On January 1, 2022, at the intersection of Guangshun South Street, a "Wangjing Giant Panda" wearing a silver gray hat and a mech coat made a new appearance. It has a cute expression, a round belly, a WIFI logo on its chest, and a silver frosted mech that shines in the winter sun.
More in line with the modern urban temperament of Wangjing Fat Da
Wangjing is fat
As soon as this panda appeared, it was on Weibo's hot search. Netizens shouted: "Mecha panda, too cute!" "Full of a sense of technology!" Because of its huge size and sci-fi temperament, it is also affectionately called "Trojan Panda", "Cyberpunk Panda" and "Combat Cat".
Old Wangjing giant panda
The giant panda sculpture at the intersection of Guangshun South Avenue has always been the most eye-catching landmark in Wangjing. However, the previous pair of mother and son pandas have been covered in mottled after years of sun and rain. Cracks appeared in many places on the giant panda's body, and the paint surface also fell to varying degrees, revealing the plastic film inside. The relevant person in charge of Wangjing Street has previously said that the Wangjing giant panda has been included in the urban renewal plan.
New Year, New Atmosphere. The mecha panda unveiled on New Year's Day 2022 is by young artist Bi Heng. Its real name is actually "Fat Da". Bi Heng told the Nandu reporter: "Now Wangjing is the home of Fat Da, Fat Da is at home to welcome visitors from all over the world, and Fat Da's 'brothers and sisters' are traveling in all directions, taking the initiative to invite guests from afar back home." ”
Upgraded "Wangjing Fat Da"
The "Fat Da" series of works was born in 2017, when Bi Heng, who had just become a father, had the idea of creating a series of works for his baby. With the deepening of creation, he poured more and more effort into it, and also gained more and more expectations. Bi Heng decided to dedicate his artistic life to thousands of Chinese children and parents, making up for the lack of generations of people who have been playing with foreign toys and consuming foreign culture.
In Bi Heng's design, the profound doctrine of the unity of heaven and man in the oriental native culture is integrated with the future scientific and technological elements that have swept the world - the round and cute national treasure panda is draped in a cool nano-mecha, and the black and white pattern on its chest symbolizes the universal law of the world and the natural nature of the Taoist law.
In 2018, the fat design drawings were all completed; in 2019, the 12-meter-high fat da turned out.
《Fat Da》 Comprehensive Material 1200*750*500cm 2019
Bi Heng has lived in Wangjing for many years and regards Wangjing as his "second hometown". When "Fat Da" stood out from the many creative schemes, he was very happy and determined to make a little contribution to the "second hometown". He immediately embarked on an upgrade to make it conform to Wangjing's unique fashion culture.
Chubby creator artist Bi Heng
Bi Hengnandu reporter introduced that compared with its "brothers and sisters", Wangjing Fat Da has three unique features. "Its hands are cute and raised, and its right hand is high and the left hand is low," it is like directing traffic in the transportation hub area, it is like a performer composing the music of the times, it is also like embracing guests with open hands, and it is like looking forward to the future from afar. "Eye-catching WIFI signal pattern on the chest," symbolizes the high-tech innovation positioning in wangjing area and the characteristics of the Internet era that are inseparable from people's lives, and the auxiliary logo next to it is a button that is charging, and the positive and negative poles of the battery are black and white, which are divided into two by the lightning graphic in the middle, which is both a solar charging display, and resembles the yin and yang harmony concept of tai chi in traditional Chinese culture, which not only expresses the homology of traditional Chinese culture and modern cutting-edge scientific ontology. It also means the relationship between high-tech development and natural ecological protection, and we should learn from the wisdom of the ancient Chinese people, interdependence, harmonious symbiosis, green water and green mountains are golden mountains and silver mountains. ”
At the same time, the material of Wangjing Fat Da is the first time to use the stainless steel forging process, which can be permanently displayed and passed down through the ages.
For public art in the city, Bi Heng believes that the most important thing is the word "moderation". "Suitable" is appropriate, degree is degree, and temperament. Works that enter the public domain are not only the expression of the artist's unique ideas, but also represent the common consciousness of a group of parties and even an entire country. From this point of view, giant pandas, mecha, WI-FI, futurism, super large size, splurge and implicitly convey the impression of this era, are indeed a combination of elements that are easy to resonate.
Wangjing in the night is fat
Sure enough, after the fat da appeared at the intersection of Wangjing Guangshun South Street, it immediately became a "net red" that the citizens liked to see. Many citizens and friends specially drove to take photos and punch cards. At night, the chubby mech flashes multicolored lights, adding a dreamy layer to itself and the surrounding city.
Art is only related to the creator's intention and pattern
Bi Heng was born in 1985 in Jinzhou, Liaoning. Grandma was a skillful folk artist, and after discovering Bi Heng's talent for painting, she became his earliest art enlightenment teacher. His mother was a simple and unpretentious servant of the people, and his "sense of social mission" and "feelings of family and country" were imprinted in his childhood memories from an early age. His father was a professional art teacher, and since he was a child, he took him to visit famous teachers and practice diligently.
He was quite talented in art, and was successfully admitted to the Affiliated Middle School of the Central Academy of Fine Arts, and then entered the Central Academy of Fine Arts without examination, and entered the Sculpture Department and the Fourth Studio with the first place in the comprehensive. After graduating from university, he was exempted from the examination and sent to the Master's Degree of The Central Academy of Fine Arts, becoming the first undergraduate and master's double guarantee student since the establishment of the Central Academy of Fine Arts.
《Solution・Release》
In 2010, Bi Heng created the first super-large-scale installation art that exceeded the conventional dimension, "Solution, Release", which was combined with the National Art Museum of China as a representative work of the Sino-German Cultural Year to Kassel to win glory for the country, which was a sensation. He told Nandu reporter that at that time, he obtained the only qualification of a postgraduate student in the Sculpture Department of the Central Academy of Fine Arts, and he thought of doing something different to repay the love and recognition of teachers and leaders, so he chose this most difficult, most headache, and most misunderstood public art field.
"Battle of the Leftover Buddha" Comprehensive Material 1000*700*400cm 2015
《Fuxing No.》 Comprehensive Materials 1200*800*1300cm 2019
The success of "Xie Fang" has opened up a new artistic path for Bi Heng. Since then, more giant works such as "Fighting leftover Buddha", "Fat Da", "Revival", "Potential" and so on have been born, and Bi Heng has led contemporary art to successfully break the circle with his new artistic language and creative system. Laymen call him "the first person in Chinese mecha art" because he has spawned a large number of imitators and related manufacturing industries; industry insiders say that he is the forerunner of Chinese pop art, because he has in a sense filled the gap between ordinary people and niche art for thousands of years.
2021 Spring Festival debuted in Beijing Sanlitun Taikoo Li's "Potential"
Talking about the reasons for his commitment to public art, Bi Heng said: "At that time, Chinese contemporary art had just experienced the baptism of a round of capital bubble, and we fully witnessed the absurd and bizarre trend of artistic dream-making, and also clearly realized the many problems of doing art in developing countries. Because art is inseparable from the audience, and the audience cannot understand art, each work of art cannot be interpreted from the time and space background at that time, and every artist cannot ignore the characteristics of the times and regions to create. How to let Yangchun Baixue enjoy the elegance and customs, how to make the Foundation of Aesthetic Education really have a big gap with the old developed countries, the Chinese people can accept local art, this is a rather grand social problem that must be faced and solved. ”
Although "large-scale", "traditional culture" and "robot" have become the labels of Bi Heng's works, he believes that art has nothing to do with size and size, has nothing to do with the nobility of materials, and is only related to the creator's heart and pattern. "From my personal interests, the cost performance and commercial feedback of doing large public installations are actually not high. The value and significance of doing this is that it can allow more Chinese people who are restricted by many conditions and cannot often enter the art museum and the next generation of China to have more convenient daily aesthetic contact. ”
Nandu reporter Huang Qian