Ancient mythical creature comes to life in artist's installation

An outdoor exhibition in Guilin shows installations of Qiu Qijing who gives a profile to the mythical creatures in Shan Hai Jing.[Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Shan Hai Jing (Classic of Mountains and Rivers), the collection of ancient texts of 2,000 years old, describes the sacred geography before the Qin Dynasty (221-206 BC), and the many mythical creatures living in the Great Wilderness, as it mentions but with few lines, have fascinated artists of all time who visualize them in different forms.

Recently at the foot of Mao'er Mountain, in Guilin of Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, jade artist and sculptor Qiu Qijing unveiled his latest work, an installation called Zhu Long, which finds in Shan Hai Jing its origin, Zhulong ("Candle Dragon") a mountain guardian, no foot and its body in red all over.

Qiu used local bamboos to create this gigantic dragon of hundreds of meters long, and places it at the center of his ongoing tour exhibition of a Shan Hai Jing series of public arts. Dozens of other installations that give a vivid profile to the creatures in the classic are on show along the valley of several kilometers to blend in with the surrounding landscapes.

Since 2012, Qiu, who studied sculpture at the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing, has devoted to visualizing the mythological animals in Shan Hai Jing, and initiated three years ago a touring exhibition in outdoors environments to show his works.

An outdoor exhibition in Guilin shows installations of Qiu Qijing who gives a profile to the mythical creatures in Shan Hai Jing.[Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

An outdoor exhibition in Guilin shows installations of Qiu Qijing who gives a profile to the mythical creatures in Shan Hai Jing.[Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

An outdoor exhibition in Guilin shows installations of Qiu Qijing who gives a profile to the mythical creatures in Shan Hai Jing.[Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]