Artist Response Seven

So here I sit again to talk about Lei Yixin and his work as a Chinese artist and sculptor. Yixin’s most controversial piece, and his most well known piece here in the United States would be the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Monument that is on showcase in Washington, DC. 

Yixin with his work at the MLK Memorial.

It is this piece that really has caused a lot of controversy among the art and historical communities here and abroad. Many here in the states were upset that a Chinese Nationalist was commissioned to create a piece remembering a great American trailblazer for equality. Also at odds is the fact that the statue was primarily made in China and the stone came from there as well. Many believe that this is the exact opposite of what King Jr. stood for and that, according to the UK Telegraph’s Malcolm Moore, “King would be rolling over in his grave if he knew that his likeliness has been created by someone under a Communist regime.” 

Yixin's statue of Lei Feng

I think that we have to look past the social and cultural differences and realize that Yixin is a very talented artist and that we should embrace the fact that a man like Yixin, a Chinese man under a very different government ideal is able to come to the United States and create this work. That is something I think that King Jr. would be accepting of since he fought so hard for equal rights in this country. 

Yixin with his sculpture of Chennault.

When I look at some other pieces of Yixin’s work this is not the first time he has created something to show homage to an American. He was commissioned to create a statue of General Claire Lee Chennault. This statue is in the Hunan Province of China and is there to remember the help the Chinese received during WWII.

I think that this shows that while Lei lives in an entirely different world that we do here in the states, that he has an appreciation for Americans. While people may be at odds about how certain things were decided, I think it is apparent if you really look at his work that he has a great deal of attention to detail and emotion, and passion in his work.

Artist Response Six

So continuing my venture into exploring the work of Chinese artist and sculptor Lei Yixin I have found many images and a few stories that add some value to knowing more about him and what he does. The three pieces that I have selected to put in this blog post represent some of the same underlying themes in my opinion. 

"Contemplation"

Yixin is obviously a very skilled sculptor but going deeper than that it is obvious to me that he really enjoys sculpting human form. When I look at his work, Yixin seems to have such a great appreciation for the human form and an attention to the detail that comes out in the complexity of his work with such a difficult medium to maneuver.  It was his piece, “Contemplation” in an art exhibition in Minnesota that led Yixin to be, for a lack of better words, discovered by Ed Jackson the man in charge erecting the Martin Luther King Jr. memorial in Washington, DC. That monument, which I will hit on in the next blog post, is probably what Yixin is most known for. 

An unnamed piece of work done by Yixin in the Hunan Province of China

In both the unnamed piece above and in his work “contemplation” you can truly see this attention to detail of life form and how he using his medium of large stone sculptures to really show the power of emotion and feeling through his work. I feel like his work makes you think and almost feel like you can connect with the people that he is sculpting because of how lifelike they feel and look.

Another work by Yixin in his school in Hunan.

 

Artist Response Five: Lei Yixin

Yixin making a statue at his art institute.

The artist who’s work I have chosen to use is Lei Yixin. Lei Yixin is a 59 year old Chinese sculptor who does a lot of his work in large scale stone, mostly granite. I picked him because of how different our countries are. China is a communist nation while we are a democracy of the people, for the people. The ideas of the people of the nations could not be more different either. Here in the states we are very much about the individual and self recognition while in the far east their whole ideal is about the family, the group and their well being. Honor is something that is very big in his culture and I think that passion comes out in his work. I have seen that some of his sculpture work is of people and that passion for honor is brought out in the detail of his work.

Lei Yixin

Yixin is the head of Hunan Sculpture institue in the Hunan province of China. He has sculpted over 150 works according to various news readings that I have found and is one of the most esteemed sculptors in China.

Mao Zedong statue in Hunan, China.

I really like how he is able to transform such large pieces of stone and turn them into life-like memorials in order to honor those who have passed, or an idea or emotion. Once piece that really sticks out is a 105ft statue of Mao Zedong that he created in the Hunan Province. This image sticks out because of its sheer size and complexity. His attention to detail just shows how he honors the leader of the past. I think the work speaks volumes about the culture and Yixin himself.

Artist Response Two: Tom Loeser

"21 and Over"

When I first looked at Tom Loeser’s work it attracted me because it was made out of wood. I liked how natural all of the worked looked and felt and how he was able to transform the wood into useful items such as charis and beds. His use of color and patterns is another thing that drew me into his work. Also he is able to make furnature useful but stand out and almost reinvent some of it. For example, in his piece “Chests of Drawers” he has even built in hidden compartments. I really like how he things outside of the box as both, in my mind, an inventor and an artist. 

Chest of Drawers

To learn more about Loeser I read an article titled “Adventures in Color” by Lloyd E. Herman. In the article he gives praise to Loeser for his use of wood and color and also going further with “color and pattern.” Herman says that, “Loeser’s use of color seemed almost to provide his work with a fourth dimension.”

I can agree with that statement because he is able to not only use wood in abstract ways to create useful furniture but he is able to use pattern and brilliant color collages to really make the work “jump” out to the eye. I really liked how he was able to make something very functional and the make it fun and different with the shaping and color scheme. 

I found his piece of work, “Very Large Bed” very appealing. The way that the paint is striped and the wood shaped makes me think of waves in the ocean. I think it would be a very calming bed to sleep in. 

You can see in a lot of Loeser’s work that he tries to make it different while still keeping the furniture functional. While his work may be uniform to the rest of his work, it is a spectacle and is very unique compared to most furniture that you can find.