Huang Li explains the art of carving. Photo by reporter Liu Caoqiong
How amazing is the mediocre core?
Here in the non-hereditary heir Huang Zhi, we can find the answer.
With a 1 square meter workbench, a small fruit core, and several carving knives, Huang Li turned "abandonment" into magic with a pair of skillful hands and an ingenuity.
On April 19, this reporter came to Huang Zhu's studio in the eastern suburbs of Xi'an City, and as soon as he entered the door, he was attracted by the neatly arranged nuclear sculptures on the shelves: exquisite nuclear sculptures, with a large height of nearly 5 centimeters and a small height of less than 1 centimeter.
"You see, this ice pier is carved out of peach cores." Huang Li's nuclear sculptures created for the Beijing Winter Olympics are smooth, vivid and natural, which is pleasing to the eye.
Speaking of nuclear sculpture, I believe that many people have learned about it through the famous article "Nuclear Boat Record" by the Ming Dynasty scholar Wei Xuehuan. The text says: "Ming has a strange coincidence that Wang Shuyuan can use the diameter of the wood as a palace, a vessel, a person, as well as a bird and a beast, a wood and stone, and not depending on the situation of the pictogram, each has its own mood." ”
Nuclear carving is a traditional Chinese folk miniature carving process, carved from peach cores, apricot cores, olive cores and other fruit cores and walnuts, under the premise of maintaining the shape of the core, whether it is relief, circular carving, through carving, are "fine, fine, strange, ingenious" to win, within the square inch contains the world.
Huang Was born in Putian City, Fujian Province, to a family of carpenters who have been engaged in ancient wood carving for generations. Affected by the family environment, Huang Zhili has loved carving since childhood. After graduating from high school in 1996, Huang Li followed his father to learn the simple carving craft, and then learned the art from his teacher and refined the wood carving technique. In 2006, Huang Li came to Xi'an to develop, and by chance, he began to transform from wood carving to nuclear carving. The experience of wood carving has cultivated Huang's solid basic skills and excellent artistic skills such as modeling, design, and painting. In 2009, Huang Li began to specialize in olive core, ivory fruit and various peach core carving, becoming a professional nuclear carving artist.
Huang Lili introduced that the completion of a nuclear carving work needs to go through multiple processes such as material selection, design, embryo beating, rough engraving, fine engraving, adjustment, polishing, polishing, accessories, etc., the time varies from a few days to several months, and the difficulty is to design and show various complex themes according to the original grain or shape on the smaller core.
Learning to carve requires not only interest and understanding, but also patience and persistence. Huang Said: "Creating according to the texture of the core is a test of imagination and creativity. In the carving, it is not only necessary to use different techniques such as relief, circular carving, and hollow carving, but also to grasp the details and control the strength, and cannot chisel the air. To complete a work, it is necessary to have a form in the heart, a knife at will, and a unity of heart and hand. ”
Sometimes, for a work, Huang Zhu had to sit in front of the workbench for more than ten hours a day, and the carving of sleeping and forgetting to eat made the cocoon on his hands thicker and thicker, and the wooden handle of the carving knife on the workbench had been polished and shiny.
For more than 20 years, Huang Lili's works have won many awards in national competitions and have been shortlisted for many national and provincial arts and crafts professional exhibitions. In 2019, Huang Lili won the title of the fourth Shaanxi Provincial Master of Arts and Crafts; in 2021, he became the inheritor of the intangible cultural heritage of Xi'an.
Similar to many traditional techniques, nuclear carving is also relatively "niche", facing problems such as difficulties in inheritance and development.
"With the rise of machining, traditional hand-carved techniques are facing practical problems such as shrinking markets and 'no successors', and there are fewer and fewer professional nuclear carving artists like us." Huang li said.
Shouzheng innovation, so that more people understand nuclear sculpture, like nuclear carving. In recent years, Huang Has been committed to promoting the innovation of nuclear carving techniques and giving this traditional technique a new era connotation.
On the one hand, Huang Li constantly innovates in the theme of creation. Fighting the epidemic, the 14th Games, the Beijing Winter Olympics... These realistic scenes, Huang Li are carefully engraved in the works. On the other hand, Huang Zhili actively participates in public welfare activities such as promoting nuclear carving skills into the classroom and entering the community, so that more people can understand and contact the technology of nuclear carving, so that nuclear carving can be better inherited and developed.
The sound of chiseling is ingenious, and the original intention is kept between the inches. Craftsman, keeping artist, keeping is a lifetime.
"Safeguarding intangible cultural heritage is the responsibility and obligation of every non-genetic inheritor. We craftsmen should more confidently promote the inheritance and development of intangible cultural heritage, create more excellent works that reflect the spirit of the times, have cultural feelings and carry forward the positive energy of society, let the intangible cultural heritage be passed on, and let the flower of nuclear sculpture bloom forever. Huang said. (Reporters Liu Caoqiong and Liu Feng)