One Artist’s Vision:Cabbage And Everyday Life
Since time immemorial, artists have used many material to form sculptures ranging from stone to clay to wood and even sand, but surely using food as a medium for artistic creation is a newer albeit more offbeat and unconventional concept.
Still, anything goes when it comes to the human imagination and artistic expression. Innovation flows free when art enters the cosmos of every day life. WE see it in ice sculptures, edible clothing, etc. Ju Duoqi makes her own artistic statement, which concerns transforming the humble cabbage into works of art depicting beautiful and sometimes scantily clad women.
The artist who hails from Beijing, envisioned cabbages as a medium for connecting her art with the aspects of daily life and she began using the unlikely cabbage as a medium to achieve this some five years ago.
“Cabbages come in different sizes and colors. Under different light and in different contexts, I can make cabbages into various forms and take photos of them that produce different moods,” said Ju.
Going to the market can be the most mundane of life experiences, but not for Ju, who studies the available cabbages that can either reflect the curves of a female body or that can be cut to make arms and legs or accessories. Her success lies in her diversity of choices; she always selects a combination of round cabbage and longer, slim “celery-like” cabbage.
With tools such as toothpicks and knives, in her studio on the outskirts of Beijing she reshapes the cabbage; leaves become different parts of the body. Her sense of detail is astounding as she carves tiny hands or uses individual leaves for a specific effect. She uses both whole cabbages and leaves for her sculptures and they are all in diverse stages of decomposition, each of which transmits a different visual message to the beholder.
To render a state of permanence to her creations, Ju photographs her cabbage women and then reconstructs them on her computer, using editing software. A work of cabbage art can take as much as weeks to create and at other times only days.
This beautiful cabbage art has been on display in Beijing, London, Paris, Los Angeles and Miami. The limited edition prints sell for 2,000 to 3,000 euros ($2,900-$4,300).
Art like beauty is in the eye of the beholder and nature holds inspiration for many a masterpiece. Bringing the concept of still life to a whole other level, one will ever think about that old toy, Mr. Potato Head in quite the same way every again.
Here’s to beauty, art and…cabbage! (Clink of glass!)
Check out this video below depicting Ju’s incredible artistic vision.
(Link)
By MDeeDubroff on 15-06-2011
