Thursday, May 18, 2017
Time: 6:30-8:00pm
Venue: TECO-NY Auditorium (B1) (1 E. 42nd St.)
Kang Muxiang will share his story of creating the world’s first sculpture using discarded elevator cables.
“I first had to clean the used cables with chemicals before molding them in to the shape I desired. I suffered burns, eye injuries and muscle strains and I was exposed to high levels of dioxins as a result of working with a welder for long periods……” sculptor Kang Muxiang recalled. It took him 18 months to complete the first artwork titled “Infinite Life” using discarded elevator cables from Taipei 101, formerly the world’s tallest building and now the fifth. Elevator cables are made from numerous steel wires wound tightly together. They are exceptionally difficult to bend, let alone shape into sculptures. “The cables carried 6.6 million visitors during their six years of operation, so there seemed to be millions of lives wound up in them. That thought really intrigued me.”
The second piece of the series, Taiwan Ruyi, a three-meter-high, three-ton sculpture depicting the S-shaped ornament “Ruyi” that symbolizes good fortune and prosperity in Chinese culture, was presented by the government of Taiwan as a gift to the German city of Karlsruhe to celebrate the 300th anniversary of its founding. The sculpture is now on permanent display at the plaza of the Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe.
Kang will kick off Taiwan Culture Month’s lecture series by giving a talk on his art journey and how he came to love using uncommon materials like driftwood and retired elevator cables to create one-of-a-kind art pieces.
For more information on the event, please visit: http://www.tpecc.org/?p=6569