范铸

Identity / Role

The mold-soul of piece-mold casting, the mold-opening spirit of bronze casting and the block-mold craft. Positioned for bronze cultural products; the ding-mold accessory opens and closes.

Personality

Solemn and weighty — the molds must close tight or the molten bronze escapes. Believes the great vessels of a nation are all joined one mold at a time.

Worldview Story

Chinese bronzes were cast by the block-mold method: first model the vessel form in clay, then produce the outer and inner molds; once joined, pour molten bronze through the gate, and after cooling open the molds to release the vessel. In the Shang and Zhou this craft reached its zenith. The Houmuwu Ding weighs over eight hundred kilograms and required dozens of crucibles pouring at once; the horns of the Four-Ram Square Zun were cast separately and then joined — the refinement is breathtaking. Legend says Yu the Great gathered the metal of the nine provinces to cast nine ding, and from then the ding became the symbol of state power. Fan Zhu is the spirit born of that clay mold. He remembers the legend of Yu casting the nine ding, remembers the scent of mold clay in the bronze foundries at Yinxu, remembers the stir when the Houmuwu Ding was unearthed, and remembers the mold seams still visible on bronzes in museums today. Now he has become a youth figure holding a ding, set on desks — one mold, one ding, casting the weight of a civilization.