I'm back with the second part of the project I did in Zhousan, China in 2007. In the previous part I had made a sculpture with Niall Magee revolving around Cycling, which I didn't like too much. Now, with this new one I had a bit more freedom and could let my hair down.
The typhoon had passed and the spirits among all the carvers was good. We could finally finish this baby and as we were all moved to the same area to work we could all work and play together.
1st, 2nd and 3rd
I was given three blocks and asked to make something about running. They were actually quite small at around 1.5 meters tall so I thought I would just do the top parts of the body. The scale made better sense in the overall composition.
As always to make dynamic figures in sand you need to be creative in how you make some sort of support. I opted to add the numbers 1 2 snd 3 as a background to the figures and to make it more interesting for myself I would make the runners in different styles.
In first position I had a semi-realistic figure just breaking through the finish line. I played somewhat with texture to make him look like he was pumping with sweat.
In position two I decided to copy the style of my friend Kirke Kango. She has a particular way of modeling the sand with soft surfaces and dark shadow lines. Although I wasn't super happy with the result it did have a sense of her about it.
In third place was a very different planar style figure. Nearly robotic and communist style. I liked the way each were so different and yet read as one piece. The fact that they were quite far from each other made it impossible to get them all in the one shot but it help pull the whole area together.
Against the wall
We finished our work and most carvers flew back home. I had still some holidays left in me and with Hanneke Supply, Martijn Rijerse and Enguerrand David we headed back to Beijing for a little R and R.
An idea came into our heads and we thought wouldn't it be cool to go camping on the Great wall of China.
So that is exactly what we did. We headed north to a lesser known area of the wall and began to walk along it till the sun set. There was no one else around and as it was getting too dangerous to continue we set up camp on one of the famous towers.
To be honest we were very unprepared and as night drew on it began to be very cold. We sat and drank some spirits and beer for central heating. It was a memory with some great friends that will forever be remembered. We talked until late and then tried to sleep. It was feckin' freezing and we had to huddle together for warmth.
I dozed off and suddenly awoke again. I was staring into the red shining eye of a ninja. I Froze but this time in fear, I looked him straight in the eye. His black outline blocking out the starry night. I have never been so frightened. I closed my eyes and tried to go back to sleep. 'Please don't kill me. Please don't kill me' Opening them once more I could see his shadow moving away along the wall. I looked around and saw that Enguerrand was missing and then realised it was him going for a midnight walk. The red light I saw was my video camera shooting in night mode. The little bollox, he was lucky my body didn't go for a fight response and send him flying off the top of the tower.
He was right though. Up here at the top of the world, in perfect silence looking at the most amazing starry sky you could ever see sleep could wait. We enjoyed the moment once more and then snuggled up again for sleep.
We awoke as the sun was rising, watching as the view came into being. The mist slowly burned away revealing tower after tower on the mountain tops linked by the disintegrating wall.
The tower we camped on was like a ruin, unlike the ones I had seen with Kirke before. It was truly spectacular.
My band of brothers (and sister) were eager to get moving. In the distance we could already see signs of life approaching and with a quick pack up we began to walk the other way deeper into the wilderness.
The way got harder and harder because the wall, after many centuries of standing strong was falling apart. Walking, Climbing, jumping and crawling like Lara Croft we struggled on. Surely soon we would find civilization again.
I am still in Awe at how this structure was built by man. The materials were foreign to this location and so every brick must have been carried there, placed by countless hands.
We met no one as we walked for several hours until finally we found our way off the wall and down to a small village.
It really was an amazing experience and so nice to go off the beaten track in this magical land.
We visited another city which i can't now remember and had a great time taking in the culture and hospitality of the locals.
Ps
Thanks for reading. I use Steem to document my work as an ephemeral Sculptor of sand, snow and ice, amongst other things. This will hopefully give it a new life on the Steem Blockchain. Below you will find some of my recent posts.
Zhoushan 2007 - sand sculpture (Part 1)
Fringe - sand sculpture
All seeing eye (revisited) - sand sculpture
I hope you'll join me again soon
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[//]:# (!steemitworldmap 29.875942 lat 122.408974 long Zhoushan 2007 - sand sculpture (Part 2) d3scr)