Who is Chen Xuan?
She is the CEO of "Ten Upper Buildings", an architect and a designer. From the Embassy of Saudi Arabia in Beijing and the Ullens Art Center to Jackie Chan Inception and Mei Ting's private residence, her ever-changing artistic creations have constantly broken through the limitations of symbolization; she is also a costume designer, rock singer, artist... Her search for herself allows her to travel freely in different fields; she is also an ordinary woman, tender as water in front of her loved ones, the pride of her mother, the example of her daughter. Hello! "Big Girl" enters the space art and explores the artistic creation concept of architectural designer Chen Xuan.
From "I Am Brick" to "Who Am I?"
It is difficult for ordinary people to associate Chen Xuan, who has long hair and a shawl and fashion and generosity, with reinforced concrete, and it is difficult to imagine that she was once a rebellious teenager with a seven-centimeter head. As she herself put it: "When everyone grows up, there is a process of asking 'who am I?'" Chen Xuan's self-exploration in adolescence is a "rebellion" and a prologue to "independence". Chen Xuan's rebellious period came late and enthusiastically. In her upbringing, there was little praise, and her mother always hid her feelings in her heart. Chen Xuan, a well-behaved woman in a strict educational environment, cut off a long hair in her freshman year and declared her "independence" at seven centimeters.
Artistic self-exploration began with the confusion of the times, she did not have a traditional educational background that went deep into the marrow, but it was not as open and unlimited as in the 80s and 90s. She compares herself to the red bricks of the 70s, a short-lived existence in the long river of time, but with the beauty of her own time. This unique "self" dooms her artistic style to be symbolic, and she finally understands that the core attributes of architecture are actually artificial.
At the heart of creation is the search for boundaries
"I've been experimenting with the boundaries of various styles, exploring their formal and thinking dimensions. What the boundaries of man look like under various spatial possibilities is the main core of my creation. For Chen Xuan, there is no barrier between art, and forms can be imaginative. If her "Instinct" furniture series is about finding a hundred kinds of mood in the self; the Sui Jianguo Art Museum presents the timeless light and shadow art in pure spatial experience. Chen Xuan believes that although designers are sometimes service providers and have many rules and regulations, "turning this passive restriction into an advantage can better reflect the value of being a designer."
"Two o'clock in the afternoon on the winter solstice" is the biggest challenge she has ever faced, only 10,000 blocks, in a space of 6 square meters, to divide the extremely narrow space out of the front hall, kitchen and bathroom functional space, the maximum use of space must also have aesthetics. Chen Xuan boldly uses color, cleverly using the shadows cast by the sun at two o'clock in the afternoon of the winter solstice to freeze frames and maximize the light. Each design piece is filled with her reflections on space, environment and function. In the exploration of the boundaries of creation, Chen Xuan has always had a horizontal line in his heart, "You must have a standard for everything you do, no matter how far your creativity goes, you can't get rid of the core and the problem itself to be solved, and this level defines where your standard is, and then talk about innovative creation on top of the standard." ”
Everyone has a need to realize their self-worth
Architectural design can be said to be a coordinated industry, on the basis of the creation and design, it is also necessary to coordinate all aspects from material selection equipment to production process processes, and each link needs to be checked. In Chen Xuan's view, the architectural design industry, which has extremely high requirements for physical strength, endurance and rational thinking, as a woman, sensuality and color are advantages, and persistence and perseverance are even more advantages. This is why she can always laugh and say, "We need to constantly balance the trade-offs in the creative process, and as an architect, we must slowly accept the baptism of various failures."
Design to landing is often a process of continuous deduction of points, for Chen Xuan, any "subtraction" is the "bottom line". As a female architect, Chen Xuan shows the persistence of women in her work, but she is not indestructible in life, and her mother and daughter are the soft side of her heart. She gradually learns to show weakness to her mother, who cannot express herself, so that she is stimulated by the feeling of "being needed". She wants to be a mother who strives to have herself in her daughter's eyes, and then calmly tells her daughter that "I have a need to achieve self-worth."
Jointly produced by Jiangsu Satellite TV, Sunshine Media Group, Miaoqu New Media and Dongjin Culture, "Hello! "Big Girls" is currently airing. For more stories of female strivers, please lock in jiangsu satellite TV every Wednesday night at 21:20, Mango TV every Thursday at 12:00 noon broadcast "Hello! Big Girl".