BIG WAY TO CHERISH LIFE

A tiger cub is adorable, right? And that cub in a party hat is an overdose of cuteness. Now, multiply the cuddle quotient by a thousand, what you get is a giant baby in stripes who's infinitely awesome. That, ladies and gentlemen, is Florentijn Hofman's workmanship for you.

The Dutch artist, who creates playful urban installations to challenge his audience's perspective on quotidian existence, displayed his best-known work, the Rubber Duck, at Beijing's Summer Palace nine years ago. It was an instant crowd magnet, drawing 100,000 visitors within a day.

On Aug 6, Hofman's Rubber Duck－an inflatable version of the childhood rubber duckie bath toy－came to town once more, joined by a "zoo" of his signature larger-than-life animals. The show at Today Art Museum, aptly titled Celebrate! to remind people of the need to find joy in the little things in life, boasts 20-plus installations that cover more than nine sections across three floors. The appeal lies in their sheer size, and sometimes in the choice of materials used.

The star of the show this time, of course, is the Birthday Tiger. Hofman is known to expand his imagination in understanding local cultures, and this installation is an endearing tribute to the Year of the Tiger on the Chinese calendar. The giant cub is made of more than 1 million party balloons. It took a team of over 20 workers five days to finish the installation. The baby tiger, lying on its back in a playful feline pose, occupies a large part of the museum's second floor.

"The show is meant to remind people that we need to celebrate life, come together, interact with each other and be blissfully happy," says curator Anouchka van Driel, explaining that Hofman's seminal artworks aim to inspire joy and help people cope with the "new normal" triggered by COVID-19 curbs.

The artist, who could not make it to the show's opening on Aug 6, owing to pandemic restrictions, hopes his exhibition will capture the imagination of his audiences and encourage conversations between them. "To celebrate means to live in the moment. Life is precious and fragile, and we must learn to enjoy it," Hofman says.

Size does matter

The USP of Hofman's artworks is their unusual scale. The Rubber Duck that floated on the river at Beijing's Summer Palace in 2013 was 18 meters tall. His current "zoo" collection, which includes the fluffy giant panda, is also enormous in both size and appeal.

The father of four himself is a giant of sorts, standing tall at more than 1.9 meters. Tidying up his children's toys, all very tiny compared to him, likely gave him the nudge to go big. "The sheer size of the object makes us all feel small, and this creates a sense of equality," Hofman justifies his obsession with size.

Apart from the epic scale, the artist pays special attention to texture. He wants his installations to be touch-friendly and uses identifiable materials from everyday life to make them. While the Birthday Tiger is made of balloons, the giant panda and a rat from the Fat series have coats made of wool. "It is important for me to find the perfect material that visitors can touch and feel. It is a challenge, too," he says.

There's a section in the show where viewers are invited to interact with some of the artworks. These individuals can knead colorful plasticine into various shapes or patterns and stick them onto the white installations of the 12 animals in the Chinese zodiac.

According to curator Van Driel, the Zodiac series has become hugely popular. A user named Tengyuan Douzhi writes on Chinese social networking service Sina Weibo that the show was a joyful experience and she really enjoyed the interactive section, which made her feel like an artist. She has posted pictures with several of Hofman's works.

Hope takes wing

In addition to animals, several bird installations have been commissioned for the show, the largest being a white-browed tit-warbler－a resident species in western China.

The passerine bird, also in a party hat, is perched at the square in front of the museum, facing the city's business center.

The size of a small building, the warbler is definitely a showstopper. Passersby halt to click pictures with the bird in colorful plumage, a reward for the artist and the curator who did extensive online research to bring the feathered friend to Beijing.

Hofman began making bird installations ever since the pandemic broke out. A longtime friend of the artist, curator Van Driel says the birds were meant to signal hope. Lockdown enforced in the Netherlands amid COVID-19 had confined Hofman, an otherwise avid traveler, to home.

"That brought about a paradigm shift in his creations. The birds embodied his desire for freedom. He wanted to fly like them, go anywhere he wanted," Van Driel says.

A staunch supporter of "public art in public spaces" and strictly against commercialization of his art, Hofman deploys his toy world strategy to make his installations endearing to all, regardless of age, gender, status, race, religion and geographical boundaries.

In the section "shop till you drop", he presents three installations, including a snake and a monkey with countless shopping bags. While it is cuteness alert at the outset, Hofman has a hidden agenda. He wants to shed light on consumerism, prompting reevaluation of human behavior.

"I use animals to mirror human nature. It is like a fable to drive home the point," he says.

Celebrate! is Hofman's first solo show at a museum in China. Many of his works have been displayed in the past in public spaces, on rivers and rooftops. The Rubber Duck, which has toured more than 20 cities across the globe, gained him popularity in China after its Summer Palace appearance.

In 2016, Hofman was invited by the first Wuzhen International Contemporary Art Exhibition to install a giant pink fish made of foam boards in the water town in Zhejiang province. The Floating Fish made headlines and ramped up tourist footfall in Wuzhen.

Last year, the artist created the super adorable Selfie Panda at a shopping center in Dujiangyan in Sichuan province. Another giant panda installation is planned for later in Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan.

Van Driel credits Hofman's genius and the efficiency of local workers for his growing fame in China.

"His installations can be quickly made by Chinese workers. What could take three months in Europe, takes only a month in China," she says, adding that the 25-odd customized animal installations for the show in Beijing took less than half a year to finish.