Sculpture :
Location : Harbour Green Park, Vancouver
Media : Painted fibreglass
The influence of his training in ceramics can be seen in the painted fiberglass installation Pillows. by Chinese artist Liu Jianhua. At age fifteen Liu Jianhua worked in the porcelain factories in his native Jiangxi province, in the city of Jingdezhen, world famous for its porcelain production. After exposure to the 'New Wave Art' movement Lui abandoned the traditional techniques of ceramic production and began making everyday domestic objects in fiberglass that derive their meaning from repetition and arrangement. Fiberglass allows Jianhua to mimic the fine detail of cloth, the fold of the fabric and stitches on the seams. Like other installations by Liu Jianhua this piece repeatedly depicts the same mundane, generic, everyday object - the pillow, a western form, not historically a Chinese domestic object.
The clean white porcelain-like surface appears sanitized and impersonal, yet gives the visual illusion of a pillow made of a soft welcoming material, one that invites you to rest your head or body, but in fact the pillows are hard, rigid and are not meant to be utilitarian. De-contextualized from their indoor place on a bed, their original function is denied. Indentations in the pillow forms imply a former functionality. The juxtaposition of an indoor object with the outdoor space creates a contradiction and a curiosity as to why these pillow forms are scattered and installed on the grass.
For more information visit the artwork page on www.vblearn.ca
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Pillows
Artist :Liu Jianhua
ChinaLocation : Harbour Green Park, Vancouver
Media : Painted fibreglass
The influence of his training in ceramics can be seen in the painted fiberglass installation Pillows. by Chinese artist Liu Jianhua. At age fifteen Liu Jianhua worked in the porcelain factories in his native Jiangxi province, in the city of Jingdezhen, world famous for its porcelain production. After exposure to the 'New Wave Art' movement Lui abandoned the traditional techniques of ceramic production and began making everyday domestic objects in fiberglass that derive their meaning from repetition and arrangement. Fiberglass allows Jianhua to mimic the fine detail of cloth, the fold of the fabric and stitches on the seams. Like other installations by Liu Jianhua this piece repeatedly depicts the same mundane, generic, everyday object - the pillow, a western form, not historically a Chinese domestic object.
The clean white porcelain-like surface appears sanitized and impersonal, yet gives the visual illusion of a pillow made of a soft welcoming material, one that invites you to rest your head or body, but in fact the pillows are hard, rigid and are not meant to be utilitarian. De-contextualized from their indoor place on a bed, their original function is denied. Indentations in the pillow forms imply a former functionality. The juxtaposition of an indoor object with the outdoor space creates a contradiction and a curiosity as to why these pillow forms are scattered and installed on the grass.
For more information visit the artwork page on www.vblearn.ca
prev | back | next
