Sunday, February 24, 2:00-4:00 PM
Event Fees: Free, but advanced registration is requested
The event will be conducted in Chinese
Location: 40 Rector Street, 2nd Floor, New York, NY 10006
When spring returns, when the hibernating creatures stir, the Renwen Society has in store a very special treat for you: Waiting For A Flower To Unfold, a lecture by Lin Dihuan (nom de plume: Xiao Lin), on Sunday, February 24 2019, from 2.00 to 4.00 pm.
To say Xiao Lin is a household name is not an overstatement. Arguably the best-known genre-bending artist in China, Mr. Lin is at once a photographer, a painter, a calligrapher, a cartoonist, a writer, a website designer, a big data manager and an educator in new media, communications and design, and is accomplished in each and every one of these disciplines. He was trained in medicine, but gave up his medical career in favor of his heart’s desire: art.
Xiao Lin’s painting series, “The Twenty-Four Solar Terms”, was included in China’s official nomination dossier submitted to the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage programme. He also painted the backcloth of China Central Television’s hit program “Chinese Poetry Competition”. Another of his paintings, “Major Snow”, was chosen as the official poster for the 2022 Beijing Olympic Games. Many of his works, both cartoons and paintings, can be found in school textbooks on traditional culture.
Xiao Lin captures. Through his pens, lenses and paintbrushes, he captures moments – moments of our time and moments of our thought. His works appear casual and subtle, light as a gossamer cloud, gentle as a whispering breeze, but they are highly evocative, their impact reverberating far beyond the form.
The Lin-style cartoons are in a class of their own and are widely circulated in the Chinese-language cyberspace. These humorous sketches are rooted in the traditional ink wash genre, but expressive of topical realities of the modern world, profundity couched in uncluttered strokes – an experiment in the interfusion of China’s cultural heritage and its revived excellence conveyed through the vehicle of new media, made relevant by its focus on the here and now, appealing to a wide spectrum of tastes, from the highbrow to the popular. Xiao Lin is never the one to court the limelight, but accolades have fallen into his lap – accolades from his exceedingly broad fan base.
The lecture will give us a rare opportunity to get up close and personal with Mr. Lin and hear his stories on a wide range of topics, including:
• his artistic contributions to the nomination and inscription of China’s 24-sign temporal zodiac, known as the “Twenty-Four Solar Terms”, on the UNESCO ICH representative list;
• his photographic storybooks portraying the different dimensions of life in urban and rural China and the many petals on a multi-colored bough of humanity;
• his ink wash representations, fusing tradition with originality, of discrete realities across a diverse spectrum of subject matter, mostly the simple pleasures of life;
• the evolution of his cartoons and the drivers behind it; and
• his charity initiatives to benefit the left-behind children (of migrant worker parents) in mountainous areas, as well as the symbiosis between art and public service.
Mr. Lin will also bring some of his paintings and cartoons to display at the event.
等一朵花開
雨水剛過，驚蟄在即，華美人文學會和華美協進社孔子學院於2019年2月24日（星期天）下午2時至4時特邀中國當代藝術家林帝浣做“等一朵花開”的專題講座。
林帝浣，畢業於中山醫科大學臨床醫學系，畢業後棄醫從文，長期在中山大學負責網站設計，醫療大數據，傳播與設計，新媒體等領域的研究和教學工作。工作之餘，林帝浣醉心於攝影，國畫，書法，漫畫與寫作，畫作“中國二十四節氣”曾作為世界非物質遺產申遺資料，並為中央電視台著名文化節目“中國詩詞大會”繪製舞台背景，畫作“大雪”也曾作為2022北京冬奧會指定宣傳畫，漫畫與國畫作品多次入選中小學傳統文化教材使用。
林帝浣的作品善於捕捉這個時代的場景，表現這個世間的心態。雲淡風輕，卻又力透紙背。其漫畫作品在中文網絡世界被廣泛傳播，既有中國傳統水墨文化的傳承，又貼近當代生活，寓意深長，回味無窮。林帝浣的創作，是中國當代藝術家嘗試繼承中華優秀文化，並利用新媒體，表達當下而形成的雅俗共賞的藝術形式，深受不同年齡階層，不同文化背景讀者的廣泛喜愛。
林帝浣此次在華美人文學會的新春講座，將和聽眾分享如下內容：
1. 中國二十四節氣文化在當今中國的傳承與發展，二十四節氣水墨畫作及攝影作品創作的故事，中國二十四節氣申遺背後的故事。
2. 以攝影記錄中國城市與鄉村，“我想給你拍張照”創作的觀念與意圖，拍攝的陌生人故事。
3. 水墨寫意創作的傳承與創新探索，美食系列，極簡系列，詩詞系列，萌寵系列創作背後的思考。
4. 水墨漫畫的構思，創作心得，風格形成的過程，內容理念的創新探討。
5. 中國山區留守兒童公益活動之倡議與執行，藝術創作與公益活動之間的互動與促進。
講座期間，亦將同時展出林帝浣水墨與漫畫的代表作品，並由作者介紹創作背後的故事以及靈感來源，和作品背後的種種故事。