Shanghai AURORA Museum specially presents the “Shi Shu Wen Zi”(Read books and find the meanings) series of activities this weekend will be held in the novel “Hope and Sorrow in a Parisian Auction House” book sharing event, specially invited the artist Liang He LEGO to attend the event, on-site with the audience to talk about his friend, far away from France, the author of the Qin Zhao creation of the “Hope and Sorrow in a Parisian Auction House” background, as well as the story of the book as the inspiration for the cover and illustration works he created! and his cover and illustrations inspired by the stories in the book.
In the era when AI can easily imitate all the master paintings of mankind, he used the most clumsy method to pick up the brush, ink and paint, and drew for more than ten years, drawing diaries, illustrations, covers, desk lamps, stereos, sofas, carpets, bags …… still draw every day, from ink to oil paintings, and watercolours to woodcuts and sculptures, and everything in between.
Others may see this as some kind of insistence, but in him it is just one of his daily life, he said he is a slow person, can’t pursue and the world synchronisation, or keep up with the pace of the times and so on, “Is there anything in particular in this era that is worth having to keep up with?” He said, “All technologies are the same, what they can’t do is to replace us to feel the world, only to feel and express, is the evidence of living.”
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.
Liang He 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 thousands of different ways, I believe that every viewer and reader will have a different understanding.
