Mountain by Zhaohong Zhang

Mountain by Zhaohong Zhang in Anhui Province, China

The sculpture ‘Mountain’ by Zhangzhaohong is located in front of the main entrance of Yu’an Tea Valley Park in Lu’an, as the landmark piece for the Tea Valley Park.

Yu’an Ditrict of Lu’an is located in the west of Anhui province. Having one of the most essential transportation hub in mainland China, Yu’an connects traffic arteries from East to West, as well as the communication with South and North. The unique Tea culture of Liu’an emerged around mountain Dabieshan, nourished by three rivers – River Pi, Shi and Hang.

In order to strengthen and expand the Liu’an Tea brand, the Liu’an government started the development of Liu’an Tea Valley in 2014, which covers more than 100 kilometers of Yu’an District, Jinzhai County and Huoqiu County. It is their goal that Liu’an Tea will be the leading brand of Chinese Tea industry development, as well as being one of the first sustainable demonstration regions that offer Tea theme travel experience.

The total area of this project is thirteen thousand square meters. The construction is assembled on site and welded by weathering steel plate.The sculpture is 20 meters high and the longest span is 35 meters.

Inspired by traditional landscape painting from Song and Yuan Dynasty, the artist used digital design to achieve the transition from two dimensional lines to 3D forms. The hierarchy of layered weathered steel plates creates a unique artistic conception of traditional Chinese landscape painting.

When people are experiencing the sculpture up close, the shadow and lights dance around the organic outlines of the sculpture, forms a “feasible, promising, accessible and livable ” experience.

The sculpture created a common ground for space and time; in here people are free to explore their traditional spiritual ideology, as the spirit and surrounding landscape merge together.