Feng Chen 冯晨, 7 Real Magic Books - The Greek Magical Papyri 7本真实存在的魔法书－希腊沙草纸符咒, 2016

Feng Chen's current series, 7 Real Magic Books, 2016, employs contemporary technology in the characteristically light, but tensile carbon fiber. The properties of carbon fibers, such as high stiffness, high tensile strength, low weight, make them very popular in aerospace, civil engineering, military, and motorsports. Nevertheless, it is a material that still requires craftmanship and the process of turning it into an extremely rigid form can only be hand-made. 'The Greek Magical Papyri' referred to in the work title is originally a collection of magical spells and formulas, hymns and rituals from the Greco-Roman Egypt, dating from the second century B.C. to the fifth century A.D. Thanks to the climatic conditions and scribal practices of Greco-Roman Egypt, a number of handbooks from that region have reached us. These handbooks are precious witnesses to practices and processes of cultural transmission: i.e. the creation, communication, transformation, and preservation of knowledge (both in text and images) across history. Feng here refers to one of the mythical images portrayed in the Papyri and uses carbon fiber as a sculptural expression of an image taken from artifacts to introduce a discussion about an ancient type of technology and magic, both of which are heavily charged subjects.
冯晨目前的系列：“七本真实存在的魔法书—2016”使用了轻而具有拉伸力的碳纤维科技。碳纤维的性能具有高坚韧性、高拉伸力、重量轻，使其在航空航天，土木工程，军事和赛车领域被广泛运用。然而，这种材料仍然需要手工作业，将它转变为极强韧的形式的加工过程只能通过手工完成。这个作品标题中的“希腊莎草纸符咒”源于一组从公元前二世纪到公元五世纪希腊罗马化时期的埃及收集的魔咒、魔法配方、赞美诗和仪式。多亏气候条件和希腊罗马化时期埃及的抄写实践，那个地区的一大批手册还能存留给我们。这些手册是文化传播的实践和过程的珍贵见证，诸如跨越历史，（文字与图片）知识的创造、交流、转变和保存。这幅作品中冯晨借用莎草纸上的一幅魔法图像，使用碳纤维和从物品中获取的图像的雕塑性表达，来引入对古老科技形式和魔法的讨论，两者都是被极富内涵的主题。