One man鈥檚 trash is another man鈥檚 artwork
Print Edition
Gu Qichang might be somewhat compared with British musician and TV presenter Neil Buchanan, whose popular 鈥淎rt Attack鈥 program encouraged children to make art from items found around their homes.
Gu can turn cotton wadding, plastic cans, polystyrene foam or any trash really into a piece of art.
What people throw out, he collects. He rummages through recycling bins looking for bottles of peculiar shapes. He scours construction sites for discarded materials with art potential.
鈥淵eah, the house looks like a garbage site,鈥 said Gu鈥檚 long-suffering wife.
Neighbors aware of Gu鈥檚 special interest collect empty bottles and other usable refuse to bring them to him. To date, the 80-year-old retiree has created between 4,000 and 5,000 pieces of art.
His peculiar passion began in 1994 when Gu became a teacher at the Jing鈥檃n Teenager Activity Center so he could be close to his ailing mother in the district.
鈥淚 had taught math and Chinese at my previous school, but they didn鈥檛 offer those classes there, so I became a handicrafts teacher,鈥 he explained. 鈥淚鈥檓 not a professional. I don鈥檛 have a degree. I thought hard about what I could teach students.鈥
Calligraphy? Painting? Rubber carving? No, those arts were commonplace in every school. He wanted something different, something special to engage his students鈥 attention. It had to be new, simple and clever.
鈥淪imple meant that we would use materials found everywhere in daily life,鈥 Gu said. 鈥淚 didn鈥檛 want students to have to buy a kit for only one class. It wasn鈥檛 necessary.鈥
At first, Gu brought large stones to class to form artificial hills, but the stones were too bulky and difficult to carve. So he decided to use common polystyrene foam, which he covered with white glue to make it more durable and then wrapped in thin paper on which colors could be painted.
鈥淪tudents didn鈥檛 even need scissors in class,鈥 he explained. 鈥淭hey could just use their hands to create the shapes of hills.鈥
Although Gu wasn鈥檛 a trained artist, his inclination toward art manifested itself early in life. At age 10, illness forced him to drop out of school. His mother sent him to study traditional Chinese painting. But Gu wasn鈥檛 really interested in old traditions. His interest was in finger painting, blow painting with straws or any other new way of creating art.
鈥淪uch so-called 鈥榰nrefined鈥 forms of art can often achieve what traditional arts cannot do easily,鈥 he said.
In Gu鈥檚 classes, students used toothpicks and glue instead of brushes to draw. An electric soldering iron and rubber sheeting were the tools of their creations. Wire, straw, bottle caps and plastic plates were their inspiration.
鈥淟ook at this white and soft cotton wadding,鈥 he said. 鈥淗ow suitable it is to create a ballerina. If you look at something and you don鈥檛 see much beauty, then you have to use your imagination to create something.鈥
His art has encompassed many techniques, including floating ink painting, imitation etching, paper carving, blow painting with straws and use of sticky notes.
鈥淚 just like finding a new path of doing things 颅鈥 thinking outside the box,鈥 said Gu. 鈥淢any parents send children to piano or chess lessons. That鈥檚 good, but I wanted to teach them a way of thinking that allows them to find creative solutions when faced with a dilemma.鈥
This sort of creative process is filled with serendipity.
鈥淪ometimes I can predict an outcome,鈥 he said. 鈥淥ther times the result is a surprising shock.鈥
He recalled the time a frustrated student threw his artwork in a bin because he thought it was no good.
鈥淚 picked it up after class, cut out the best part and put on some decoration on top,鈥 he said. 鈥淎t the next class, I displayed the work and asked them to guess who had done it. They were stumped. When I announced the name of the student, everyone was surprised. That student himself didn鈥檛 recognize his own work.鈥
The work of Gu鈥檚 students was displayed in the Shanghai Technology Museum when it opened in 2002.
Since retirement, Gu has held classes in community centers. It鈥檚 harder for the elderly to learn thinking outside the box than it is for children, he said.
A bit of a chip off the old block, Gu鈥檚 eight-year-old grandson is already an expert in making darts and paper planes from leaflets, and searching through rubbish bins for any interesting materials he can use.
鈥淲e see more creativity in the younger generation,鈥 Gu said. 鈥淎nd it鈥檚 important to teach them how to keep developing in that way in a world where iPads and mass media divert so much of their attention.鈥
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 娌狪CP璇侊細娌狪CP澶05050403鍙-1
- |
- 浜掕仈缃戞柊闂讳俊鎭湇鍔¤鍙瘉锛31120180004
- |
- 缃戠粶瑙嗗惉璁稿彲璇侊細0909346
- |
- 骞挎挱鐢佃鑺傜洰鍒朵綔璁稿彲璇侊細娌瓧绗354鍙
- |
- 澧炲肩數淇′笟鍔＄粡钀ヨ鍙瘉锛氭勃B2-20120012
Copyright 漏 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
