Traditional Chinese Papercut art meets contemporary Melbourne paste up art
Melbourne is one of the street art capitals of the world. Our buildings are covered with great art and our iconic bluestone laneways are lined with murals.
This street art scene is the inspiration for the Bluestonia Paperhood project – a fusion of modern street art and traditional Chinese papercut art.
Brunswick artist Philip Faulks, whose recent work has been inspired by traditional papercut, will work with Zhou Bing, a traditional Chinese papercut artist, to reinterpret Chinese papercut and create large scale contemporary black and white paste up street art that creates the feeling of walking through the streets of Jiangsu.
The paste ups will be installed at RMIT, Swanston Street, Melbourne CBD and at Jewell Station, Brunswick.
Official Opening
Date: 24th February 2017
Time: 6pm
Location: Jewell Station in Brunswick
Bluestonia Paperhood 2017 is organised by Multicultural Arts Victoria (MAV), RMIT University, in partnership with Time of Art, Changzhou Qing Yun Ge Art and supported by People’s Government of Jiangsu Province, People’s Government of Changzhou City, Creative Victoria, Moreland City Council and the City of Melbourne.
Zhou Yun Hua
Mr. Zhou was born in Yixing, Jiangsu province in 1935. He is a member of the Chinese Artists Association, who was granted the title Chinese Superior Artist in 1989, an honor he retains today.
His Chinese painting, surrounded by Winds, Snows, and Clouds was selected for exhibit in the National Art Exhibition in 1977. Since then, more than 200 of his masterpieces have been on display in both domestic and overseas exhibitions, many receiving reviews and comments from leading newspapers.
Mr. Zhou and his team invented painting ideas to an ancient folk art – paper-cut, and created Zhou-style paper-cut. It falls into three collections: black, red and blue series with nearly a thousand art works. All works are exquisite, brilliant and intricately carved, appealing to all groups. Mr. Zhou and his team have been invited to attend the exhibitions in Japan, Norway, Finland, France, USA and Malaysia, etc. and performed live shows, which are well received by audience. Zhou-style paper-cut has been awarded gold and silver medals in various art exhibitions and won the top prize for folk art “Mountain Follower Award”. The paper-cut works are extensively collected by art galleries and museums both in and beyond China. In 2004, 100 pieces of paper-cut works Reminiscent of Jiangnan were permanently collected by National Museum of China.
With diversified operation, Zhou-style paper-cut, a World Intangible Cultural Heritage, has developed into fold ark works for appreciation, collection, business gift, international culture exchange and interior design. Most significantly, the paper-cut work “Silhouettes of Jiangnan”, was filmed and played by CCTV, JSTV and other TV stations.
Philip Faulks
Philip is an Australian artist who has been exhibiting since the 1980s both in group exhibitions and solos. For inspiration he calls on his love of the history of his homeland as well as decoration and symmetry from ancient cultures and those of the middle and Far East. Philip’s career is a great example of how artists can spread their wings to take on public art projects, even including the floral clock in Melbourne and a tram. He is still exhibiting and producing a huge amount of work as well as teaching.
Philip’s artworks are collected by institutions such as the Australia National Gallery Canberra, Museum of Contemporary Art Sydney, Savage Club Collection Victoria and JP Morgan Collection Melbourne.
Zhou Bing
Mr Zhou also named Muzhi, the son of Zhou Yunhua, is the most important successor of traditional Zhou-style paper-cut. He was born in Jintan, Jiangsu province in 1969 and he is a member of the Chinese Artists Association and the Jiangsu Youth Artists Association.
In 1990, five of his paper-cut works, including Picture of Happy Fish, were displayed in the first annual Jiangsu Art Exhibition and received the award Artistic Works of Excellence.
His three masterpieces – Picture of Hundreds Beast, Numerous Birds Pay Respect to the Phoenix and Be Flushed with Success, were collected and retained by Jiangsu Art Museum. In 1998, Mr Zhou’s Chinese painting – Spring, was retained by the Guangdong Art Museum and along with the Zhou-style papercut works Reminiscences of Jiangnan was retained by the Shanghai Liuhaisu Art Museum in 1999.
KEY INFORMATION
Official Opening
Date: 24th February 2017
Time: 18:00
Location: Jewell Station in Brunswick
Content: official opening event for Bluestonia Paperhood at Jewell Station in Brunswick
Bluestonia Paperhood 2017 is organised by Multicultural Arts Victoria (MAV), RMIT University, in partnership with Time of Art, Changzhou Qing Yun Ge Art and supported by People’s Government of Jiangsu Province, People’s Government of Changzhou City, Creative Victoria, Moreland City Council and the City of Melbourne.