world as a whole. As ideal as I think communism is, it won't ever be practical because no one person or group of people can know the entire story and thereby make decisions that are good for the whole. So we need to supply what is needed. It is creativity that allows us to see what is needed, or beyond that, what will be needed. I look to design most particularly because I see that it's design that will make life more efficient. It will save us time and resources, make work more enjoyable and easier. Good design will only come from good creative thought, e.g. good art.