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From workshop’s ashes, new sculptures rise
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WHEN sculptor Chen Zimo looked at his charred work, fused by a fire that had just ravaged his studio, he felt oddly inspired. As a wild fire gives way to the growth of tomorrow’s forests, Chen saw the beauty — and the potential — in the destruction. Why not turn the burnt and charred objects into new art, he thought.
“I was touched. It was sad, yet somehow there was a beauty in this solemnity,” Chen said.
He invited his fellow artists to his studio and found that they felt the same kind of inspiration. Then, they started to work. The result of this process, along with other fire-themed artworks, is now being shown in the “Transcending Spirit” exhibition currently underway in a shopping mall in Hangzhou.
His friend Zheng Hong, also the curator, shaped a burnt iron pipe into an open corridor. A burnt sculpture hangs above it and inside, two projectors cast photos of the scorched workshop, as if to make visitors relive the disaster.
Another friend, He Hai, rearranged the workshop casualties and took photos. Most of Chen’s sculptures are plaster sheep and oxen, and He positioned them sitting, lying, or gathering as a group, with sarcasm slogans. The work is named “Animal Garden.”
Shen Ruilan took a different approach, and combined burnt tin foil sheets and cotton into a miniature “Zen Garden.”
A Japanese Zen Garden creates a miniature landscape through carefully composed arrangements of rocks, bushes, and the use of gravel or sand to represent ripples in water. Shen used tin foil with burnt rims to create hills, and large bunks of burnt cotton as rocks.
Not all materials are from the workshop. Wang Hui turned a BBQ grill into Latin letters that read “what a world.”
“BBQ, as a very popular cooking way around the world, connects people and is a good way to strengthen friendship,” said Wang.
Shao Wenhuan experimented with burning his photo films. The developed photos of gray rocks appear purple, pink and blue, and look featured because the films were scorched.
The exhibition is held on the first floor of Star Avenue Shopping Mall and will end on March 31.
If you can’t get enough of art events, there’s another one that’s worth checking out at Sanshang Contemporary Art Space. Aptly named “Fortune Bag,” this exhibit shows 240 fortune bags filled with 240 artworks by artists from China, America, the UK, Australia, Finland, and South Korea. Big names include contemporary calligraphers Wang Dongling and Zhang Yu, known for his “fingerprint calligraphy.”
You can buy one fortune bag for 100 yuan (US$15.35), a second one for 400 yuan, and a third bag for 800 yuan, but you can only see what you’ve purchased afterward.
Half of the bags have already been sold, and the artworks that were inside are now on exhibit in the gallery, until their new owners pick them up. Works vary from paintings and calligraphy pieces to installations and photography work.
There’s some great work, but also some questionable pieces. One bag contained 100 yuan and HK$100 (US$12.88), another contained vacuum-wrapped garbage.
The exhibition will end on March 20. Try your luck!
• “Transcending Spirit”
Date: Through March 31
Address: 1/F, 228 Jiangnan Ave
Admission: Free
• “Fortune Bag”
Date: Through March 20 (closed on Mondays)
Address: 52-2 Yan’an Rd S.
Admission: Free
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