Lily & Honglei: Forbidden City
Artist(s):
Title:
- Forbidden City
Exhibition:
Creation Year:
- 2008
Category:
Artist Statement:
Forbidden City is an experimental animation that uses digital technologies to preserve traditional eastern aesthetics. In order to create an aesthetic space where history and the contemporary encounter each other, the animation uses two- and three-dimensional animation techniques combined with Chinese cut-paper design, a form of Chinese folk art. The intention is to convey the serious social and cultural significance associated with this highly symbolic art form. Not surprisingly, this can result in both conflict and dialogue. In Forbidden City, the violence in recent political events confronts the superficially peaceful everyday life in China. As Chinese new media artists, we transform traditional Chinese artistic techniques by employing updated digital technologies. We do so in order to preserve traditional Chinese aesthetic and cultural values, specifically the fundamental theory of Chinese arts that says hardness comes from softness, and quickness comes from slowness, based on the Taoist thinking that “yin” and “yang” are complementary opposites. Each fundamentally relies upon, and gives birth to, the other.
Sponsors:
University of Massachusetts Dartmouth
Contributors:
Music by David Williams
