‘The Emperors New Plans’ is a short series of work that is fantastical, yet reminiscent of the Ancient powerful Eastern World. Here, the Emperor had absolute power, and infinite energies through the hardwork of his subjects. The Emperor was just as good as his latest fantastical plan. Here, this artist installs herself at the Emperors palace, working under extreme pressure to document the Emperors Fantastical ideas, as he rampantly daydreams towards heaven. These paintings are plans that have transcended from now ancient Emperors, but still exist in their entire and important significance today. There is ‘The Emperors New Plans - The Great Wall’ - executed in full artistic colour, texture and collage suggesting the actual piecing together of a wall. Here the colour reflects the landscape together with the diverse labour force, and diverse materials used. The wall was built by prisoners of war, convicts, soldiers, civilians and farmers, using any materials found nearby from clay, stone, willow branches, reeds and sand. Then there is the ‘Summer Palace’ - a somewhat vague painting, at the Emperors early stage of conception. There are the ‘Secret Gardens’ luscious, delicate and flourishing, The ‘Empress Gardens’ just for the Emperors wife and daughters and extravagant in terms of foliage, delicacy and layout. The ‘Summer Gardens at the Summer Palace’ suggest huge planted and maintained spaces. Waterfalls, sculpture . In these plans as portrayed by the artist, the Emperor is in the main, visualizing the end result, there are white lines suggesting layouts of smaller items - sometimes not completed, there are wider brush sweeps suggesting the need for energies, or new thinking, or perhaps paths of varying colour.
What inspires this artist most, is the fact that the huge legacy of these Emperors still exists and influences us today, bearing in mind that the Great Wall started construction in the Spring and Autumn period (770-476 B.C.) The Forbidden City - with a palace consisting of 9999 rooms dates back to the early 15th century, and is still in tact and glorious today. What the great ( in terms of their creative vision) Emperors left China, was a country that is as much visited for it’s magnificent historical legacy as it’s commercial products and prowess - a legacy also created in the Dynasty period.
Each painting in the series ‘the Emperors New Plans’ has a gold stamp and lettered stamp of the Palace. It is the original document created by the court artist from the musings and visions of the Emperor!
All these works are carried out on paper (850gm²) using mainly acrylics. Some works are collages using acrylics and inks.
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