“Printmaking of Mountains and Lakes — A Public Art Program (Hong Kong)” Comes To A Successful End | When Watercolour Block Printing Becomes A Vision

pubdate: 2019/3/6   author: zjam  source: zjam  click:

A few days ago, as the last batch of works exhibited at the “Printmaking of Mountains and Lakes — A Public Art Program (Hong Kong)” was shipped back to Hangzhou, “Panorama of West Lake — Millennial Woodblock Printing”, an exhibition project jointly held by ZJAM and the University Museum and Art Gallery of the University of Hong Kong (HKU), came to a successful end.

Woodblock printing works exhibited at “Printmaking of Mountains and Lakes — A Public Art Program (Hong Kong)”

“Panorama of West Lake” and “Printmaking of Mountains and Lakes” are both special sections of the “Grand Exhibition of Watercolor Printmaking in China” (a fine arts project funded by the China National Arts Fund in 2016 for communication purposes) independently planned by ZJAM. Since the introductory exhibition “Panorama of West Lake” (a fine arts project funded by the China National Arts Fund in 2016) was held, it has been extended and held at home and abroad many times as a cultural exchange project. On December 7, 2018, Ying Jinfei, curator of the “Grand Exhibition of Watercolor Printmaking in China”, introduced the “Printmaking of Mountains and Lakes” in his lecture at the University Museum and Art Gallery of HKU and was well received among the audience. When the exhibition was put on, the HKU extended active cooperation and ensured the project was successfully completed on campus.

Opening ceremony of “Panorama of West Lake — Millennial Woodblock Printing”

Public lecture around Panorama of West Lake·Printmaking of Mountains and Lakes

HKU is the oldest institution of higher education in Hong Kong. Founded in 1910, it has blazed a trail from a school of dozens of people to a public research university that is renowned in Asia and even the world today. The exhibition “Printmaking of Mountains and Lakes” started from the north part of the campus, Tsui Tsin Tong Building, Fung Ping Shan Building, and the Main Building on the first day, followed by the south part of the campus (on the mountain), Eliot Hall, May Hall, Robert Black College, and Sun Yat-sen Place (Sun Yat-sen Garden). As with the previous tours in Hangzhou and Hamburg, Germany, the project adhered to the planning concept and humanistic idea of “taking nature as the block and flourishing woods and tall bamboo bushes as manuscript; taking the earth as the block and the landscape under the sky as manuscript; taking time as the block and history from ancient to present as manuscript.” An active attempt was made to expand the physical media, derived boundaries, narrative tenses and representation methods of “block”. The curation was based on the public art proposition of “bringing art into life”, with the focus on interpreting “printmaking” as a subjective and creative painting technique rather than the restoration of objects.

At the printmaking activity site

An overview of the spatial pattern of the campuses built on the mountain and the multicultural facets mixed with Chinese and foreign styles at HKU highlighted such possible printmaking media as stone lions, monuments, nameplates, elevator buttons, pavements, and tropical plants. Inspired by the concept of watercolour block printing in the Chinese watermark art, Zhang Xiaofeng, a special director of ZJAM and young printmaker of the China Academy of Art, led the curatorial team to integrate rich, fragmented printmaking elements into a unified picture, seeking harmony between thought and vision amid contradictions and differences. They artistically recorded the styles of the times through image reconstruction, thereby enhancing the cultural connotation and artistic expression of the works.

Thanks to the mutual trust and support between partners from Zhejiang and Hong Kong, this event was carried out smoothly. In order to ensure the quality of the projects, 10 volunteers at most were recruited for each project every day and the 20 vacancies were fully occupied within a short period of time. They were students, citizens, scholars, artists and so on. These beginners of “printmaking” first observed the demonstration of Zhang Xiaofeng and his assistant teacher Liang Qi in the exhibition hall and received creative training every day. In the subsequent field experience session, they were required to carefully appreciate the technique while letting their imagination go wild. They collaboratively created 40 physical printmaking works within two days.

At the teaching demonstration site

In December 2017 and July 2018, “Printmaking of Mountains and Lakes” was successfully carried out in Hangzhou (China) and Hamburg (Germany) through close cooperation with the teachers of the Institute of Oriental Visual Culture of the China Academy of Art. Based on the future implementation plan, humanities and research efforts will be reinforced as the project rolls out. Traditional printmaking technique will be the starting point for the journey to continue to expand the international influence of this art and to actively spread Chinese excellent traditional culture and art that adapt to the needs of the times and reflect innovative thinking.

At the printmaking site in Hangzhou

At the printmaking site in Germany