The large-scale themed art landscape "Silk Road Golden Bridge" is being exhibited in Guangzhou Haixinsha Park and the main creative artist Shu Yong. The project was invited by the organizers of the 2021 "Reading China" International Conference (Guangzhou) for a period of one year.
The "Silk Road Golden Bridge" in the night, golden shining. This edition is courtesy of respondents
Since December 1 last year, against the backdrop of Canton Tower, a special "Silk Road Golden Bridge" has become the most popular punch card attraction in Guangzhou Haixinsha Park.
I see the "Silk Road Golden Bridge" with a length of 28 meters, a height of 6 meters and a width of 4 meters, made of more than 20,000 artificial resin crystal bricks in the shape of "Great Wall Bricks", with a color like amber, golden sparkle, exquisite and elegant. The bridge body is "full of flowers", and the handmade flowers made of cast silk inside each brick are the "national flowers" or "city flowers" of dozens of countries and nearly 100 cities along the "Silk Road" on land and sea - meaning to erect a "bridge of communication".
It is not difficult to imagine that the construction of this bridge is not easy. More than 20,000 "Great Wall bricks" weigh more than 100 tons and are transported from Beijing in containers. After arriving, brick by brick, it had to be built brick by brick, just like a big Lego. But this "Lego" is much more difficult, and the artist Shu Yong led more than 30 workers to spend 25 days to put the bridge together in Haixinsha Park. "Although the bridge was built, it is very strong, and people can walk on it." Shu Yong said.
"Silk Road Golden Bridge" is actually a large-scale artistic landscape work of artist Shu Yong. Previously, this "Golden Bridge" has appeared many times at major Events in China's diplomacy, such as the Two Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation, the Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation, and the First Conference on Dialogue of Asian Civilizations. The exhibition in Guangzhou is also due to the invitation of the organizers of the 2021 "Reading China" International Conference (Guangzhou).
As the builder of this bridge, the artist Shu Yong is obviously an artist who likes to take the proposition of the times. On January 26, 2020, he launched the "Daily Painting • Tribute to the Heroes of the War" theme art action. On the opening day of the 2022 Winter Olympics, Shu Yong began the creation of the "Daily Painting Series "Together to the Future" theme".
"If the context of this era or era is abandoned, the work will become very weak, or even become just a personal preference." I hope that my work will rise from personal experience to public experience, and finally to human knowledge or an asset. When interviewed by Nandu reporters and talking about his understanding of art, Shu Yong always carries a full sense of mission.
The idea of "Silk Road Golden Bridge" began in Guangzhou
Nandu: You studied and worked in Guangzhou, what kind of relationship does "Silk Road Golden Bridge" have with Guangzhou?
Shu Yong: In fact, it has a real relationship with Guangzhou. In 2013, I started to pay attention to the theme of the Silk Roads, and I had this idea. I was in Guangzhou at the time, and the idea actually came from Guangzhou, and most of the production of bridge components was also done in Guangzhou. I spent a whole year from 2013 to 2014 organizing more than 500 craftsmen to produce in Guangzhou. In 2015, after the first exhibition of the Silk Road Golden Bridge at the Milan World Expo, I wanted to exhibit the bridge in Guangzhou, but unfortunately I couldn't come over for various reasons. Eight years after his birth, with the help of the "Reading China" conference, he had the opportunity to return to Guangzhou, the birthplace of Jinqiao.
Nandu: What was the most difficult part of making "Silk Road Golden Bridge"?
Shu Yong: In fact, the most difficult thing is to grasp the polishing of the entire brick, because it must be made by hand, and the size of the brick cannot have a large error, and the error is controlled within 0.1 mm. The production process is also not fast, if you want to add chemicals, the bricks will be bent, or blistering bursts, and nearly 30,000 bricks have been damaged in order to rush. Later, I found that things were really rushed, and the procedure for making each brick was at least 20 days or more. It has to go through a natural drying process and polishing, light polishing has 5 processes: coarse grinding, fine grinding, sand grinding, water mill, ball mill. The hardest one is to grind it with water, to polish the bricks to a silky texture. And building a bridge is not an easy task, the bridge is so big, the coincidence between bricks and bricks, a little error can not be installed. Including this time to Guangzhou, when installing, there were also many problems. For example, some bricks are damaged during transportation, and there is a temperature difference, if there is a temperature difference, the brick will expand and contract, the size will change, and it needs to be re-polished.
Nandu: Why does "Silk Road Golden Bridge" use the concept of a hundred flowers blooming?
Shu Yong: The national flower represents the cultural genes of a country, and we can integrate so many cultural factors in a bridge, in fact, we want to express a concept of building a community with a shared future for mankind, and discuss and share and build together. Today, only by building a community of common destiny can there be a future, and I especially hope to be able to spread this value. Each brick is different because it is done by hand. Even if it is a kind of flower, but the direction of the pendulum is different, and the number of pendulums is different, the effect presented will be different. It just so happens that Guangzhou is a flower city again, so this time it is the most perfect presentation of my concept of a hundred gardens in this world, which is very interesting.
Trilogy of works: brick-bridge-boat
Nandu: Before the Golden Bridge, your works also included the image of "city bricks", did your creations have a kind of continuity?
Shu Yong: Yes, the first work made of amber gold bricks was in 2013, when I created "Ancient Song Bricks", which was presented at the International Art Biennale in Venice, Italy. At that time, I collected 1,500 well-known Chinese words, wrote them in Chinese and English calligraphy, and cast them in 1,500 gold bricks to form a wall. In fact, at that time, I thought about how to break the wall and tear down the wall, that is, to graft the bridge. One Belt And One Road, I found that it was a bridge, so I did "Silk Road Golden Bridge" next.
Nandu: From bricks to walls to bridges, what are your next steps?
Shu Yong: Now that there is a bridge, the next step is the boat. Openness is always an eternal topic, and this time the epidemic has hindered our opening up, but it has also made us more aware of the importance of open communication. Once the epidemic is under control, the world will have a very important opportunity for communication and exchange. So, in the next work, I want to take the boat as the theme, which is also an extension of the community of human destiny.
Nandu: Following the propositions of the times, how do you think we should balance the relationship between art and the mundane?
Shu Yong: Avenue to Jane. Good works naturally need to be appreciated by ordinary people. You see "Mona Lisa", there have always been so many people to punch the clock every day, the ivory tower of things it can not go to the society. I hope that art can become a force for social progress, rather than high and low, a game for a small group of people, something that entertains itself. You can experiment, but experimenting with something always needs to pass the social test. So whether the people like it or not, I think it is one of the simplest truths. If ordinary people like it, I believe it still has its meaning.
Nandu: You have held exhibitions abroad many times, how do you think Chinese art creation is spreading abroad? How to promote Chinese culture to go out better?
Shu Yong: I think we need to create some new symbols at this time, and the country should use a national strategy to promote the symbols of the new era to the world, so that everyone can better understand you. The overseas spread of Chinese culture cannot be satisfied only in the Chinese community. Whether our art can enter the mainstream society of the West, whether it can enter the mainstream space and mainstream media of the West, are all things we need to study. Whether it is the East or the West, everyone's yearning for a better life is the same. We need to learn the ability to tell stories in international languages. I hope that we must master the international communication language, grasp the international communication law, and make good use of international communication technology.
Written by: Nandu reporter Xu Xiaolei intern Chen Qiannan