Branding Glass Emperors
“May the moment come when I attain enlightenment that my body. my soul,my spirit become like crystal; pure,transparent, and flawless.”
The Scripture of Primal Vow of Bhaishajya-guru-aiduruya-prabha-raja
Indulging in an art piece is like immersing yourself into a world created by the artist’s imagination. Such is the experience of seeing the glass arts of Liuligongfang. Caught in the light, the glass elements seem to dance a thousand dances and form a concoction of colors that journey into the deepest imagination of a human’s mind.
Liuli is the archaic Chinese word for glass. Twenty years ago, Liuligongfang’s founders, Mr Chang Yi and Mrs Loretta Hui-shan Yang had started to use liuli and perfected its craft to create art that embodied the beauty of Chinese culture and history. This season for New York Asia Week, galley Leo Kaplan Modern specialized in glass masterpieces is exhibiting Liugongfang 2008 art collection.
Mr Chang Yi was a prominent film director who had won several prestigious awards including the Golden Horse and the Asia Pacific Film Festival Awards for Best Director. Mrs Loretta Yang was also in the film industry, and was known as a reputable actress who won several Best Actress awards, also in the Asia Pacific Film Festival. Both were born in Taipei, Taiwan and at the peak of their careers, they both decided to leave the film industry and devoted themselves to the creation of contemporary glass arts. Not only was their career shift unexpected, but a shift into glass art was pretty much incomprehensible.
After struggling for years and perfecting their techniques – they later settled on using the pate-de-verre or lost-waxing method – the couple finally find a place for their art. Liuli art first appeared in China about 2000 years ago and was subsequently forgotten. But today there are hundreds of liuli brands in Asia, creating a new niche in the cultural industry. As pioneers and innovators, Liuligongfang stands at the forefront of the market, creating art pieces that became permanent collections of many museums in the world, including the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, Beijing’s Palace Museum, and the Bowers Museum in Los Angeles. Liuligongfang also held exhibitions in Japan, United States, Italy, Germany, and South Africa, and its name and art quickly became synonymous with Chinese style and culture.
The first step in creating liuli art is the liquefaction step where you take a solid substance from its original form and melting it under extreme heat to create a new substance. In this case, Silica is the material chosen to undergo the process, being exposed to 1,400 degrees Celsius of heat, to become a crystal clear opulence universally known as crystal glass.
The clarity of liuli and the impermanence of bubbles have become Mrs Yang’s trademark in the world of liuli art. In her amazing piece, “Wish of a Lifetime”, Mrs Yang turned the two-dimensional image of goddess Guan-Yin’s mural found in Dunhuang’s third grotto into a three-dimensional piece, rendering it four metres high. The conceptual beginnings have been on display in Taiwan and Singapore to over 300,000 visitors where many have been moved to tears upon seeing the sculpture. Her “Formless, but not without Form” collection has also been shown in many internationally renowned museums and galleries to great acclaim. Mrs Yang delicately manipulated the fickleness of temperature to create the desired effects, bringing to life the Buddhist scripture and lotus leaves. The pieces reflect growth and changes in her Buddhist work in liuli.
One of Liuligongfang’s recent endeavours was the Museum , TMSK (Tou Ming Si Kao) Restaurant in Shanghai’s Xin Tian Di Plaza. The TMSK Restaurant became a place to feature the TMSK collection of dinner ware and wine glasses, and also became a platform to unveil Liuligongfang’s breadth and depth of art. From the arched ceilings to the tiled floors, from the furniture to the utensils, all are designed to contain liuli elements. TMSK focuses on liuli, using it to expand into TMSK Lifestyle, culinary design, architecture and interior design, music, publishing, and many more. And it has become the mass elevation of design.
Today Liuligongfang has become the world’s largest brand in the industry. Their workshop expanded from Taiwan to China and employs over 1,700 personnel and owns and operates 62 showrooms. Liuligongfang
With a beginning purely in liuli art, the workshop has since expanded to include metalwork (Guan Nian Pei Shi), cuisine (TMSK Restaurant), music (New Folk Sounds), lifestyle (TMSK Lifestyle) and even digital animation (a.hha). Mr Chang and Mrs Yang hopes to forever create art good for the human heart and hoped that Liuligongfang can not only educate, but also exhibit a respect that will touch people from around the world.
Joelle’s Tips:
The Gallery:
Leo Kaplan Modern
41 East 57th Street
7th Floor
New York, New York 10022
Gallery Hours:
Monday - Saturday
10:00 am - 5:00 pm
Phone. (212) 872-1616
Fax. (212) 872-1617
E-mail. Info@lkmodern.com
Source: Via Indonesia Tattler by Grace Gunawan 2005
The Restaurant: Tou Ming Si Kao (TMSK)
Unit 2, House 11
North Lane Xintiandi, Lane 181, Tai Lang Lu
Shanghai
Telephone:
00 86 21 6326 2227
Hours:
1:30pm-midnight
Nice blog. I liked your presentation. It was interesting to read about the Chinese art, Liuli. The pictures are spectacular. Thanks for posting this.