Luo Bin and the children pinched the dough people together
Guan Gong of Qi YuXuan, Goku who rides the clouds and clouds, the hero retrograde... The seven-colored dough was kneaded and kneaded in the hands of the master of dough sculpture, luo bin, and the dots were cut and carved, and in an instant, they turned around gorgeously and became a flexible and vivid work.
Walking into the creative studio of Luo Bin, the non-hereditary heir of the Statue in the east, those characters from myth or history come to your eyes, making you feel like crossing. But as soon as you turn around, cartoons and comic sculptures pull you back to reality.
Luo Bin, who has been engaged in the creation of face sculpture for more than 30 years, said: "Face sculpture is also a plastic life.
Luo Bin's award-winning works
Pass on the skills of the dough kneaders
Luo Bin was born in 1968 in Rudong, Jiangsu Province, and his ancestors have been farming for generations. He has loved to draw since he was a child, especially painting the face sculptures pinched by his grandfather.
Face sculpture, commonly known as noodle flowers, kneading people, it is flour and glutinous rice flour as the main material, mixed into different colors, hands and simple tools, combined with ancient folk etiquette, shaping a three-dimensional shape with both shape and god.
Rudong is bordered by rivers and seas, the climate is mild, suitable for growing wheat and rice, and there has been a traditional custom of making face sculptures since ancient times. People use face sculptures to remember their ancestors, bless their elders, welcome new lives, and express their yearning for a better life. Such as the east of the plastic delicate, beautiful, exquisite, with a strong river and sea style, in the folk widely loved.
Luo Bin's grandfather's face shaping skills are superb, and whenever the families of the eight villages in ten miles are married and funerals, the festivals of the year, the worship of gods and ancestors, the birthday full moon and other red and white happy events, they invite grandpa to steam flowers and knead noodles, and Luo Bin follows to see the strange and lively. The seemingly ordinary dough, kneaded, kneaded and kneaded in Grandpa's hand, became a vivid little creature, endowed with soul and life. The children envied Luo Bin for having a grandfather who could "change tricks", Luo Bin used mud to imitate his grandfather to pinch the clay man, and the little friends were happy to play with him. Grandpa saw it in his eyes, was happy in his heart, and taught him to knead the noodles hand in hand, and Luo Bin learned the noodle man craft when he was ten years old.
After graduating from high school, Luo Bin went to work in a state-owned distillery, working peacefully, painting, carving, and kneading noodles in his spare time, and his life was full of taste. He intends to do this for the rest of his life. In 2002, the once-beautiful winery closed down, and Luo Bin and his colleagues became laid-off workers.
On the day of his layoff, Luo Bin suddenly had a lot of time, but in a panic, he regained his facial mold and passed the boring and unbearable time. His parents saw that he did not come out of the door, the second door was not open, and he was making face molding all day, worried that he would be bored, so they asked him to help take care of the small stall selling vegetables. Luo Bin brought the dough and tools such as plastic knives and rollers to the stall, selling vegetables while studying dough molding. Some children saw that they were clamoring to buy, parents saw that the noodles were cute, and they were also willing to buy them to make the children happy, and Luo Bin sold the noodles by the way.
Luo Bin saw the business opportunities, he was more energetic as a face person, no longer limited to traditional themes, and created some characters in popular cartoons with the times to meet the preferences of children. He specially made a mobile stall, usually placed in shopping malls, parks and other places with many mobile people, and placed at the entrance of the kindergarten after school hours. As soon as the kindergarten door opened, the children flew like birds to Luo Bin's stall. He presented the vivid shapes of Sun Wukong, Pig Eight Commandments, Pleasant Goat, Bald Head Qiang and so on to the children.
The stall business is booming, although Luo Bin is hard, but there is joy in suffering, and life is full and satisfied. But the good times are not long, some parents are worried that their children are obsessed with playing noodles, affecting learning, and reflect to the teacher, saying that Luo Bin is making some gadgets to cheat children's money. Before school, the teacher specially instructed that children were not allowed to buy things from small stalls at the school gate, but the effect was not great. The teacher talked to the student who bought the noodles, and a bold boy said, "Teacher, I know it's wrong not to listen to you, but I really like that sun monkey and can't help but buy it." The school therefore found the chengguan, who said that Luo Bin affected the urban environment and brought safety hazards, criticized and educated him and fined him.
The sister advised Luo Bin: "You still have to find a proper job, the noodle kneader can't eat as a meal, can't wear it as a dress, if you can live on it, Grandpa and Dad will have already used it as a rice bowl." Luo Bin believes that the face sculpture is the crystallization of the wisdom of the ancestors and is a living work of art. The sister sighed: "Little face person, how many people treat it as a work of art." Luo Bin regards facial sculpture as a profession, which many people cannot understand, but he has feelings for the facial sculpture that accompanies his growth and is reluctant to put it down.
Luo Bin and the award-winning works
Keep pace with the times and innovate
Because of love, so insist. Luo Bin's face shaping skills are becoming more and more skilled, and his fame is getting bigger and bigger. In May 2010, the traditional art "Rudong Mian Sculpture" entered the second batch of municipal intangible cultural heritage list in Nantong. In 2013, Luo Bin became the inheritor of Rudongmian Plastic. The government attaches great importance to face plastic, and Luo Bin feels more confident and more responsible.
Grandpa kneaded noodles to mythology and legends, historical stories, birds and animals, flowers, birds, fish and insects and other traditional themes, such as Journey to the West, eight immortals across the sea and so on. Noodles are toned with natural materials such as spinach juice and tomato juice, and can be eaten after completing their folk mission, and are "works of art on the tip of the tongue".
While inheriting his grandfather's craftsmanship, Luo Bin paid more attention to the ornamental and collecting value of face sculpture. He has a foundation in painting, and the subject matter of facial sculpture is more extensive than that of his grandfather. He pays attention and carefully observes everywhere in his life, what he sees, hears and feels are all related to face sculpture, and when he has good inspiration, he draws it in a sketch way, and then pinches out the face according to the drawing draft.
Over the years, in order to improve the technique of noodle shaping, Luo Bin has carefully studied the selection of raw materials, noodles, waking noodles, kneading, basket steaming, coloring and other processes, repeatedly experimented, and sometimes forgot to eat for the sake of a detail of perfection. Luo Bin's wife said: "He made a face molding, and sometimes he didn't pay attention to his meals, and he really couldn't take this 'one tendon'." ”
In order to solve the problems of fading, cracking and moisture of the traditional formula, Luo Bin improved the dough formula, added a variety of accessories and preservatives to the fabric, continuously adjusted the proportions in the process of practice, improved while groping, and even innovatively used modern handmade materials instead of flour, making the works easier to preserve, and also making the face plastic technique easier to promote and popularize.
Luo Bin absorbed techniques such as clay sculpture, carving, and pottery, and integrated Rudong farming culture and marine culture into his works to form his own face sculpture art style. His face sculptures are more composed of a variety of characters, animals and background materials, which are miniature stages. A work is a three-dimensional painting, a silent play, a story with a chewing head, such as "Zhinu Digging Harbor", "Haizi Cow", "Jiang Taigong Fishing", "Retrograde"... The smallest works are only two or three centimeters, and the large works are tens of centimeters high, and they can also be tailored to special specifications and specific themes according to customer requirements.
In order to inherit the technique of face sculpture, Luo Bin often participates in various cultural promotion activities and sends his proud works to the exhibition. He accepted invitations from France, Singapore and other countries to perform the art of rudong sculpture on the international stage. His face is realistic and funny, and foreign friends are amazed, give a thumbs up and admire, and buy collections. Some friends also do it themselves with great interest. Luo Bin said: "To inherit the culture of face sculpture, we must keep pace with the times, innovate the old, and go out, which can not only let more people understand and like face sculpture, but also give themselves a platform to re-learn and practice." ”
Intangible cultural heritage continues the spiritual blood of our country and nation, and needs to be passed on from generation to generation, and the state attaches great importance to non-genetic inheritance, and all sectors of society also give considerable respect to non-genetic inheritors. CCTV and local media have repeatedly reported on Luo Bin and his face sculpture, and the documentaries "Nantong Intangible Cultural Heritage - Face Sculpture" and "Hi Craft: Nantong Face Sculpture" have been broadcast on many television stations, so that more people have begun to understand face sculpture, like face sculpture, and love the art of plastic sculpture.
Knead the "face mold" into an intangible cultural heritage
2020 is an extraordinary year, at the beginning of the New Year, the new crown pneumonia epidemic suddenly struck, the whole people to fight the epidemic, medical workers, people's children and soldiers, countless volunteers risked their lives, retrograde, charging in the front line. Luo Bin created "Retrograde", participated in the Nantong Non-Cultural Heritage Publicity and Display Activities in Action, and created "Lifeline" with the theme of community bayonet duty, paying tribute to the hero in his own way.
In September, the main event of the 3rd Chinese Farmers Harvest Festival was held in Yuncheng, Shanxi, and Luo Bin's "Returning with a Full Load" created by Luo Bin's father and son was selected by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs and exhibited at the main venue of the event. The work shows the fisherman fishing and harvesting a good harvest, and his face is full of joy, which is a good interpretation of the theme of Chinese farmers "celebrating the harvest together and welcoming the well-off".
In October, the 6th China Intangible Cultural Heritage Expo was held online, with a total of 890 craftsmen from all over the country participating and 2,000 works received. Luo Bin created "Our Festival Series" based on traditional Chinese festival elements, including: firecrackers to welcome spring, Lantern Festival, Qingming Festival, Dragon Boat Festival, Queqiao Rendezvous, Chang'e Moon And Chongyang Festival. 52 outstanding players qualified to participate in the offline final in Jinan, Shandong, and Luo Bin was on the list. On the morning of the 23rd, Luo Bin created a face sculpture work "The Joy of Harvest" at the Jinan International Fashion Creative Center, which tells the story of a family of three picking fruits in a farm orchard and broadcasting live on mobile phones to share the joy of harvest with relatives and friends, reflecting the beautiful life in the countryside after the comprehensive well-off. The work has a clear theme, color coordination, and harmonious picture, and has been unanimously praised by the judges, and finally won the first prize of the clay sculpture project.
In 2021, in the Year of the Ugly Cow, Luo Bin's face sculpture "Spring Back to the Earth" was selected to participate in the invitation exhibition of Chinese Fu Rui zodiac works held by the China Folk Writers Association. In the work, there are two plum trees on the fertile earth, two sea cows, and a girl riding on the back of the cow, waving plum branches. Heaven and man are one, joyful, and the spring breeze is full of spring flowers.
In order to let Rudong face plastic cause successors, Luo Bin brought face sculpture into museums, campuses, enterprises, communities, scenic spots, held public lectures, and taught face sculpture making skills. From the elderly to the kindergarten children, as long as the opposite plastic is interested, Luo Bin always tires of it and patiently guides. His works include traditional themes, cartoons and comic sculptures, which are loved by people of different ages. Tongzhou Secondary School hired Luo Bin as a teacher of public elective courses in the cultural heritage category to teach students systematic face plastic.
When Luo Bin took the college entrance examination for his son Luo Ji, he suggested that he fill in the major related to face plastic. The son understood his father's thoughts, and with the ideal of inheriting his father's mantle of face sculpture art, he was admitted to the ceramics major of Wuxi Institute of Technology as he wished. After graduating in 2016, Luo Ji followed his father into the face sculpture industry, integrating and applying the knowledge he learned to face sculpture works, displaying Rudong sculpture techniques in the Nanjing Museum Intangible Cultural Heritage Museum, and has now become the county-level inheritor of Rudongmian plastic. Luo Ji said: "Under the influence of my father, I loved face molding since I was a child, and I liked to watch the dough constantly changing in my hands, and the noodles moved with my heart, conveying wonderful stories. ”
On the workbench, a model of a red boat is particularly eye-catching, Mao Zedong, Dong Biwu and other representatives stand at the bow of the ship, Mao Zedong holding a scroll, staring into the distance, is discussing the road of the Chinese revolution with the people around him, which is a gift from Luo Bin's father and son to the 100th anniversary of the founding of the party. He said: "The title of the work is 'Sailing the Chinese Dream', the little red boat symbolizes the beginning of the Chinese Communist Party, it has witnessed our party's century-old journey of ups and downs, we must not forget the spirit of the red boat, we can not forget the party's kindness." ”
Don't forget your original intention, you have to be consistent. Luo Bin's father and son plan to build a new larger studio, so that more people can come in to discuss the technique of face sculpture, get close to the intangible cultural heritage, and share the feast of excellent traditional culture.
(Text/Chen Hao)
Luo Bin's work "Sailing the Chinese Dream"