Culture

Artist couple revives ancient techniques

By Wu Wencong (China Daily)
Updated: 2011-03-02 07:50

From left to right: Xu Qing's silk cat and peony come to life; Ji Shun's gourd man; Xu's silk Mandarin duck; small gourds are more expensive because the designs are harder to create. [Photo/China Daily]

Art master Ji Shun takes advantage of the natural shapes and textures of the gourds for his designs. [Photo/China Daily]

Centuries ago, Chinese people were using gourds as ladles, splitting them lengthwise into two parts and taking out the core. But about 400 years ago, they thought of another use and began decorating them by burning them with heated tools.

This technique, known as pyrography, can be dated back more than 2,200 years to the Qin Dynasty (221-206 BC), but it was not until the end of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) that the art was first applied to gourds.

According to legend, it started accidentally when a group of artists were taking some gourds to the emperor. The gourds got mildew on the way as it was during the rainy season. In a bid to avoid punishment, the artists came up with the idea of scalding beautiful patterns on the gourds to hide the mildew.

The art used to be practiced by many craftsmen in Beijing decades ago, but now there are only a few practitioners, such as 54-year-old craftsman Ji Shun, who still produce such art.

The most unique part of Ji's work is that he does not only simply transfer a design from paper onto a gourd. Instead, he takes advantage of the natural shapes and textures of the gourds, using a heated tool or wire to burn or scorch designs onto the selected gourd and then applying oil to the surface of the gourd so it acquires a natural shine.

His representative works include a mouse scalded onto a gourd with a long stem shaped like a mouse's tail, and a quail burned on a small gourd that is fat at the bottom with a small bird-head-shaped ball on top.

"Sometimes I just hold the gourd and stare at it under the light," said Ji. "By revolving the gourd in my hand, the changes in the shape of the shadows will inspire me."

Ji said it is also very common for him to travel around the country looking for the perfect gourd for a particular design.

In the early years, he liked to collect the weirdest looking gourds in a bid to come up with original designs, but he soon realized creating new ideas using commonly shaped gourds is a greater challenge.

By laying the gourds down, or cutting them into two parts and recombining the pieces, Ji now has a list of more than 300 unique designs, each of which takes weeks to complete.

One of his creations is the view of a young girl's back. The girl's head and shoulders are burned on the top part of the asymmetrical hourglass gourd, and her bottom and thighs on the lower part. The natural curves that connect the two parts form the girl's waist.

Ji spent most of his life in journalism. From China Youth to the Xinhua News Agency, and later the Sing Tao News Corporation, but he never relinquished his dream of becoming an artist.

The realization of his dream can be largely attributed to his wife and her artistic family. In 1989, Ji was introduced to Xu Qing, the daughter of Xu Yongkang, a master of traditional Chinese realistic painting.

Xu Qing's craft is hand-painted silks, which first appeared in the period of Warring States (475-221 BC). The silk is coated with a liquid derived from fried white sugar, which helps fill all the little holes in the material.

"It makes the lines drawn on it smoother than those painted on rice paper," said Xu.

Xu's work features plants and animals and her favorite shows a cute kitten holding a large peach in its paws on one side, the other side shows a peony and three butterflies. When holding the silk under the light, the texture lets the painting on one side gleam through on the other, making the whole picture appear to be the kitten playing with the peony and the butterflies.

"The idea itself is amazing, not to mention the lifelike hairs of the kitten, which are as real as in a photo," said a visitor to her studio.

Silk painting is a time-consuming process and it can take Xu a year to finish one piece.

Xu has also tried burning her paintings on gourds. Her works are completely different in style from Ji's, more meticulous and more realistic.

"We discuss the crafts together, which sometimes turns into a quarrel, but most of the time, we inspire each other," Xu said.

The couple share a studio in Dongcheng district.