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In the process of becoming a second mother,
Zhou Brown brown had 5 years,
Give up your job altogether and be a stay-at-home mom.
In 2016, she regained her artistic creation,
In 2021, the sculptures of the past 5 years will be gathered,
Her latest solo exhibition is held in Shanghai.
Weekly brown at work
Zhou Brown brown with father Zhou Chunya
After the 80s,
Born in a big family with a strong artistic atmosphere,
His father, Zhou Chunya, is one of China's most prominent contemporary artists.
Her path of growth is very different from most people' paths:
It is an authentic Chengdu native,
But he spent his childhood in a foreign country, Germany,
Since childhood, he has been influenced and trained by Western classical music,
But I went to Japan to study fashion design,
Finally, we turned to sculpture.
Solo exhibition scene of Shanghai Long Museum
Everyday relationship with my daughter
One came to Chengdu, in Zhou Brown's studio,
Talked to her about life and art.
Self-description Zhou Brown Brown
Editor Chen Qin Editor Chen Ziwen
Zhou Brown in studio 30 MONTAIGNE classic series black jacket
Almost every time the media interviews, Zhou Brown brown inevitably asked about her father, she herself does not shy away. But on the road of art, her father Zhou Chunya did not "intervene" in her creation.
In 2011, she held her first solo exhibition in Beijing, and Zhou Chunya was present. The reporter asked him, "Did you make any key comments on Brown Brown's work this time?" Zhou Chunya said, "There is encouragement, but the work, I still saw it for the first time today." ”
The real impact should be said to be a kind of family edification. She grew up in an artistic family, her home has always been full of thick albums, since she was a child, she has watched all European art films, the most fond of French literary films, and will also discuss the ancient ink painting with her father. The effects are subtle, like a seed, slowly taking root and sprouting.
Her work, in style, is completely different from her father's. Zhou Chunya's most famous works are bold in color and warm in sight. Zhou brown sculptures, full of dark temperament, are often labeled "Gothic".
Comparison of Zhou Brown with the works of his father Zhou Chunya
Zhou Brown loves to wear a black dress, and likes classical music and metal music the most. A touch of cold black eyeliner made her look from a distance, with a faint coolness. Up close, he is a shy, introverted person.
Her studio is in a small two-story building in Chengdu's Blue Roof Art District. The next-door neighbor was once the artist Zhang Xiaogang. Now, she is a mother of two children, and when she uses her children's school time, she will drive to the studio alone, "it is my time to play freely", to explore her own sense of creation and value.
The following is Zhou Brown's self-description.
Childhood, like a dark version of the fairy tale world
From the first to the third grade of primary school, I lived in my grandmother's house at the Sichuan Conservatory of Music, and I remember it was a tube building, and almost every household had people studying music. The next-door neighbor plays the piano, and the family opposite plays the violin, and it is often heard that someone hangs his throat.
In the late 1980s, just in time for China's first "outbound tide", my mother went to Germany to study. When I was 10 years old, she took me to Germany for summer vacation, yin and yang, stayed in Germany for three years, I lived in Kassel, Valberg, Munich three cities, small me shuttled through the mysterious stone castles.
Zhou Brown in Kassel, Germany
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In retrospect, my childhood in Germany deeply influenced my later aesthetic concepts.
In Kassel Wilhelm Heights Park, passing through a palatial palace, through a grove of trees, you can see the Castle of Hercules in the distance, and the pillars of light shine down from between Hercules' arms, holding their breath, as if looking at a painting. After years of erosion, the surface of the castle formed a layer of black material, flowing like magma.
On the surface of the dark pond, a swan swims by, and the surrounding area is even more secluded. These scenes are deeply imprinted in my heart.
The following year in Germany, my mother went to Munich alone and fostered me in the home of her good friend's mother, Mrs. Charlotte, with her and a big dog.
The village-like town had not yet Chinese, and on the first day of school, I wore a velvet dress that my mother had sewn for me, and I remember the black, blue and dark green patterns.
The school is a castle built in 1281, and the staircase is smooth and rounded like cream. I borrowed the grand piano practice in the school auditorium, which had a pointed roof, dark and empty, and the sound of the piano seemed to echo in the air, and I wondered if there would be a soul circling above.
This scene of childhood is like those souls, circling in my mind for a long time, cold and simple, affecting my creation as an adult.
I later did sculpture, more inclined to cool brown and black.
Black, in my understanding, is not negative and repressive, but contains energy.
In his 2017 solo exhibition "Dispelling the Haze", the work uses the most black, combining sculpture, musical imagery and costumes. What I want to express is the mutual transformation of light and darkness – only in the midst of darkness can you truly feel the light.
A collision of music, costume design and art
I had been learning piano when I was a child, and later found that because of the congenital bone development, my hands were particularly small, and the piano learning was interrupted, and the dream of becoming a pianist was extinguished.
At the university, I studied design at the Sichuan Academy of Fine Arts, and that era coincided with the peak of music in the Japanese Visual Department.
Chow interviews Rainbow Band lead singer Hyde
The first time I saw the rainbow band's MV, it was very shocking, whether it was from the stage effects, costumes, or lighting, it was unexpected. I still remember a song called "Forbidden Lover", in the middle of the endless blue ocean, there was a huge plaster head, and the lead singer Hyde knelt on the stone and cried and sang, which made me indulge in it at once, especially yearning.
"Fanatics II" soft sculpture
In 2005, I went to the Japan Culture Costume Academy to study costume design, and at first I wanted to make some stage-style costumes. Since I was a child, I have been interested in things that are opposites, including three-dimensional tailoring, and I have also learned to make humanoid joints. There are also similarities between three-dimensional tailoring and sculpture.
This summer, I held my first solo exhibition in Shanghai, bringing together the main works that I have regained in the past five years, as well as new creations since the epidemic.
"Matrix" is about 2 meters 4 high, and when you spread it out, it is about 7 meters. Many people think of volcanic eruptions, lava flows, and even thunder and lightning falling from the sky, like a piece of nothingness after destruction.
It actually symbolizes the cyclical state of destruction and rebirth, and is a garden in my heart.
I built a small house out of wood piles, inspired by the woodpecker collection of hazelnuts embedded in wood for storage.
During the exhibition, I found that the most favorite wooden houses are children, they run in and out, playing in it, and the adults are particularly afraid, which may be a psychological hint of dense fear. I hope that through this work, we can be like children, and we can regain our fearless nature.
COVID-19: Lungs mimics the structure of our lungs, but its patterns are not absolutely left-right symmetrical. Through this work, I want to commemorate the painful days and memories brought to us by the epidemic, and I also hope to pray for peace.
The most I hear about my work is "Gothic", but I feel that Gothic is more like a reproduction of childhood life, beautiful, mysterious - and has also been integrated into my way of life.
Zhou Brown and Black Metal Band Funeral Lake collaborate
Because of my previous experience, I will add a lot of music and costume design elements to my works, so that various forms collide with each other.
In 2017, I collaborated with the well-known domestic black metal band Burial Lake on a live work. From the lighting and costumes to the music videos in the background, I went into the battle myself, trying to interpret a stage with a different perspective.
In the 2018 solo exhibition "Because of the Other", I also invited the domestic talent guitarist yoyo to play in front of my sculpture. She's a really cool speed guitar girl, and on set, I let the performance, costumes, and sculptures present as a whole.
70% of the time is spent caring for the family,
30% of the time is left for creation
After returning home from studying abroad, I quickly entered the marriage and fell in love for 12 years.
At the age of 30, I had my first daughter. After that, for 5 years, I was personally raising two small children, completely without a job, and became a stay-at-home mom.
Growing daughter
I feel fortunate to be able to take care of them wholeheartedly during their important formative years, albeit with a lot of effort.
Generally changing seasons, starting school, winter and summer vacations, especially busy, taking care of their daily life, tutoring them to study, taking them to nature, seeing insects and plants...
In 2016, the two daughters went to kindergarten and had their own time during the day. I was thinking, the past, and the knowledge I had learned, that if I didn't move it, if I didn't deepen it, they might dissipate. So there is a strong desire to continue to express.
Now, 70% of the time is spent caring for the family, and only 30% is reserved for yourself.
My studio is in Chengdu's Landing Art District. Every morning after sending my daughter to school, I came to the studio, which is my own independent time, free to play in my creation.
The sculpture is usually in the studio, first make the clay manuscript, then find a master to turn it into fiberglass, and finally go to the factory to cast it into the form I want, and the materials are mostly copper and aluminum.
Zhou brown brown one-horned immortal
In addition to sculpture, you can also learn and write, and theory is very important for creation.
I also like insects very much, and I have raised all kinds of wonderful insects, such as unicorns, praying mantises, silkworms... Usually, I pay great attention to the data atlas of insects, and draw on the texture of insects in my works.
I have less social networking, and after returning to Chengdu to settle down, the most frequent contacts are still the students of the Sichuan Conservatory of Music. When I was with them, the memories of my student days came to my mind and I felt very warm.
In my early years, life was more turbulent and adrift. Now that I am a mother of two children, I am slowly watching them grow up and have a stable life. What the future holds, there is no way to predict.
I only hope that in the future, when my children grow up, they will have more time to devote to creation. I'm not in a hurry, because art, it's about a lifetime.