Printmaking like villages
The taste of daily life in rural areas is sometimes at noisy banquets, sometimes in fields with abundant harvests, sometimes in bridgehead consignment stores and rural markets where people come and go. In Bailu Bay in Huangyan, Zhejiang, a large part of the daily life atmosphere of the village is on the walls. One summer afternoon, when I entered the village of Bailuwan, I saw a huge painting on the walls of a residential house - the familiar portrait of Lu Xun painted on the wall, as well as various scenes of the village, black and white, with knife like line patterns, ah! This is a printmaking - unlike the villages we usually see, the village of Bailuwan is the one depicted in the printmaking. I came to Bailu Bay to participate in a reading activity, which was held in the cultural hall of Bailu Bay. The outside is hot, but in contrast, the cultural hall, a spacious space, has a rare coolness inside. Everyone sit down together in this auditorium. The public cultural field in the countryside has a long-standing meaning, and this scene is both familiar and unfamiliar. I also noticed that on all four sides of the auditorium, there are buckets of ice cubes releasing coolness and exchanging heat with the air. A dozen or so children from Ningxi Elementary School sat on a small stage, with instruments already set up in front of them.
The instruments sounded, and the children began to play the program "Making a Copper Gong". This is an intangible cultural heritage project, known as the "Jiangnan Folk Symphony", which has been played by people for over 700 years. This type of music combines Southern Song court music with Ningxi folk tunes, with simple and beautiful melodies, a calm and melodious style, and fully showcases rural music. The ensemble of copper gongs, silk and bamboo fluttered in the cultural auditorium, with instruments such as large and small copper gongs, large drums, cymbals, banhu, erhu, pipa, flute, xiao, etc., each simulating many sounds from nature, such as bird singing, dog barking, cow mooing, as well as the figures of farmers and shepherds. One of the details left a deep impression on me, a girl waving a bamboo branch, directing and seemingly driving a cow; That big drum, doesn't it seem like a calm and honest bull? There is also a fixed exhibition of printmaking in the cultural hall. Because a printmaker named Gu Yixing has emerged from Bailuwan Village. Gu Yixing, born in 1932, also known as Yisheng, is a native of Huangyan, Zhejiang. He is skilled in printmaking and studied at Ningxi Middle School in Huangyan. He graduated from East China Normal University with a major in history in 1954 and has been engaged in printmaking creation and art education for a long time. He has served as an art teacher and senior lecturer at Huangyan Normal University in Zhejiang. This also clearly records Gu's achievements in printmaking art, winning the title of Excellent Printmaker in China in the 1950s and 1960s and the Lu Xun Printmaking Award. Now, his works are grandly displayed in his own village. Under his carving, the village and houses, the ancient trees at the entrance of the village, the orange grove, the cows and sheep descending the mountain, and the farmers returning late... Each scene emits a strong local atmosphere, and each blade carves his affection for his hometown.
Mr. Gu's printmaking works have a high reputation in both domestic and international art circles, and have participated in numerous domestic and international printmaking exhibitions, winning many awards and being widely collected. But I think Mr. Gu's happiest thing should be showcasing his works in his own village. Nowadays, his printmaking works have also made Bailuwan Village an object of observation and an artistic village. More than 200 printmaking works by famous figures such as Gu Yixing, Zhao Yannian, and Zhang Huaijiang have been donated to the village and rubbed onto walls, covering over 2000 square meters of the walls of houses in the village. Walking through the village is like walking through a museum of printmaking art. No wonder this place attracts more and more people to come here and experience its artistic atmosphere. I think of Egret Bay now, it feels like a village with printmaking. The clouds in July are also clearly layered and have clear edges, like knives carved into the sky.
