The ingenuity of extreme art reflects the beauty of nature

Source: People's Daily

The five Olympic rings that broke the ice, the main torch platform of the sparkling "big snowflake", the snowflake lantern in the hands of the children... At the opening and closing ceremonies of the Beijing Winter Olympic Games, ice and snow elements were everywhere, and the wonderful theme interpretations showed the beauty of ice and snow. On the land of Shenzhou, colorful ice and snow art continues to bring people the enjoyment of beauty. In the theme parks of Beijing, Harbin and other places, a series of Winter Olympics-themed ice and snow sculptures are in various postures, dressing up the urban space and conveying the beautiful expectation of "going to the future together".

Turning natural ice and snow into humanistic arts, ice and snow sculpture exudes a unique artistic charm. Like other material sculptures, ice and snow sculptures also exhaust artistic ingenuity in the form of circular carving, relief and see-through carving. The difference is that the ice crystal is fragile, the cedar is soft and crisp, and both are easy to melt, and for the engraver, they are a challenging artistic medium. The unique material not only tests the creative wisdom of the artist, but also achieves the unique beauty of ice and snow sculpture.

Ice, heavy on carving. The texture of ice is colorless and transparent, refracting light, but the shapes carved are easily hidden, thus lacking a three-dimensional sense. In order to achieve a clear silhouette, in addition to emphasizing the relationship between decency and dignity, highlighting the basic characteristics of the body, the ice sculpture creation also pays special attention to the performance of the line. If the lines are used properly, they can create a vivid sense of "Wu belt when the wind, Cao Yi out of the water". The production process of ice sculpture has both bold and bold creation, as well as local carving, and for different objects and different angles, it is necessary to replace tools of different lengths, widths and narrownesses, and different knife types from time to time, so as to better present the artistic effect - the lines intersect with each other, the carving marks crisscross each other, and under the refraction of light, they are as brilliant as crystals and diamonds, especially exquisite and transparent, so that the works can obtain a good viewing effect of farsightedness and close-up view. For example, the main tower of the 23rd Harbin Ice and Snow World, "Top of the Sacred Fire" (see picture above), consists of 24 upward rotating Doric columns in Athens, forming the torch image of the Winter Olympics. The main tower is surrounded by an ice wall, carved with Beijing Winter Olympic sports icons, with clear contours and strong lines, which reflect the image of the sculpture, conveying the Olympic spirit of hard work and courage.

Snow, the weight is on plastic. Due to the huge volume of the snow billet, snow sculpture emphasizes the role of the surface in the body, and strengthens the volume and the level of space before and after through the combination of the surface, as well as the overall momentum creation and the expression of the sculptural sense of strength. If the ice sculpture needs to be viewed up close to taste its exquisite subtle changes, then the snow sculpture is more like a majestic and atmospheric Han and Tang Dynasty sculpture, and it needs to be viewed from a distance to appreciate its grandeur. For example, the large-scale snow sculpture "Winter Olympics Sun Island Tour" at the 34th Harbin Sun Island Snow Expo, 100 meters long and 30 meters high, the huge cartoon snow sculpture "Ice Pier" and "Snow Rongrong" are surrounded by Harbin characteristic buildings and snow mountains, and the cute image and the snow sculpture are integrated, creating a rich Winter Olympic atmosphere.

Like ice and snow sports, ice and snow sculpture is the wisdom creation of the people of all ethnic groups in the cold land to recognize ice and snow, and is the concentrated embodiment of its character and aesthetics. Ice and snow sculpture, the most labor-consuming and time-consuming is the ice and snow preparation link, especially some super large ice and snow sculpture creation, hundreds of people together, "from top to bottom" continuous work, which requires participants to have strong energy, abundant physical strength and superb driving ability. It is in the passionate collision between man and nature that the flower of ice and snow art blooms brilliantly.

Since Harbin held the earliest ice lantern parade in China in the 1960s, after more than half a century of accumulation and development, ice and snow sculpture has become a "hot fashion". As one of the four major international ice and snow festivals, the China Harbin International Ice and Snow Festival has developed from local activities to international activities and has become an important platform for international ice and snow cultural exchanges. Ice and snow tourism projects have also been carried out in various places to promote the further dissemination of ice and snow art. Nowadays, with the help of the artist's imagination and creation, standing on the earth, integrating into the environment, and conforming to the climate, the ice and snow sculptures that make natural beauty, artistic beauty and cultural beauty grow together have become a beautiful urban landscape in winter, highlighting urban culture and improving urban quality. At night, ice and snow sculptures with colorful lights like jade, colorful, light up the city night sky, enrich people's winter spiritual and cultural life.

In order to meet the development needs of the times, ice and snow sculpture continues to inherit and innovate. On the one hand, new technologies and new materials are fully used in creation, or use shadow carving, snow inlay, hair and other techniques to enrich the artistic expression of ice and snow sculpture, or use environmental protection colors to enrich the color expression of ice and snow sculpture, so that it has a new aesthetic meaning; on the one hand, ice and snow sculpture is used for overall landscape, shaping scene-based space, and bringing immersive experience to tourists in the way of changing scenery step by step; at the same time, traditional ice and snow sculpture is integrated with "sound, light, electricity" technology and digital technology to make ice and snow sculpture "move". Enhance the interactive experience of the public, so that the ice and snow landscape blooms in a new way. While constantly improving its ornamentality, ice and snow sculpture is more interactive and entertaining, attracting more and more people to participate in it and get close to art and nature.

In recent years, the cultivation of ice and snow art talents has received more attention. The National Art Fund "Ice Lantern Ice Sculpture Art Design and Practice Talent Training Project" and "Northern Snow Sculpture Folk Art Talent Training Project" have been implemented successively; the "China Harbin International Ice and Snow Festival" has been held for 38 consecutive years, attracting many ice and snow sculpture creators at home and abroad to compete on the same stage and dig deep into the connotation of ice and snow sculpture from different perspectives. Some local artists associations and universities have also set up ice and snow sculpture art committees and ice and snow art research centers to strengthen the cultivation of relevant talents from the aspects of practice and theory, and to store strength for the development of ice and snow art.

The vigorous development of ice and snow sculpture not only meets people's aesthetic and entertainment needs, plays a role in educating people and beautifying people with beauty, but also drives local related industries, enhances the visibility of the city, and promotes local economic development. As the carrier of the inheritance and development of ice and snow culture, ice and snow sculpture still needs to further scientifically plan the development layout, dig deep into the cultural connotation, continuously strengthen the concept of green design, and show the vivid scene of harmonious coexistence between man and nature.

(The author is Zhu Jinsong, associate professor of Harbin University)

People's Daily ( 2022-03-13 Edition 08)