Art for August

During the month of August pieces of Chinese folk art and traditional calligraphy will be showcased at Coffee & Crema's Forest Park location. The pieces in the show have been collected by Greenville resident, artist, and Christian worker Jonathan Johnson during his trips through mainland China. The show focuses on the two traditional crafts of Chinese paper cutting, called jiănzhĭ, and Chinese batik, known as làrăn.

Jiănzhĭ is the Chinese art of paper cutting, practiced for over a thousand years across the regions of China. Usually the paper is a bright red, known as “Da Hong,” or “Big Red,” and very thin so that multiple sheets can be cut simultaneously. Very sharp scissors with tiny points are used to cut the pieces, and delicate slices are sometimes done with small knives of even pins.

The art of jiănzhĭ is practiced by young and old alike, and pieces are pasted to windows and walls for decoration or fortune. The pieces of jiănzhĭ displayed here were produced by two artists: Wang ChunZhang and one of his college-aged students whose English name is Jenny. Mr. Wang’s works have been featured in numerous books and regional magazines, and he is regarded as one of the three premier jiănzhĭ artists in his province. Both jiănzhĭ artists are from the city of Harbin, in the Heilongjiang province of northeast China.

Làrăn is an art form that finds its home in the multicultural region of southern China. When people think of textiles in China, they often call to mind the beautiful silks crafted through the centuries. China has always been a country of rich diversity, and làrăn textiles are created and worn by the minority groups spread throughout the region in China north of Southeast Asia and east of Tibet.

Làrăn is what is often known in the United States as batik, a technique in which wax is applied to fabric in the shape of a pattern or picture and allowed to cool and harden. The fabric is then placed into inks or dyes which color the fabric. Soon the layer of wax is removed, revealing the original fabric color standing out sharply against the dye. One of the hallmarks of làrăn, or batik, is the network of tracery found in the unstained portions of the fabric, showing where the brittle wax cracked and allowed the stain to seep in. These examples of làrăn were purchased in Kunming, China in the foothills of the Himalayas. The themes of these particular pieces of làrăn are Christian, focusing on Love and Faith.

In addition to the artwork created by Chinese artists, Jonathan has a few pieces of his own on display, as well as a number of informative books. In the back of Coffee & Crema you can peruse a novel by Pearl S. Buck, explore the famous Lin Yu Tang, or skim the heralded modern “China Road.” We would love to have you come by and see the pieces in the show.

Jonathan can be reached for information about the show through the following email account: jwjmedia@gmail.com