Water Dripping – Splashing By Zheng Lu (All Photos By Gail. Click on Any Image to Enlarge)

The gravity-defying sculpture works of Zheng Lu are deeply influenced by his study of traditional Chinese calligraphy, an art form he practiced growing up in a literary family. Zheng Lu uses language as a pictorial element, inscribing the surface of his stainless-steel sculptures with thousands of Chinese characters derived from texts and poems of historical significance.

To create his metal sculptures, Zheng Lu begins with a plaster base. He then laser-cuts character into metal, and in a fashion similar to linking chainmail, the pictographs are connected and heated so that they can be shaped to the support. The resulting works are technically astonishing: their fluid, animated forms are charged with the energy (qi) of the universe, belying their steel composite.

Zheng Lu was born in Chi Feng, Inner Mongolia, China in 1978. He lives and works in Beijing.

Zheng Lu’s Water Dripping – Splashing is part of the Bright Eye of the Universe Exhibit and will be up Through October 10th, 2015 at Sundaram Tagore Gallery, Located at 547 West 27th Street, Ground Floor, in the Chelsea Gallery District.