A Combination between Traditional Art and Sci-Fi Art: The Mural Arts of Dunhuang Mogao Grottoes with Cyberpunk Artistic Style

Abstract

   The Mogao Grottoes, located in Dunhuang of Gansu province, a northwestern city of China, is one of the most important artistic treasures in the world. As an essential transport hub station along the Silk Route, Dunhuang Mogao Grottoes, and its mural arts, were profoundly influenced and nourished by Asian and European arts and cultures. Moreover, it has formed a unique style of Buddhist arts that not only contains the characteristics of traditional Chinese arts but also the specialty of exotic arts. This makes Dunhuang Mogao Grottoes and its mural arts to be the most typical representative and the earlier crystallization between Chinese arts and Western arts. However, its developing history is considered separated from modern life due to the core relationship with Buddhism from various designs and subjects. This led to the effect that, for modern people, the arts and cultures are incomprehensible. Based on this, this study employed a methodology of artistic fusion, theoretically and practically, to extract the structures and colors of Buddhist figures inside the grottoes. Then, redesigned them with the currently popular cyberpunk artistic style via designing technologies that shared the traits with sci-fi, future, and youth. As a result, a sort of fusion combined the mural arts elements in Mogao Grottoes with Cyberpunk artistic style was recreated, which featured the traditional style and the future style properly. As such, an active impact for a better understanding of the mural arts and culture on the young generation was stimulated. This expands the socio-cultural effects of the mural arts and culture in Dunhuang Mogao Grottoes.