amnua 南京艺术学院美术馆
Nanjing University of the Arts, 30.9.2015 – 20.10.2015
This solo exhibition held at the Art Museum of Nanjing University of the Arts is the result of several years Zhu Yingchun spent closely observing and recording the lives and habitats of bugs around his studio, which led to the creation of his major work Bugs’ Book. Combining painting, sculpture and photography the exhibition displays the work of Zhu Yingchun and his fellow artists the bugs, who use their bodies, their teeth and their wings in different ways to write in intriguing and calligraphic scripts.
The appreciation of nature has been a central theme in Chinese art since ancient times, but nowadays as more of us live in cities, it is all too easy to get caught up in the fast pace and high pressure of modern day life. Zhu Yingchun reminds us not to get carried away, to take life at one pace slower, to stop and appreciate the myriad of intricacies and beautiful marks that surround us in nature, in a language that is open to all.
Curated by Lin Shuchuan
“The leading role in this exhibition is not me, but the bugs. I am mere collector and compiler. I provide the bugs with food, paper and ink, and after they finish creating I clean them and return them to their habitat. I am an observer, in charge of selecting paper and materials, then sorting and arranging the results. As I work subconsciously I forget my professional identity, I forget that this is a kind of manmade artistic process, but in doing so it is a natural manifestation of my emotion.”
———Zhu Yingchun 2015
2015
Guangxi Normal University Press
Bugs’ Book is a major work of Zhu Yingchun’s and the result of several years of painstakingly observing the wildlife around his studio. Seemingly a textbook, the book does not in fact contain a single word. Rather it is a mysterious creation of the bugs themselves making Zhu Yingchun not creator, but discoverer and compiler.
The traces of snails, earthworms, stink bugs and other insects, to which many turn a blind eye, are the subject of Zhu Yingchun’s gaze and his ever-expanding curiosity and marvel. Like Chinese calligraphy or landscape painting, the work of each bug has a distinctive style, from the cursive script of the leaf-miner flies to the earthworms’ apparent seal script, the dry brushwork of the stink bug to the long-horned beetles and their dotted textures.
2017 The Best Book Design from All Over the World
Leipzig, Germany.
The UK edition is titled The Language of Bugs and published by ACC Art Books.