Mr. Art | Chinese Artist ZhiMin-Online Exhibition Of Amazing Sculptures At The Signs

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.

Leapfrog Development

"Just as there is no still tree in the forest, there is no stay in the river." At the turn of the Jin Dynasty, Guo Pu said.

I like that line. Whenever reciting this poem silently, there will be a silent and magnificent waterfall in my mind and a loud and clear rainbow in the distance. It is like a quiet and agitated natural epic, churning, dust and go, never stop.

▲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

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.