The global spread of COVID-19 in 2020 will affect people's behaviors, lifestyles, and even world patterns and trends. As a witness to history, Jia Shanguo wants to describe this memorable human experience in his unique way.
The tradition of casting tripods for significant events in ancient times has inspired the "2020 Great Epidemic Tripod". The "2020 Epidemic Ode" on the bottom of the tripod was created by netizen Zhao Yanlong and was written by Han Yuhu of the Central Academy of Fine Arts.
The lockdown during this epidemic makes human beings enter the state of aphasia. Aphasia refers to the peace returning to the world and the fragility of modern civilization in the epidemic period. It reminds Jia Shanguo of a particular group of people with language barriers, which inspired him to have co-creation with the children of the Deaf Department of Luliang Vocational School for the Disabled.
The "2020 Great Epidemic Tripod" adopts the "acrylic tire lacquerware" technique, and natural materials have been used for lacquer for more than eight thousand years. Acrylic, as a by-product of the petroleum industry, has become important pollution threatening human survival. It is estimated that by 2050, plastic waste in the ocean will exceed the total amount of fish. Like the Stone Age and the Bronze Age, we live in an acrylic age now. The acrylic carcass of the tripod has been distorted by fire and is full of holes, just like the epidemic has become a permanent scar of humankind. In the process of mounting hemp, scraping ash, polishing, painting, covering, and repainting, the transparent, illusory, and fragile acrylic treat wounds using ancient methods. The integration of such contrasting materials into a piece of work reveals the contradiction between tradition and technology.
Jia Shanguo is unsure about the real meaning of this work, but he knows well that the time with the children will be stored in his memory, whether it is writing on the wall or looking at their happy and positive faces even though they are allergic to lacquer. If this experience can be remembered in their minds a few years later, it might give the work a deeper meaning.