Xiao Di’s Giant Golden Bull appears on the Spring Festival Gala, sowing seeds for Chinese mechanical installation art
In this year's CCTV Spring Festival Gala, accompanied by the "Listen to Me" sung by traffic stars Wang Yuan, Moon Sister, and "House Goddess" Luo Tianyi, a big golden bull with a height of more than 3 meters and a golden body with a unique style led four Little Taurus paced slowly in the "wheat field", shaking his head to the beat of the music, and from time to time triumphantly opened his mouth, blinked, and wagged his tail and ears. A happy scene of labor and harvest in autumn jumped onto the stage. The lifelike demeanor, lively movements, and visually striking mechanical shapes of the five golden bulls have captivated many audiences and added a lot of innovative elements to this year's Spring Festival Gala.
This work comes from Xiao Di, the founder of Dalian Botao. Xiao Di is the first person in the art of power mechanical installations in China. He is known as the "magic beast refiner". Dee and his team overcame many challenges.
How was the golden bull made?
First of all, the biggest challenge comes from time. "At that time, when I received the invitation from the director team of the Spring Festival Gala, there were only two months left before the deadline for the preparation of the Spring Festival Gala, and the time was very tight. I was on a business trip, so I drew a design sketch on the plane with the IPAD I carried at any time. It was quickly approved by the director team, so the project began," Xiao Di told LvJieMedia.
It took two months to create a large model with exquisite shape, but the golden bull must not only have exquisite shape, but also have vivid movements, demeanor and expressions. This requires the head, limbs, glasses, and mouth of the golden bull It is undoubtedly a very challenging task to move around the body, ears, and tail.
Another obstacle comes from the limitation of the venue. Due to the limited load-bearing capacity of the Spring Festival Gala stage, the giant bull cannot be too heavy. Therefore, the mechanical transmission, gears, pressure valves, etc. used by Xiao Di in "Chinese Giant Horse" and "Golden Giant Horse" before Element cannot be applied. "The "Chinese Giant Horse" and "Golden Giant Horse" we created before are essentially large-scale robots, with a complete set of power system, traditional system, and control system, with a total weight of 47 tons. The Spring Festival Gala stage can withstand hundreds of kilograms of pressure at most. So we had to look for completely new design solutions," Shordy said.
After some thinking, Xiao Di got inspiration from the traditional Chinese puppet device. The puppet transmission is light and flexible, driven by human power, and more complex movements can be realized through a simple device, which greatly reduces the overall weight and greatly shortens the production process. , is a good way to serve multiple purposes. But the only problem is that Xiao Di and Dalian Botao have never made puppet installations before.
To this end, Xiao Di and his team studied from scratch, went through various structural schemes of puppet transmissions at home and abroad, and received strong support from excellent experts from the Sichuan Puppet Theater, and quickly understood the structure, materials and movement performance of puppet devices. . At the same time, in order to keep up with the construction schedule, Xiao Di and his team made bold innovations and introduced 3D printing direct film forming technology for the first time. With enhanced paint, the production model is efficient and strong.
Drawing artistic nutrition from Chinese culture
Craftsmanship can be learned quickly, but "Golden Cow" is not only a large-scale installation, but also a work of art with high aesthetic value. "Golden Cow" can touch the hearts of the audience precisely because of its visually stunning artistic style, and Lifelike expressiveness. There is no quick fix for artistic aesthetics and the expressive power that gives life to works. It comes from the artist's profound aesthetic accumulation and genius creativity, and Xiao Di is such an artist.
Xiao Di has been deeply influenced by art since he was a child, and has received professional painting training since elementary school. In college, he stumbled into Dalian University of Technology and studied power engineering, laying a solid foundation in science and engineering. After graduating from university, his artistic dream was still strong, so he studied for a master's degree in fine arts. Later, by chance, he founded Dalian Botao Culture Technology Co., Ltd., which opened the road to entrepreneurship in the high-tech cultural and tourism industry. In just a few years It has become a highly trusted partner of domestic cultural tourism giants and well-known theme parks, and has created many amazing products.
Outside of daily work, Xiao Di’s greatest hobbies are painting and visiting museums. Famous museums in China and abroad have left his footprints, constantly absorbing nutrients from the excellent creations of different eras. "I am willing to study the designs made by our ancient Chinese. Even some ancient people who are not well-known, some of the works left behind are very shocking, simple, harmonious, and just right, especially reflecting the national characteristics of our Chinese nation," Xiao Di said.
In 2016, Xiao Di started the creation of large-scale mechanical art installations. His original intention of creation was to present the classic IP images in traditional Chinese culture to the world with modern technology and art through his own works of art, in order to promote the revival of the national tide and Do something about Chinese cultural identity. Therefore, Xiao Di attaches great importance to extracting traditional Chinese cultural symbols, and combines them with international trend styles to activate China's national treasures that have accumulated for thousands of years with a brand-new artistic image.
The first work "Chinese Giant Horse" integrates Tang Sancai culture and giant steampunk. It took three years to create, drew more than 3,000 drawings, and obtained more than 40 patents. It debuted during the Summer Davos Forum in 2019. It has aroused unanimous praise from guests at home and abroad, and for the first time opened up a new art category of large-scale power mechanical devices in China.
Xiao Di drew inspiration from traditional Chinese woodworking elements such as mortise and tenon joints, wooden connecting rods, and carvings in the golden giant bull created for the Spring Festival Gala this time, injecting oriental charm into the giant bull. The application reflects the imprint of steampunk everywhere. Xiao Di's superb artistic control ability integrates Eastern and Western artistic elements, grafts international trendy styles with traditional Chinese aesthetics, and creates a brand new art that is both traditional and modern, both local and international, for the "Ox", an important Chinese zodiac animal. image.
In order to achieve this goal, Xiao Di and his team worked almost without sleep during the creative process, repeatedly revising and adjusting the creative content, sleeping only three or four hours a day at the busiest time, and finally made breakthroughs in both craft innovation and artistic value, and obtained It won the high praise of the director team of the Spring Festival Gala, and also presented a very impactful visual feast for audiences across the country.
artist shawdy's mission
Xiaodi's creation is driven by his enthusiasm for the creation of mechanical installation art and his expectation for the artistic style of "Chinese ancient times + steampunk" to spread in China. "We have no profit for "Golden Cow", being able to be on the stage of the Spring Festival Gala is a great compliment to us, and it also strengthens our determination and motivation for artistic creation in the future," Xiao Di said to Xinlvjie.
Art creation is a difficult road, especially large-scale mechanical installation art, which is huge but lifelike, so that the audience can feel the vitality in it, which requires every detail to be very delicate and highly interactive. The creator is both an artist and an excellent engineer, and Xiao Di is exactly the combination of the two.
"Installation art still has great potential in China. What we are doing now is far from enough. There are still too few people in China who do installation art, especially installation art that integrates traditional Chinese culture. Worshiping foreigners, now we are the second largest economy in the world, and Chinese people are becoming more and more confident. When we look back at our own culture, we have very bright art resources to tap. Dalian Botao has always been willing to do some innovative things. Let's start with this first, and hope that more and more artists and entrepreneurs will join hands with us," Xiao Di said.
The well-known images in "Shan Hai Jing", "Journey to the West", "Feng Shen Yan Yi" and other works, as well as "Chinese Zodiac", Chinese mythical animals, etc., provide a huge treasure trove to be excavated for the creation of installation art. According to reports, Dalian Botao is currently working on six creations, including evil spirits, unicorns, and works for the Year of the Tiger.
Good works of art must have high commercial value. Dalian Botao’s mechanical installation art has won the favor of many theme parks and tourist attractions. This is undoubtedly the encouragement from the market for Xiao Di as an entrepreneur. However, as an artist, Xiao Di believes that the value of mechanical installation art is not limited to tourists' "toys", but real works of art. The indescribable aesthetic depth and vitality contained in it can inspire people to appreciate the infinite value of this art category. Love, as well as the association of life and the richness of life. In the future, the applicable scenarios and impact of installation art will go far beyond the scope of cultural tourism.
In fact, art comes from unrestrained imagination and keen aesthetic perception. The two are intertwined in the artist's mind to draw and weave a mysterious and magnificent fantasy world. It is the artist's desire to fully express this fantasy world. Where the responsibility lies is also the artist's irresistible creative impulse. Xiao Di's imagination and perception make him burst out with great creative passion, and the works produced by this passion will continue to impact the audience, expanding their life experience and spiritual space.
"I'm just getting a glimpse of mechanical installation art, and the works presented are still far from what I imagined. I feel that there is a huge space for exploration, and many feasible schemes can be tried. What I imagined The world is far more beautiful than what I see," Xiao Di said to Xinlvjie, "This will be my lifelong pursuit."