“Shan-Hai Ching Park” series
Jonas Li
1. Chung-Chi
Shan-Hai Ching, also known as Classic of Mountains and Seas, is a Chinese classic text that records the story of geography and myths which date back to the 4th century BC. The bookusually has illustrations along with the text as the initial version; the current version only contains text. Thus, I wondered, “What does the ancient creatures actually look like?”.
The “Shan-Hai Ching Park” series, represented with tracing paper, derive from the ideas from the movie Jurassic Park, “Bringing ancient species back to life”, and the mythological creatures mentioned in Shan-Hai Ching.
Chung-Chi is one of the four “XiongShou”, the fiercest and brutal monsters, in Shan-Hai Ching. According to the record, Chung-Chi has the shape of a tiger, can fly with its wings, and love to eat people starting from their head. It is also recorded in the book that Chung-Chi only eats good people and would hunt victims for bad people.
2. Bi-Fang
Bi-Fang is a bird that controls fire. In Shan-Hai Ching, Bi-Fang has only one foot which is red, a white beak, and blue-green feathers mixed with red dots. It was believed that Bi-Fang likes to harass ancient people with fire in the village.
I used ink, watercolor, Xuan paper, and tracing paper in this mixed media artwork following some steps. First of all, I dyed a piece of Xuan paper with different colors and let them dry. In addition, I placed a piece of tracing paper on my sketch and traced out the object's shape on the tracing paper. Next, I held the dyed Xuan paper along with the shaped tracing paper and cut them by their shape. Finally, I glued the shaped, dyed on the specific blank of the sketch. By repeating this procedure, I finished a work with delicate and tiny gradation which can't be drawn by bare hand.The ways of producing this piece of artwork is the same as Chung-Chi, as a part of the “Shan-Hai Ching Park” series.
