By Scarlett Olsen
Art students from FHSU are getting the chance of a lifetime this Christmas. Tobias Flores, Associate Professor of Sculpture is taking eight undergraduate and graduate students, along with his family, to China. After 3 days in Shanghai, the group will travel to Jingdezhen, China to Sanbao Art Studios where Flores did his residency.
The group will fly out on December 24th and 25th, they will endure 22 hours of travel before reaching their destination. Along for the journey with Tobias Flores are his wife and her parents, his two sons, his older sister, his wife’s friend, and eight FHSU students. These students are majoring in ceramics, sculpture, and graphic design and are both graduate and undergraduate students.
Last spring, Flores and his wife traveled to China where Flores made a sculpture for the new Hammond Hall at SIAS campus in China. The sculpture Flores created was fabricated at Jiangxi Toqine Metal Studios in Nanchung City. Flores has approached his friends, the owner of the studio and his father, about hosting the 9th annual International Conference on Contemporary Cast Iron Art in 2022. The owner and his father agreed and the group is now going back to China to make more arrangements for that event. The event will host artists for two weeks, house them, give them access to their facilities, and cast their art work.
“Toby had such a good time and great experience at Sanbao that he’s taking students with him this time that want to go and make art and see the ceramics and sculpture culture in China. It differs greatly from the United States….they don’t have environmental laws like we do, they use very old techniques that you don’t see used here any longer… It’s kind of like the US in 1930’s and 40’s.” stated his wife Libby Flores.
The travelers will all have access to the ceramic studios on site at Sanbao and Flores has foundry contacts in the area that we’ll be working with. Those traveling will be in the residency program for the duration of their trip. The group will be touring the foundry and the on-site dormitories. Although Flores’ family will leave 13 days before the students, they will still get to enjoy all of these activities. They hope to see the terracotta soldiers as well as the Great Wall of China on their trip. The students plan on making work at foundries in Jingdezhen and Sanbao in the last 13 days.