Jun Yang: The Emperor of China’s Ice

A children’s book accompanying Jun Yang’s 2018 project for the Austrian Sculpture Park

When he was asked to contribute to the Austrian Sculpture Park in 2018, Chinese multimedia artist Jun Yang (born 1975) recalled the story of the emperor of China’s ice, a myth according to which, in ancient China, ice blocks were buried in the winter months and then served as ice cream in summer. At the end of November 2018, a colossal block of ice was buried in an embankment in the Austrian Sculpture Park, to be excavated again at the Sculpture Park’s 2019 spring festival.

Instead of producing a conventional catalog for the occasion, Yang decided to create this children’s book in collaboration with Japanese illustrator Yuuki Nishimura, in which he narrates the myth of the Emperor of China’s ice. Also included is an account of Jun Yang’s project.