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Edutainment > Chinese Printmaker Zhu Liwen

Miss Zhu Liwen, born 1983
copyright Miss Zhu Liwen

The resumé of Miss Zhu Liwen begins only in 2007. This young female artist has created an impressive five piece woodcut print named "Life Situation," which cleverly makes a statement about the world we live in by presenting a shop window. Looking into the panels of this window, one feels that life is much more and higher than we belive.

Artist's Resumé

Miss Zhu Liwen was born in 1983 in Deqing city of Zhejiang province. She started to learn printmaking at the renowned CNAFA (National Academy of Fine Arts) in 2003 and finished her studies in 2007.

Exhibitions and Awards

• 2007 - The print "Life situation" attended the "Graduates' Artwork Exhibition of 2007" of CNAFA.
• 2007 - The print "Life situation" no.3 attended Guanlan International Print Biennial of 2007, Shenzhen city.
• 2007 - The print "Life situation" attended the first Venice Cyber Biennial Art Exhibition.
• 2007 - The print "Life situation" attended the "2007 Today Art Student Annual Exhibition" in Beijing and was shown in big Chinese cities.

Life Situation

Life Situation No. 1-5
copyright Zhu Liwen

The 5 piece work, Life Situation is a large achievement. The series focuses on one shop window although each piece features different subjects. This is, however, no ordinary shop window. It is supposed to reflect "life," and yet, there are no live people in the window, just clothing models, some of them headless. There are, however, live animals in the shop window, from tigers to birds. The artist wishes to juxtapose the static state of the "people" with that of the lively and dynamic state of the animals.

Life Situation No. 1
copyright Zhu Liwen

Life Situation No. 2
copyright Zhu Liwen

Life Situation No. 3
copyright Zhu Liwen

Passive Models and Dynamic Animals

Life Situation No. 4
copyright Zhu Liwen

Life Situation No. 5
copyright Zhu Liwen

The models are all in passive poses, merely standing in the window, as if waiting for a bus. Their hands are limp at their sides, with the exception of the models of children who then clapse a larger model's hand. The animals, on the other hand, are full fo life.

The tiger in no. 2 looks as if it's growling and ready to pounce on its prey. The baby tiger behind it is curiously peeping out from a window, perhaps waiting for food from its mother in the foreground. The bird to the right of the tigers is sqawking, maybe calling family.

Using these animals, the artists wishes to show us what life is. The animals are alive. Their poses are very natural. They are living as they have for ages, for the most part in peace and harmony with their environment. Panel three is quieter and stiller. There is a small animal to the right, what appears to be a dog. The dog is noticably distanced from the people in the scene. Perhaps, the artist wishes to show us that the concept of a dog as "man's best friend" is a life situation, one which man brought upon the animal. In the end, a dog is also just an animal.

The pentaptyph demonstrates that life is not just life in the human centered sense. Life as a concept encompasses the world and that includes animals, which are also alive. And in this shop window, it's clear that the animals are living in the world, whereas the people as represented by the models are passive.

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