Cover news reporter Yang Fan
At the beginning of the new year in 2022, a group of "new friends" came to chengdu's wide and narrow alleys! They are tall, varied, vivid and interesting, and are waiting for the arrival of citizens and tourists in the small Western-style building square of Jingxiangzi. This is the sculptor Liu Shijun's "Contemporary Rap Figurines" series of sculptures, each exhibited sculpture is about 3 meters high.
"Contemporary Rap Figurines" is a group of contemporary sculptures inspired by the image characteristics of the excavated cultural relics "Rap Figurines", sculpture artist Liu Shijun created 20 images with this theme, 9 of which are also specially enlarged. From the beginning of this idea and the first draft to the formation of this series, this group of works has gone through thirteen years.
Ten years ago, China's popular "hundred pulpits" and various drafts made Liu Shijun borrow the symbolic language of "rap figurines" to express the current state of people's existence, which is also their inner doubts and contradictions. In Liu Shijun's eyes, the series of sculptures of "contemporary rap figurines" are internally linked, and it is also like the ancient rap figurines, using exaggerated movements and forms to cover up inner uneasiness and loneliness. What is the difference between contemporary people and rap figurines in essence? They all play a variety of "rap" roles in their own work or life.
The reason why they will be exhibited in the wide and narrow alleys with huge crowds is that the artist hopes that they can have an "immersive" interactive experience with a wide audience. Liu Shijun's group of sculptures allows audiences of different ages and genders to choose different colors of pens according to their different personal preferences, and write down what they want to write within the prescribed range (the pants part of the sculpture). For example: describe your mood of the day, your own wishes, your own summary, your attitude towards life, the record of current events, the impact of the epidemic, the meaning of life, the inner doubts, etc., even if it is to write about so-and-so's visit here. Then mark yourself at the end of the sentence according to your gender and age.
An example of a tag is as follows: If you are a male in your 20s, mark it at the end of the sentence. If you are a woman at the age of 25, mark it at the end of the sentence. The artist then does the curing protection of the surface, leaving all the handwriting permanently. The result is an unpredictable special color effect.
It is understood that tens of thousands of people participated in the interaction with the "rap figurines" during the New Year's Day holiday just past, and the words and messages on the sculpture have basically filled all the corners of the body. Already in this way, it seems to stimulate the audience's inner infinite desire for expression, which is released through the expression of the nib on the sculpture.
Liu Shijun told the cover news reporter that as a three-dimensional space art, sculpture works should have belonged to the audience. He will try to consider leaving a specific area for the audience to write in his future works. "And these words with spatio-temporal memory are integrated with sculpture, in addition to satisfying the functions of expression and unintended effects, its content has extraordinary significance and post-research value, so that the latitude of the work is extended, the role can be transformed, and the deeper potential meaning is carried."