Emperor Qin's Terracotta Army

 Figure 7.1 : The 1974 discovery of buried vaults at Xi'an filled with thousands of terra cotta warriors stunned the world.

According to an article on archaeology.about.com, the 'Chinese Terracotta Army', as they have become known, is an army of unique statues created out of terracotta clay, which was discovered in 1974.  Soon after taking the thrown in the year 247 BC, ruling over a newly united China, after a period of fierce power struggles, Qin Shihuang ("First Emperor of Qin"), as he renamed himself, ordered the construction of his own tomb, reportedly as a representation of his control over the resources from the area, together with an attempt to continue this into the afterlife.


Within the same article it is mentioned that it is evident that the statues were painted in vivid colors, although most of the paint has gone.  This thus indicates that the black materials used by Kim Gush in her fastrack collection, was of her own creation, through influence from other sources.  The very dark colors which have probably become the key message that has generally been taken from the collection, adding to the Gothic interpretations, thus seems to almost cloud what she lists as her main influence.


Michiel van Staden