“在时尚繁华的商业街上，植入一段由耐候钢钢水浇铸的‘乡村泥泞路’，通过作品与环境的强烈冲突来制造‘奇妙感’，以引发人们对脚下这片土地曾有的乡村景象的思考与联想”。这就是《印记》这组作品的创作初衷。该作品是为在湖北襄阳华侨城奇妙镇举办的首届公共艺术节而创作。 Inserted on a fashionable and prosperous commercial street, “Imprint” reproduces a section of “rural muddy road”cast by molten Corten steel. The design intention is to create“a sense of wonder”through the striking contrast between the work itself and its surroundings, to inspire visitors’ thoughts and associations with the former rural landscape on the land under their feet. The work was created for the first OCT Fab Public Art Festival held at Fab Town, Xiangyang.
“在时尚繁华的商业街上，植入一段由耐候钢钢水浇铸的‘乡村泥泞路’，通过作品与环境的强烈冲突来制造‘奇妙感’，以引发人们对脚下这片土地曾有的乡村景象的思考与联想”。这就是《印记》这组作品的创作初衷。该作品是为在湖北襄阳华侨城奇妙镇举办的首届公共艺术节而创作。
Inserted on a fashionable and prosperous commercial street, “Imprint” reproduces a section of “rural muddy road”cast by molten Corten steel. The design intention is to create“a sense of wonder”through the striking contrast between the work itself and its surroundings, to inspire visitors’ thoughts and associations with the former rural landscape on the land under their feet. The work was created for the first OCT Fab Public Art Festival held at Fab Town, Xiangyang.
▲摄影：金伟琦，Photography: Jin Weiqi
在刚接到创作邀请时，我对奇妙镇这个地方充满了无限遐想，因为这个小镇名为“奇妙小镇”，那这里应该有很多奇妙之处。然而，当我来到现场才意识到，奇妙镇只是商业策划下的地产概念，这里原本是一片广阔的农田，正在被一座崭新的现代化新城覆盖，所谓的“奇妙”只是对这片城区未来发展和美好生活方式的憧憬。
When invited to create a work for the Public Art Festival, the chief designer Hu Quanchun imagined a lot about Fab Town, as its name seemed to indicate that it was a place with abundant wondrous things. When he arrived at the site, however, he realized that Fab Town was just a real estate concept proposed under the commercial planning of this area. The site where the Town locates was originally a vast piece of farmland, which was being replaced by a new modern built landscape. The so-called “Fab” is just a longing for the future development and wonderful lifestyle of this urbanized area.
▲摄影：金伟琦，Photography: Jin Weiqi
这次创作的任务是为商业中心创作公共艺术作品，以体现奇妙小镇的“奇妙”这一主题概念。在创作期间这里的空间环境还处于如火如荼的建设中，新的空间语境和场所环境还没有完全形成。从公共艺术创作的角度看，要在这种状况下无中生有的进行创作是有难度的，因为，公共艺术创作不同于艺术家个人自律自为的创作，公共艺术作品创作概念的产生要么根植于场地历史记忆、要么与新的环境形成对话与协调、要么与公众产生互动交流，但是就当时的场地条件来看，产生这些关联的条件都还不具备，因此，我的创作从一开始就陷入了僵局。
The design task was to create a public art work for the commercial center of Fab Town, to echo the Town’s theme. During the design phase, the site was under construction, and the new spatial context and environment had not completely taken shape. From the perspective of public art design, it was hard to create a work on such an empty site. The reason was that public art creation needed to be rooted in the historical memory of the site, coordinate with its surroundings, or interact with the public. But the site’s conditions were not enough to build these connections, which became a major obstacle to the design.
▲摄影：金伟琦，Photography: Jin Weiqi
数天之后，一个偶然的机会，创作的僵局得以破解。我在园区的混凝土路面上发现了一大团泥块，泥块上面有一道工程车碾压留下的清晰的轮胎印记，这一印记就像是路面上的一块浮雕，这一情境触发了我对童年乡村道路的记忆，因为，以前在乡村这一景象是随处可见。我印象中，乡村道路是有丰富“表情”的，而且这些“表情”会随着天气的变化而变化。一下雨，道路就泥泞混沌。雨过天晴，路上满是车轮印记和行人的足迹。天干数日后，路面的各种痕迹在汽车碾压和行人的踩踏下消失不见，复归尘土，直到下一场雨的到来，如此循环往复。
A few days later, Hu Quanchun broke the deadlock by chance. He found a large lump of mud on the concrete pavement of the Fab Town. With clear tire imprints left by construction vehicles, the mud looked like a relief sculpture on the road. The scene reminded him of the rural roads everywhere in his childhood days. In his memory, rural roads were rich in “expressions” which changed with the weather. The road would become muddy on rainy days and be full of tire imprints and footprints when the sky cleared up. Then after several sunny days, all traces on the road would disappear under the crushing of cars and the trampling of passers-by. Until the next rain came, such a process of changing would start again.
▲摄影：金伟琦，Photography: Jin Weiqi
道路的“表情”不同，人行走在上面的心情和状态也会不同。下雨天，在泥泞道路上每走一步都小心翼翼步履蹒跚。天晴，路面平整且柔软，步履轻快，人的心情也畅快。这些就是过去乡间行路的苦于乐。随着经济和现代化的发展，乡村也已有了现代化的公路设施，这些记忆中的场景不仅城市里不再有，就连在乡村也难得一见了。当然，晴天尘土飞扬，雨天泥泞不堪的乡村土路实际是谈不上有什么浪漫情怀的，其给日常生活和使用上带来的麻烦也是与现代化的价值观相违背的。但是，乡村土路曾是我们的“来路”，承载了我们的过往记忆。
对于正在建设中的现代化奇妙小镇而言，承载其未来繁华面貌的正是曾经的乡野，随着快速的建设发展这些乡野踪迹最终将无迹可寻。《印记》这组作品试图将乡野道路的车辙和行人足迹“浇铸保存”，通过片段呈现的方式“复原”在繁华的都市商业区，创作希望以一种直观的方式来展现过去乡村土路的日常状态。
Walking on the road with different “expressions”, people would be in different moods and states. On rainy days, they had to cautiously take every step on the sludgy road, while on sunny days, the dry yet soft road brought them an enjoyable “journey”. These were the joys and sorrows of walking on country roads in the past days.
With the development of economy and modernization, rural areas have been equipped with modern road facilities. Unpaved roads in the public's memories cannot be found in urban areas and are even rare in the countryside nowadays. Undoubtedly, those unpaved roads, which were dusty in fine weather and muddy on wet days, have nothing to do with romance. Besides, the troubles they brought to people’s daily life are also contrary to modern values. The country roads, however, used to be the “way” to modern cities and carry our past memories.
For the modern Fab Town under construction, its future prosperous environment is exactly built on a former countryside land. With rapid construction and development, all rural marks on the site will eventually vanish.
The work “Imprint” tries to “preserve” the ruts and footprints on country roads by casting molten steel, and to “reproduce” a fragment of past countryside road in the bustling commercial area. The design goal is to intuitively present the daily state of unpaved rural roads in the past.
▲摄影：金伟琦，Photography: Jin Weiqi
作品的表现方式非常直接。原计划是寻找一段乡村泥泞公路直接进行翻制然后再用耐候钢钢水浇铸。但经过试验发现该计划不可行，原因有三：首先，乡村路面状况时常会受雨水天气的影响，路面形态不稳定，而翻制工作却需要路面保持一定时间的稳定性；再者，有车痕和人迹的道路一般都是处于使用状态下的道路，我们不能因为制作作品而阻断乡村交通；最后，即便天气和路况的稳定性都能满足，也很难找到理想的极具表现力的路段来体现乡村泥路丰富的表情。
The work is presented in a very intuitive way. The designers originally planned to find a stretch of muddy road in the countryside, to directly duplicate it by casting molten Corten steel. But after testing, the team found the plan was not feasible. There were three reasons: firstly, often affected by rainy weather, the status of rural roads is not stable, while duplication requires the road surface to remain unchanged for a certain period of time; secondly, since roads with tire tracks and footprints are generally in use, the designers might hinder the traffic during making the work; lastly, even if the weather and road conditions could satisfy the designers' requirements, it was still difficult to find an ideal and expressive section of road to present the abundant "expressions" of rural muddy roads.
将所有因素综合考虑后，最终决定在大型雕塑加工厂室内制作该作品。方法是先在室内地面铺上雕塑泥，再用各类型车辆碾压和行走踩踏模拟出路面痕迹，然后再翻制浇铸。这一方式的好处就是在痕迹制造和模拟的过程中艺术家能占据主动，作品效果更加可控。
After considering all factors, the design team decided to produce the artwork indoors in a large sculpture processing factory. The specific steps were: to first lay sculpting clay on the indoor floor, then to simulate footprints and various tire tracks on it, and to cast it with molten Corten steel. This method enabled the designers to control the process of making and simulating road imprints, and hence to achieve a desirable visual effect of the work.
▲摄影：金伟琦，Photography: Jin Weiqi
完成品最终铺装在奇妙镇商业中心偏离人行主通道的小型广场内。作品的气质和面貌无疑与周边时尚热闹的商业环境是格格不入的，甚至还有强烈的冲突感，但也许正是这种突兀和出其不意的感觉回应了奇妙镇所要营造的“奇妙”体验。公共艺术创作与公共空间是一种互成关系，不同的空间条件产生不同的创作策略，虽然《印记》这组作品的创作过程与周边空间环境的生成几乎同步，但是，作品创作概念的产生仍然是根植于场地特定的历史记忆。
The finished work was finally paved on a small square deviating from the main walkway at the Fab Town's commercial center. The work is obviously incompatible with and even forms a sharp contrast with its fashionable and busy surrounding environment. But it is this unexpected contrast that responds to the “fabulous experience” that the Town intends to create.
Public art design and public space complement each other, and different spatial conditions lead to different design strategies. Though the creation of “Imprint” was almost synchronized with the construction of its new surrounding setting, the design concept of the work is still rooted in the specific historical memory of the site.
▲摄影：杉美术馆，Photography: Donghu Shan Art Museum
▲创作概念模型?场域营造工作室，Concept Model?Field Conforming Studio
