Characteristics of original thinking in Chinese folk paper-cut art
Yang Xueqin analyzed the visual thinking system in the 1990 edition of "Introduction to Folk Art". She believed that "the evolution of vision plays an important role in the human sensory system. Among information, visual information is the most accurate and leaves the most profound and long-lasting impression."
At the same time, Arnheim pointed out that without the ability of visual perception, any other human abilities and creative thinking are impossible. He said: "All perceptions contain thinking, all reasoning contains perception, and all observations contain creation." Then Yang Xueqin believes that visual symbols and visual images are a primitive thinking language of human beings. So, in the absence of thinking logic, folk artists rely on their visual sensibility and visual image imagination and thinking ability to express the space of folk art. Therefore, she believes that the most basic way of thinking in the visual thinking of folk art should be original thinking.
The so-called primary thinking is the thinking mode of working peoples natural visual perception function without professional training. It does not mechanically copy objects based on intuitive vision, but is full of certain cognition of the creative object. Be rational and purposeful to grasp the overall structural pattern. Under this mode of thinking, when the aesthetic subject converts the object from a visual experience into a symbol or image, it breaks the restrictions of time, space, viewpoint and other laws, and arranges the image or expresses the image according to its purposeful needs.
The creative group of paper-cut art has extremely obvious characteristics of using primary thinking in creation. Obviously, paper-cut works are not created for the sake of beauty, but have a certain utilitarian purpose. Through primary thinking , which is reflected in the fact that there is still a certain distance between the realism of life and natural forms. By simulating objects, understanding and imagining with a concept, using the language of paper-cutting art - colors, lines, blocks, zigzag techniques and materials etc., summarize the image characteristics to be expressed by exaggeration and randomly add shapes to express real objects. The realization of the utilitarian purpose of paper-cutting relies on the creators or the appreciating group to reach a consensus and give the work a uniqueIt is an extraordinary spiritual function, and to integrate the paper-cutting with the finally realized spiritual function requires a channel, and this channel is a symbol.
The combination of original thinking and paper-cut creation should complement each other. The biggest feature of the creation based on original thinking is the concise and generalized form, and the state of unfettered and free creation. This mode of thinking makes up for the shortcomings of simple paper-cut materials and techniques to a large extent, and can better express the characteristics of the object. For example, in some paper-cut works, animal limbs are summarized as cloud patterns, which can not only make the appearance of the limbs more beautiful, but also harmoniously combine the movement function of the animal limbs with the movement of clouds floating in the sky. The limbs are compared and the movement of the limbs is exaggerated. Isn't this a very clever creation?
Sometimes, the images of paper-cut works we see are a bit weird, and we feel that the weird and mysterious images are filled with mysterious symbolic colors. The body of the rooster is cut with two chicken symbols symbolizing the combination of yin and yang. Under the chickens claws is a human head (a simplification of the ghost head), which symbolizes disaster. Its shape is a normal deformation of a scorpion with its mouth pecking at it. The symbol combines with the normal image to become a very Weird mystical symbols. But it clearly expresses the authors concept of "eliminating disasters, removing the five poisons and praying for life and health." This symbol that transcends reality has more artistic impact than a realistic image. At the same time, it would not be easy to describe such a complex connotation using realistic techniques. It can be seen from this that original thinking seems simple and plain, but in fact it is the condensation and sublimation of the creators life experience, shining with the truest and pure artistic nature. Therefore, Arnheim calls it "the most intelligent organizational method based on the investigation of the essence."
Because simplification can present the thing itself to people most directly. This way of thinking in the paper-cut pattern collection is purposeful and a free synaesthetic transformation of concepts. For example, according to the creation method of associative transformation and free association, a word "happy" can be cut into many flowers, The words are combined with images of grass, insects, fish, etc., thus turning the abstract words into vivid animal patterns, with a more lively and vivid form, and a rich symbolic meaning.
Of course, this kind of original thinking is created based on real life, and it more reflects the profound experience of real life. Mr. Zhang Daoyi wrote in an article about the creative state of paper-cutting master Ku Shulan: "On the basis of cutting single-color window grilles, the joy of seeing colorful paper inspired the enthusiasm for creation, to a state of single-minded ecstasy. Even in dreams or in a coma while lying in bed, the phantom of spiritual yearning appears, which is exactly a process of artistic creation. It is real, concrete, vivid, logical and in line with the rules." It can also be seen from this point. Primary thinking is hard work.
