Miao (Hmong) Women in Bright Moon - II

Wang Jianshan draws his creative inspiration from his home province of Guizhou in southwestern China, whose ethnic peoples the artist considers to have remained tied to their traditions and to the earth itself. This print depicts a celebration of female fertility at the Sisters Festival. During this spring event, women traditionally don multiple layers of clothing colorfully embroidered and trimmed with brocades. Over these are worn an abundance of heavy silver jewelry in the shapes of discs and crescents, geometric forms believed to represent the origin of nature and life. The jewelry's circular shapes echo the full moon, which seems to cast a golden glow on this scene.

Excelling in both pottery and printmaking, Wang Jianshan adopted waste woodblock printing because it unifies such seemingly disparate elements as the colors of oil painting, lines of Chinese painting, and texture of fresco. Wang first became known in the 1980s. According to critics, his style synthesizes a variety of international artistic influences with the culture of his native Guizhou.
ed ition 15/20