Extended Research

Iceland Trip

The trip to Iceland is also one of my extended research. I traveled around the island with my friends in April. The purpose of this trip is not only to travel and see the beautiful scenery of Iceland, but also to find creative inspiration and collect landscape material.

I once dreamed that I was sleeping in a frozen lake in Iceland surrounded by snowy mountains. It sounds unrealistic and romantic, but I did dream of such a scene. Although I haven't been there before, I don't know why I dreamed of Iceland. It may be related to the two movies I watched before, one is The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, and the other is Interstellar. In the painting of unit1, Blue Dream (as shown in Figure 1) is the scene in

Figure 1，Wei Huang，Blue Dream，2021
Oil on Canvas

my dream. In Blue Dream, I painted a person sleeping in an ice lake. The person in the painting symbolizes me, surrounded by snow mountains, the world is blue. When I woke up that day, I made up my mind that I must go to Iceland in the future, so this has always guided me.

Figure 2，Xiaodong Liu，Nuka and his Uncle，2017，Oil on Canvas

Artist Liu xiaodong's trip to Greenland gave me some inspiration. In spring and summer 2017, Xiaodong twice came to Uummannaq, an island off the west coast of Greenland（As shown in figure 2）. The painting object was the local umanak nursery. At the end of the world, every time you get closer to the north, there are fewer people. There is an orphanage in the northernmost part of the earth. Before departure, Xiaodong imagined a distant poetic and fragile beauty. and he

often goes around the world to sketch, like a walking poet. Iceland is close to Greenland and has a similar landscape, Therefore, I want to go to Iceland one day to see the spectacular scenery and find some inspiration.

Screenshot of the documentary "Orphanage in the Arctic Circle"

Liu Xiaodong Interview：An Orphanage at the End of the World

When I travel in iceland，I remember once we lived in a local log cabin. The local residents were kind. The owner of the house told us some legends about their local village. They said that their village was always guarded by gods, and the snow-capped mountains behind the wooden house are gods. I have always longed for snow-capped mountains because they are mysterious. My work Lost-snow Mountain （As shown in figure 3) is the awe and yearning for the snow mountain. Some local myths and legends also gave me some

inspiration, such as the Norse mythology over there, aurora, elves, aurora, Vikings, etc. I shot some footage about landscapes, such as volcanoes, icebergs, waterfalls, aurora, etc. These may be the material for my creations in the future, and I also drew some landscape sketches for this.

Figure 3，Wei Huang，Lost-snow mountain，2020
Oil on Canvas

Here's some scenery of Iceland

Here's some sketch of landscape

As one of the extended research projects, the trip to Iceland, I recorded the itinerary every day, and wrote and drew my daily experience as a diary. I have collected a lot of creative materials, photos, videos, sounds, etc. about the landscape. These materials can provide a basis for me to continue the creation of Blue Dream. It is pity that I wasn't able to bring my oil paints to the live sketch, but I plan to go again in the future. When I came back from Iceland, I think human beings are small, nature is so great. She is like an artist who created a lot of beautiful glaciers, seas, rivers, and so on. These are all works of art of nature. Human beings should be in awe of nature, love nature, love the natural environment and the world. I ended with a poem I wrote about my trip to Iceland.

Here is a poem I wrote:

It is a dream

I came to a place where is extremely lonely

no one there

Only I saw the sacred snow-capped mountains

endless sea

beautiful glacier

Suddenly there was a gust of wind, and it snowed heavily

The wind kisses my face so hard

I woke up

the sea becomes a road

Glaciers turned into high-rise buildings

High winds and snow become crowded cars and crowds.

Volcano photographed by UAV

Reference:

lissongallery (2019) Available at: https://www.lissongallery.com/news/paintings-from-liu-xiaodong-s-new-uummannaq-series-on-view-at-the-louisiana-museum (Accessed: date).

YouTube (2019) Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D0tZowaKo-g (Accessed: date).