Its hard to imagine more of a contrast with Annie Cattrell's work in the V&A exhibition - all that pale whiteness and light- and then a room of red. And red is such an outrageous and dangerous colour in Western culture, but the colour of luck in the artist's.
Lu Shengzhong's stunning installation uses hand-cut paper figures, carefully arranged in vistas and landscapes, swathes, crowds - like screens or walls, with the blocks of negative cut-outs also part of the installation.
"I use paper to cut this little red figure to demonstrate he delicate fragility of human beings. Ephemeral. A human's life is shorter than a paper's thickness. The material is not important. What is more important is the process you use to create that material. This is more valuable to me." Lu Shengzhong.
Now for ex-shammickite (and anyone else) who wants to know how to do this hidden comments trick - i've not been able to put the codes here or in comments because blogger treats it as code to be implemented (doh!)
but if you go to view page source on your browser, you can see the code for my page.
You'll see a style type code in my template, near the top before the code for my header - you need to cut and paste that into your own template. The code begins with style type (in < > brackets) and ends with the /style.
Then when you write a post, put:
* acronym title="your hidden comment" right before the word being commented on
* the word being commented on, inside > <
* then /acronym
but all of the above inside < >
Looking at my page source code again you should be able to see how i've done this here
sorry, rather a laborious explanation i hope it makes sense and works
and this (unrelatedly) is for Ched whose recently posted perfume monkey must, i think, be related to this elderly monkey which was my father's. And, being a glove-puppet, he might very well hide a perfume bottle....
21 comments:
The contrast is amazing; thanks for showing us these. I'm surprised you were able to use your camera. Didn't a guard come up behind you and demand you stop?
I'm glad I've gotten my computer back; it was odd not having it. I wonder what this means in the grander scheme . . .
Lettuce, in Russian the word for "red" and the word for "beautiful" are the same: krasnye.
This amply demonstrates that.
(and that lovely bookshelf - of course I looked at all your titles - don't you when you visit somebody else's place?)
What amazing art! I love her explanation, too.
Terrific bookshelves!
Too late in the evening to get my head round the hidden comment instructions but I'll have another look because I'd quite like to add it to mine. Where do I find the page source thingy?!!
Sue
wow. re shengzhong's installation far fvcking out (can I say that????) wow. wow. wow.
I love looking at the titles of the books providing the backdrop for the stuffed monkey..... s/he doesn't look nearly as scary as ched's perfume monkey. guess it's the smile.
Cheeky monkey.........
Wow, it's beautiful and incredible. Is red a dangerous color? I didn't know that.
That monkey perfume post got under the skin of a bunch of us, didn't it? Love seeing your books as much as the venerable monkey.
Red is an auspicious color for the Chinese (by his name, I gather he's Chinese). It's so intriguing - I didn't realise they were paper figures till the third photo.
Great photographs Lettie!
I love these gorgeous red works. They look very intense both in feeling and in labour.
ps Lettuce, I am not Dennis! We look nothing alike!
oh ps the monkey--Very Creepy! Keep him he may be valuable--the perfume one is some antique perfume thing from Kovel's--worth hundreds of bucks--even with the missing hand. Maybe someday there will be a scary monkey doll wing at the Smithsonian.
Gorgeous!! Thank you so much for posting them. Really enjoyed our day out (& now I'm back at w*rk - poo!)
I spy a Hans Anderson's Fairy Tales behind that monkey :-D
I must admit (which is probably no surprise) that I do love the monkeys. I just got some sock monkey slippers for Christmas and love them. Monkeys make me happy. I also love seeing your books .
Great photographs Lettie and Red is my absolute favourite colour.
You lost me on the hidden comments thingy :(
I like red, too, but the detail in these--extraordinary.
Love your books, Lettuce Darling
Very very cool red stuff, Lettie.
That monkey has juju eyes. :)
How amazing! Think of how many hand-cut little figures there are in total!
Love the raggedy little monkey and your interesting collection of old books!
the books do make me jealous.
All those little red people, super. I would never have the patience to do that, even if I had gobs of inspiration.
Thanks tons for the hidden comment advice, I followed it step by step and I have added a hidden comment to my current blog... see "200 years" in the first paragraph. Brilliant. But the dotted line underneath doesn't show up, so anyone reading the blog won't know there's a hidden comment there.
I copied the 3 lines above your Title into my page source in the same place, above the title, but it doesn't save for some reason, and I think that's where the dotted underline code is, right?
Duh! I'm such a technopeasant!
I bow before you, O technical whiz!!
Dennis likes the color red. Dennis likes paper.
Tut-tut I began furtively, I couldn't resist photos of Annie Cattrell's work and there were no signs prohibiting photography - but then realised that it was permitted, lots of photos going on, guards batting no eyelids.... cool, huh?
lee thats also cool, red/beautiful.
and of course - doesn't everyone?
yes Steve - I'd guess its quite zen?
sue your browser will have a drop down menu (or similar) with "view" options - it should allow you to "view source" or "view page source".
kimy i think you did say it. ;oD
and it really was!
you too martin.
didn't it, Reya? was such a brilliant post. I suppose I was thinking of scarlet women, crimson nail varnish, red traffic lights, little red riding hood.....
yes Bella, he's a professor of Fine Art in Beijing.
ched I am so sorry. what a faux pas, forgive me.
a scary monkey wing - now that would be far fvcking out.
betty it was such a great day. do grab these pics and i'll email you the others i took. more to come here....
gary, can we see some pics of your happy monkey socks? I'd love to spend time going through my childrens books with you.
lamalu - do email me if you want to know how to do it.
ooo ta bob. :o)
and john. yes, doesn't he? he first appeared (for current generations) at a family gathering, years ago - and some of my nieces and nephews who were quite little were pretty freaked out by him
lynne it was quite mind-boggling.
phd girl - I am honoured by your visit here.
shammie, I don't understand why that wouldn't save. yes, thats where the underline code is (i think - i'm pretty new to the html too). you could set up a new blog just to experiment and try again.....?
dennis would look lovely against all that red.
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