The "Mona Lisa" also came to the Expo.
In its fourth year, the China International Import Expo is not only an important platform for trade and investment, but also a large platform for multicultural exchanges. In the cultural tourism sector of the service trade exhibition area newly unveiled this year, focusing on the new changes in cultural tourism demand and the new trend of consumption upgrading, overseas IP authorization has become a new category of this expo. Among them, the first introduction of overseas cultural IP, involving famous museums (Louvre, Britain, Metropolis, etc.), anime images (Pikachu, Minions, hello kitty, Miffy, etc.) are quite interesting.
In the exhibition hall jointly created by the British Museum, the Louvre Museum, the Metropolitan Museum and other five museum IPs, under the theme of "combining Eastern and Western civilizations", a Su embroidered work "Mona Lisa" comes to life.
This work is from the hand of Yao Huifen, the non-hereditary heir of Su embroidery, who is also the fourth generation of Shen Shou, a generation of "needle gods".
In addition to the unforgettable Su embroidered version of "Mona Lisa", yao Huifen's embroidered portraits of Zhang Daqian, Beethoven, I.M. Pei and others are also exquisite.
If you turn your gaze back to The Jiangnan where Yao Huifen grew up, her Su embroidery works with Jiangnan as the theme, who does not admire it and exclaim, "It's so beautiful!" ”
She uses Chinese ink painting as a reference to embroider the quiet and idyllic small bridge flowing water in Jiangnan:
The traditional embroidery aesthetic style is biased towards highly saturated colors and is not suitable for smoke and rain in Jiangnan. Yao Huifen innovated the Jiangnan ink embroidery method, in her opinion, "Jiangnan's smoke and rain are hazy, and the white wall is dewa, not necessarily expressed in ink, but also with needles!" ”
Smoke willow painting bridge, wind curtain green curtain:
In her hand, needle and thread can be used as pen and ink, weaving cloth can be used as rice paper, and ink painting can also be pierced with needles.
Looking at this skill of splashing ink, who can see that it is embroidery.
The needle and thread in Yao Huifen's hand can not only embroider ink paintings, but also Chinese paintings can be fake and real.
In fact, Yao Huifen is best known for its classical Chinese gongbi painting embroidery. Chinese Gongbi painting pays attention to "those who are ingenious and delicate". Brush painting embroidery, more than enough. Ink painting, light daisy, green, golden, boundary painting... These common elements of the brush strokes are all found in Yao Huifen's embroidery.
It is also worth mentioning that Yao Huifen's sense of innovation. She believes that "pen and ink should be contemporary", and embroidery should also be "contemporary". Traditional embroidery is constantly evolving, how to innovate, what to use to innovate, is an important problem faced by embroidery workers. To develop Su embroidery, we must first study the traditional embroidery skills well, study the classic works of the older generation of embroidery masters, inherit the noble spirit of the predecessors, and then combine their actual conditions to use new ideas, new techniques, and new imaginations to create new works, only in this way can we inherit the tradition, break through the tradition, and innovate and develop.
Yao Huifen has spent ten years exploring and researching, and created a set of embroidery techniques - simple needle embroidery.
Simple needle embroidery is different from the traditional concept of chaotic needlework stitching techniques, the integration of traditional Chinese embroidery stitching and Western sketching techniques in one, with simplicity as the way, simplicity as the beauty, with the least stitching, the most plain line color, the most refined lines to constitute a new form of expression of Su embroidery. "Jane needle embroidery" won back the national invention patent certificate for her, and she also began to vigorously promote this new Su embroidery technique, which constituted a new form of expression and aesthetic connotation of Su embroidery at present.
Her simple needlework, Portrait of a Sketch Girl, and Leonardo da Vinci's Self-Portrait, are breathtaking.
In 2013, when she performed at the University of London Art Gallery, her representative works "Four Beautiful Pictures" and "Zheng Banqiao Ink Orchid Bamboo Map" were collected by the British Museum and the University Art Gallery of London respectively.
Able to open up the different aesthetics of the East and the West, Yao Huifen's works are not only very eye-catching at the Expo, but also amazed the Venice International Art Biennale, and were also collected by institutions and celebrities such as the British Museum, the University of London Art Gallery, and the late architectural design master I.M. Pei.
In 2017, Yao Huifen received an invitation from the Chinese Pavilion of the Venice Biennale to bring 34 contemporary Su embroidery works to Venice, allowing the world to see the beauty of Chinese craftsmanship.
One of the "Skeleton Illusions" caused many foreign friends to stop. The original work of "Skeleton Illusion" is a famous work by the Southern Song Dynasty painter Li Song. Yao Huifen not only embroidered it, but also embroidered multiple versions, and at the Venice Biennale, four different stitching methods were exhibited.
The reason why she did this was to find a more suitable stitching method, and it was also an innovation and upgrade of the traditional stitching method.
The COVID-19 outbreak began in early 2020. This "pen and ink contemporary" Su embroidery master was touched by those white-clad retrogrades who fought selflessly and fearlessly in the frontline of the fight against the epidemic, and it was difficult to calm down for a long time. So she picked up her pen and drew the image of the retrograde in white in her mind. And with this as a base draft, embroidered the embroidery "Salute to them, hard work!" It's nice to have you guys! " to participate in the online exhibition, pay tribute to the heroes of the fight against the epidemic.
Synthesized from China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network, Global Art Selection, ArtWhy, etc
Editor: Wang Yan