China Culture Perspectives

Master printmaker Liu Chunjie is renowned for his beautiful woodcut art. Born to land reclamation workers in Heilongjiang Province’s 856 Farm, Lui began life in a remote part of China that was deemed to be a place of cultural exile. But it is here that a vibrant chapter in the history of contemporary Chinese printmaking, known as Beidahuang Prints, was born.

Living and breathing woodcut art, Liu takes the reader on a personal journey through his life’s work. Written in beautiful poetic prose, Liu describes how his art and the techniques he uses have developed over time, culminating in a stunning body of work that has made him the celebrated artist he is today.

Having experimented with coloured ink, installation art and mixed-media painting, it is the spirit of woodcut that remains the foundation of Liu’s art. Using ancient tools and materials, he creates works that embody modern concepts, elevating the essence of woodcut art to a new level.

Featuring over 30 colour photographs of his work and studio, celebrated Chinese artist Wang Jianwei takes us on a journey that goes behind the scenes of our materialistic world bound by rigid, socially acceptable ‘norms’, and introduces us to the beauty and usefulness of the seemingly banal.

As the reader accompanies Wang through his contemplation of speculative realism and object-oriented ontology, we learn how he integrates his thinking into his creative practice. His philosophical musings turn our worldview of human–object and object–object relations on their head, as he positions humans and objects on an equal footing. By revealing the intrinsic value of an object and refusing to define it by a single meaning, Wang fills the materials and objects that surround him with infinite potential.

A fascinating and thought-provoking book that opens up the realms of the ordinary.

Traditional Crafts of Porcelain Making in Jingdezhen is the first book to systematically and comprehensively introduce the traditional porcelain-making techniques of Jingdezhen.

Richly illustrated, these pages contain essential artworks and selected techniques, as curated by Bai Ming, a Chinese ceramic artist of international renown, whose impressive creations are made with Jingdezhen materials, using the authentic Jingdezhen methods. This illuminating volume provides key insights into Bai Ming’s teaching, research and practice, and highlights the fundamentals of the porcelain-making process.

With more than 600 images, painstakingly collected and photographed over seven years, this is a beautiful and scholarly showcase for the porcelain style of an ancient town and an invaluable document of representative works.