On December 4th, students in 10-E and 10-F went to Nanjing University with Ms. Bartell and Ms. Hadley. We went there for the sculpture exhibition of Wuweishan. The sculptures were only made by him. They are both contemporary and traditional. The reason for contemporary is that Wuweishan is still alive and the reasons for traditional is that many of his sculptures are made of bronze and soil. Also, he often creates the sculptures of famous ancient Chinese.
When I entered the saloon, I was convulsed by all the artworks around me. They’re so creative and magical! There’re a lot of sculptures of people. For example, the famous physical scientist: Yangzhenning, the famous philosopher: Laos, the famous writer: Luxun, etc. Suddenly, a lovely boy caught my sight. It is called “A sleeping boy”. The “sleeping boy” was created in 1998, it was made of bronze. The artist used circular shapes, rectangles, triangles, trapezoids and some other irregular shapes. He used curves to create the outline of the sculpture. The color is dark brown and dark green. The subject of the artwork is the head of the sleeping boy. I can see the expression of the boy very clearly. His mouth is open and round. He was sleeping very deeply and very cute.
Actually, when I first saw the artwork in a book, I couldn’t find any wonderful point; I felt the artwork was very common. Only a boy who was sleeping very deeply, every boy could sleep like this! However, when I saw it truly, I thought back to my baby time. My mom and dad often fooled me to sleep because I always cried very loudly and didn’t want to sleep at all. The sleeping very deeply, the same as me (12 years old), I have the feeling because I had a photo of myself in which I slept with mouse open when I mouth open when I was young. I was just like a shadow of the artwork. The artwork relates to a kind of child’s taste. Everybody in the world may sleep like him when he/she was young! Wuweishan is such a smart artist that caught this detail. The artist’s intention was to reflect the spirit of Chinese traditional culture by be clear at a glance of visual sense language.
I like the artwork very much. Because I can find myself in the artwork. This artwork is full of Chinese wisdom and has a high degree of freehand brushwork. The sleeping boy is simple, but its meaning is full of child’s taste. It transmits a kind of intelligence.
When I came home after school, searched on the internet and found some more information. Wuweishan finished this artwork at his friend’s home in 1998. The grandson of his friend was ill that day. He was crying for a long time. He was just asleep. Because his nose had some problems, he could only breathe with his mouth. So, his mouth was open. Suddenly, the inspiration went through Wuweishan’s head. He took some soils to make this sculpture. This sculpture helped him awarded the “pangolin prize” of the royal society of British sculptors. I hope he can make some better sculptures in the future.
During this exhibition, I have learned a lot about the art of the sculptures. I hope I can realize the meaning of all.
