与石头一起工作和索尔恩霍芬的材料 / Working with the Stone and The Solnhofen Material (2014-15/2021)

Zhou Xiaopeng has been researching the handling of rocks in both Southeast Asia since 2011. In memory of his lithography studies at the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts in China, the artist visited a quarry in southern Germany to observe the production of limestone for making lithographs. The work Working with the stone documents the work on site in a stone tile factory in Solnhofen. The 36 reportage drawings were drawn directly onto the stone tiles. While German limestone was highly valued as a material for the production of traditional lithographs in Zhou’s art education in China, the production of classic lithographic plates has increasingly given way to the mining of limestone for the cement industry and the mining of limestone for floors. Zhou drew the new work realities of the factory workers on tiles, which due to defects on mobile shelves, Zhou mimics the way in which floor tiles are presented and stored for example in hardware stores.

The area around Solnhofen has meanwhile increasingly developed into a tourist region. The artist reacts to the significant change by converting the landscapes changed by mining into postcard motifs in order to reflect the transition from an economic development of the soil to the development of the landscape, and thus from material to immaterial consumption.

(Curatorial text by Miya Yoshida)

周霄鹏自2011年以来一直在研究东南亚地区对石头的处理情况。他曾在中国的广州美术学院学习石版画，因此他也造访了德国南部的一个采石场，并考察了用于制作石版画的石灰岩的生产情况。作品《与石头一起工作》记录了索尔恩霍芬的一家石砖厂的现场工作情况。这36幅报道式的绘画被直接画在石砖上的。在周在中国所接受的艺术教育中，德国的石灰岩作为生产传统石版画的材料被高度重视，但传统石版画的生产已经越来越让位于为工业开采石灰岩和为制作石砖而开采。他在石砖上记录了工厂工人的日常工作现场。周把这些石砖上的画作陈列在移动货架上，并模仿了建材市场中对石材的展示和储藏方式。

同时，索尔恩霍芬周边地区已经日益发展成为一个旅游区。周对于这一重要变化所作出的反应是：将因采矿而改变的景观转化为明信片上的图案，以反映从土地的经济到景观经济的发展变化，也是一种从物质消费到非物质消费的过渡。