《Temps couvert》，Perrine Lievens，2015
The cotton storm caused by “H&M’s boycott of Xinjiang cotton has caused a heated discussion. Although cotton is soft, its hidden great strength can soften and overcome rigidity after being released. Gathering sand can become a tower, and cotton can gather together to produce the same energy. In fact, artists have discovered this mystery. Today, we want to share 7 installation arts made of cotton, and see what the artist expresses with the help of cotton as a carrier.
China Garden with only cotton in full bloom.
In May last year, in the transparent white space of Beijing Contemporary Tang Dynasty Art Center, the exhibition “White” by artist Zhao Zhao quietly opened. The whole space is full of huge cotton, which is the same and the only work present-Chinese garden.
Zhao Zhao, an artist born in 1982, grew up in Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps. From junior high school to senior high school, “picking cotton” is the only content of voluntary labor. Cotton has always occupied a special position in his life.
In 2016 and 2000, after returning from Taklama, Zhao Zhao began to conceive his cotton garden. Cotton is not only the object of childhood labor, but also the image of the times that affects individuals’ development to society. Zhao Zhao described the importance of cotton: “Cotton is not only a matter of China, but also the birthplace and sprout of human economy. It has an unimaginable huge economic and trade activity, even surpassing industrial civilization. “
The whole scene is a huge maze made of cotton and steel frames. Cotton piles are scattered in the high and low places, so people may not see the whole picture, which also conforms to the meaning of “garden”.
Cotton layers are stacked together, and Zhao Zhao makes them look like the soil state in archaeology. From different angles, cotton will bring you different mentality and feelings. “Stainless steel frame is his hardest structural support for cotton.” Softness as its core highlights this contradiction and opposition. “
Zhao Zhao named the whole white cotton maze “China Garden” with an auxiliary English name “Chinese garden”. In Zhao Zhao’s view, China people don’t have the concept of “China Garden”, and westerners’ awe of oriental aesthetics made this concept appear. “The word’ China’ is a concept in international public opinion,’ Garden’ is another cultural concept, and’ China Garden’ is another concept, which actually consists of three parts.
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Everything about cotton is about cotton.
Kang Yazhu is an artist born in Taipei. She studied textile culture, engaged in textile art education and published textile maps in Japan, Peru, Thailand and India. Everything about cotton that we want to share is the first chapter of her “cotton research plan”.
In Everything About Cotton is About Cotton, Kang Yazhu showed cotton-related tools from all over the world, such as the portable hand spinning machine invented by Indian Mahatma Gandhi in prison, and the organic cotton, kapok and chemical fiber, a substitute for cotton in Taiwan Province.
Kang Yazhu emphasized: “Cotton seems to be a trivial daily life, but it is more than just a material. It involves planting, picking and weaving, which is closely related to economy, trade and globalization. ” This view may be easier to understand after the cotton storm.
03 cotton spread out the disorder of the city
As can be seen from the first two works of art, the artist not only attaches importance to the unique texture of cotton, but also cotton is closely related to economy and politics. Takahiro Iwasaki, an artist from Hiroshima, Japan, created two works of art with cotton, which together reflected the chaos of urban changes with different scenes.
《Out of Disorder (everything is constantly changing)》，2012
Keihiro Iwasaki is good at making miniature sculptures out of waste. In the glass window, the hair is made into telephone poles and cranes in the shipyard, and cotton and white towels form hillsides. In fact, this white miniature landscape reproduces the landscape outside the window, and the shape of the island and the location of the shipyard are the same. Keihiro Iwasaki’s works retain the slowly changing scenery and people’s memories on the island.
《Out of Disorder (In Flux)》，2018
In 2018 and 2000, Iwasaki Guihong created a fictional landscape with cotton, lines and fishing nets to reveal the history of Hong Kong. Cloth strips made of towels and shirts are hoisted by cranes, becoming the image of skyscrapers, and the exquisite shop recruitment on the cloth strips is also supplemented. The ground is a fluffy cotton bed composed of a lot of cotton, which describes the textile industry that once flourished in Hong Kong. In this way, Iwasaki Hiroshi described the rapid change and reconstruction of the city.
Stick your head into the clouds and have a look.
《The Cloud》，2010
Although we all know that clouds are actually composed of water droplets and ice crystals, in artistic imagination, soft cotton is still the object closest to the touch of clouds, and you must have imagined the feeling in the clouds more or less. Japanese artist Matsuri Yamana made a huge cloud out of cotton and prepared a ladder for you to stick your head into the cloud and enjoy the gentleness surrounded by the cloud.
In the gallery space, a large number of white clouds are floating, and the audience can’t help but be curious, and enter the art installation through the guidance of stairs, and the touch brings physical experience. Matsuri Yamana This device explores the boundary between public space and private space, as well as the metaphor of the organic and spiritual fields of life.
05 opposite cotton tower
Korean artist Li Yuhuan is a representative of the materialistic artists. His art focuses on the relationship between objects, space and audience. From 1968 to the beginning of this year, Li Yuhuan began to create sculptures. So far, all his sculptures have a common and unique name “Relatum”. The combination of cotton and hard objects is not uncommon in this series.
“Relatum” is a philosophical term, which means there is some related object or time. For example, in the cotton tower, cotton, stone and iron are opposite. Through this contradiction and conflict, Li Yuhuan tried to explore things and space and his relationship with the world. He said: “The most advanced expression is not to create things from nothing, but to tap existing things, thus presenting a more vivid side of the world.”
I am in my own white age.
Turkish artist Fulya Al r worked in the jewelry design industry for many years, but when she discovered the artistic creativity of cotton and cotton swabs, she started a new adventure for more than four years.
Fulya Al r pays special attention to the changes of physical emotions. In these cotton art works, psychological activities, brain functions, nervous system, DNA and cell formation are all her creative inspirations.
At present, Fulya Al r only uses white in her works, and white is also the natural color of cotton, which constructs her white world.
When she first started to create with cotton, Fulya Al r also used rich colors. She said that every color has the same value to her, but she thinks she is in a “white age”, which gives her a deeper understanding of life.
07 cotton “marble” sculpture
French fabric artist Simone Pheulpin grew up in a cotton factory, and the use of this material is like a treasure. At first glance, you might think that the sculpture above is carved with marble. In fact, it’s a wonderful work that Simone Pheulpin patiently weaves with cotton cloth.
Making cotton cloth from cotton, then folding the cotton cloth bit by bit and fixing it with a pin, this whimsical art experiment, Simone Pheulpin tried for nearly 40 years before picking the fruit.
The folds of cotton folding constitute the shape and texture of sculpture, and Simone Pheulpin thinks that “these folds are the shape of memory itself”.
At the age of 77, Simone Pheulpin finally achieved fruitful results. She was nominated for the LOEWE Loewe International Craft Award, and her works were purchased by the V&A Museum in London and some individual collectors. According to a collector, she thinks Simone Pheulpin’s works are “Zen, quiet, meditation and humility”.