Li Cailan’s "Terracotta Warriors - Great Qin Empire" cowhide pyrography series is a high-quality work that deeply integrates intangible cultural heritage pyrography with Qin Dynasty civilization. With natural cowhide as the carrier and the "carving and burning" technique as the support, it condenses the thousand-year spirit of the Terracotta Warriors and the grandeur of the Great Qin Empire on a small piece of cowhide. Focusing entirely on the works, it reproduces the elegance of the Qin Dynasty with ingenuity and highlights the contemporary vitality of intangible cultural heritage techniques.
Polished over several years, this series includes more than ten works, with the Terracotta Warriors of the Emperor Qinshihuang’s Mausoleum as the core creative theme. It accurately covers classic Qin Dynasty images such as general figurines, kneeling archer figurines, military officer figurines, pottery horses and bronze chariots, completely restoring the majestic momentum of the Qin Dynasty military formation of "sweeping the six kingdoms and swallowing mountains and rivers". Adhering to the core principle of "respecting history and restoring the true essence" throughout the creation, the creator Li Cailan went deep into the Emperor Qinshihuang’s Mausoleum Site Museum many times, depicting the armor patterns, clothing folds and facial expressions of the pottery figurines one by one. From the arrangement rules of the armor pieces and the muscle lines of the pottery horses to the layout pattern of the military formation, all are accurately reproduced, making each work carry the details and temperature of Qin Dynasty history.
The core highlight of the works lies in the exquisite combination of materials and techniques, which is also the key difference from traditional pyrography. In terms of materials, natural cowhide specially tanned and greased is selected. Its natural brownish-red texture forms a sharp contrast with the black and dark brown after burning, with a sense of vicissitudes of time, which exactly echoes the profound heritage of the Great Qin Empire, making the works seem to be unearthed from the thousand-year-old Qin Dynasty ruins, with the texture of historical precipitation. In terms of techniques, the original "carving and burning" technique is used. Each work has to go through four processes: "outlining, carving, burning and dyeing, and polishing". First, a fine knife is used to carefully carve the rigid lines of the armor and the muscle texture of the pottery horses, then an iron with controllable temperature is used to iron and dye layer by layer. Through the subtle control of high, medium and low temperatures, rich light and shade layers are presented, making the Terracotta Army images three-dimensional, vivid and lifelike——the dignity and coldness of the general figurines, the perseverance and calmness of the kneeling archers, and the vigor and vitality of the pottery horses are all depicted vividly.
The uniqueness of the series lies in not being limited to simple image reproduction, but integrating artistic innovation on the basis of respecting history. The creator skillfully combines the texture and rendering techniques of Chinese painting with Western realistic techniques, making the works have both the ancient charm of intangible cultural heritage pyrography and the aesthetic tension of contemporary art; at the same time, she makes good use of the natural irregular edges of cowhide, turning them into part of the works to add a sense of historical weight. She also integrates the family and country feelings from "The Book of Songs·Qin Feng" into the creation, making the cold pottery figurines a group of Qin people with spirit and temperature, allowing the Qin spirit to be inherited in the small cowhide. This series of works is not only the ultimate display of pyrography skills, but also the contemporary artistic expression of Qin civilization, reviving the intangible cultural heritage techniques and allowing the world to understand the profoundness of Qin civilization through this small piece of cowhide.
