Art puts Fuliang back in the picture
Area once famed for its tea and porcelain hosts a creative endeavor
The nest stands tall on the relatively empty ground, many holes are left all over the nest, like opened windows. Visitors are welcomed to climb up on bamboo ladders or walk around on the nest, overlooking the tea fields from above.
Shen calls the work traveling in the Clouds, he wishes that the nest could carry people to reach the sky like clouds.
Also, Shen made a seesaw crossing the drilled wall of an idle tool shed, blocking people on two sides of the seesaw from seeing each other.
The inspiration comes from the artist's fascination about "walls", "some walls are visible, but some are not, such as the 'wall' between different cultures and civilizations".
As international travel is limited by Covid-19, foreign artists provided the creation idea and supervised the production process through online communication.
Paola PM, who was born in Italy and currently lives in the United States, made a 20-meter-high rainbow ladder leaning on the outer wall of the lounge built by the sponsor; Rlkujl Makabe from Japan boarded up a small tile storehouse with painted planks, reflecting how the community is formed from countless small units; considering the long history of tea cultivation and trading in Fuliang, David Gerstein from Israel placed two steel-made colorful teacups in tea fields; Maaria Wirkkala from Finland upgraded and colored the water tanks in the village with her insight as a sculptor, hopes to remind people of the importance of water resources.
Art is not the only solution to boost the development of the countryside, but it is undoubtedly a steady and efficient way to help the countryside to establish dialogue and interaction with the outside world, and to create more possibilities for future.
A field is where hope grows.
xuhaoyu@chinadaily.com.cn