Inspired by a tree

Xinjiang is the home to some 80 percent of China's poplars. And they are the source of inspiration for a solo show by Zhou Zunsheng now on at the Xinjiang International Convention and Exhibition Center. Lin Qi reports.

Over the last two decades, ink-brush artist Zhou Zunsheng has frequently journeyed between his home in Beijing and the source of his inspiration, the Xinjiang Ugyur autonomous region. Every year, the 59-year-old stays there for two to six months.

He says every time he leaves Xinjiang, he feels like "a man who cries when parting from his lover". And when he returns, he is "as eager as a man running toward his destination".

Besides traveling in the region, he often visits his "friends", the desert poplar trees around the Tarim River.

Ink-brush artist Zhou Zunsheng is holding his solo exhibition, Poplar Trees Never Decay, featuring paintings of the trees, at the Xinjiang International Convention and Exhibition Center in Urumqi. Photos Provided to China Daily

Xinjiang is home to 80 percent of China's poplars. They've existed in the area for some 60 million years.

The trees have been a major subject of Zhou's paintings since 2000.

Poplar Trees Never Decay, his solo exhibition dedicated to poplar paintings at the Xinjiang International Convention and Exhibition Center, showcases around 130 works on public display for the first time. The exhibition runs through July 3.

His 50-meter-long painting, Scarlet Tianshan Mountain, is on permanent display at the center. It was a commission for the first China-Eurasia Commodity and Trade Expo in 2011.

The ongoing event is Zhou's fifth one-man exhibition in Xinjiang. While he exhibited a few paintings of poplars in previous shows, the current one is dedicated entirely to the species.

Zhou first visited Xinjiang in 1994,when he was studying at the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing. But it was not until six years later that he first saw and began to paint poplar trees.

Zhou says that, before his first encounter with the trees, he had heard many stories about them.

For example, he was told that when you entered a poplar forest, you felt touched by the trees.

"I asked myself, could it be true? I'd never heard such a story about trees."

When Zhou first saw the poplars,he says the experience was like "seeing a field of ruins where there had been a battle.

"Tree trunks either stood upright or lay on the ground, just like soldiers who fight to the end. There were also small branches and new sprouts. It was a scene from the circle of life."

A poplar's life can span several centuries.

A saying in Xinjiang talks about how the tree can thrive for a 1,000 years, then stand for a 1,000 years after it dies and remain for another 1,000 years after it falls down.

"I now understand why people exaggerate its lifespan. It has become a symbol of persistence and uprightness," says Zhou.

He says the exhibition also marks the 96th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China.

Zhou says he feels that he is opening up new vistas when he depicts poplars.

"Classic mountain-and-water paintings present an oasis of serenity, poetry and seclusion, and the painters and the viewers want to live in it forever. But it is difficult to convey the same feeling when painting the landscapes in Xinjiang," he says.

"When I paint a tree, I focus on the meaning of life. The tree itself is a celebration of life."

In Zhou's paintings, poplars stand firm while their leaves are blown away and the branches are broken. And like a wounded fighter, the big tree has holes like a wide open mouth or eyes filled with tears.

"When water fuses with ink under my brush, I find the souls of the poplar trees."

His friend, painter Fu Bogeng, says that to prepare for the exhibition, Zhou painted for more than three months and often skipped meals.

"Sometimes he progressed fast, looking rather excited. When he got stuck, he stopped for several days and smoked a lot," Zhou says.

"He connects his life and creation with poplar trees."

Zhou teaches Chinese painting at the graduate school of the Chinese National Academy of Arts in Beijing and at Urumqi's Xinjiang Normal University.

He hopes his students can be resilient like poplars, especially when they live in an affluent world.

"Once, a student asked, 'If ordeals make an artist successful, where could we find them?" he recalls.

"I said: 'You're wrong. It's not suffering but a goal you should look for. And when you work hard, trials come along'."

Contact the writer at linqi@chinadaily.com.cn