Lord of war

June 9, 2010 4:48 AM

For his graduation piece, Central Academy of Fine Arts sculpture student Bi Heng (毕横) made a 9.4 metre tall Transformer-like statue of apotheosised martial hero Guan Yu; the base vehicle Bi cannibalised was another icon of the Chinese battlefield, the Jiefang truck (more pics, video in Chinese)
posted by Abiezer (20 comments total)

am i correct to understand this as roughly analogous to building a patriotic statue of george washington, as a transformer?
posted by ennui.bz at 4:57 AM on June 9, 2010

Bit more like making King Arthur or one of his knights if you were English I reckon - a culture hero rather than a modern political figure.
posted by Abiezer at 4:59 AM on June 9, 2010

Neat.
posted by Atreides at 5:33 AM on June 9, 2010

No, it's roughly analogous to building a patriotic statue of George Washington out of pure awesome!

Seriously, I don't have much trouble imagining a pretty cool statue of Patton or Eisenhower made out of some of the hardware that one typically finds out in front of the VFW hall.
posted by Kid Charlemagne at 5:42 AM on June 9, 2010

From a U.S. standpoint, it would be like building a Davey Crockett themed Transformer out of an Oshkosh, and on its breastplate would bear a GPS console showing the way to Texas.
posted by Smart Dalek at 5:48 AM on June 9, 2010

Mr. President, we must not allow a Transformer gap!
posted by 0xdeadc0de at 6:51 AM on June 9, 2010 [1 favorite]

beautiful
posted by ServSci at 7:13 AM on June 9, 2010

it would be like building a Davey Crockett themed Transformer out of an Oshkosh

Ohhhhh, not this Oshkosh. I was thinking "that'd be a tiny, floppy Transformer right there!"
posted by FatherDagon at 7:14 AM on June 9, 2010

really cool, thanks abiezer
posted by infini at 7:18 AM on June 9, 2010

Ooohhh. If I were an American intelligence analyst, I would be hard pressed not to include this mock-seriously in a report, just to give some higher-ups heart attacks!
posted by Harald74 at 7:28 AM on June 9, 2010 [1 favorite]

Can it be mecha Red Cliff tiem nao pleez?
posted by yeloson at 8:27 AM on June 9, 2010

I like the phrase "革命者们". Has a decidedly non-Chinese ring to it, to me. I also think it's interesting that the MMO video is titled "Transformer", while in Chinese the video is titled "Revolution" (革命).

The sources seem to disagree how much they spent; MMO says US$43000, but AutoMotto say US$4500.

Quite wonderful work, in any case.
posted by jiawen at 8:43 AM on June 9, 2010

I can't explain why this sort of thing makes me so happy, I just know it does. Thanks Abiezer!
posted by Hypnotic Chick at 9:03 AM on June 9, 2010

Awesome. Thanks, Abiezer.
posted by homunculus at 9:31 AM on June 9, 2010

though i'm *so* tempted to replace that sword with that other example of another icon of the Chinese battlefield
posted by infini at 10:01 AM on June 9, 2010

So I like this as much as the next person but is it actually...um...real? Not does it transform, but are we sure it's not a render? I guess some of the pictures just look odd. Like this one.
posted by Sutekh at 2:53 AM on June 10, 2010

Looks pretty real in the video at the final link Sutekh and it's been reported by various news sites here in China. This is the artist's blog (in Chinese) with a few pics of them making it. I'm inclined to believe but if doubts remain I could get on my pushbike and pedal over to see if it's still up on campus.
posted by Abiezer at 3:35 AM on June 10, 2010

get some pix!!
posted by infini at 4:05 AM on June 10, 2010

Yep, alright. I'm convinced. Thanks Abiezer!
posted by Sutekh at 4:20 AM on June 10, 2010

Evreyone eventually submits to Transformer Guan Gong!
posted by Abiezer at 4:54 AM on June 10, 2010