Tennis
Terracotta Warrior
My "blog" on these sculptures
Commissioned by the ATP
for the Tennis Master Cup Shanghai - 2007
Above
photo credit: Quentin Shih / ATP
11 November 2007... This is
the final image released by the ATP in Shanghai of the 8
"best of the best" tennis players in the world with their Terracotta
Warrior sculptures, which was then distributed to the media worldwide
(and reproduced across a double page spread in the Sunday Times in
London!)
Media
pages for sculpture series on this website: Daily
Telegraph - Sunday
Times (England) Sports
Illustrated - Tennis
Magazine - Shanghai
Morning Post - Chengdu
Business Journal - Chongqing
Morning Post - Shanghai
City Weekend and Talk
Magazine (China) France
2 / Stade 2 French TV - L'Equipe
Sport (France)
There were may other articles from countries as far apart as
England (London Metro and London Newspaper) and the USA, all the way to
Chile (El
Tercero) and many other papers and magazines around the world, as well
as numerous TV shows and news reports in the US, France, England and
China and elsewhere showing our Warriors, plus lots of mentions on
various
websites....
Read
below the behind-the-scenes artist story / blog below detailing the
project from start to finish....
20 September 2007...
I was contacted in early May 2007 by an account manager
from PR
&
Marketing firm Hill&Knowlton (Soho Square, London), for a
commission on behalf of ATP and the Tennis Master Cup Shanghai
organizers: the idea was to create a series of Tennis Terra Cotta
Warriors sculptures
to be used for the worldwide promotion of the upcoming Tennis Master
Cup event in
Shanghai, China (11-18 November 2007).
Brilliant concept - and I was passionate to get onboard!!!!
I wasn't new to sport sculpture, having created the lifesize figure of
an Olympic medallist boxing champion last year for a city in Ireland.
And I've spent almost 2 years in China over the last 6 years (if I add
up all my trips and stays here), so starting to be very familiar with
ancient Chinese sculpture.
The TMC is the final ATP event of the year, featuring the top 8 tennis
players in the world... The "Shanghai Race" is one of the ATP's most
exciting ! At this point in time,
Roger Federer, Rafael
Nadal and Novak Djokovic have all qualified. Other possible qualifiers
for
the event currently include Nikolay Davydenko, Andy Roddick, David
Ferrer, Fernando Gonzalez
and James Blake, however the "race to Shanghai" is still on... so the
listing may well change and it's best to keep referring, for the latest
info, to both:
the ATP
website at http://www.atptennis.com/1/en/home/
and the TMC's website at http://www.masters-cup.com/1/home/
After a number of e-mails exchanged, telephone calls and meetings with
both Hill&Knowlton and ATP, I was formally commissioned. I then
travelled at the end of July to the Rogers Cup in Montreal (Canada)
where I photographed and measured all top 15 players in the
world (so I'd have the info required to make the sculptures as and when
8 of the 15 would qualify for Shanghai). I met with all of the then
ranking first 15 players, including Richard Gasquet (of interest to me
because I'm French), and the Scot Andy Murray who is the tennis hero of
my country of residence (Great-Britain).
While I took my photos and measured away (from every possible angle
around their faces), and kept records of this data, the players and I
were being photographed and filmed. See some pics of that , plus
watch videos of players being interviewed about their hopes for
Shanghai 2007 on the ATP
and Tennis Master Cup
Shanghai websites.
There is also a cool
"YouTube" video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EytRiKeOmTY
showing
Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic being measured by me In Montreal, and
being interviewed, as well as
my team and I working in Chonqging on the first Tennis Terra Cotta
Warrior, Roger Federer, and Rafael Nadal's portrait / bust in clay.
Meeting all these players - albeit briefly, and doing this, was a great
privilege
and lots of fun, plus... I was able to see a bit of what things are
like
"backstage" at a major tennis tournament!
I'd already secured the assistance of my Chinese sculptor
friends in Chonqging, husband & wife team Zhang Yaxi and Shen
Xiaonan, and had asked them to get things ready for me as there was/is
a serious time crunch... In fact the timing of the whole project
is a real
challenge since players will continue to qualify until just before the
event in Shanghai! After a short visit to Alaska for another
commission, I flew to Chongqing where I worked with the two of them, plus a
bunch of assistantson
the initial Tennis Terra Cotta Warrior statue in clay (one "master"
body is being used for all 8 players that qualify), and on the first 3
busts of Federer, Nadal and Djokovic.
Above is Xiaonan roughing out the Nadal bust (we worked together on
every bust). Each finished bust will be seamlessly mounted onto one of
the bodies!
And the whole jolly lot (body + bust) when assembled is larger than
lifesize (a little over 2m20 or over 7 feet tall)... Can't show any big
pictures yet as the full surprise
effect is being reserved for when the first two completed Tennis
Terracotta Warriors, Federer and Nadal's statues, will be flown and
shown in Madrid in October. [However
you can now see them lower down in my Blog]
The above shots were taken by various Chinese students while
I was working in our Chongqing studio with Yaxi and Xioanan in
late August and early September.
15
October... The
first 3 Warriors were flown ten days ago by air cargo to Madrid for the
Mutua Madrilena Master Series event there. I arrived in Madrid on the
10th.
Above is what they
looked like before leaving (with happy, exhausted Xiaonan and I !)
Above
photo credit: Zhang Zhenxue
On Saturday 13th, there was an unveiling to the press of Roger
Federer's sculpture.
And on Sunday 14th, another unveiling with Rafael Nadal, and a display
of all 3 Tennis Terracotta Warriors center court !!!
3 November 2007... Have
now completed #1 through #7 Warriors (Federer, Nadal, Djokovic,
Davydenko, Roddick, Ferrer and Gonzalez). Am awaiting word from the ATP
to find out the identity of the player who will rank as #8 in the
Shanghai race... so you can well imagine I'm on tenterhooks as Xiaonan
and Yaxi and I then have to create his bust made in clay, cast in
resin and mount it onto his Warrior body prior to patinating the resin
bust after tomorrow. Then we need to get all 8 Warriors shipped out
from Chongqing to
Shanghai on the 6th of November!!!
Two days ago we were interviewed by the Chongqing Morning Post and
Sports Illustrated China who had found out about our project from the
Tennis Magazine cover story (Chinese edition).
Here I am hoping that a
Tennis Museum somewhere will want one or all of these cast into
bronze! Stop press....
quick update to this blog on 5 December 2007... All 8 Warriors will be
exhibited for a few months at Wimbledon Museum in England!)
Above photo credit: Zhang Zhenxue
Photo
credit: David McBride
This
shot was created by our friend David McBride who is a keen
photographer and teaches animation at the Sichuan Fine Arts
Institute. We didn't have the time to line the Warriors up in any
particular order, but they looked great against one of the walls of the
Tank Loft Contemporary Arts Center in Chongqing where our studio is
located. David took this in several timed images and did his magic...
so the wall look curved rather than straight! You can click
here to view it at a larger size.
5 December 2007...
It's all done and dusted. We had a great time at the unveiling of the
sculptures center court during the opening entertainment preceding the
first match which featured Nadal and Gasquet.
The public attending the Tennis Master Cup at Qi Zhong Stadium loved
these sculptures and took turns having their pictures taken with their
favorite player statues!
Both Chinese and international press gave the sculptures and the
tournament a great deal of coverage (see some excerpts or images of
magazines covers via
this link or via individual links at top of page). The
Tennis Warrior statues arrived in England yesterday where they will be
exhibited by Wimbledon Museum (the tennis museum in England)
through mid-2008!
Copyright images: ATP
Please note: since all visual records officially
belong to the ATP, I am grateful to be able to use them here and
request they not be downloaded or used without the express permission
of the ATP.
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