LEGO LIANG
The novel <Hope And Sorrow In A Parisian Auction House>, published by Zhejiang University Press, is a story of loss and disillusionment in the midst of money and desire, told by Qin Zhao, who takes Feng Xin, a student studying in France, as his first step into the French auction house.
The book’s cover and illustrations were created by Liang He LEGO, a close friend of Qin Zhao’s. The acrylic on paper on the cover is set against the backdrop of the magnificent Ottoman complex in Paris, with the inverted Eiffel Tower hanging from the centre axis, a brilliantly blossoming firework at the top, and a churning, turbulent wave at the bottom, hinting at the story of the hero’s fate, which ranges from hopefulness to eventual disillusionment. The iris and acacia on the tower are also important elements in the book.
LEGO has creatively introduced the concept of “jigsaw puzzle” into the painting, so that the painting can not only be presented as a whole, but can also be split into several independent parts. The image of the girl in white holding the auction gavel appears repeatedly in the painting, sometimes looking up, sometimes falling down, sometimes hiding in the dark as a black shadow, sometimes being swept by a whirlpool. …… It is precisely this ingenious and brilliant idea that makes the three parts of the painting the opening of the three important chapters of the book, which perfectly echoes the theme of each chapter.
In fact, the painting contains much more than that, just as the same text can be interpreted in a thousand different ways, I believe that every viewer and reader will have a different understanding.
