Artistic space #58 - Kai-Xiang Zhong, the carton sculptor
We continue with the Junk fever, a movement in charge of using waste of any kind to turn them into masterpieces of art, one of the favor points that I give to contemporary art is the freedom that artists have to choose any material, this in times of Renaissance art would have been impossible, since there were no materials that exist today, but even so it was an era where there was artistic diversity but at the same time were bound by canons imposed by the Catholic Church and the elite of the time that decided to really produce the artists.
In the case of the artist of Taiwan origin today, called Kai-Xiang Zhong, a young man who is dedicated to making sculptures with cardboard, the material most used for more than 100 years in the packaging of commercial products, which is discarded by stores and buyers, very few countries really manage to recycle a significant percentage of the cardboard produced.
Kai-Xiang Zhong, 24 years old and self-taught, his passion for animated films, and manga, as well as large film productions have been the muse for this young artist who found in cardboard the best ally to make replicas of characters from numerous animation films.
Since his childhood he was connected with creativity, he was a very good drawer until one day he decided to make sculptures, and in view of how cumbersome and expensive it is to make sculptures with other materials such as metal and stone, he opted for cheaper material than he could think, cardboard. He works at different scales, from miniature to natural size.
His success began in 2013 when he built a dragon which was viralized on the internet, by 2014 he was already a celebrity in Taiwan, creating an exact life-size replica of Iron man. This quickly opened up the market for him to commercialize works through numerous orders.
The works range from Godzilla to Pennywise in a terrifying bust. It is possible to see how the practice of previous works has taken the young man to a level of incredible perfection that should only be improved in the future.
But it's not all about sculpture, as the young artist is a studio man, so just in his spare time, he builds a variety of creatures that are equally intricate and realistic, from a miniature Optimus Prime to a shimmering Godzilla and huge T-rex skulls. Although Xhong prefers to maintain the original texture and color of the cardboard, he constructs his sculptures as realistically as possible in all other respects, patiently cutting and assembling each small component with care and precision.
His first sculpture was completed in 1 year, which allowed him to master the cardboard technique completely.
The paper produced in the year is luckier than cardboard, it is estimated that at least 46 percent of the paper produced is recycled, but cardboard is not so lucky, only 10% of cardboard is recycled worldwide, and more or less 10 million tons of cardboard are produced per year, this means that much cardboard is unused in garbage dumps.
So it is an honor that there are young people like Kai-Xiang Zhong, who care about artistically recycling cardboard, imagine a world of young artists recycling all kinds of materials artistically, it would be great.
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