In the days of racing against the coronavirus, "happening" and "recording" go hand in hand. Pieces of white protective clothing dyed purple by the night, boxes of daily necessities that have been traveled a long way, and flowers intertwined from memories and imaginations that bloom carefully in the corners of the city have become the common themes under the pen tips of Shanghai artists, and they are full of gratitude and expectation.
In order to "merge these records into a river" and convey the anti-epidemic spirit behind paper and pencil to more people, the Putuo District Archives Bureau recently joined hands with the Huangpu Painting Institute to hold an online exhibition of calligraphy and painting works of "Anti-epidemic Art", taking the lead in collecting more than 70 theme works created by members of the academy, and making its first public appearance through the "Shanghai Putuo Archives" WeChat public account.
According to the relevant person in charge of the Putuo District Archives Bureau, these works are spontaneously created by painters and calligraphers, stemming from their real views and feelings about their recent lives, so they present a variety of forms of expression, both a few sketches that show the outline of a few strokes, as well as a delicate and exquisite and extremely outlined brush, as well as digital comics, ink paintings, oil paintings and other types, showing the diversity and realism of folk creation.
"Anti-epidemic Diary" on postcard
Since April, Li Yuanxun of the Huangpu Academy of Painting has taken advantage of the waiting interval during the nucleic acid test to depict various scenes seen that day on a postcard, and more than a dozen sketch cards have been linked together, which he named "Anti-epidemic Diary".
Li Yuanxun engaged in art design in his early years, joined the Huangpu Painting Institute after retirement, often went out with students to sketch, and the habit of creating on postcards began to develop from then on. "It has a certain thickness and is easy to carry, and you can draw a picture in fifteen minutes, which is very suitable for sketching." Although he also uses mobile phone photography, in most cases Lee still likes to "practice" in this traditional way, "the feeling when recording this kind of recording is completely different." ”
He talked about when community volunteers delivered medicine to them a few days ago. It turned out that Li Yuanxun's wife suffered from asthma and needed long-term medication, but due to various practical factors, it has not been able to be dispensed with medicine. Although they eventually succeeded in ordering on the e-commerce platform with the help of their daughter, the drugs were slowed down due to tight transportation capacity, and seeing that there was little stock left in the home, the old couple's hearts became more and more uneasy.
"It was raining heavily outside that day, and I got a call saying the medicine was coming." Li Yuanxun opened the door and found a large bag of medicines on the ground, while the volunteer was standing in the corridor two meters away from the door, waiting for him to take away the goods. Looking at the rain-soaked plastic bags and the back of the volunteers as they left, he turned back home and left the scene in the postcard, "The people outside are tight, these medicines are not easy to come by, I am a mortal who remembers small things, but this small thing is a big thing for us mortals." ”
The "Guardian of Shanghai"
The stories of Li Yuanxun's experience are constantly played out in the streets and alleys of Shanghai every day, and in these stories, the painters and calligraphers of the Huangpu Academy of Painting, like ordinary citizens, often shuttle between various identities such as observers, recipients, and givers, and transmit the temperature of the city with their own actions.
"Post-80s" Lin Jie graduated from the Fine Arts Department of East China Normal University, is a professional painter and a resident of Putuo. During this epidemic, as a party member volunteer, he actively assisted the leader of the building team to inform residents to conduct nucleic acid testing, carry supplies and group shopping materials, and distribute antigen reagents; whenever he returned home after completing volunteer work, he used to use reading to unload his fatigue.
Lin Jie told reporters that in the recent reading process, he was impressed by a book that recorded the deeds of Shanghai's "war epidemic" in 2020, and the story in the book overlapped with the scene in front of him, inspiring him to create a work of the same name with the brush strokes he was good at. On the painting, a copy of "The Guardian of Shanghai" is on the case, and there are two camellias waiting to be placed next to it.
"There are a lot of camellias in our neighborhood, and those few days are exactly when they open." Lin Jie painted a camellia flower next to the book, not only with the meaning of "waiting for the flowers to bloom" to look forward to Shanghai's early victory over the epidemic, but also as a metaphor for the flowers, to thank the neighbors, volunteers, and community workers who have been fighting with him for many days, "The residents in our building are very united, and if there is anything that needs manpower, everyone is scrambling to help." ”
Author: Zhang Xiaoming Huang Rong
Editor: Wang Jiayi
Editor-in-charge: Shan Yingwen
*Wenhui exclusive manuscript, please indicate the source when reprinting.