This article is transferred from: China Industrial Network
Shocked!He used thousands of pounds of steel to cast a sculpture of the worker’s father
Original title: Shock!He used thousands of pounds of steel to cast a sculpture of the worker’s father
Worker’s Daily – zhonggong.com reporter Wang Weiyan
In this graduation season, Huang Jianyi, a graduate from Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts majoring in sculpture, became popular with his graduation project “Building Soul”.
He used nearly 1,400 kilograms of steel bars and iron plates, which took 3 months to weld into a “heavyweight” sculpture——
On the foundation made of steel bars, a construction worker wearing a hard hat was held up, with deep eyes and a resolute expression.
The prototype of this sculpture is Huang Jianyi’s father and thousands of builders who are glowing on the construction site.
Love and support from a father
According to reports, Huang Jianyi, who was born in 1997, is from Zhanjiang, Guangdong, and has two older brothers and one older sister.
His father, 55, is a construction worker with more than 30 years of “working experience”.
“My father was a big worker who was in charge of building walls, and my mother was a small worker who helped move bricks and cement.” As long as he can remember, his father has been building houses for people in Hainan, and sometimes he can only go home once or twice a year. In the fifth grade of elementary school, my mother also started working on the construction site with my father.
In high school, Huang Jianyi, who likes to draw, became an art student.
Although this would increase the family’s expenses, the father supported his son’s choice without hesitation.
“My father was also a construction worker”
Previously, Huang Jianyi, who devoted himself to studying, rarely had the opportunity to contact his father’s construction site.
He could only imagine his father’s concentration and hard work from the thick calluses on his hands and the growing wrinkles on his face.
Until the third year of junior year, Huang Jianyi followed his father to help his uncle’s house build a house. He was able to see his father busy on the construction site with his own eyes, and a strong emotion surged in his heart.
He said: “Although the house built by my father is not a high-rise building, it has built a home that can shelter many people from the wind and rain. My father, who is not good at words, paid silently and built a home with his backbone.”
Huang Jianyi, who was deeply touched, made a work that combined with the image of a construction worker in the bronze casting class of his junior year, and poured his feelings for his father into it, which also became the prototype of this graduation work.
Construction workers can often be seen around the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts. Huang Jianyi could not help but come up to chat with them and tell them, “My father is also a construction worker.”
“Every day is like working on a construction site”
In order to show the perseverance and strong character of construction workers, after discussing with the instructor, Huang Jianyi chose to use steel bars and iron plates as sculpture materials.
He went all over the waste collection station around the school and found four or five hundred catties of steel bars and iron plates.
Later, more than 1,100 kilograms of scrap steel bars were purchased on the used goods trading platform.
Speaking of the process of sculpture, Huang Jianyi felt that “every day is like working on a construction site”: using welding machines and cutting machines to control steel bars and iron plates requires huge physical effort.
When welding steel bars, Huang Jianyi not only had to wear goggles, but also had to regularly drop eye drops to protect his eyes.
Facing the high temperature for a long time, his face also began to peel.
The process of sculpture is very cumbersome, requiring a little welding, piece by piece…
After welding the base of the sculpture, Huang Jianyi found that it was not flat enough, so he spent another week dismantling it and redoing it.
Pay tribute to workers in the language of architecture
It took nearly 3 months to complete the “Building Soul” with a height of 2.3 meters, a base of 1.9 meters and a width of 1.13 meters.
The specially installed lighting device inside the sculpture originated from Huang Jianyi’s careful observation.
“I’ve seen construction workers climb high scaffolding at night to work on the site.”
Huang Jianyi was inspired by the flickering lights on the construction site at night, “Silent construction workers, shining on the construction site.”
Huang Jianyi named this work “Building Soul”.
In the creation description, he wrote, “We are used to looking up at the stars but ignoring the silent land beneath our feet. We praise the beauty of architecture but forget the hardships of the builders. I want to use the language of architecture to pay tribute to my father and all builders. “
Father cares about son’s injury
In May of this year, Huang Jianyi’s younger brother released the creation process of “Building Soul” on social platforms, which immediately attracted wide attention.
“The most important thing is not the steel bar itself, but the love for the father”, “the panoramic display of the craftsman’s spirit”, “the way art should be, it is shocking”… This work full of power and full of “vicissitudes” “Poke It has won the hearts of many netizens.
After that, some media interviewed him, and his classmates also “swiped” him on the short video platform.
The “popularity” of the completed works made Huang Jianyi a little surprised. He felt that the sincere emotions expressed in the works resonated.
Huang Jianyi’s father also saw his son’s video, “My father just chatted with me about some family affairs, and then he always cared about whether I was injured during welding.” Xiao Huang said, and he could still hear his father’s happiness and pride in his tone.
Huang Jianyi hopes that he can find a job as soon as possible, reduce the burden on the family, and repay his parents.
“Out of the circle” is not a stroke of luck
According to Chen Hongjian, Huang Jianyi’s instructor and deputy dean of the School of Sculpture and Public Art of Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts, the “out of the circle” of “Building Soul” is not a chance.
“One of the important reasons why this work has attracted attention is that the camera is aimed at the construction workers to express their spiritual quality.” Chen Hongjian said.
“The original intention of the creation of this work is to express the emotion for the father, and from this, the work spreads the emotion for the father to the construction workers and builders, and then rises to pay tribute to the spirit of labor and craftsmanship of this era.”
“We often ridicule that sculpture is a ‘heavy industry’ in the art circle. It is very close to labor. To make this sculpture, Jianyi needs to build a shelf, weld, and cut, which is labor in itself.” Chen Hongjian said, Huang Jian Yi has personally experienced the hardships of his father and builders, and this is what the whole creative process has brought him very valuable.