Monthly Archives: June 2021

Acrylic is magic, which boasts beautiful colors and eye-dazzling.

                                                                                   -----Jonathan Adler
                                                                                        American soft interior design master

When it comes to PMMA, most people may not have heard of it, but I believe that as long as you mentioned its nickname: "acrylic" or "plexiglass". You will be very familiar with it.

Acrylic, a plastic material that is transparent as glass and colorful, has brought great changes to our lives and opened up imagination doors to the designers.

This material has transparent texture, gorgeous color, decorative pattern, modeling, which is the same as glass. How excellent acrylic is, we will introduce from the following several aspects.

ONE What Is Acrylic?

It is commonly known as specially processed plexiglass (namely ACRYLIC) and chemical name: polymethyl methacrylate, is a kind of important thermoplastic with its transparency and transmittance just like glass.

Acrylic, an important plasticity polymer material developed earlier, has good transparency, chemical stability, and weather resistance, good hardness, easy dyeing, easy processing, strong light transmittance, high printing adhesion, beautiful appearance, recyclable and other characteristics, and has a wide range of applications in various industries.

TWO Acrylic Production Process

The acrylic molding process includes casting, injection molding, extrusion, hot molding, etc.

△ casting acrylic

△injection molding acrylic

THREE The Characteristics of Acrylic

1. Light density, acrylic is a very light material, its density is only 1.17 ~ 1.20g/cm³, about half of ordinary glass, 43% of metal aluminum.

2. High light transmittance, pure acrylic transparent plate light transmittance in more than 90%. Take 6mm as a reference, common glass transmittance is generally 82-83%, 6mm ultra-white glass transmittance is 90%-92% compared with glass.

3. Strong impact resistance, 16 times of ordinary glass, low risk of fracture.

4. Acrylic has excellent electrical insulation, which works in many electronic products, such as some tiny components of insulators in tablet computers, mobile phones, computers, audio, television, and so on.

5. Moisture-proof, waterproof, no mold, no bacteria. Acrylic is very waterproof and moisture-proof, so it is perfect for making fish tanks, bathtubs, even infinity pools, and aquariums.

6. Acrylic has strong plasticity and can be processed into the required shape at will. Acrylic material is lighter than ordinary glass material, cutting, and processing technology is not complex. Therefore acrylic products can meet the needs of all walks of life for customized products.

7. The wear resistance of acrylic plates is close to aluminum, good stability, and good corrosion resistance for multiple chemicals.

8. Acrylic plate has good printability and spraying, and using appropriate printing and spraying process can give ideal surface decoration effect for acrylic products.

9. Flame resistance: not spontaneous combustion but belong to flammable products, do not have self-extinguishing.

10. Recyclable: waste acrylic can be recycled to remove impurities and add raw materials to re-make acrylic plate for resale.

FOUR  Acrylic Type

1. Transparent Colorless Acrylic

Colorless transparent acrylic is one of the most common materials, and its thickness has various kinds. Transparent acrylic resembles glass, and its transmittance is even better than ordinary glass. It also can be processed in multiple secondary ways, so it is applied widely in many fields.

2. Transparent Color Acrylic

Transparent Colored acrylic plate, commonly known as color plate, its transparent is better than colorless transparent acrylic, more soft, diverse colors, very suitable for decoration. It is fell into three colors according to different transmittance, namely transparent colored, translucent colored, and opaque colored.

3. Pearlescent Acrylic

Pearlescent acrylic is produced from pearl powder or phosphor mixed with general acrylic. Because it has bright color, high surface finish, so it usually is used for unique modeling, food, etc.

4. Embossed Acrylic

There are several types, such as transparent, translucent, colored, and colorless. You can refer to the texture of the embossed glass. Acrylic can also shape these textures for interior decoration, like doors, and windows, etc., and also can show transparency but not perspective.

FIVE  Acrylic Applications

Acrylic is widely applied in (architecture, interior decoration, advertising, transportation, medicine, industry, lighting, daily necessities, and so on).
Range from the windshield, lightbox billboards, to mobile phone bracket, cosmetics bottles

1. Cultural and Creative Product
It produces clever visual effects both acrylic gift box packaging and the products in bright color inside the box, easier to stimulate consumers' curiosity about the product.

2. Furniture 
Acrylic becomes widespread in furniture, and furniture with transparent crystal texture is also very welcome in modern home design.

3. Decorative Paintings
Acrylic paints are non-toxic, dry faster than oil paints, and a popular creative media for many artists.

4. Acrylic Home Decor

5. Bathroom Products
Acrylic is the most common use in the bathtub, and have you had your first acrylic bathtub in your home?

6. Partition Wall
It has the same function as glass, so acrylic is often used as a partition wall or screen.

7. Art Installations
Acrylic has an expressive appealing with an extraordinary appearance, and many designers like to use it as an art installation to attract the eye.

8. Light

9. Buildings

△Munich Olympic Stadium

10. Swimming Pool & Aquarium

Do you know of any other uses for acrylic? Feel free to comment below.

 Chinese Artist-ZhiMin

• -Born in 1975
• -The vice president and the professor of the Chinese Sculpture Institute of Academy of Arts of China
• -A committee member of Artistic Creation and the Instructor guide of Academy of Arts of China

Have you ever learned about sculptures from the signs, such as sea, sky, galaxy, universe, and so on. Now follows Chinese Artist ZhiMin to explore the stories of his sculptures creating.

Artworks Exhibitions

▲Red, White, and Blue 2018 Ceramics Size Variable

Here are three stories about Zhi Min's artworks by Zhi Min.

▲Sound of Sea Partial 340x340x80cm Ceramics and Metals 2019

Twenty years ago, when I was studying, my teacher also said to me: the process of sculpture creation is long and hard, and we need to wait.  For a sculptor, his working period is in the unit of ten years. It depends on how many years you have worked, and you may appear some inspiration in the first and second ten years, and your working methods will appear or you may get some experience in the third and fourth ten years, which is hard to say. I did not quite understand it at the time, but I kept it in mind. Since 2017, I have stepped into my third decade, and I am challenging with new problems.

▲Sound of Heaven 450x450x150cm Ceramic and Metal 2019

In 2019, we carved a dozen pieces of work around the clock, but only finished a few pieces. Artworks such as Start of Autumn and Awakening of Insects, part of the 24 Solar Terms series, having been in the works for three years and are only about a third of the way through the project. 

My latest artwork in 2019, Sounds of nature, Sounds of sea, Sounds of the mountain, gain support from the institute of 【 TULPA. Magic】. It took four months to complete with the help of designers, musicians, playwrights, interaction design engineers, graphic designers, ceramic production, the production of metal, and other experts and technical personnel. Here, I would like to share with you three short stories to describe some of the inspirations in the creative process.

▲The 24 Solar Terms -- Start of Autumn 3300x260x170cm Ceramics and Metals 2019

ONE| The Story of The Sculptor in The Heaven

I've been working on something astronomy-related for years, and I always go to astronomy lectures when I have spare time.

Due to the topic of astronomy covers too broad, I always become utterly disheartened and exciting at the end.

Astronomers say they only think about things beyond the earth, not about the earth and human.

▲Four Gods At The Signs -- Qinglong or Azure Dragon-the God in the East worshipped by the Taoists 850×130×270cm Ceramic and Metal 2017

There was a lecture on the topic of near-Earth asteroids colliding with earth, which was very impressive.

The lecture mentioned that meteorite impacts are a regular occurrence, at least hundreds of huge impacts occurring between 1994 and 2013 by astronomical observations. The director of the Beijing Planetarium said that without organic matter, the earth would look like a bumpy moon. An asteroid impact probability is about 1 year, 4 meters in diameter; 7 mm, 5 years; 60 meters, 1000 years; a kilometer, 500000 years; 5 km, 18 million. But a bigger asteroid is another question, maybe last time -- 65 million years ago dinosaur extinction, cause 80% of species extinction, then lives on earth starts all over again. It sounds like making a sculpture. The earth is what it is today as a result of repeated collisions and self-burning eruptions.

▲Four Gods At The Signs --Vinaceous Rosefinch 620×150×220cm Ceramics and Metal 2017

The unknown and immense forces of Heaven are continually sculpting the universe. Isn't it like a sculptor putting mud on it, or carving it?

I finally understand that Heaven is a sculptor.

▲Four Gods At The Signs -- White Tiger-Name of Group of Seven Stars In The Western Sky 320×120×270cm Ceramics and Metal 2017

He is always making things. I read a similar scene in a novel by Liu Cixin. The heaven artist met the earth artist, and he asked the earth artist: show me your work. Then the earth artist drew a picture and asked, what do you think? The heaven artist took a look, said in little awkwardly: let me show you my work, then flew into space with ice crystals in space between the galaxies to create a huge circle. Could this be Saturn's rings? It's all about the work of heaven.

▲Moon 140x140x80cm Ceramics and Metal 2017

When I was working on Sound of Heaven, I saw many sunk panels on the stage in the south of China. We have been using an object to symbolize celestial phenomena through ancient times. The solar system is a point in the Milky Way's 1 billion planetary systems, and it's not that big. I've done a lot of experiments in my initial works based on the Milky Way Galaxy over the last eight years. Some people say it looks like a pine cone, and I say yes, it's "The Universe in a Nutshell" by Stephen Hawking.

Therefore, there is no abstract or concrete distinction between the object image, and all the object image is the expression of the phenomenon.

▲Four Gods At The Signs -- Xuanwu or God of the Northern Sky 400×60×350cm Ceramics and Metal 2017

When I was working on Sound of Heaven, I saw many sunk panels on the stage in the south of China. We have been using an object to symbolize celestial phenomena through ancient times. The solar system is a point in the Milky Way's 1 billion planetary systems, and it's not that big. I've done a lot of experiments in my initial works based on the Milky Way Galaxy over the last eight years. Some people say it looks like a pine cone, and I say yes, it's "The Universe in a Nutshell" by Stephen Hawking.

Therefore, there is no abstract or concrete distinction between the object image, and all the object image is the expression of the phenomenon.

▲Galaxy 240x240x140cm Ceramic, Metal 2017

TWO| The Story of Boiled Shredded Dry Bean Curd

The relationship between nature and art is much like the relationship between soybeans and tofu.

▲Hetu Luoshu-Earth Sign or Geo-phenomenon 220x220x70cm Ceramic and Metal 2014-2016

Nature is the source of all, while art is the condensation of the artist's ontological values and all externalization, such as culture, history, techniques, aesthetics. After having a certain goal and method, I was thinking about how to transform, and what comes to mind was big boiled dry silk. It is too easy to simulate nature. Soybeans, for instance, can't be boiled, can't be stir-fried, can't be ground into powder. It can't be work but made into tofu with brine. At this point, tofu becomes a bit like art. Brine, much like the description of inspiration in art, means a flash of brilliance. There is no divine spark at all but a stupid experiment time by time. Like tofu, fermented bean curd, bean curd sheets, soya bean has formed their new appearance in the transformation time by time, but their original appearance will disappear, thus catching endless imagination beyond soya bean. My way is to make art from the natural images then out the images to form a new expression.

▲Earth Sign 240x240x70cm Ceramic, Metal 2014-2017

The Chinese character “山”, means mountain, which perfectly follows the pictographic rules on nature as well as separation from natural objects.

▲Hetu Luoshu-Sky Sign or Astronomical Phenomena 250x250x60cm Ceramics and Metal 2014-2016

Finally, I came back to the principle of the Chinese character “永”, which means forever, and eight strokes, as one of the methodological supports of my creation system. Chinese characters are very magical, such as 永 has eight strokes in total, which can be used to combine different characters. When it combined two words, its meaning came out, and three words, its emotion began to transfer, a few words, its paragraph, article, spirit, and philosophy delivered, which start appearing in its system. The language of materials also returns to the form and principle of bricks and tiles. It seems that brick and tile is simple things, but it can pave the way, building a house, can from one thing to another, more complex things, new relationships and new appear, then intrinsic idea manifested. Finally, Sound of Heaven was completed through a series of principles, which also used the celadon to express, carried the cultural worship of jade.

▲Hetu Luoshu - Wanxiang or Wide Spectrum of Life 800x60x50cm Ceramic and Metal 2014-2016

While I respect astrophysics that has a large development prospect, thinking of some objects in a macroscopic view, I also go into the opposite category, looking at smaller, more microscopic structures as a reference. This new work widely employed some elements related to human emotions, such as proteins, benzene rings, DNA sequences. I was deeply fascinated by the world of macro and micro because they are so similar, so mysterious in this exploration process. I think this is also a prelude for my works to turn from macro to micro. You may entirely make an association out of natural water through macro or micro, and into the expression of microstructure from Sound of the Sea.

▲Hetu Luoshu -- Yellow River 320×70×60cm Ceramic and Metal 2014-2016

▲Hetu Luoshu -- Luoshui or Neptune 260×260×60cm Ceramic and Metal 2014-2016

THREE| The Story of Unicorn Beetle

In 2018, I kept a Hercules beetle with my son, watching the thumb-sized worm grow and grow in a few months, evolved into a pupa little by little, finally reinventing itself as a warrior. We were guilt for imprisoned it for so long and decided to set it free into the wild, happening the sight of rainbow color in its body shell reflected by the sun, as its slow paces gradually disappeared in the bushes. I was deeply touched by the great reinventing of lives.

▲The Skyline Ceramic Size Variable 2016

Since all things will eventually melt into nature, then all known beauty is not worth lingering on too much, since the time is limited, only the pursuit of a more fantastic beauty journey is worth longing for. I had to break through the fixed pattern of thinking. During this period, I got some inspiration from music and began to collect natural sounds from all over the world as part of the work, adding visual expression of sounds. With the support of all the experts, this work has completed the preliminary attempt of three dynamic interactive works. But artistic creation cannot be made for the sake of movement. It remains to be thought through whether you have sought the tipping point that moves viewers by your hard pursuit. The course of art creating is long and hard, and only when it touches that point that the power of art may burst out.

▲Free Element

The river of life is vast and boundless--We need to wait, wait for the only thing constant in the course of history: that is "Change".

Recently, Anish Kapoor, one of the most influential contemporary artists, came to Shenzhen to hold a solo exhibition. The exhibition displays more than 80 pieces of his representative works spanning nearly 40 years, including large-scale installations, sculptures, paintings, and other works.
The Anish Kapoor exhibition will be on display at the Shenzhen Museum of Contemporary Art and Urban Planning until July 4, 2021.

After watching the exhibition, I was most shocked by his sculpture experiments and models, from which I could see his thinking and exploration of materials, colors, and space.

Today we would like to share several of his most representative series of works with you.

Anish Kapoor
anishkapoor.com

• - Born in 1954 in Mumbai, India. Now lives and works in London. 
• - Well-known global contemporary art master, whose works are labeled as a combination of Eastern philosophy and Western spirit.
• - 1973-1977 studied at London  Hornsey College of Art and 1977-1978 at  Chelsea School of Art and Design. A British Indian sculptor specializing in installation art and conceptual art. 
• - In 1990, he was involved in the 44th Venice Biennale on behalf of the United Kingdom, and won the "Premio Duemila Award for New Artist", and became the winner of the "Turner Prize" the following year.

Kapoor has held exhibitions at the Grand Palais in Paris, Kensington Park in London, Rockefeller Center in New York, Millennium Park in Chicago, and other world-famous places. He is also the first foreign artist to hold a solo exhibition at the Tai Temple in Beijing. Kapoor's works Cloud Gate, Sky Mirror, and Earth are all known as hot style works.

Kapoor's style is remarkable. He is known for his large-scale installations with a minimalist color, using red wax blocks, stainless steel mirrors, and powders as his usual media. Each work covers Kapoor's exploration of the world and self-consciousness, his pursuit of time and space, and thus forms a dialogue between the phenomenon and the spirit.

Now let's enjoy it!

Explore boundaries with powder

01 1000 names(1979-80)

1000 Names was his first work inspired by the rich colors of India, an extremely simple sculpture with traditional oriental saturated pigments and geometric shapes.

He uses wood, plaster, and paint to combine geometric forms with organic forms to create a poetic collection of sculptures. It was a very new form of sculpture at the time.
 
 

▲Early works 1979-80

 
 
Why did he think of such a way of creation?
 
While traveling in India, Kapoor discovered a toner used for makeup and certain rituals. He wanted to show something natural, primitive, and of free will with these toners. The sculpture through powder that is like an interface, emerging from the floor and wall.
 
 

▲Experiments and drafts 1979-80

 
He worked on such sculptures throughout the 1980s, so he named the series 1000 Names, meaning "infinity", meaning that each sculpture is part of a whole.

▲The shape changed from geometry to organic  1980-1985

 
Explore boundaries with color
 
02 Void Field(1989)
 
In the late 1980s, Kapoor made a series of concave pieces that were painted in deep blue. Colour diminishes the sensation of an object as if it had reached another dimension.
 

▲Version 1 Void 1987

Void explores emptiness, infinity, and the idea of "objects becoming Spaces". It swallows up the viewer's sign with an intense dark blue, the perception of depth and distance flattens out, slipping unawares into the experience.
 

▲Different versions of Void 1987-1989

 
Then he found another way to represent nothingness, Descent into Limbo, a 2.5-meter-deep black hole.
 

  
 
▲Descent into Limbo (1992)

"That's what I'm interested in: the void -- the moment when it's no longer a hole -- a space filled with nonexistence." - Anish Kapoor

people consider the rocks as the spaces we never understand, which are kinds of mysterious infinite spaces. 
 
 

 
Kapoor then wondered whether the same effect could work with a concave mirror.

 
Explore boundaries with mirrors

03 Sky Mirror(2001)
 
He then began exploring industrial materials such as PVC, fiberglass, and steel. He turns the polished stainless steel into various shapes, reflecting or distorting the audience and the surroundings like a haha mirror, trying to change the shape and space.
 

 
One of the most famous creations is the Sky Mirror, which viewers describe as "bringing heaven to earth".

 
▲Sky Mirror 2001

Involving the audience and the space around it is Anish's skill.
 
The work firstly rolls out in the form of public sculpture. Commissioned by the Hanover Theatre, it is made as a 20 feet wide concave mirror.
 

When in front of the Sky Mirror, you feel like you're being pulled into another world. The concave mirror turns the real world upside down, making you feel dizzy while blending in with your surroundings, leaving you wondering about reality and try to break out of the box.
 

 
What you see is not what you see. Kapoor uses the simplest way to provoke philosophical thinking in the viewer.
 

On this basis, the stainless steel surface of Sky Mirror often hides in the surrounding environment, which connecting the environment and breaking the boundaries between things and people.

 ▲Other Mirrors

Walk around the mirror and see how "your world" has changed.

▲"S curve" stainless steel, 216.5x975.4x121.9cm, 2006

▲"Halo" stainless steel, 220x220x44.5cm, 2009

 
▲"Untitled" Stainless Steel and Resin, 220x222x45.5 cm, 2013

 
04 When I Am Pregnant(1992)
 
 
This artwork looks very simple. A round ball pops up on the white wall and smoothly sticks to it.
 
The sculpture, which extending from a building, reflects Kapoor’s interest in the origin of life. When the artist has finished a piece of work, the work is just like his child. While it never belongs to you, the artist has his special evaluation.
  
 
Even in later times, the artist creates other works which are different, the hidden identity crisis triggers impressive thinking when they are on display.
 
 

05 Marsyas(2002-03)

In the early 2000s, Kapoor became more ambitious in the scale of his work and began to work around sites and buildings.

▲Marsyas 2002

In 2002, Kapoor erected three colossal steel rings at the Tate Morden Gallery in the UK and connected them with a 155-meter-long red plastic membrane, forming the shape of a trumpet and extending the length of the gallery's main hall.

 
In 2011 Kapoor placed the giant orb at the Grand Palais in Paris, which has been called one of the supreme works of art ever. The sculpture consists of three 35-meter-high interconnected balloons with a deep purple surface and a  semitransparent red interior.

 
▲Leviathan 2011

Spectral linear structures change with the position and intensity of the sun vary. The movement of the shadow is like a "beast" wandering around.

 
 
▲Leviathan interior

Covered by red PVC canvas, the device is a giant double-horn structure. The viewers shuttle through the installation and can never see them all. Therefore, it remains mysterious and unfathomable. The participation of the audience becomes part of the work.

While the viewer visiting, the device can make a sound reverberating in the whole Turbine Hall Of Tate at the same time. Through dual sensory stimuli, Marsyas has become one of the most notable works of Kappor.

In 2009, Kappor created the permanent device in New Zealand and re-displayed the large sculpture outdoors. The sculpture, which is a double-mouth trumpet-like device, was installed in the groove of the mountains.
 
 
 
 
The size of the work is a difficult point in the production process. From the view of the artist, the size must be bigger than the previous work. Size is just a tool but not a rigid index for measuring the quality of the work.
 

 
 
 
06 My Red Hometown(2003)

▲My Red Hometown. Wax, paint, iron arm, engine, diameter 12 m, 2003
 
My Red Hometown, a giant automated art installation at the heart of the gallery, is powered by a machine that turns a metal arm along a giant container containing 25 tons of soft red wax. The metal squares moved slowly on the dial like hands on a dial, and the traces of red wax seemed to be the passage of time. The red waxwork volcano is about to erupt magma, driven by the rotating wheel, constantly regenerate, cycle and repeat.

 
07 Cloud Gate(2006)
 

We have to say that Kapoor has accumulated a large amount of wealth through many public projects, after all, art costs a lot. The one that received the most praise is Cloud Gate in Millennium Park Plaza, Chicago, which the local people jokingly call Bean.
 

Kapoor uses the polished stainless steel again and seamlessly welds them together, forming a magic shape. Like the series of Sky Mirror, Bean's surface reflects the distorted images of its surroundings. At this time, he perfectly combines the ideas of Sky Mirror and When I Am Pregnant.
 
  
 
The art reflects one or two people, or a single building and the whole complex of Chicago. It also inspires people to approach it, establish a relationship with it and be enlightened.
 
The work is not as easy to make as Sky Mirror. It costs unprecedentedly high--$23 million. It is so lucky for Kapoor not to be sued because there is only $6 million when applying for the project. Just because of the extremely high costs, he has to hire security guards to watch over day and night.
 
 
 
However, the price of Kappor’s work is indirectly driven by this expensive work, which also makes him a benchmark for the price of contemporary artworks. 

08 Descension (2014)
 

Descension is made up of a huge and round whirlpool, in which black flows are continuously collapsing, forming a non-stop black hole. It is one of Kapoor’s most attractive works, which always makes people deeply lost in thought. The water is treated with black pigments thus producing a similar effect to a black hole.
The water here represents a strong oriental philosophy. It is the most commonly used material with extraordinary power.

The work has been curated in many places, where it shows different meanings. When it was displayed under the Brooklyn Bridge, USA in 2017, it was implied that the political outlook was not clear at the time.
 
 
Kapoor pays little attention to the connection with nature and focuses mainly on himself. From the crisis of his own identity to the step-by-step exploration, transcending himself, and trying to influence how the viewer sees and treats the world, Kapoor's artwork continues to exert its influence.

09 Dirty Corner（2015）

In 2015, Anish Kapoor held a solo exhibition at the Palace of Versailles. But the show did not go well, and the installation was destroyed three times. 

Facing the ornate palace, Kapoor placed a huge steel "horn" with gravel in the middle of the garden.
 
The "indecent" appearance immediately angered the French people, who began attacking Kapoor, who is half-Jewish, with "anti-Semitic" remarks written in French on sculptures and rocks.
 
 

Dirty Corner suddenly became a real "Dirty Corner" -- an outlet for racists and right-wing royalists.
 
Kapoor responded, "I will keep these scars to remember this painful history......".
 
Eventually, he had to compromise and covered the graffiti in gold foil after a complicated legal battle.
 
"As an artist,
We have to do experiments in public,
That's how society grows."
- Anish Kapoor

 
10 Stage Designs(2012-2016)
 
Kapoor designed the stage installation for Parsifal (an opera in Dutch National Theatre), which full of his usual elements: mirrors and high-purity reds and blues.

▲Het Muziektheater 2012 Parsifal
 
In 2016, Kapoor designed a tripartite stage for Tristan and Isolde ( an opera in British National Theatre) to enhance the sense of order in the space. The bold styling combined with the shadow effect creates a mythical backdrop for this love story.

 
▲ENO 2016 Tristan and Isolde 
 
 
Kapoor's sculptures blend the object, viewer, and environment into one, giving you an immersive sensory experience.
The audience is no longer a mere spectator, but a participant, inviting us to touch, feel and experience a different world.