Flow : River of Knives
Flow: River of Knives, 2021
Hammered and Rusted Steel, Fused and Carved Plate Glass, Magnets
80 x 185 x 7 cm
Buddha once said, “Holding onto anger is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die.”
Rivers are known as the veins of the earth in Chinese culture. River of Knives shows a metamorphic landscape of the body being rusted and punished by the blades of wrath, the mountains feel like they’re on fire mimicking the burning one feels in the heat of anger.
This work is an exploration in materiality in a medium other than glass. As a sculptor working intimately with materials I often describe how the material is molding me as much as I am molding it, the imposition of will is never just a one way street. If working with glass has instilled within me the virtues of patience and resilience then working with steel has made me experience strength and working through physical pain. Each mark of the mountains in the steel panels are hammered out with a chisel, the vibrations of thousands of blows traveling and echoing through the nerves of my fingers to the fiery ache in my shoulder (almost causing me to get arthritis).
NC Qin’s Flow: River of Knives (2021) turns to the industrial and the inorganic. For Qin, who is probably best known for her glasswork, this work is the first that explores a medium other than glass. Across six hammered and rusted steel panels, Flow: River of Knives shows a burnt metamorphic landscape that is reminiscent of traditional shan shui paintings which typically depict mountains, rivers and waterfalls. Fused to the surface of the panels with neodymium magnets is a wave of carved glass knives that cascade in a downwards left to right motion. Thousands of chiseled indentations and dimples that contour this landscape index the strenuous bodily and repetitive process that Qin endured creating the work.
-June Miskell (MeMo Review)