-- Beijing, January 5, 2026 — Discussions on peace and trauma continue to resonate before artist Qiu Tianren's large-scale sculpture Born of the Same Root. Crafted from metals left behind by twentieth-century conflicts and first unveiled in Beijing in 2022, the work’s poignant question — “From the Same Root, Why the Rush to Harm”— still echoes with undeniable power today.
When metal remnants spanning a century are fused together in the furnace, and when Cao Zhi’s lament from “The Seven-Step Poem” — “From the same root, why the rush to harm?” — resonates across time and space with the turmoil of today’s world, a sculpture is born, carrying humanity’s deepest longing for peace.
The sculpture stands 150 cm tall, 143 cm wide, and 143 cm deep, weighing 150 kilograms. It is primarily cast from melted copper and alloy materials. Its creative inspiration stems from Cao Zhi’s “The Seven-Step Poem” from the Three Kingdoms period: “From the same root, why the rush to harm?” The fraternal strife triggered by shifts of power throughout history serves as a microcosm of conflict in the progress of human civilization. From the great upheavals of the twentieth century to regional tensions in different parts of the world, disputes driven by desire and confrontation have yet to cease.
The motivation behind the work originates from the artist’s deep concern for the experiences of civilians in contemporary international conflicts. After years of dedicated effort, QiuTianren collected metal remnants from different historical periods, including several twentieth-century international conflicts and recent regional instabilities. These cold metallic remains are now melted and recast into the very framework of the sculpture, transforming into an enduring vessel that carries the memory of trauma.
The sculpture takes “Three Figures Struggling Over a Ding” as its core form. In ancient China, the ding vessel was a symbol of power and often a focal point of contention. In the upper part of the work, three figures are locked in a tense, intertwined posture, vividly depicting humanity’s tendency to fall into confrontation driven by self-interest. Yet beneath this strained and oppositional stance lies tightly interwoven, deeply entangled tree roots — a metaphor intentionally embedded by the artist: regardless of skin color, ethnicity, or region, humanity shares the same roots and a common destiny, inherently part of an indivisible whole.
Qiu Tianren was born in Beijing, China, in May 1992. He holds a master’s degree in Digital Media and Culture from Coventry University in the UK and currently works at the Central Academy of Fine Arts. As both an educator and an artist, he consistently uses his works as a medium to reflect on reality and convey humanistic contemplation. This meticulously crafted sculpture stands as his declaration of peace to the world at this historical moment: the absurdity of conflict lies in brothers harming brothers, while the hope of civilization lies in mutual flourishing and coexistence.
As people gaze upon this work cast from historical metal, we see not only artistic tension but also a warning that transcends time and space. May this sculpture serve as a mirror, reflecting humanity’s shared yearning for peace; may every metallic vein awaken the world to a steadfast commitment to the ideal of coexistence — bound by a shared origin, we have no cause to bring harm to each other.
Video link: https://youtu.be/dGFlyxG4QRQ?si=61NKjC1GLVoID9_4
Contact Info:
Name: Qiu Tianren
Email: Send Email
Organization: Qiu Tianren
Website: https://x.com/QiuTianren
Video URL: https://youtu.be/dGFlyxG4QRQ?si=61NKjC1GLVoID9_4
Release ID: 89180135
Google
RSS