About Zheng Shihui

Zheng Shihui is a Chinese folk artist dedicated to inheriting and innovating traditional crafts, and has long specialized in cloisonné art. Her work is rooted in classical techniques and incorporates modern aesthetics, exploring new possibilities for Eastern beauty in a contemporary context.

 

Since 2015, she has studied under Chinese arts and crafts master Dai Jialin, systematically learning the design and production techniques of cloisonné. She is particularly good at making contemporary innovations in color and form based on tradition.

In 2018, Zheng Shihui traveled to Tibet with her teacher to study Tibetan Buddhist sculpture and thangka painting. Thangkas are traditional scroll paintings from Tibetan Buddhism, typically painted on fabric using natural mineral and gemstone pigments to depict images of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, Buddhist narratives, and mandalas.

In incorporating thangka themes into her cloisonné creations, she blended features of 5th-century Hellenistic Gandhara Buddha statues with the color language and compositional elements of Dunhuang murals of the same period, creating cloisonné thangkas that both adhere to Buddhist rituals and possess a sense of three-dimensional relief. Her works are now in the collections of the Jokhang Temple in Lhasa and the Lama Temple in Beijing.

About Cloisonné (Cloisonné Enamel)

Cloisonné is a traditional arts and crafts that uses metal as the base, uses fine metal wire to pinch the pattern outline, fills the gap with mineral glaze, and then fires it at high temperature.

Its origins can be traced back to the Mesopotamian civilization and ancient Egypt, when people used the technique of inlaying gemstones on metal to make jewelry and Pharaoh masks. This technique can be regarded as the prototype of cloisonné enamel.

By the Byzantine period, the cloisonné enamel craft had further developed and was widely used in artistic creations expressing religious and royal themes, presenting a solemn and magnificent style.

In the 15th century, following the fall of Constantinople, this craft was introduced to China via the Silk Road. Because it reached its peak during the Jingtai reign of the Ming Dynasty and primarily featured blue glazes, it became known as "Jingtailan". When the cloisonné technique traveled east to Japan, its vibrant colors led the Japanese to name it "Shippo"

 

In China, cloisonné enamel was long the exclusive domain of the imperial court, but gradually spread to the general public after the Qing Dynasty. In the 1950s, architect Lin Huiyin incorporated this traditional craft into the design of practical objects such as table lamps, integrating cloisonné enamel art into modern industrial design and opening a new path for its inheritance.

About sculpture, architecture and thangka

The art of Buddhist sculpture first appeared in the Gandhara and Mathura regions in the 1st century AD. The Buddha statues of this period were clearly influenced by Greek sculpture, presenting a unique fusion of Eastern and Western art.

 

By the 5th century, Buddhist art had reached a high level of sophistication within the Dunhuang Grottoes. Besides majestic statues, the grottoes also boast a wealth of murals, and painted Buddha and Bodhisattva images on paper and silk, showcasing a rich iconographic tradition and painterly technique.

Buddhist art takes on diverse forms across Asia. Traditionally agrarian regions often depict Buddha images in sculpture, while nomadic cultures like Tibet and Mongolia are more popular with Buddhist paintings, particularly thangkas.

"Thangka" originally means "rolled-up painting" in Tibetan. Its ease of portability, display, and preservation made it particularly suitable for the propagation of the Dharma during nomadic life, and it has gradually become a core form of Tibetan Buddhist art. Traditionally, "Thangka" 

referred to religious scroll paintings in the Tibetan Buddhist style. With the spread of Buddhism worldwide, the term "Thangka" is now commonly used to refer to a wide range of Buddhist paintings.