Nanjing selected 5 sculptures [out of the original 13 submitted] to be made in China. They very generously invited the sculptors back to China to finalise the works to their satisfaction and also to select suitable stone for their bases. It was all very sympathetic to an artist’s needs.
I was flown from LHR into Guangzhou and transferred to a flight to Shijiazhuang, quite far north. My destination was Quyang, which some have called the sculpture capital of China. There is good stone source nearby and the locals developed their skills in this medium and then expanded into bronze, steel, and ceramics. There was a specific sculpture “industrial” zone for Quyang and everywhere had works for sale. I suspect that everyone in Quyang either works in sculpture or has a family member or close friend involved with sculpture.
Some shots from a moving car [hence not great focus]
The work was being undertaken by Xinte Ji Tuan which takes on all sorts of projects. Please have a look at their website [all in Chinese] to get an idea of the range of what they do. But here are some photos of the works being finalised and the people who made them, plus other shots around the site.
Mr Ge Xiangpeng , who used to be known as Ge Yahui, undertook most of the work in the studio where my soldiers were, and had a small team to support him. A very talented man. Here is the other work that was in the studio – you can get an idea of scale from the guy top left in the scaffold.
And these are shots from elsewhere in the site; small maquette, display gallery of some of their work, and two pictures of a very large polystyrene model. The people are from Nanjing and Andrei, the sculptor from Belarus, who designed the Queen’s head on the King’s. Andrei and I marvelled at the size of the work and couldn’t imagine working at such a scale.
