THE INTEGRATION OF SHANGHAI-HIPAI PRINTMAKING AESTHETICS INTO CONTEMPORARY PUBLIC ART SPACES

Abstract

This study systematically traces the historical development and aesthetic characteristics of Shanghai-Haipai printmaking, focusing on core elements such as line, diversity, and imprinted texture, and explores how these elements are translated into three-dimensional sculptural design. This paper adopts an interdisciplinary approach to construct a comprehensive design framework from "historical interpretation to spatial production." A mixed-methods research design was employed: qualitatively, archival research was conducted at the Shanghai Art Museum and the Lu Xun Memorial Hall to reconstruct the history of Shanghai printmaking (and Lefebvre's theory of the "triple dialectic of space"); quantitatively, a survey of 370 community residents was conducted to assess public acceptance, supplemented by expert interviews with printmakers, sculptors, and cultural managers; in design practice, a double diamond model guided the development of a steel slag sculpture prototype, testing the aesthetic consistency between industrial materials and traditional prints, and achieving the transition from flat to three-dimensional form through three-dimensional modeling. The study yielded three main contributions: theoretically, the four key visual grammars of Shanghai printmaking (line, yin-yang contrast, diversity, and imprinted texture) were identified and their spatial scalability verified; practically, the steel slag sculptures installed in Zhong ye Tiangong Square demonstrated the artistic regeneration potential of industrial waste, while survey results showed that the process of abstracting and reinterpreting Shanghai's cultural symbols (termed here as the 'three-depersonalization' process: de-familiarization, de-contextualization, and re-symbolization) significantly enhanced community identity; methodologically, the double diamond model was combined with spatial production theory to provide a systematic process for public art design, including cultural gene extraction, cross-media transformation, and urban spatial implantation.