Song Hongquan, "Cloud 007," 2016

The son of a noted stone carver, Song Hongquan inherited his father’s affinity for manipulating diverse materials such as granite, marble, and basite. In his "Clouds" series, Song finds inspiration in the natural material called Tabasheer, a dried siliceous resin found in the nodal joints of certain species of bamboo. Also known as “bamboo tears”, Tabasheer is widely used in the traditional Chinese and Ayurvedic systems of medicine. Highly valued, it is used to treat conditions ranging from cough to coma and stroke. A firm believer in the effectiveness of Chinese medicine, Song is fascinated with the bimorphic forms taken by Tabasheer, which to him resemble otherworldly clouds. In "Cloud 007," Song renders one of these forms in hand-carved white marble, enlarged to emphasize its organic contours.