日批在线视频_内射毛片内射国产夫妻_亚洲三级小视频_在线观看亚洲大片短视频_女性向h片资源在线观看_亚洲最大网

USEUROPEAFRICAASIA 中文雙語Fran?ais
China
Home / China / Across America

Ceramics take center stage in DC

By Allan Fong in Washington for China Daily | China Daily USA | Updated: 2016-07-29 12:03

Most people don't give a second thought to the small porcelain pine tree that they pull out every Christmas season, or their neighbor's garden gnome that grins stupidly at them every time they walk by.

But these porcelain figures are really part of a larger trend in art history, one that can be traced back to Jingdezhen, China, the city that started a craze for pottery in Europe in the late nineteenth century.

American ceramic artist Walter McConnell began his series A Theory of Everything after visiting China in 2002 and seeing firsthand the jaw-dropping amount of ceramics produced in Jingdezhen, China's global center of the ceramics industry.

According to the Smithsonian's Sackler Gallery in Washington, where McConnell's latest works in the series - Chinamania - are on display, Jingdezhen retained its global prominence as the world's leading ceramics manufacturer through the late 1800s, as wealthy European aristocrats spent extravagant amounts of money amassing every bit of blue-and-white Chinese porcelain they could get their hands on.

 Ceramics take center stage in DC

The Sackler Gallery owns several pieces of Kangxi blue-and-white porcelain. These coveted pieces of pottery were sold throughout Europe during the late 19th century, though the best pieces were saved for the Chinese courts. Photos By Allan Fong / For China Daily

"This became quite the trend in Victorian England," said a guide at the gallery. "If you wanted to be taken seriously as an art connoisseur, you collected blue and white porcelain."

The Sackler has set up an entire room displaying works of blue-and-white porcelain commonly called "China," including several pieces of Kangxi porcelain from the gallery's permanent collection.

McConnell's two sculptures, inspired by his visit to Jingdezhen, consist of hundreds of individual porcelain figurines, ranging from Winnie the Pooh and a bust of George Washington to prancing unicorns and a human skull. The two pieces stand about nine feet tall and are shaped like conical stupas, religiously significant icons used as sites of reflection and meditation in Buddhism.

 Ceramics take center stage in DC

Walter McConnell’s Chinamania: A Theory of Everything consists of two stupas: one white and one of earthy tones. Consisting of hundreds of porcelain sculptures, each stands nearly nine feet tall, with no narrative to the placement of each individual piece.

"McConnell believes these stupas speak to the human psychology of collecting, especially in relation to the obsession over Chinese porcelain in the mid 19th century," the guide explained. "It's interesting to compare this obsession to the materialism that we see today, and how people attribute value to objects."

One stupa consists purely of glistening white ceramic figurines, balanced in shape and weight, creating a chaotic symmetry. In contrast, the other is composed of dark, earthy tones, also arranged in a seemingly random fashion. The effect is a "yin-yang" dynamic, each half the opposite of the other, but complementary as a singular work of art.

The individual porcelain figurines are nothing like the elegant pieces of China collected during the 1870's craze, nor do they resemble the holy relics that one might find at an authentic Buddhist stupa.

The molds used for Chinamania: A Theory of Everything were purchased by McConnell in secondhand stores or ordered from catalogues in the US, which he then cast himself. The figurines were then covered in crystalline glaze for a uniform glossy texture.

Individually, the figurines are not too interesting - mass-produced garden sculptures that went out of fashion decades ago. But taken as a whole, the work invites a discussion of society's obsession with consumerism.

"The fact that there is this juxtaposition of this traditionally religious sculpture and worthless mass produced trinkets grasps at this nation's desire to consume," said Leila, a visiting art student from New York. "Though it is very aesthetically pleasing in the sense that as disorderly and excessive as the concept of the piece is, it still seems like a unified work of art."

McConnell's work will be on display at the Sackler Gallery in Washington, DC until June 4, 2017.

Polar icebreaker Snow Dragon arrives in Antarctic
Xi's vision on shared future for humanity
Air Force units explore new airspace
Premier Li urges information integration to serve the public
Dialogue links global political parties
Editor's picks
Beijing limits signs attached to top of buildings across city
Copyright 1995 - . All rights reserved. The content (including but not limited to text, photo, multimedia information, etc) published in this site belongs to China Daily Information Co (CDIC). Without written authorization from CDIC, such content shall not be republished or used in any form. Note: Browsers with 1024*768 or higher resolution are suggested for this site.
License for publishing multimedia online 0108263

Registration Number: 130349
FOLLOW US
主站蜘蛛池模板: 四虎成人精品永久免费av九九 | 伊人网站 | 国产精品一区在线观看 | 国产日韩免费 | 成人免费激情视频 | 青青操精品 | 免费在线观看av的网站 | 国产精品111 | 天天爽夜夜 | 岛国av网| 一区二区欧美视频 | 亚洲女人毛片 | 天天综合网入口 | 四虎啪啪| 亚洲午夜视频在线观看 | 99久久国产精 | 日本精品视频一区 | 国产黄色片视频 | 天天色天天 | 亚洲免费色图 | 欧美午夜精品一区二区 | 免费av黄色| 亚洲三页| 久久aⅴ国产欧美74aaa | 国产高潮久久久 | 久久人人爽人人 | 男女av | 亚洲片在线观看 | 在线观看你懂的视频 | 亚洲视频二| av中文天堂在线 | 日韩二区在线 | 午夜在线观看视频网站 | 欧美精品国产精品 | 日韩毛片中文字幕 | 四虎影视在线观看 | 456亚洲视频 | 在线国产小视频 | 久久99久久99精品免视看婷婷 | 亚洲午夜在线播放 | 欧洲亚洲视频 |