There is no doubt that the city of Suzhou is the most authentic thousand-year-old city in Jiangnan, with artistic and cultural origins and outstanding people. "Renjie" refers to the people in Jiangnan Water Town who are particularly agile and intelligent, learning the same, learning one discipline and one discipline. In the long river of history, in China's cultural history and art history, the spirit of countless historical moments of craftsmanship has left many classic works of classic figures for posterity, which may be called "Shen Yun": Ya Yun, Wen Yun; It can also be called "breath" - humanistic breath. This is the spirit of Suzhou craftsmen with the heart and wisdom to cast the brilliant Su zuo craft characteristics. It is no wonder that Suzhou has been awarded the "City of Handicrafts and Folk Art" and "Model City of World Heritage" by UNESCO. All the craftsmen in this cultural highland seek their own works: exquisite and extreme, solid and new, humanistic and elegant. Craftsmen are never satisfied with their own works, in his (her) eyes there is no best, only better! Engage in any piece of creation, produce any work, and always unremittingly pursue the inheritance of "fine, fine, elegant, and clean" in the soul of Su Zuo. Dingxin is innovation, which has been the main theme of Su Zuo for thousands of years. It is this water and soil that nurtures the exquisite life attitude of the craftsmen and becomes a Jiangnan cultural classic that will never end from generation to generation.
Although my brother and I have been brothers for many years, I really pay attention to all the art treasures in the Suzhou Xiangyun Ivory Sculpture Art Museum that she founded, or in these days when I retired and lived idly in Gusu, Fang felt that her artistic ingenuity and pursuit of excellence in life, as well as the fighting spirit of never admitting defeat, deeply touched me. As a veteran of China's World Heritage conservation and research community, it is my responsibility to introduce this ancient and dynamic craft to everyone. Although this ancient craft technology has a long history and an orderly heritage, there are very few inheritors who can really eat through this skill today. Ding Xuefang has become a leader in this trip with her years of down-to-earth hard work and hard work.
In her artistic career of more than 20 years, she has inherited the Supai ivory carving technique, adhered to the innovative concept of advancing with the times, and created many award-winning works such as "Four Seasons of Competition", "Treasure Basket Sweet Fragrance", "Fushou Double Complete" and so on. Among them, the "China Pavilion" pocket ivory carving series has been designated as a national ceremony by large-scale events at home and abroad such as the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games and the 2010 Shanghai World Expo, and has been deeply praised by international dignitaries and VIPs at home and abroad. Her works strictly inherit the technique of "hidden up" in Su Zuo's ivory carving, and the details are exquisitely handled, giving people a sense of "fine elegance" and tranquility, and the literary rhyme is superior. Knife methods include bas-relief, inscription, circular carving, high relief and so on. The knife is simple, the pursuit of artistic conception, with a high aesthetic style.
In history, Supai ivory carving works include pen holders, pen holders, pen licks and other stationery utensils, as well as bowls, bottles, boxes and other practical or decorative utensils, the theme involves characters, flowers and birds, landscapes, historical legends, etc., absorbing the essence of the Wumen school of painting, layout and method with the effect of the pen, pay attention to the blank space, in the elegant wind to reveal the meaning of "quaint, wild, beautiful", it is really valuable. Art has both the style of the nation and the style of the region, in order to enter the world art world. Suzhou ivory carving is Jiangnan' and more importantly, the world's.
Ding Xuefang led the strong creative team of Xiangyun Ivory Carving, which has long been committed to promoting national culture and inheriting the traditional crafts of Suzhou, and was once the only company in Suzhou that has been approved by the State Forestry Administration and the State Administration for Industry and Commerce as "Designated Processing Place for Ivory" and "Designated Sales Place for Ivory Products". Having two certificates at the same time is also one of the few in the country. Specializing in ivory production and ivory works sales, with the joint efforts of everyone, he saved the almost lost Supai ivory carving skills. They gather the strengths of all the families, keep pace with the times, forge ahead, constantly innovate, finely craft, and create a variety of forms and categories of ivory carving works, which have won many awards. At the end of 2017, after the state banned the ivory trade, in order to implement the spirit of the State Council document, they no longer made and sold ivory products. In order to enable the general public to enjoy the exquisite ivory carving works in a concentrated way, she has set up the Ivory Carving Art Museum, which now has a collection of more than 1,000 pieces of ivory carving art, which is open to the general public free of charge to show the ivory carving skills. In order to pass on the traditional skill of ivory carving, they use mammoth ivory as raw materials to continue to adhere to the cause of ivory carving, and assume the social responsibility of intangible cultural heritage units and non-genetic inheritors.
In 2012, his ivory sculpture "Four Seasons of Competition" won the China (Suzhou) Arts and Crafts Silk Art Exhibition and the first "SuYi Cup" Fine Art Gold Award. It took more than two years from the conception to the completion of the work, and all the techniques in the ivory carving process of Su Zuo were collected, giving people a sense of grand elegance.
Ivory carving folding fan "Bao Basket Xinxiang", won the 2012 "Hundred Flowers Cup" Chinese Arts and Crafts Fine Arts Gold Award, ivory fan is a unique craft in Suzhou, but also the creation of Suzhou, other regions are incomparable. It will open the ivory into thin sheets, and the use of fine drawing process, both shallow carving, through carving, relief and other expression techniques, the formation of a pattern combination, its fan edge and fan pattern is different, through the carving hole is thousands, both unified and coordinated, but also rich in changes, and each eyelet line is neat and tidy, both ingenious beauty, but also make the work virtual reality contrast, showing the "empty, thin, dangerous, elegant" artistic effect. Its fan bones are often expressed in shallow carvings or reliefs, or depict landscapes, flowers and birds, or engraved calligraphy texts, which echo the content of the fan surface, highlighting the meaning of literati calligraphy and painting and the elegant style.
The ivory carving work "Fushou Shuangquan", won the 2020 Art Expo Cup Arts and Crafts Fine Arts Gold Award, the work adopts the expression technique of high relief, through the clever portrayal of the spatial transformation relationship of the object, the little fairy boy's lively and cute joyful spirit, the shape of the full image of the shou peach, showing the vivid posture of the object and the shape full of movement and strength, further developing the artistic expression of Su-style ivory carving.
Looking back at the development of Su Zuo art in the historical process is like a mirror, which can truly reflect the changes in history. The art of ivory carving in the Song Dynasty, like its many national fortunes, also shifted from the majesty and generosity of the Han and Tang Dynasties to the exquisite delicacy. The Song Dynasty changed not only the regime, but also the transgender culture. The royal family moved south to build palaces and buildings, and skilled craftsmen from all over the world flocked to bring skills at the same time, but also activated the cultural excitement of Jiangnan, which was already relatively rich. Suzhou's agricultural civilization is highly developed, economically rich, and has a profound cultural heritage, which naturally attracts a large number of dignitaries, gentry and scholars who have moved south to settle down and build their homes here, which is indispensable to supporting furnishings, coupled with the noble atmosphere of competing in various places, Su Zuo craftsmanship is becoming more and more popular.
The older generation of folk artists diligently and carefully teach, and the new generation of craftsmen are open-minded and eager to learn, and more courageous to innovate. This is a must-have landscape among historical passers-by, and Su Zuo Art Garden will always move forward in the spring of time! May the outside of the mountain Qingshan Lou outside the building, Su style flow more wind flow!
When you come to Gusu City in Jiangnan Water Town, in addition to the Suzhou Classical Garden as a World Cultural Heritage, you may wish to take the time to walk into the ancient city of Ganjiang West Road No. 225 ~ 229, which was founded in the Qing Dynasty Wu House, it is a rare municipal control and protection unit along the entire Ganjiang Road, this building sits north to south, and the existing three roads and four advances. At present, the middle road has four entrance halls, car halls, halls and building halls. The average area is five rooms wide, the West Road Flower Hall and the Building Hall are two entrances, both of which are wide and three, and the boat shed Xuan cloister is set up in front of the flower hall. The East Road Cunmen House and the Hall are two entrances, both of which are three-bay rooms. The total area is 3330 square meters. This group of buildings is a very rare ancient building that has survived the unfortunate renovation of the old city. Of course, the pattern of the entire ancient city has not changed, and it is providential that it is now safe as a group of historical buildings. When the whole "dry road" is opened, it is more valuable than it, the fame is more cattle than it, and the protection is much more than its complete historical building. It is precisely because the main body of the building is not in the core renovation area, and the office of the "Ganjiang Road" project headquarters under the Suzhou Municipal Construction Committee at that time was located inside, which was completely retained on the spot.
No wonder Mr. Lu Wenfu once said that although Suzhou was not the center of political economy in history, there were not so many official scenes, and it was not a place where soldiers and families had to fight, and in the two or three thousand years after Wuyue, no major war occurred in Suzhou, and Suzhou had a pleasant climate, rich products and beautiful scenery. Speaking of Suzhou's elegance, in addition to the classical gardens, pingtan and Kunqu opera, which are World Cultural Heritage sites in China, it is necessary to arrange for Su zuo craftsmanship, and it is the existence of all this that is the symbol of Suzhou's exquisite and elegant life. Everyone says that Jiangnan is good, and tourists only meet Jiangnan old. Once again, may the vein of this land under your feet live forever. Su Zuo's craftsmanship can not be proud, let alone slack, only bravely adhere to the inheritance and innovation, in order to climb more artistic peaks.
(Author/Dan Qing, Columnist of Shuangchuang China Column of China News Network)