Colour pencil, marker on sketch A4 paper, PVC,
51 pieces in total
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)
