Soil for the Cultivation of Values

Luo Fei, TCG Nordica Gallery Director

Through thirty years of reform and opening, China is now the world’s third largest economy, and is expected to overtake Japan next year to become theworld’s second largest economy after the United States. While this rapid and effective economic growth has brought the richness and convenience of the material life for many people, haste and competition have left deeps wounds in many places; the crisis of social and individual values is a wound that is festering quite viciously. A series of shocking public incidents in 2008, including tainted baby formula and poorly built schools and dormitories in the Sichuan earthquake zone sounded the alarm of a crisis of values for those people nonchalantly riding the rocket of the rise of a great nation. In a column for Lianhe Zaobao newspaper published on June 9, 2009, Zheng Yongnian, director of the East Asia Insitute at the National University of Singapore, said he believes this is a reflection of the “disintegration of China’s social trust”.

Naturally, reforms that placed economics ahead of governance as well as the rapid pace of economic development over the past thirty years cannot take all of the blame for this crisis in Chinese social values. Frequent wars since the turn of the twentieth century, all kinds of disastrous political movements since the establishment of the People’s Republic and cultural confrontations between East and West have all led to confusion and a lack of confidence in traditional values, manifested in either self-consciousness or blind confidence about traditional culture, a lack of trust for other people or the rampant violations against others, blind worship of outside culture or outright xenophobia, or a lack of courage when faced with true faith, to name but a few phenomena. The crisis in values is not unique to contemporary China; it is a universal symptom of modern societies (especially postmodern societies) that follows the disintegration of traditional values systems. High divorce rates, high crime rates, family relations centered around consumption and the carnal city life have become the reality faced by every nation.

The values crisis also affects artistic trends. Since the New Wave in art, art forms led by political pop, cynical realism and kitsch art have garnered massive success on the art market, turning them into archetypes and models for success in contemporary art, but the spiritual character and the ways of life among artists over the whole art world in the past twenty years have revealed naked emptiness and cynicism. There has been no sacred or profound undertaking in the construction of values. As a result, since the rise of the art market, the exploration, discussion and practice of art have been superficial and fruitless. It was only last year with the rut in the art market that people finally got off of the highway to riches and returned to plowing the fields of art, and that more and more individuals and groups began discussing values issues.

The exportation of values has always been the historical imperative of responsible, economically powerful nations. The pursuit, reconstruction and maintenance of values must first take place on one’s own native soil before their export can be considered. They cannot be just blindly snatched from one’s ancestors. The efforts of folk-based groups have become an extremely powerful force in the reconstruction of values. Just as the broad international success of Chinese contemporary art was the result of folk-based efforts and all international exchanges and presentations of contemporary art began through folk-based channels, the importance of folk-based exchange platforms to the renewal and exportation of values cannot be denied. The folk realm is where values take root, grow and bear fruit, the soil for the cultivation of values, where organic, non-abstract cultural dialogue can be realized, where the concrete work of values restoration can be carried out, as opposed to simply moving troops around on paper. The folk sector is where values and beliefs are translated into action, and the place where values come to rest.

This essay will share the case of Kunming’s TCG Nordica International Culture Center in its work related to the restoration of values in the values soil that is the folk sector. The reason that TCG Nordica has been selected for exploring local values construction is because TCG Nordica’s values vision and work methods have had an undeniable impact on the local cultural arts environment. I have had the opportunity to take part in this work, and have an acute sense of the meaning and challenges involved. This essay will share the experiences of TCG Nordica on three levels: values vision and cultural exchange; the local art environment; and social responsibility.

The TCG Nordica International Culture Center is a non-profit international art gallery and culture center. The locals simply call it Nordica, and that is what we will call it in this essay. Officially established in 2000, and invited to move into the Kunming Loft Artists Community in 2002, it was one of the first folk-based art spaces to rise in Kunming. Today, it is still Kunming’s only platform for art and cultural exchange between China and the West.

Vision

Nordica’s values are expressed in the following statement: “Stimulating Reflection on Human Worth as Expressed in Various Art Forms”. From this statement it is easy to see the founders’ acute awareness of the contemporary crisis in values. In another important Nordica text, there is an explanation of the term “human values”: Respect, Friendship, Honesty, Integrity, Mutuality, Care and Openness. This implies that this is a cultural arts organization based on human relations and dedicated to the ideals of reconstructing community values. That is to say that cultural and artistic exchange and presentation is not the goal, but a way of rethinking values. Art events are not the most exciting part of it, it is about human stories. For all of Nordica’s art and cultural events, values come first, whether it is for cultural exchange, art exhibitions, music concerts, theater events, educational programs, poetry festivals, English corners, cultural tourism or team building. Such a concept has laid a universalist foundation for this region-based international exchange organization, one which permeates every aspect of its work.

It bears mentioning that in the countless art and cultural exchange events over the past decade, the principle of putting values first has not led them down the slippery slope of moralizing or evangelical dogmatism. Instead, it has laid rich soil and an ideal space for people, cultures and arts to encounter one another, and to help restore broken links between them. Prejudice disintegrates in the face of respect; enmity retreats in the face of friendship; coldness is transformed in the face of empathy; isolation unfolds in the face of openness; perplexity becomes potential through creativity…. This space is not just for the exchange and exhibition of arts and cultures, it is for fermenting culture and art, placing it into people’s hearts, and allowing the values within art and culture to spread to the community and inspire new ideas.

This concept did not arise out of desperation from the market rout of recent years, it was a vision that arose from deep insight into human nature and history. What will amazes people of the future will not be the fluctuations in the art market, or the eastern and western shifts of the center of world culture, or the rise and collapse of the globe’s superpowers; it will be the silent crumbling of values and the massive, towering, dazzling Tower of Babel with its rotting inner core.

Cultural Exchange

Cultural exchange between China and the West is the most central and most textured component of Nordica. Nordica has erected a bridge between China and Scandinavia, and over the past decade, the majority of international cultural and artistic exchange events in Kunming have taken place at Nordica. Examples include the exchange between famous Swedish symbolist poet Tomas Transtromer and local Kunming poets such as Yu Jian; projects such as Log Book, Sugar and Salt and Love Protection, which entailed cooperation and visits between local and Scandinavian female artists; a residency program that brings dozens of artists from Scandinavia and other regions to Kunming each year; arrangements for inviting many local artists to participate in exhibitions in Scandinavia; the ten to twenty Scandinavian youths who come each year to study Chinese culture and history and work as part of the Nordica team; the many local youths who come to work in Nordica, taking part in specific cultural exchange projects, and creating a third culture out of contact and cooperation between two cultures; the ties of cooperation and trust that Nordica has worked to establish between the government of Yunnan Province and various regions of Scandinavia; cooperation between Nordica and the embassies of the Scandinavian nations…. It could be said that every aspect of what Nordica does, both on stage and behind the scenes, takes place within the context of international exchange.

Cultural Exchange is no longer the cold mutual translation between two vocabularies, discussion between the cultural representatives of two nations, show games between two national teams, tributes or clashes between two national TV stations. Because of the deep and rich participation of many local youths, cultural exchange turns into stories with a heartbeat, and those stories are brought back to us, and brought out to the distant Scandinavian Peninsula. No longer is cultural exchange a secret war of cultural permeation between the soft power sets of nations; it is now the process of people coming to know and trust each other. Eva Taitai brought me a bag of fermented chili beans to boil into a hot-pot and save me from the paucity of flavor in the Scandinavian palate; Anna Mellergård helped us to clean the dust from those corners of the gallery that the Chinese could never find; the Scandinavians hung up long white scroll-paper banners of Tomas Transtromer’s poems, and the neighbors thought we were holding a funeral; Janeric Johansson met five Chinese girls in Kunming…. Because of these stories, Janeric Johansson told Kunming artist Tang Zhigang, “I don’t believe that China and Scandinavia could ever go to war, because we know each other too well. Our friendship will be a lasting one.”

Because of Nordica’s persistent efforts in cultural exchange, local artists have had far-reaching contact with western art and artists, and learn that in western art, aside from Germany, Great Britain and America, there is also Scandinavia, where artistic methods stand apart from the western mainstream. These long-term observations showed Tang Zhigang a universal problem in art today: as art becomes increasingly international, where are the differences between individuals and between regions?

Local Art Environment

If it can’t inspire a strong passion for local culture, then an international platform becomes nothing more than a place to find a blonde-haired boyfriend; if it can’t inspire a sense of responsibility in the reconstruction of local values, then an international platform becomes nothing more than a diving board to jump out to the creature comforts of the western world; if an international platform can’t provide nourishment for culture in the local art environment and work together with local artists to explore regional humanist values, then where is the value in having a regional international platform?

Since the New Wave in art, Yunnan art has had a unique character that has been a source of inspiration in China for its focus on the individual state of existence, the relationship between living consciousness and nature, and on Yunnan’s unique geography and multi-ethnic culture. As one of the first folk-based art spaces there, Nordica has witnessed the passion and transformation of local art, from the first exhibition of Yunnan installation art at the T Café Gallery (Nordica’s first incarnation) in 2000, to such large scale exhibitions of new forces in Yunnan art as the “Physical Exam” and “Here Come the Sheep” exhibitions in 2002; from witnessing artists’ explorations in image methods to their first-ever exhibitions at Nordica; from the first-ever solo exhibitions in China for Tang Zhigang and Mao Xuhui to the Swedish tour of the Chinese Contemporary Art – Identity and Transformation exhibition; from artists organizing their own exhibitions and holding a creative market, to Nordica’s curation of local themed exhibitions; from artists born in the 1950s to artists born in the 1980s….The majority of local artists have exhibited their works at Nordica, and Nordica is always looking for new forces out there. Averaging one music concert a week, one art exhibition a month and one large-scale event every two years, Nordica continues to be the most vibrant cultural arts center in Kunming, providing the people with a fresh and eclectic cultural scene.

Aside from focusing on the local art environment and individual cases, and supporting new artists and female artist groups, Nordica also works in the field of art education, holding regular exhibitions to foster and encourage creativity in children, providing free guidance to local schools, including the international ones, and helping people to know art and its joy and value.

I think that if you water and care for a plot of soil, not to grow vegetation that is suited to the locality, but to grow Scandinavian berries, then it is no longer a plot of land that you are cultivating, but a botanical garden that has no value beyond appreciation. It takes many years of cultivation and labor before one can gain a sense of its true value.

Here it must be noted that all soil is local in nature. There is no international soil hanging up there in the sky. If there is, it’s only good for tourist souvenirs. The work of refreshing values and establishing people’s faith and belief in values, however, must be carried out in a specific place. Interestingly, when we look back at all of the Scandinavian art communities or museums we’ve come in contact with over the past decade, such as Vestfossen, the so called art capital of Norway, the FOLK outdoor art festival at the Lista Fyr Gallery, the biennial-scale art international art festival at Mriannelund in Sweden, the museum at Uddevalla or the collection of wild Yunnan mushrooms at the Bohusläns Museum, none of them are in major cities. Some of them are even in little villages of just one to two thousand people that don’t even have their own police department. Those art communities in little villages aren’t neo-pastoral constructs, they are international-level art communities in their own right. While the international field of vision has provided local communities with a window on a diverse world, international art has gained an opportunity for rethinking, deepening and modification in local soils. While the internationalization of art has made it easier for the people of the world to understand art, and made it easier for artists to travel abroad, does it also imply that a unifying world is whittling away at local cultures and their essences? Can we find valuable components inside? An artist once referred to the Kunming Loft, a flexible art space adapted to local characteristics, as an “alternative space”, using a central yardstick to lower the status of a unique method of growth. I think that the ten year history of Nordica can at least affirm that this is actually an “irreplaceable space”, because its methods and values are perfectly suited to this unique soil.

Social Responsibility

As a local enterprise and cultural center, we are concerned with the question of how to carry our values vision into social groups, rather than just to people in the cultural arts field. Aside from encouraging people to come to this community to sit down for a cup of coffee, look at art and listen to music, is there some broader effort that we can engage in? How do we bring the needs of marginalized groups into the hearts of artists, and take the richness and power of art to these marginalized groups, rather than keeping the two separate? As a public platform that builds relationships between individuals, between individuals and groups, between people and governments and between disparate groups, cross-field activities are taking place all the time. The act of caring naturally moves from the humanistic to the humane.

Out of concern for the serious trends in AIDS infections in Yunnan, and out of care for AIDS sufferers, Nordica spent three years implementing the benefit project “Contagious Love: Artistic Reflections on the HIV/AIDS Situation in China”, drawing people’s attention to the AIDS problem, in the process establishing a bridge between culture workers such as artists and poets, AIDS workers and AIDS sufferers, promoting mutual understanding. We held a series of events such as AIDS seminars and discussions as well as interactions with AIDS sufferers and drug addicts to dispel a lot of the fear and misconceptions artists had towards AIDS, and used actions by cultural workers to bring joy and hope to the lives of AIDS sufferers. In the end, the project was presented in a series of art exhibitions, poetry events and music concerts, and enjoyed broad support from local and international artists, governments and organizations. Through the cultural arts, this project altered the coldness and ignorance of many people including ourselves, and we were greatly moved by the diligence of these artists who creatively explored ways to break the chains of prejudice and open the gates of love.

Aside from the AIDS project, we have also engaged in many other similar efforts, such as establishing interscholastic ties between a school for handicapped children in Sweden and the Kunming Huaxia Vocational School; since 2004 we have been using the Christmas Market to provide poverty-alleviation organizations and weak social groups with more opportunities; the 2007 “From the Polar to the Valley” project brought together ethnic minorities from Sweden and Yunnan, focusing on ethnic rights; then there was the 2005 project to promote children’s rights in honor of the 100th anniversary of Astrid Lindgren’s birth…

I believe that these actions are more than just activities for the public good. They’re more like local applications of Joseph Beuys’ concept of social sculpture.

Conclusion

Actually, Nordica has done so many things that I’ve only been able to list a few of them here. As a cultural arts organization that has maintained non-profit operations, in its move from a supported organization to an independent one, it experienced more than just the dazzling spectacle of one cultural event after another and the steady accumulation of accolades; there was also the hardship of Anna Mellergård and Wu Yuerong and the daily efforts of every team member, their bravery, wisdom and love in breaking through the obstacles before them. But every living thing is reshaped, modified and refreshed through exchange. The soil goes from hard to soft, from strange to familiar. It has become the motivation for everyone to pick up the plow, and a cause for celebration.

“Micro-variation” has become the basic method for folk-based action, as opposed to massive, one-time banner raising efforts to push drastic change. When one repeatedly cleans one set location in a filthy city, repeatedly wipes the dust off of a single table, that table becomes respectable, and many people will sit at the table and get to know each other. That is the meaning of cultivation.

The experimentation on each plot of soil is indispensable. Each action carried out with values and beliefs brings the possibility of renewal to withered land. The restoration of values does not need to wait until total collapse happens to begin. Just as we can’t just plant seeds today because we want to eat an apple tomorrow, the cultivation and renewal of values requires a place and sufficient time, and attentive people to feed the soil. Cultivation and maintenance is not a one-time effort; it comes with challenges and concern, miracles and disappointments, hardship and patience. It is because of this that the work of restoring values inevitably becomes an everyday, local and normalized working mechanism that spreads to every corner. What really needs to be cleaned, watered and refreshed, the real soil of values is not the city, the village or the art community, but our own hearts.

Completed on December 9, 2009 in Liangyuan, Kunming
translated by Jeff Crosby （阅读中文原文）

Photo from “Contagious Love 2006″

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He Libin
(Interview with the artist in his studio. 30th April 2010. Present: He Libin, Luo Fei and Anders Gustafsson.)

I once read a text by Jeff Crosby, where he emphasized that Kunming historically did play an often overlooked role in China’s road to modernity: from it’s time as a French outpost, to its role as a refuge for Chinese intellectuals during the Japanese occupation, Kunming often led the way for China’s embrace of modern ideas. I guess the South West Art Research Group should also be mentioned here. Do you see Kunming’s art community building on this heritage, or should we declare it dead and buried?

– It is building on that tradition. Compared with other citites, Kunming woke up early in relation to modernity. The first Chinese art community started here (Chuang Ku/Loft, 1999). It was influenced by the Western world. During French and Japanese occupation, this influence was forced upon us. The Han culture didn’t have such a big influence here, so Kunming could accept different cultures.

– It’s actually quite interesting that many Kunming artists are rather lazy, or very relaxed anyway. This also means they’re very free. So if there’s an interesting opportunity, the artists can easily gather. Chuang Ku is an example. Another case is the Jiang Hu-project 2005-2006 (a project supported by Lijiang studio). It influenced lots of young artists and was awarded a price for being the second best art project after the Shanghai Biennal in 2006.

But isn’t the Kunming art community more scattered now than say four-five years ago?

– Yes, definitively.

But is that a sign of the artists cooperating less? Or of something else?

– We cooperate more, actually. There are more opportunities and possibilities. Four years ago, there was only Loft. The exhibitions were more simple at that point. Now we have more art spaces, which results in more cross over art.

I’ve noticed that people in Kunming often remind us foreigners about the minorities influence on the culture of Yunnan. You are of Naxi heritage yourself. Do you see any influence from the minority cultures on contemporary art?

– Personally, the Naxi culture doesn’t attract me. I’m mainly living with Han-people. Even though Yunnan is a minority province, Yunnan’s main culture is Han. Just look at the menues in the restaurants. The minority food is often there more like a decoration.

– Another important thing is, that in the 20th century, even if we have many minorities, we where occupied by Western countries. That influenced us. Minority culture is maybe more influential in song and dance, but not so much in the visual art where the Western influence was stronger.
As far as the art academies educational tradition is concerned, the visual arts relates mainly to the Western system and the Chinese traditional painting: More precisely, the Western tradition of realism and the Chinese one where the students copy old masters and paint plants. So the influence on contemporary art is marginal, in my opinion.

– In early 1980′s there was an art wave, the Heavy Colored School and the Scenery School, who were influenced by minority culture. All the artists were Han-people, and they combined minority culture with western influences. Most of the minority art is more utility based, for religios ceremonies and so on. But it doesn’t reach independent or fine art. Different minorities have different religions. This means that they are enclosed in there own circles; it doesn’t spill over to other cultures.

– If you compare original minority art, with the Heavy Colored School and the Scenery School art, they are very different. The latter are landscape paintings with strong colors. But already in the 90′s they were less influential. They were hardly scratching the surface of the minorities cultures. It never dealt with the feelings of the individual, and it never acccounted for the individual’s experiences.

– When I watched them, they all looked the same. Soft, beautful, like a poem. I’ve lived with minorities, and I know that this beautiful side is only part of the truth. There are sorrow and suffering too. That kind of life is never covered by those paitings, and they don’t show these people’s real life.

– I think that the government knows and likes the Heavy Colored School and the Scenery School art, and those artists use this style to present a romantic idea about minorities to Westerners. They want Yunnan to be the biggest tourist province in China, so they portray it like the Garden of Eden.

It’s not only the minority cultures that distincts Yunnan from other provinces in China. It’s also the geographical proximity to Vietnam, Myanmar, Laos and Thailand. Myanmar is Yunnan’s biggest trading partner, for example. Is this influencing the Kunming art scene?

– The cooperation with these countries takes plcae within the economical sphere, but very rarely on a cultural level. So if we look back on the past years’ culture events, very few of them are in any way connected to these countries. (Even if the day before this interview an exhibition from Thailand opened at Yunnan Arts Institute).

– In recent years, we’ve learnt that the differences between art in Yunnan and, say Laos and Thailand, are really big. So we influence each other only to a small extent, if any. Their art education, exhibitions, collectors and foundations are all of Western origin. This will continue, I think, and the main reason for this is that in rescent history they were occupied by Western countries.

Mao Xuhui talks about your “anxiety”, reflected in the loss of the traditional landscape conquered by the destruction of modernity. Do you agree with this?

– Almost all Chinese have anxiety, it’s only on different levels… Personally, I don’t see myself as an intellectual. My anxiety is mainly about lifestyle. Being caught between on one hand my dream of a pure and simple life, on the other hand the modern life’s with its speed and its urges. So I’m almost afraid to go to the super market, it’s a big waste of products and resources. I’m afraid it’s all about desire. Maybe I would have preferred to live the simple life of minorities.

– The traditional Chinese intellectuals lead divided lifes. They wished to join this world and at the same time escape from it. So I don’t see myself as an intellectual. I can not totally embrace the traditional intellectuals’ opinions or feelings. My culture and knowledge system is only slightly influenced by Konfucianism. Deep down, I much more prefer daoism. Daoists usually live in forests or mountains.

I find your project, Recording Shenzhen, particularly interesting. You and some volunteers painted the city’s sceneries, but used water instead of colour. The art work lasted for a maximum of two hours. Isn’t that quite Daoistic?

– No idea, I hadn’ t thought of that, haha. But probably. Just like my recent works, where I only used water, air and other simple resources. Another important element in my work is about time.

Time… Isn’t there some similarity between the ephemeral or unreachable nature of this vaning waterdepictions of a hypermodern city, and the traditional landscapes of some of your other paintings? I mean: Aren’t we often projecting our contemporary thoughts and worldviews on a distant past that in some sense is unreachable?

– Yes. I always try to reach for it, but it disappears. It makes me sad, and if you lift up this feeling, it’s somthing like impermanence (a Buddhist term). And you can’t really know it or control it.

It looks to me that you are speaking the same language in The Forgotten Views and The Lost Writing; there you are using newspaper as material to depict traditional landscape or calligraphy. Newspapers as a material are ephemeral, even if not as much as painting in water.

– Yes. But as you know, I’m not the person who plans everything. In this progress I tried different materials, but finally I choose newspaper. It’s cheap, actually it doesn’t cost me anything. And it’s a good material, easy to work with. All the newpapers came from friends, they’re for free. I can’t finish it, cause people always ask me if I need more newspapers…

– During the works I found newspaper as a material has its limits. Time will change it, it won’t last. I tried with other materails as well, like sand and metal. Mixed material. Time will change everything. Deep down I’m a pessimist. Impermanence, is a word I really understand and can identify with.

TCG Nordica is celebrating its 10 years anniversary. Please give me your thoughts on which role it – and Chuang Ku – has played through the years.

– They’ve played very different roles. Chuang Ku was established by Ye Yongqing and Tang Zhigang. In the beginning it was like creating an enclave. They were idealists, in a way they wished to build Utopia. With enclave, I mean they wanted to create a life style that was quite different from other citizens. Their land was sort of up in the air, it didn’t land.

– But because of these artists’ hard work, Kunming’s art events became more and more a part of the city’s daily life. There was a distance from the public, maybe. But art became more and more a part of daily life for artists, with exhibitions, platforms and so on. Before Chuang Ku, the opportunities to see or particpiate in an exhibition was very limited . It was limited to the official museums.

– In Chuang Ku there was a thinking mode that it’s “us” inside Chuang Ku, and “them” outside. To make a difference between them and the artists supported by the authorities. “We are Chuang Ku(Loft) artists, they are outsiders”. Maybe Western artists see it more as “I” and “you”, rather than “us” and “them”?

– When I read the last generations diaries (like Mao Xuhui, Ye Yongqing and so on), it was a lot about us and them. They were different, that also went for the relation to society. Today it’s a big difference. The boundaries have been blurred. And this is because of their success. They have become accepted, before they were a more heterogenous group.

And TCG Nordica?

– I see Nordica as a bridge. The founders wanted to share different kinds of culture with everyody. This sharing was not to make everybody be the same. In fact, it makes everybody different. This is the biggest difference between Nordica and Loft. Nordica was not just only for “us”. Instead it made us realize our differences. I think this is a culture difference. For Westerners it was I and you. For Chinese it was much about us and them; us always eating and drinking tea, playing cards together, for example.

– I think Nordica is the most inportant place at Loft. Without it, Loft would be a local community. There would be no dialogue, no conflict.

– According to Nordica’s vision, there’s still a kind of idealism, But it’s not Utopia. It has a positive view on everybody’s life style and culture. If the art community thinks: “Let’s build an alternative life style”, it’s more utopian. It makes everybody look the same. Like communism; everybody are the same.

At one point in a discussion woth the Loft artists, we tried to explain how we at Nordica work more with a flat organization, rather than a hierarchial one. One of the artists ironically exclaimed: “Ahh, you are the real communists!”

– Actually, even when there’s a cooperation with Nordica, everybody still have their individual work.

So will this – and should it – change for the future, in your opinion?

– I think Nordica shouldn’t change their role much in the future. I wish Nordica can just go deeper in their communication between different cultures. And also, I wish there could be more communication.

Other cultures, not just Scandinavian-Chinese, you mean?

– No, my point is that we need build more communication in Kunming, with other culture areas. Not only art, but literature and so on. It’s not only the Nordica staff’s responsibility, but everyone’s.

Can you give a concrete suggestion?

– For example the HIV-project. That was a very good example of a sort of cross-over project, where people meet on a bridge. I wish we could move further, where artists take responsibility for society. In the past years, the art scene has been more profound than the other culture areas.

So, for example, we arrange a concert and let artists and poets create from their experiences during it?

– Yes, and artists could cooperate with scientists.

And how about the future for Loft?

– There are many, many problems with Loft, and everybody knows that. But I think it doesn’t matter if it’s there or not. The most important is how the artists work in the future. I think that even if there’s no art community, it’s not important. If the artists bring art into the daily life, it’s something that could happen everywhere.

– The art communities in China was probably a phenomena related to a certain period of time. The artists needed to make themselves known, needed to gather energy from each other. When or if the artists become stronger, and aren’t considered as being on the edge of society, I think the communities will dissappear naturally.

– Even if Loft disappears, it’s not necessarily a big problem to Nordica, who can still continue their work. All the artists in China have found that the art communities haven’t been the most important thing. The organisations have been more important. Within each art community, there has been a maximum of one or two organisations that have done most of the work.

In one discussion I had with Jonathan Kearney, we both agreed that Kunming’s culture life is different than what you find in the coastal megacities. Kunming can maybe not claim to be The Real China, but that it can claim to be A Different China.
If you agree with this, what is the main contribution of the Kunming art scene, that makes it stand out from the rest?

– I agree. A different China. The Director and founder of Lijiang studio Jay Brown even made an exhibition in Germany with that name. I think all the events happening in Kunming contributed to the whole of China. Some of them had much influence. Generally speaking, the Kunming art scene even made Kunming different from other cities.

In what way, more precisely?

– There were some cases with big influences. The New Concrete Group in the 1980′s influenced many cities. Also, the Chuangku/Loft influenced other cities. Another one was Jiang Hu (The before-mentioned project in Lijiang). It was tightly connected to the local experience, it could never have happened anywhere else. It was a village project outside Lijiang. Invited international artists to connect with the local experience and culture.

– And then there’s Nordica.

– Most of Chinese contemporary art is about an urban experience. In Yunnan the contemporary art connects with experience from nature. Those who come here find other influences and raise other questions, in relation to nature. Yunnan can give the artists inspiration for “slower walking”.

– These things make art life here stand out from the rest of China.

The current party secretary, Qiu He has personal ambitions for Kunming’s future. The universities are moved to Chenguang, outside Kunming. A new airport, China’s 4th biggest, should be ready next year. Rail lines linking Yunnan, Sichuan, Guizhou, Guangxi and Chongqing will be upgraded. Construction of a high-speed rail between Kunming and Shanghai is already underway. Improved roads to Hanoi and Bangkok will shorten the time between Kunming and these cities drastically.
How do you think such changes will affect the Kunming art scene?

– It’s hard to say. I haven’t thought about it that much. I think it won’t change a lot for the artists themselves. They mainly focus on peoples’ hearts and experiences. But there might be changes in the patterns and structures, relating to the city’s enlargening. I haven’t seen any action from the government towards the art community, so the change might not be so big.

– The small art communities might spread out in different places, because of the economic development strategy. It will hardly make art develop faster, though. In order for the local art scene to stay healthy, it will need local curators, collectors and galleries. But that will take a long time.

You have chosen to stay here, although many artists follow the money to the coastal region. And it’s not that you haven’t seen the world. You have travelled to Scandinavia, for example. So what’s most attracting for you here?

– My family. Maybe I could earn more money in some other place, but I enjoy life here. I don’t want to leave my loved ones: parents, wife, daughter. The daily life is most important to me. Only then comes art.

Interview by Anders Gustafsson
Photo by Luo Fei

For more information about artist He Libin, please check his CV, and the tag on TCG Nordica’s website: He Libin, thanks!

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Sleepers
Luo Fei (Curator, Artistic Director at TCG Nordica)

After several changes, our eleven participating Yunnan artists finally settled on the name “Sleepers” for this exhibition. This name denotes inconspicuousness, diligence, training and experience, and it also makes the allusion that these people are under cover in a certain environment, waiting for action, which fits with the real state of mind among the artists in this exhibition. This word calls to mind two other words, “sleeper cell” and “prison break”.

The widespread popularity of the Chinese TV series Sleepers illustrates the nature of our interest in historical truth. Toss in the American hit series Prison Break, and we’ve got two main courses that once again gently place people’s love for conspiracy theories on the table.

Conspiracy theories have two types of sources. One is secular; liberalist political science is highly skeptical of human nature and state power. Where there is power, there is conspiracy. Examples of this include the recent widespread conspiracy theory that the global financial crisis was actually carefully planned by a certain American corporation. There is also the theory that the US government planned the 9/11 attacks to manufacture an excuse for war. The most famous conspiracy theory is the one that John F. Kennedy was assassinated by a secret American government organization. Another source for conspiracy theories is the magnification of certain concepts of Christianity. The theory goes that Satan secretly controls the world, and that every event and symbol is part of the war in the spirit world, ideas influenced by the concept of the kingdom of heaven and the apocalypse. One such conspiracy theory was that the old logo of Proctor & Gamble contained the numbers “666”, and so the company was therefore controlled by Satan worshippers.

The grasp of conspiracy theory in Chinese culture is in no way inferior to that of America. Aside from Sleepers, there is also War and Beauty, Emperor Kangxi, Yongzheng Dynasty and Infernal Affairs (remade by Martin Scorsese as The Departed), as well as ancient and highly developed conspiratorial methods such as the “hooking method”, The Book of the Long and Short and Machiavellian military stratagems. Writer Ran Yunfei has said that The Art of War and all Chinese stratagems boil down to just five words: pitfalls, disguises, twists, deceptions and entrapment. Though this isn’t a pleasant thought, consider our educational environment – from preschool to elementary school, college to workplace, no place is lacking in intrigue or positioning.

Philosopher Karl Popper explained conspiracy theories as the “typical result of the secularization of religious superstitions”. He said that “Homer conceived the power of the gods in such a way that whatever happened on the plain before Troy was only a reflection of the various conspiracies on Olympus. The conspiracy theory of society is just a version of this theism, of a belief in gods whose whims and wills rule everything. It comes from abandoning God and then asking: ‘Who is in his place?’ His place is then filled by various powerful men and groups – sinister pressure groups, who are to be blamed for having planned the great depression and all the evils from which we suffer.”

Unfortunately, people would rather live in fear of a conspiracy behind everything bad that happens, rather than that there is a hidden grace behind every story. The tattered, horrified mental outlook of contemporary man is abundantly clear, as if one day we are certainly bound to capsize the boat in the sewer. So, is there some form of grace that can overcome the conspiracy? Is there a shore of respite that can replace the sewer? The philosophical implications of Prison Break are more suited to the aspirations of “sleepers”. It’s just like one poet wrote: “the most careful prison escape plan is hatched in the mother’s womb.”

In The Gospel According to Matthew, Jesus says to be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves. This touches on the issue of moral character among sleepers. If these eleven artists are really what they profess to be, then they must have sleeper motives, namely, they are laying low in their environments or systems, shrewdly seeking out the opportunity to find their own unique artistic languages. Luckily, their plots are directed at art, not at other people.

Yang Yijiang and Sha Zhibin, sleepers hiding out in an academic aesthetic, focus on their artistic conceptions; their image styles fall under the law-abiding category. Yang Yijiang uses the subtle, exploratory decoration of body models to touch sensitive nerves. Sha Zhibin uses elegant and melancholic grayscale arrangements between bodies and still objects and bodies and landscapes, to create image associations between them.

Adam Lik Lui, Xiang Weixing and Zhang Yongning, sleepers in the national ideology, all turn their memories and thoughts on the nation’s history into familiar yet strange imagery. Adam Lik Lui’s Lost series places a young, lovely post-80s girl in an abandoned factory from the Great Leap Forward period. The posed photographs highlight the contrasts and absurdities between the two eras. Xiang Weixing’s Idol Box series uses relief carving to place events such as the National People’s Congress and beauty pageants into television sets. The choice of the name “idol box” keenly points out the false faith that arises from people treating media events as idols. Zhang Yongning’s Badge series turns images of children into collector’s badges of political leaders, using this to focus on common individuals, and to insinuate that the notion of political intrigue is now spreading to children.

Wang Yuhui, Zhu Xiaolin, Zhang Zhimin and Hu Jun are sleepers concealed in everyday city life. Wang Yuhui uses the life and play of a humorous dog to present sarcastic takes on the setting of our lives. Zhu Xiaolin’s Life of Games depicts a feeling of senselessness in life. Zhang Zhimin uses a somewhat pained eye to focus on unnoticed things and unexpected scenes. Hu Jun uses depictions of tired and cold marriages to get us to rethink traditional values. These works are all marked by biographical notes, maintaining both affinity and wariness towards everyday city life.

Then there are Li Xuefeng and Zhao Gang, who are sleepers in historical imagery. Li Xuefeng uses a mosaic filter to examine classic historical figures and scenes, using visual blurring to sharpen historical memory. Zhao Gang takes images from the old model operas of the Cultural Revolution and inserts cartoony toy imagery into them.

Because of their expectations towards art, artists are forced to embed themselves as sleepers within reality, from which they can gain a mirror for creation; because of their expectations towards life, many people are forced to embed themselves as sleepers in their situations, from which they can gain a map for making a “prison break”.

These eleven artists are all faithfully playing the role of “sleepers”, sharing their experiences “in hiding” with everyone. Since ancient times, artists have always been a group of active sleepers. They engage in the act of creation through games, explorations, thoughts, accumulated experiences and constantly refined language, all in hopes of making a “prison break” from reality. This process is long, arduous, dangerous and debilitating, with the only comfort coming from the breakthroughs, large or small, that are achieved through creation. The saving grace of art is that it provides these “sleepers” with the idea of a shore to rest on, so that they can imagine the possibility of redemption somewhere beyond reality. This is the enchanting thing about art: the expectations of the “sleepers”, and the great and just “conspiracy theory”.

The above long-winded rant is the foreword for the “Sleepers: Eleven Yunnan Artist Contemporary Artistic Experimentation” exhibition.

December 13, 2009, Spring City
translated by Jeff Crosby

本文中文阅读：http://blog.luofei.org/archives/1501

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Participants:
Guan Yuda (Curator, Art Critic, Professor of Art and Design College of Yunnan University),
Luo Fei (Gallery Director and Curator of TCG Nordica Gallery)
He Libin (Artist, Curator)
Lei Yan (Artist)
Li Youjie (Artist)

Time: 2009, May 17
Add: Kunming Dandi Coffee

Translated by: Wu Yuerong
Proofreaded by: Anders Gustafsson

Professor Guan Yuda (hereinafter referred to as Guan ):

“…modernity is actually the starting point for an inquiry into the relationship between man and nature, people and life itself. Modernity transformed the Western culture. It also saw the emergence of a civil society, and the transformation of people’s daily lives.

In fact, I see this happening in Yunnan as well, mainly through two important developments. One is the early ‘Shen Community’, and artists such as Mao Xuhui. Their landscape paintings was a way of escaping the mainstream ideology. According to the provisions of revolutionary realism, you could only paint peasants, soldiers and ideological motives. And if at that time you wanted to deviate from the mainstream, painting scenery was the best way. That way, you would not break the ideological taboos, but you could put your own consciousness into the art. This was the beginning of modernism and self-conscious art in Yunnan. Mao Xuhui were to bring in subjectivity; and this is modernity. This point is very important, because it is also the reason that he saw a kind of religious loneliness inside Gui Shan. I think this is the main sense of involvement, of ‘Inscape’. And this subjectivity is the most crucial point.”
But I think we should not exaggurate the fact that the experiments of “Kunming Impressionist School” was earlier than Mao Xuhui. Because almost all artists painted landscape in Yunnan at that time; that was a way of life. And many people still do. Secondly, Yunnan itself is far away from the political and cultural center. That’s why Ding Shaoguang, Jiang Tiefeng, and also Wang Xiaobo went to De Hong (note: a town close to the Burmese border). Through the closeness of nature they could escape the mainstream ideology. It is similar with today’s tourism. They came there either to escape the harm from the ideological and commercial capitalism, or to heal their wounds and seek consolation in the landscape. But I think this is a sociological phenomenon. The discussion of art history in terms of subjective consciousness or awakening, and to truly grasp the origins of the modern landscape, is the main point of interest here.

“Inscape” is not a reflection of reality, camera-style. On the contrary it is subjective. Like Mao Xuhui, their entire approach is quite westernized, influenced by Nietzsche, Bergson and romantic literature. And then these things are mandatory embedded into Yunnan. Reminiscent of Van Gogh, Gauguin and Cezanne, who were also embedded in a kind of force which is very westernized. And this is very different from the Chinese tradition that emphasized harmony. Later, in a new figurative, Gui Shan have been amplified into a schema of personal heroism.
So when I read what He Libin wrote (Note: He Libin wrote an article “Landscape thirty years”), it is still a linear description. If we take a broader view and discuss the transition of Chinese contemporary art in the late 70s and beginning of 80s, there are two important trends: One is the Scar Art Group?. It is actually the subject of the mainstream form of criticism, but the methodology remains the same. It moved a theme to another theme, such as He Duoling’s painting “Spring is awake”, and also the peasants Luo Zhongli painted. Whatever they painted, it was still a kind of intellectual deviation from the mainstream. Another Group is the Life Flow in South-West China. They show more concern about the relationship between life and nature. This is what I think is modernity. So, in my opinion, there are mainly two key points when we discuss Chinese contemporary art: One is the sociological method, the other is based in the ontology of human life. When we emphasise this, the discussion can be particularly interesting.

Luo Fei (hereinafter referred to as Luo):

I have mentioned these issues in my article (Note: Luo wrote the introduction to the exhibition “Inscape on the spot”). The Mao Xuhui-generation of artists in Yunnan had a particularly strong sense of self-consciousness that they revealed thoroughly. Today, artists are still continuing the way of landscape; He Libin is one representative. But there is also something different happening among young artists. They also emphasize a Self which is slowly moving towards a more universal “I”, not only their own “I”. I found this change similar to the works of Lan Qingxing. At first they might appear self-concerning, but actually they reveal general situations for the individual.

Guan:

In fact, in the period of ’85, the trend of thought in the Chinese art society was that of individualistic heroism. Interestingly enough: Even though it started out as individualistic heroism (note: bringing in subjectivity), the result was actually a collective heroism (note: the celebration of the art groups). Their presentation methods thus became a collective heroism too, which is a very weird structure. Logically, personal heroism should retain an individual criticism and reflection. Why I critisize the thought of the 80s’culture and art, is because I think it leads to a structure of collectivism. You just mentioned the individual; the individual is a solitary individual in the 80s, whether it is in the groups of Yunnan or Hubei. I used to write that the Group of Wang Guangyi was a group of individual heroism, but in the process it formed a kind of collectivist method that was institutionalized. From the philosophical point of view, it is very important to reflect on and straighten out the thoughts of the 80’s. I think that if art still has the possibility of a post-89, it may have to return to some basic points that reflect the enlightenment and return to those values. Well then, from this perspective, Yunnan had two important art projects: One was the “Long March”, the other was “Jiang Hu”.

I think the ”Long March” was a general presentation of contemporary art in Yunnan Province after 85. It was reviewing the relationship between art and life, art and nature. After that, there was another important project: “Jiang Hu”. I think “Jiang Hu” might be the longest and most influential outdoor activity of Chinese contemporary art. “Jiang Hu” was more focused on certain individual artists and on daily lives. The first time I participated in the “Jiang Hu” was for playing, I didn’t feel like this was art. In Yunnan, life is art, art is life; the boundaries are easily erased. It would be very difficult to erase it in another place. For example, in Beijing you would have to make a ceremony if you wanted to erase the boundaries. Everything there is very deliberate. In the “Jiang Hu”, things just mixed and erased unconsciously. This is very much like the climate in Yunnan, where the seasons have no clear character.

I think when we return to a new enlightenment, the pertinence of enlightenment is not the narrative of a magnificent individual heroism. On the contrary, it is back to the daily life of individuals. So it possesses the universality that you talked about, and the dimension expands. So I think the contemporary art in Yunnan, landscape as a motif on this point, is a theme that will never end, independently of which age and time we are living in.

Luo:

Young artists are not setting up an imaginary enemy, as if to challenge some collective. They enter into the natural self. Then the artist would like to find some common ground, which we called universality. Today we talk about the enlightenment. In fact, it is more a social category in China. As we look back at the May 4th movement, the Democracy (Mr. De) and the Science (Mr. Sai) have not really sat into China. In fact, it is still hanging in the air. Today, the younger generation of artists would not feel very excited about making this kind of challenge . This task is mainly carried out by liberal intellectuals and citizen journalists on the internet. They continue to pursue this matter. But the artists in Yunnan, especially those who participated the exhibition “Inscape on the spot”, are increasingly concerned about the inner life.

Guan:

They were not concerned about a certain doctrine.

Luo:

Yes. They were not concerned with Logos, with metaphysical things. But with very specific, story-oriented stuff. That is a way of life, as we said.

We talked about using landscape to heal wounds. It sounds warm, but I find it representative for todays young artists in Yunnan. By painting landscape, they are straightening out their heart. Their point is not the Nation like lots of artists in the ’80s, who were fighting for the liberation of the Nation, or for a democratic system. It required the revival of the Nation to give them(the 80′s artists) a footnote in art history.

Guan:

So it is understandable that they started with an individualistic heroism, and finally implemented a model of collective heroism. The 50′s artists had a sense of responsibility. They transplanted the loyalty to the Party and the Country into other objects, for example Christianity. A collectivism and a grand narrative on a religious foundation. Ding Fang wanted to save the national character of China. When I saw his exciting paintings, I couldn’t believe that he transformed the Loess Plateau into the Christian Holy mountain. Waxy black in Mao Xuhui’s painting also’s got religion; artists are like lost sheep. As we are all God’s people, the sheep’s nature is divine. These were under a common situation in the 80s. In the 90s, artists emphasized the transformation on a daily basis. They put more focus on their inner, daily life and concrete things, so painting landscape appeared clearer.

This exhibition that Luo Fei curates, reveals an important thread of the contemporary art in Yunnan and in the whole of China. But also a very important modernist tradition. I think the chosen artists in this exhibition presents a new change: “Inscape on the spot” is the conception of making landscape in real-time, making improvised “Inscape”. Which is not making landscape as a conception or an idea. This is different from the generation of Mao Xuhui. This presents the experience of the exhibition vividly, but it also shows an important change of the Lanscape in Yunnan contemporary art of the 90s. I think it is a very interesting exhibition, although it is small one, but it brings forward some very sharp issues forward.

In fact, the essence of art is twofold: When you write art history, the important thing about the pieces is what you have drawn out of them. But I think that art history in Yunnan needs to pay attention to another point: The art of life; that is the Yunnan artists’ way of life. This may be the contribution of Yunnanese Art to the Chinese contemporary art.

I think that if Yunnan could contribute with something, it would not be the auction of art, but rather the charming and tempting lifestyle. Which is precisely what the artist could create. There are myths and misconceptions about people valuing art by money and numbers. This is misleading when we interpret Yunnan Contemporary art. Therefore, we need to aknowledge that the relationship between landscape and people in Yunnan is important. It reminds us of a way of life.

Luo:

Let’s review the relationship between the Chinese contemporary artists’ life and their art work, which is something we constantly need to do (Guan: right!). Many artists ridiculed society through their art works (Guan: they actually worked within a sociological tradition), but they themselves led somewhat cynical lives (Guan: right!). They criticized others but never changed themselves. Sometimes they took part in exactly what they were critisizing. (Guan: They did not create an alternative way of life). It is thus an invalid criticism.

Guan:

Like Van Gogh, if we separate his lifestyle from his works, how much meaning is left? I emphasize the charm of Yunnan lifestyle and hand-painting as method, because it can not be copied. You can even have a specific feeling from art works, about peoples’ body-temperature and living situation.

Like Liao Xinxue’s paintings, when you watch the old scenes of life in Kunming reappear. It’s different from the ugly modern artificial images that steals the space everywhere. Liao Xinxue’s paintings are a kind of visual testimony, put forward as a way of life. This is a transcendent value.

Luo:

Yes, I think the word you used, “visual testimony”, is very important. For example, when normal people talk about Van Gogh, they first think of his life and lifestyle instead of “Sunflower”. But today, when you start to talk about life as an artist, people just wonder about how much you sell, and about your position on the market. Conception has changed. In Yunnan, there are exactly those conditions that could allow the artists to return to a kind of authentic living conditions. And then convey their work to the public. Thus, people would understand that life can be lived in another way. This is the testimony of art.

Guan:

So I think it is a pity that this Yunnanese tradition never has been reviewed in the history of art. What’s specific about Yunnan? Most importantly: Do not compare the speed of life between Yunnan and other places. If you do, it will cause laughter among Shanghai people; or if you compare the height of the buildings, Shanghai people would cry. These are neither the essence of Yunnan, nor Kunming. If Kunming is still symbolized by its slow pace, this slowness is not reflected in several of its bars. In fact, it happens to be the unique way of life and the unique view of time. If a city needs an artist, the reason can not be to beat top the list of successful businessmen. It is about changing people’s views and way of life.

Therefore, the vulgar sociology of Chinese contemporary art just contains pathological values and a kind of pathological analysis. Just like takes from an X-ray, which shows how a malignant tumor got moldy, and that’s it. Chinese contemporary art is full of too many such things, and it reveals a kind of boredom. But the boredom itself doesn’t counteract this boredom. It lacks a constructive meaning. I think artists in this age, especially the generation after the ’80s, should create art with a constructive meaning, such as which value is a better one. Not just say that “I have tumor here”, and there “I lost a piece of my body”. Or if there is a scar, just licking it, only displaying the wounds and then tell people how cool you are. I think that is meaningless.

Luo:

First of all it’s about artists’ sincere feelings. We had strong political pressure in the 80s, now it comes from capitalism. Both deals with a kind of broken situation that finds no peace and stability. This exhibition is referred to as “Inscape on the spot”. Which means that although we stress the “on the Spot”, it’s about the ground beneath our feet. But there aren’t any perfect places on the ground, therefore we make an inner landscape of our hearts and minds.

Guan:

There are two meanings. “On the Spot” refers to a moment, this moment here and now. But the Landscape appears when you combine it with your emotions. Secondly, this landscape is rooted in the heart; it is an Inscape of mine. Anyhow, it is not limited to this place and this moment, although it is here and now “on the Spot”, it might be more of a cultural ideal, an ideal of life, a kind of positive thing. I think this topic is great, since it contents double meaning.

Thus, art can not become a movement. The wave of ’85 was a movement, but when it finished we had nothing to do. Or art got caught in the rapid commercialization and became symbolic, but life is an every day thing. You can not engage in art, because there isn’t a movement.

Luo:

The wave of 85 was following Mao Zedong’s strategic direction. Everybody engaged in movements, like when you were doing “clean work” (note:.“Clean work” is when people collectively go out to perform a task. For example when people clean the city. Basically , this is always based on a decision from above; the residents would never clean the city themselves, but wait for an authority to tell them.)

Guan:

Yes, there are remnants of post Cultural Revolution within the wave of 85. Thus, protest is necessary.

Luo:

Those movements are still happening everywhere today, such as the movement to sweep vulgar things on the Internet. This is still very much according to Mao Zedong’s thinking, and it is the reason why Mao could become a political pop symbol.

Lei Yan (hereinafter referred to as Lei):

In fact, much of the art in the west is increasingly close to daily life, but for a long time we have been controlled under the Party’s rule. This is difficult to change.

Luo:

We talked about the importance of methodology. But when it comes to lifestyle, I think values take priority. Build the values first, and then give those values an output. Methodology is not the essential. If the methodology became the essential, it could easily be neutralized.

Guan:

Yes. It wasn’t accidental that the first Arts Community appeared in Kunming. An Art Community reflects a city’s ecology, such as Shanghai Moganshan, Beijing Wangjing or Kunming Loft. For the same reason, “Jiang Hu” could only happen in Kunming. Art made a very important transition in the ’90s, from a syndicated, antagonized movement into everyday life. Therefore, it is important to review aesthetics in Yunnan.

Luo:

This transition produced two results. One is completely secular, or completely commercialized. For example an emphasized sense of boredom. Another is that the artists were more inclined to focus on their own personal stories. For example, like Lei Yan’s works, stuff fizzed inside of ice. Also He Libin. He did not sanctify secular life, but rather found himself lacking something.

Guan:

This is the poetry of everyday life. Previously, in Mao Xuhui’s generation, it was epic. Well, today, this poetry could be still-life, it is a sketch, like poems in the Dynasty of Tang and Song. It was describing trivial details which represented a more abundant and poetic everyday life. Life is not just boredom, there are surprises and the unexpected, which is the character of 90′s art. When art returns to this point, it could be real. But it can not be made into an artificial God. The Scars Art exposed the wounds that needed to be healed, but some of them just put up the wounds as idols. That is meaningsless.

I always thought that TCG Nordica’s project “Log Book” was particularly good, with its cross-cultural intentions. Unfortunately, it wasn’t too well documented. I hope that Luo Fei later, when the economy allows us, could continue with documentation of the “Log Book”. Yunnan has done a lot of very interesting things, but there is no exchange platform. Also in those cases, they weren’t too well documented.

Lei:

A way of life, through art, starting from Yunnan.

Guan:

If we as artists can really be an integrated whole, it could be called “The Yunnanese way”.

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Written by Luo Fei (TCG Nordica Gallery Director & Curator)

1. About Jingjie(1)

Traditional Chinese culture consists of three strands: Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism. These three strands share the same concerns about the existence and freedom of this life. They are concerned with the value and significance of the individual and their physiological needs, promising that any individual can be elevated through cultivation. The ‘jingjie‘ of life is the essential question, with other questions around it.

In modern Chinese language, the meaning of ‘jingjie‘ can be broken down into two parts. Firstly it has a physical dimension, i.e. the boundary between countries. Secondly it has a metaphysical dimension, it refers to a ‘realm of life’, it is the level or degree reached through meditation on morality, culture, psychology and beauty. By pondering on the cosmos, society and life, it suggests a departure from earthly values and a capturing of the wholeness of an internal exhilaration, described by Confucius as the act of ’sanctifying
personality’. Unfortunately there is no equivalent in the English vocabulary for ‘jingjie’ which is the core concept of this exhibition. Therefore the author will use ‘inscape‘ to refer to the spiritual and artistical nature of the world and also to connect to the theme of landscape which is another vital element of this exhibition. ‘Inscape’(2) is an old English word which refers to the unique inner nature of a person or an object, especially when seen in a work of art.

In traditional Chinese poetry and painting, the theory of inscape took an important position as a definition of spirituality and exerted significant influence upon the thinking of Chinese language. As Wang Guowei, the famous ci poetry critic in the late Qing Dynasty, argued in his Renjian Cihua(also called The World of Poetry), ‘The most important thing in ci poetry is inscape. A high level of art is reached when there is an inscape… Some are focused on creating inscape, others writing inscape. This is the difference between idealism and realism.’

In the practice of writing inscape and the quest for creating inscape, literati use contemplation, meditation and spending time in gardens and amidst beautiful scenery. The attempt to ‘create inscape’ shows that they are unsatisfied with either the superficial depiction of natural landscape or the language game involved in its
representation. Instead they aspire to bridge the outer world and their inner world of ideals. They aspire to transcend their feelings of loss, or joy, with the natural scenery before them, and to transform what they see into a symbolic schema to express the world of perfection as seen in their own mind. This process of transforming the scenes of nature into something that represents perfection is an attempt to reach the convergence of self and nature, a poetic contemplation of nature coloured with a hue of oriental mysticism. In fact, this vision of contemplation is not unique to the East, as ancient Greek Platonic philosophy also describes similar concepts and practices, which later evolved into an understanding of a personal divine being. However, in traditional Chinese culture, the contemplative view of nature does not lead to seeing the divine as an object of rational thinking. Instead, it defines subjectively that internal peace and pleasure is the possibility for a ‘completion inscape’ and is based in the viewer’s mind. Traditional Chinese culture objectively treats everything in nature as a source of universal revelation. A good illustration of such a contemplative view of nature is the traditional landscape paintings that are familiar to us all. Small figures together with overwhelming mountains and water, represent a convergence of humanity and nature, illustrating an inscape of serenity and unfettered freedom and an aspiration for perfect harmony between humans and nature. This reflects the quest of ancient literati in relation to the status of life and psychology, in poetry and painting, a schema and philosophy that had scarcely undergone any significant change during the long history of relatively self-sufficient Chinese culture.

This approach has led to what is called, ‘addressing every change with no change’. Although this attempts a definition of personality and also a definition of universal revelation and even though it outlines the concept of ‘completion inscape’, it does not address the source of nature or the divine. This inability to address these foundational issues, sheds light on the events of history. During recent periods of transition and hardship and the movement of Chinese society and culture towards modernity, there has been a lack of inquiry into truth, the absence of a transcendental dimension. The commitment to ‘jingjie, sanctifying personality’ has become an alien concept in a world where materialism and satisfying personal desires are the priority. Therefore ‘addressing every change with no change’ appears unable to deal with the modern world where the inscape of life gradually gives way to a pragmatic pursuit of success.

The heaven and earth that is left in the wake of the industrial revolution is not the heaven and earth described in genesis, where ‘God saw every thing that he had made, and behold, it was very good’(3). What is more, the intrinsic mission of art has evolved from exploring the concept of completion in the classic age to simply raising the consciousness of the problem in the modern age, with no attempt at offering a solution. As a result, today’s cultural and natural environment and the sentiment felt by artists when they consider nature are tremendously different from the ancient tradition. Now, it is much more effective to simply illustrate the problems themselves, to do no more than represent contemporary culture and current sentiment and couple this with personal experience. This approach is much easier than grappling with and attempting to create the inscape of completion.

Therefore, we are now in a world of competing contrasts; completion versus contemporary problems, idealistic sentiment versus present anxiety, the inscape of life versus fleshy desire. All these strains remind us of the stark gap between the ideal and reality, between tradition and modernity. However, there are artists whose work is still concerned with the natural landscape and who are exploring deeper thinking. Maybe they will lead the call for a new type of ’supreme completion inscape’ in these current ‘lost circumstances’.

2. The Context and Transition of Agrestic Art

As described above, nature has been the traditional object and theme for artists to express their ‘circumstances of mind’. In the early 1980s, the Southwest Agrestic Art began to emerge and much critical and
academic study developed alongside. Both ‘Agrestic Art’ and ‘Life Flow’(4) and other later art movements, placed great importance on the influence of the geographic environment upon the spirit, style and schema of artists, believing that the nature of Southwest China and other social factors contributed to the emergence and thriving of ‘Agrestic Art’. However, with further urbanization and the advent of the age of globalization and the internet, ‘Agrestic Art’ and ‘Life Flow’ gradually withered and gave the way to the more representative style of ‘Chinese experience’. Despite losing widespread recognition and market opportunities, ‘Agrestic Art’ and ‘Life Flow’ nevertheless remain an enduring influence on many Yunnan artists, not least because of their close connection with local culture and the natural landscape.

In Yunnan where nature is rich and cultural traditions are diverse, many artists choose the expression of natural landscape as their principal form of art. Among them, there has been a unique phenomenon lasting for nearly half a century, which is characterized by the voluntary and persistent daily sketching of the landscape. This is illustrated by the enthusiasm for being integrated into and depicting nature by artists of the ‘Impressionist School’(5) and ‘Shen Society’(6) in the 1960s and 70s , also the ‘Life Flow’ movement in the 1980s and those artists today, old and young, who still go to the countryside to
sketch from nature. Such a phenomenon stems from and reinforces two traditions. First is the academic tradition of landscape sketching which is about formal aesthetic feeling and technical practice consistent with a modernistic art tradition and epistemology. Second is the traditional contemplative view of landscape sketching which seeks to capture the sentiment and feeling of the individual, the ‘expression of feeling through the sketching of scenery’. The ‘Impressionist School’s’ and ‘Shen Society’s’ concern about the natural environment and countryside of Yunnan was essentially the expression and extolling of the minority cultures, through depicting scenes of countryside life with close attention given to the colouration. The ‘Life Flow’ school was committed to eulogising the free will and uniqueness of life when the ideology of collectivism was fading away. Today’s artists, when faced with the countryside landscape, have to consider problems such as
the urbanization of the countryside and the modern pursuit of satisfying desires (fleshism). Consequently they turn to a different theme, one that considers the contemporary population’s mental circumstances. The Yunnan schools of art in the 1960s and 70s shaped their own art dialects, creating artistic forms and styles with provincial features, formed to some extent by their geographic environment. This led to widespread attention and a historical significance. However, as interesting as all this might be, is it enough to justify giving attention to a provincial cultural and art phenomena? At a time of accelerating urbanization, frequent migration
to the cities and increased dialogue between diverse cultures, will the universality and transcendence of these themes, which we are referring to, become even more important?

In response I would like would like to introduce the concept ‘Creating Inscape on The Spot’. This concept’s themes and symbolism originate from and yet transcend a provincial nature. It is activated by individual thinking but is projected towards the universal mentality of the human race. It is a call for change, to turn the external-internal inscape, whether complete or incomplete, into ‘Supreme Completion Inscape’.

At the foundational level, ‘Creating Inscape on The Spot’ is the technical ability to capture a scene from nature, at the highest level, it is a contemplative experience, a practice of artistic creation, an expression of the internal thoughts of an individual and the universal condition of humankind, all in the form of a landscape.

For this exhibition we choose the art works of 6 Yunnan artists, Lan Qingxing, He Libin, Guo Peng, Shi Zhimin, Sun Guojuan and Lei Yan, as well as a Guodong artist Mai Zhixiong, and Jonathan Kearney, a British artist with many years of life experience in China. They have been chosen as their work interprets this theme from various angles.

3. The Artists

The paintings of Lan Qingxing retain the feeling of agrestic paintings and internalise it into a ‘Transcendental Nostalgia’. In his oil painting ‘Landscape without People’, a wondering dog, a bizarre and thick withered tree, a distant chimney, together constitute a picture of sadness hinting at the strain between an agricultural setting and modern industrial development. In the long-frame sketch ‘Scheme’, there is a fragmented ‘home’ among weeds, bonfire, bed, dinner table, desk, coach, fridge, all scattering in the weeds. A man casually wonders
about, without doing any serious business, simply killing time, with his posture reflecting the frustration of getting lost near his own house, all by himself, yet the shabby building nearby is irrelevant to ‘home’. The figures and animals in Lan Qingxing’s paintings show a sign of concentration, as though they are constantly thinking of the way back home no matter whether they are climbing, running, carrying things, laboring or having a rest. Yet the red-earth land, small roads and grass under the starry night sky provides suggest opportunity but also seems to cause more frustration. Ever since Adam stole the forbidden fruit, the voice asking ‘where are you?’(7) is lingering in the innermost mind. We may be absolutely certain of our geographic
location, we may already be in our hometown, and yet we cannot get rid of a strange nostalgia, which originates not from a certain coordinate on the map, but from a calling in the depths of our spirit, a longing
for an ultimate homeland – a ‘Supreme Completion Inscape’ as dwellers on earth.

The expression of ‘Transcendental Nostalgia’ is also salient in the oil paintings of He Libin. The series ‘Wasteland’ endows the wilderness and the void, as well as the little lonely figures in the picture, with the
black and white expressionist style. Different from the contrast found in traditional Chinese landscapes, here the contrast between large scenery and small figures is not the serene ‘Completion Inscape’, but an inscape of sadness that highlights anxiety and void, in order to induce a cry for ‘Completion Inscape’. Here the smallness of the figure does not originate from the natural view of humility, but from the helpless view of life. The painter chooses wasteland and wilderness to highlight the dual loss of both body and soul of modern people. Physical and mental fatigue becomes evident against the void of wasteland and wilderness, while the aspiration to get rid of the void is exactly the vision needed by Kua Fu(8) when he was chasing after the sun.

Similiarly, Shi Zhimin from Dali also draws from the local nature in his homeland. The town of Dali, coupled with Cangshan Mountain and Erhai Lake, are richly endowed by nature and is itself a town of wonder. When I first
went to Dali this sense of wonder is exactly what I also felt. The natural characteristics are internalised by the artist giving a unique feeling to the series ‘Glacier’. A view of a glacier is characterized by seclusion, joy of life and super-realism. If nature has lost its ability to encourage inscape as a result of human’s crude plunder, the
fragment of a still mysterious glacier may well hit at the existence of another poetic schema.

The majority of Guo Peng’s photography draws on the views found in gardens around Kunming. The scenery in Green Lake park, the lake’s surface, rock-work and bamboo forests. As described above, the concept of
‘Creating Inscape on The Spot’ at the base level is a practical approach, manifested by the technical ability to capture a garden view. It is an attempt to obtain an artificial miniature of the elegant ‘completion inscape’ by mimicking the natural landscape with flower pots, pools and rock-work. Garden design is used to provide a place of mental recreation and spiritual rest for the literati and officialdom, from official career to inner world, from reality to ideal, from clamor to serenity. On the other hand, the close and extravagant nature of gardens made it possible for the declining literati to escape from the reality and live a corrupted way of life in the backyard of leisure. Today, in a society where over-entertainment is rampant in urban life, and the protection and succession of elite culture is absent, gardens have turned into the People Parks for the entertainment of the general public. Here the manufactured landscape remains as it was, but the inscape no longer exists. Guo Peng attempts to present a colorful myth of the garden through the manipulation of colour, to fabricate an
alienated backyard of literati, in an attempt to realise what Martin Heidegger called ‘the perch of poetry’.

Sun Guojuan’s ‘Sweetness Is Gone’ series is an interpretation of ‘Creating Inscape on The Spot’ by the use of brain teasers – mirroring on the spot. The artist, while holding a butterfly ornament in her hand, is lying tenderly in front of a mirror on the road side. The mirror is reflecting peach flowers in the park, with spring very much in the air. On the back of the artist is a pair of angle wings made of sugar, adding a playfulness and romance found in a child’s household game. Ornament, mirror and sugar wings reveal the stage property of Romantic Inscape. Sugar has been used as a metaphorical language in Sun Guojuan’s art works for years, symbolizing on the one hand women as the object of tasting in a male dominant society, and on the other, women’s attempt to retain their youth for ever by turning their bodes into sugar. Fictitious and fragile, the image of spring in the mirror and sweet fleshy body speak of the bankruptcy of women’s desire to retain
youth forever. While the sweet feeling of the body is the only dignity and comfort alive, the sweet feeling of heart has been devoured by consumerism, the loss and fragmentation of humans cannot be saved by simple stage props. In No. 5 and No. 6 of ‘Sweetness Is Gone’, the dagger in the artist’s hand clearly indicates the anxiety and fear after the fragmentation of body and heart when ’sweetness is gone’.

Lei Yan’s photography continues the methodology of her ‘Freezing’ series. Elements raging from photographs of comrades in the army, to revolutionary articles, to images of the trenches are all put in ice cubes and photographed again, generating an archaeological memory of the image, while a woman’s career in the army is recalled in such a sad yet private way. In her work about her military career, Lei Yan reduces soldiers to men and women, the machinery of state to a school of childish faces, monument of hero to one tombstone after another, sacrifice to price, collectivism to mutual help and revolutionary romance to sentiments in the sealed history. The significance and nobility manifested by life itself are much more significant than any transient state in the long river of history, since life has soul and soul is immortal.

Mai Zhixiong’s ‘Sanctuary?’ series retains his simple style of object, scenery and colour and refined abstraction. However the artist has undergone a shift from his previous work and has rejected any possibility of symbolic construction. The scene in the picture in brightened, Beacon Mountain appears but the title is questioning
sanctuary, showing the artist’s rethinking of symbolism. A sanctuary is considered a holy place in Judaism and Christianity, the innermost chamber of the Jewish temple was called the ‘Holy of Holies’, regarded as the dwelling place of the LORD God. Only the high priest could enter the ‘Holy of Holies’ once each year on the ‘Day of Atonement’. However, such a place built by human hands appears too small in front of the all-mighty God, hampering the relationship between humans and God. The curtain that blocked the ‘Holy of Holies’ from human access was ripped apart when Jesus died on the cross. Christianity holds that it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats to take away human sin, however, as is noted in the book of Hebrews in the New Testament, ‘we have confidence to enter into the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus’. The quest for the sanctuary, however, is not for the beacon, nor for the holy mountain beyond, but as Jesus told the woman of
Samaria, ‘a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem… God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth’.(9)

Whereas the 7 Chinese artists discussed above raise questions in their art as a cry for a ‘Completion Inscape’ or even ‘Supreme Completion Inscape’, the video work of British artist Jonathan Kearney, by focusing on the
process of colours following across time, creates an image of ‘Completion Inscape’ in micro scale across a timeframe. If the other artists in this exhibition mainly draw their images from the location in which they are living, Jonathan treats the micro objects in his art as a kind of ‘local experience’. It is worth mentioning that Jonathan has also exhibited his art works via off-site live broadcast over the internet, a remarkable departure from the dependence on, and significance of, location when ‘Creating Inscape on The Spot’. The advent of a digital, internet era makes concepts such as ‘on the spot’ and ‘location’ seem insignificant, maybe even redundant. The important thing is the presentation of ‘inscape’ itself.

4. Conclusion

To a great extent the art discussed in this essay provide justification for considering the landscape around us and comfort for our minds and inner self. They also challenge us with profound insights into culture and life.

Provincial, cultural and natural resources should not become the prerequisite for an art movement or artist to receive historical recognition. The reason why a geographic characteristic or ethnic culture is widely recognized is because it carries a fundamental reflection of self and maybe something universal for all humans. The concept of ‘Creating Inscape on The Spot’ and this exhibition are simply designed to introduce such a possibility. Just as the Southwest school of ‘Life Flow’ inevitably turned into the ‘Chinese experience’ movement, ‘Chinese experience’ will itself return to life.

Notes:

(1) Jingjie: the degree or limit of boundary, country, or the accomplishment of people or artworks in spirit, culture or morality.

(2) Inscape: noun, poetic/literary, the unique inner nature of a person or object as shown in a work of art, esp. a poem. ORIGIN mid 19th cent. (originally in the poetic theory of Gerard Manley Hopkins). Know more about this word on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inscape

(3) According to Genesis, 1:31, On the the sixth day of Genesis, ‘And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good’.

(4) ‘Life Flow’ is a school of painting evolved from agrestic painting by some Southwest artists, originating from the expressionist style of life flow paintings by artists such as Ye Yongqing, Zhang Xiaogang, Zhou Chunya, Mao Xuhui and Pan Dehai. The artists choose the expression of their own life experience, internal journey and sentiment as the purpose of their artwork. This approach has gradually become a cultural tradition for contemporary Southwest art.

(5) Kunming Impressionist School: a school of artists, active in the streets and suburbs of Kunming and keen on the daily sketching of landscape in 1960s and 70s, formed a unique style of Yunnan oil painting characterized by gorgeous colours and strong expressive force. Its representatives include Pei Wenkun, Pei Wenlu, Jiang Gaoyi, Sha Lin and Su Xinhong.

(6) Shen Society: an art society formed in 1970s by artists such as Ding Shaoguang, Jiang Tiefeng, Liu Shaohui and Yao Zhonghua who were born in the 1940s. In 1980, Shen Society as a group held a exhibition
in Yunnan Museum, with their primitive decoration style starkly different from the revolutionary realistic style popular across the country. Later, Ding Shaoguang and Jiang Tiefeng emigrated to the U.S. and formed the ‘School of Contemporary Yunnan Heavy Colored Painting’, which has wide influence internationally.

(7) According to Genesis, 2:15 – 3:10, Adam and Eve, lured by the serpent, ate the forbidden fruit and hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden, ‘And the LORD God called
unto Adam, and said unto him, Where are you?’

(8) ‘Hai Wai Bei Jing’ in Shan Hai Jing recorded a tale that a man named Kua Fu exerted his utmost strength to chase after the sun but eventually died of thirsty and became a grove of peach trees. Based on this tale, He Libing drew an oil painting titled ‘Chasing the Sun’.

(9) Quoted from John, 4:21-24.

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Thirty Years of Landscaping
The roadmap of landscape in contemporary Yunnan art
written by He Libin

The year of 1979, was an important one for many Chinese. With the People’s Republic of China witnessing its first year of opening-up and its 30th anniversary, the government’s cultural and art policies began to loosen up. This year, artists working in Kunming, Yunnan, such as Ding Shaoguang, Jiang Tiefeng, Yao Zhonghua, Wang Jinyuan, Liu Shaohui and Wang Ruizhang formed an artist group named “Shen Society.” They  chose the name “Shen Society” for several reasons: first, 1979 was the Year of Monkey in Chinese Lunar Calendar, and one meaning of “Shen” in Chinese language was “monkey;” second, the Monkey King was a popular figure among Chinese; and third, they wanted to express the desire to pursue freedom and truth and uplift social justice, as “Shen” can also mean “uplift.” This group of artists often got together to discuss art, and chose to learn the idea and style from Cubism and Fauvism in modern Western art and to pursue the language of formal beauty in art. In 1980, Shen Society organized an exhibition of 120 artworks from 23 artists in the Museum of Yunnan Province. In the following two years, they organized some artists to hold exhibitions in Beijing and Hong Kong. Their paintings in the main have a tendency of flat painting and decoration deformation, characterized by gorgeous colors, and, through the portrait of the life of minorities in Yunnan, exhibits an aesthetic style featuring intertwined illusion and emotion, exoticism and imagination. The new style, just like a fresh breeze in China’s painting community, at that time still imbued with the style of revolutionary realism in the Cultural Revolution, together with the contention about the style and subject of the fresco1 in Capital Airport, triggered a massive debate about formal beauty across the country, the first nationwide sensation started by Yunnan art. At that time, some younger Yunnan artists were still in college, such as Mao Xuhui in Yunnan College of Art, Zhang Xiaogang and Ye Yongqing in Sichuan College of Art, and Mao Dehai in Northeast Normal University, who asked his university to assign him to a job in Kunming after graduation. These young people, active in thinking, got together naturally, maintained correspondence with each other at college, and went together in Kunming during vacation to watch exhibition, go out for living sketch or discuss art all day and or night. Similarly, they also drew nutrition from Western modernism. But unlike the artists of Shen Society, they accepted the cultural heritages such as expressionism, surrealism, symbolism and existential philosophy. Undergoing the adolescent frustration and rash, they found the Western modernistic ideas and philosophies, particularly those after the impressionism, somehow consistent with their mentality. At that time, artists such as Zhang Ding, Wu Guanzhong and Yuan Yunsheng frequently went to Yunan to sketch, hold exhibition or give lecture. Young artists like Mao Xuhui were also influenced by the concept of “formal beauty2″ raised by these artists. But when they saw the exhibition of German expressionism in the summer of 1982 in Beijing, they were tremendously excited and shocked, realizing that it was expressionism that was the right approach to express their feeling and mentality. Another trace was their experience of traveling to Guishan Mountain several times for live sketch. In 1979, Mao Xuhui, Zhang Xiaogang, Ye Yongqing and Yang Yijiang, still college students, went to Guishan Mountain to sketch. Guishan, which they long yearned for, was a village of minority Sani people located about 100 kilometers away from Kunming, a pastoral place very much resembling the scene in the paintings of 19th century French Barbizon School artist Jean Francois Millet. Before them, many senior artists also went there and portray Guishan with the Soviet realistic approach and expressionist language of light. Mao Xuhui and his colleagues also used similar language in their expression, but they always had a feeling that those splendid portraits somehow fell short of their feelings. In the following several years, they went to Guishan several times and gradually found the language that suited their feelings. Mao Xuhui’s “Mother of Laterate: Guishan Series” accentuated the tremendous energy concealed in the red soil, and the people, the trees and herds growing from the red soil are gushing, flushing and erupting, with burning primitiveness and lust everywhere. Zhang Xiaogang’s “Behind Mountain” and “Evening Breeze” exhibit the blunt and rough touches like Van Gauge, portraying the primitiveness and hardship of life in a mountainous village. Ye Yongqing drew upon the composition principles of Western classic fresco in his “Sani Sisters in Shepherd Village,” “Sheep Killed by Wolf in Front of Village,” “Blind Girl Going Home” and “Startled Bird” etc, and sketched a series of pastoral lyric pictures by setting some narrative details and scenes. It was the landscape of Guishan that shed some light onto and awakened their mind long sealed in urban life, and presented a stark contrast with their status and mentality in the city. Back in city, Mao Xuhui finished his artworks like “Red Volume” and “Private Space,” depicting a moving volume struggling to shake off the outside shackles and pursuing the true self when running, reflecting the fact that the confrontation against social ideology is evolving to resistance to everything outside self. Life and dream, reality and illusion, intertwined in his chaotic think, are scarcely distinct from each other. In June 1985, Mao Xuhui, Zhang Xiaogang, Pan Dehai and Zhang Long brought their artworks with them and held an exhibition named “Neo-figurative” in the Art Gallery of Jing’an District, Shanghai. What is “neo-figurative”? Mao Xuhui explained in the introduction of the exhibition: “…the concept of ‘neo-figurative’ is devised in an attempt to transfer art away from a vulgar sociological tool and the whole set of false models and social interests that are resulted and to art itself, and to free artists from the position of dependent and slave and restore them to the height of noumenon of man.” Thereafter, the neo-figurative school held several exhibitions in Nanjing, Kunming, Chongqing and the U.S., and later launched activities like “Southwest Art Study Group,” until the full stop when the majority of the members of “neo-figurative” participated in “China Modern Art Exhibition” in 1989.

After 1990s, the artists returned to the status of everyday life, when Mao Xuhui painted “Everyday Epic” series and “Patriarch Series: Vocabulary about Power,” Zhang Xiaogang began to work on “Big Family” which later attracted wide attention, and Ye Yongqing was drawing “Big Poster.” In addition, a school of even younger artists began their journey with a range of exhibition activities: “1992 Painting Exhibition,” “Present Status,” “Individualism,” “Types of Life,” “Urban Personality,” “First Exhibition of Oil Painting Society” etc. Landscape was presented in their artworks with characteristics different the “neo-figurative” school in two ways: first, the anxious sentiment was manifested, and man appears confrontational with landscape; second, the identity of self was blurred, lost, and drifting in weightlessness. In 1992, Zhu Fadong carried out his action of “Notice Seeking Lost Person” in Kunming by looking himself by posting notices seeking himself all over the city in order to express his generation’s feeling of the loss and seeking of self identity in early 1990s. Zeng Xiaofeng’s “Electric Saw and Landscape” juxtaposes electric saw, a symbol of modern industry, and landscape in the same picture, in which the savage electric saw is ripping and devouring ancient architecture and natural landscape, thereby exhibiting fierce clashes between industrial and natural landscapes. Luan Xiaojie in his “Trunk and Branch Series” treats human and tree as a whole body, producing a Delvaux-style grotesquery and surrealistic scene. The objects in the picture, resembling both amputated limbs and muscles, stack in the ambiguous space, glittering with queer shine, while the shallow trunks and branches appear illusive and fragile. Wu Jun’s “Dusk Shadow in Wind” portrays blurred human figure floating above a dilapidated city, with the picture pervaded by endless anxiety. Duan Yuhai’s “Beauty and Limousine” puts a pretty woman, limousine and cosmetics in the same picture, presenting the new orientations and changes in the Chinese society after the 1990s. Li Ji’s “Fashion Girl” also employs the language of gaudiness and juxtaposition by putting a woman with heavy makeup and her pet in a single picture, erotic yet exotic, just like Yamato-e in modern time. In their artworks, everything from the confrontation between humans and their surroundings to drifting in weightlessness is illustrating a kind of potential anxiety and anguish, collectively reflecting the chaos of value, loss of individual identity and the spiritual journey to regain it, juxtaposed by China’s faster process of market reform and urbanization as well as aggravated destruction of natural environment after the 1990s. Their artworks were a reflection of that generation of artists’ collective experience of urban life, and directly heralded the look of the artworks of artists born in the 1970s and 1980s.

After 2000, consumerism and fashion have become the mainstream value in urban life, and the modern popular culture, involving film, magazine, web, cartoon, pervasive advertisements, has constitutes the daily environment for urban dwellers. Artists grown up in such an environment are clearly split in aesthetic approaches: some inherit the scene of anxiety from the previous generation of artists, reflected in their artworks by the tendencies of self-ostracism and anti-metropolitan; others uphold and practice the aesthetics of transient coolness, clamor and popularity, in order to acquire new inspirations and art resources by plunging themselves into the scene of metropolitan consumerist culture. Whether they are anti-metropolitan or putting themselves in metropolitan, landscape exhibits a tendency of virtualization and patching up. Since 2003, several important art events heralded the début of post-1970s and 1980s artists. Exhibitions such as “Health Checkup,” “Sheep Is Coming,” “Altitude Sickness,” “Ultraviolet Radiation,” “Entertainment Is Paramount” etc. on the one hand highlighted the young artists’ sensitivity to and concern about
the relationship between their growth and changes of their surroundings, and on the other hand reflected the divergence of the above-mentioned aesthetic perspectives. In 2003, He Jia began to draw his “Balloon Man” series, which portrays a range of human-like figures without clear identity or complexion, with shining colors all over, drifting or walking in the city or amidst natural sceneries which are thin and transparent, beautiful but illusive just like these balloon men. Zhang Jinxi’s “Glass Man” series exerts the beauty of transparency to the utmost, whereby the body of the glass man reflects the surrounding landscape, which together with the man presents a sense of illusive yet transient vanity. Guo Peng recorded the landscape in Kunming Park with his camera and endowed strong colors to these traditional garden views with manual rendering. Nevertheless, these pictures look in every way like frames of exotic images imbued with a smell of decadence and mustiness. Yu Hua creates an image of a rabbit mingled with man, placing themselves in a metropolitan like a fairy tale, consciously getting lost in the urban labyrinth. Contrary to these artists, some others followed the tradition of expressionism and deliver a primitive and remote flavor with conflicting and turbulent pictures and heavy yet provocative colors. In Zhao Leiming’s paintings, men are always placed in closed space, where even natural landscape appears suffocating, and distorted human body locked in the space is like imprisoned beast struggling. Lan Qingxing’s “Crazy Talk,” “Wind Talk” and “Wind and Rain” portray weeds, starry sky, red trees and red human body to express the desire of man to leave the clamorous urban and return to simple nature. However, would therefore going back to the past be meaningful? He did not give an answer. Shi Zhimin went further with his “Glacial Epoch,” where there is no civilization, no urban, nor the natural landscape today, but the extinction of everything, cold and silent.

As a cross section, the artworks of the above-mentioned artists represent the true situation of post-1970s and 80s artists. Overall, they are more diversified, and values individual difference and experience more, and their artworks also exhibit diversity and new aesthetic tendencies. But this group of artists also generally manifests a tendency of vanity. Whether they are committed to this country or ostracize themselves to somewhere far away, would such approaches actually solve the conflicts and dilemmas in the real world, and deliver an everlasting value to lend the artists experience and enlightenment? Answers to these questions are expected only after necessary observations.

Time keeps on changing, and each generation has their own dilemmas and problems to face and solve, and to confront with the perpetual beings in nature; what the Yunnan artists in the 1940s saw were beautiful landscape and Eden-like minority culture, in which they were enchanted; what the artists in the 1950s saw were the perching images in their inner feeling, where they found their mother of spirituality; artists of the 1960s held themselves slightly aloof when faced with the nature; the disruptive situation of the artists of the 1970s had them see nothing but a realm of vanity whether they placed themselves in urban or returned to nature, whereas artists in the 1980s were lost and enchanted in the landscape of alienation….Facing the eternal nature, what insight do the artists arrive at? Could they acquire from the nature a fundamental wisdom that cuts across everything in the universe, so as to provide mankind today and tomorrow with an enriching and meaningful way of migration in this world? This should be the shared mission and direction for several generations of Yunnan artists.

March 9, 2009 at Yun Yi Xuan, Kunming

Notes:

1. Capital Airport fresco: On September 29, 1979, then China’s largest modernized airport – Capital International Airport, was completed, when 7 giant frescoes in its lounge were also unveiled to the public. Among them was a 27 meters long and 3.4 meters long fresco titled “Water-splashing Festival – Paean of Life” drawn by Yuan Yunsheng, portraying the scene of Dai people (a minority ethnic group living in Southwest China, particularly Yunnan) celebrating their Water-splashing Festival. The fresco consists of two parts: on the front side of the wall was scene of Dai people carrying water, splashing water and dancing; on a smaller wall to the east were scenes of bathing and courting. Because of nudity in this bathing part, the fresco was covered with a curtain several months after it was unveiled for show. On the eve of China’s National Day on October 1, a grand ceremony of completion was held for Capital International Airport, one of the key national construction projects shortly after the Cultural Revolution. The frescos in the lounge unveiled at the same time became a sensational event for China’s art community that year. Among all these frescos, “Water-splashing Festival” was the largest one, and the first artwork appearing in public space with nude human body ever since the People’s Republic of China was found in 1949, triggering widespread debate in media at that time.

2. Formal beauty: In 1981, artist Wu Guanzhong published an article titled “Content Determines Form?” in the 3rd issue of the journal Art that year, for the first time raising the question of “formal beauty” in art. Wu argued that in artworks, the form could came to existence before the content, a proposition that retorting the principle of “content determines form” in art in the Cultural Revolution and triggering a nationwide debate about content and form.

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Even if the report of the pandemic of AIDS in China and the world is just one line of news, the occurrence of AIDS, from the people involved in sexual business, drug users and homosexual people to common people, from red-light district, drug dealers, gay bars to common families, it seems like a hopeless curse. Accompanied with AIDS is the discrimination to infected people, the ignorance, lack of trust and love towards the infected people. This discrimination itself does more than just humiliate people, but also makes the infected people feel filthy and without hope.

Yunnan is the province where AIDS is most severe in China, so the AIDS care people and culture workers have to face this fact. With this background and the burden to AIDS infected people, along with the TCG Nordica vision that we’ve had for many years (Stimulating reflection on human worth as expressed in various Art Forms), we decided to try to do something for this. We know that art, literature and music, by their special ways of communication, are considered as special international languages. People communicate at all levels by these arts, and they are also a way to meaningfully and deeply communicate to people’s hearts. Through this, the artists and audiences can have more free communication, followed by all kinds of understanding and resonance.

From the year of 2006, we started the 3-year program: “Contagious Love: Artistic reflection on HIV/Aids situation in China”. Our purpose is to strengthen people’s care about AIDS and to build a bridge between the artists, poets, AIDS care people and the AIDS infected people, so they could know and understand each other better. Three years passed so fast. We have worked with related organizations to have special topic lectures and seminars. We have visited the infected people & drug users, we had related exhibitions, performances etc..

In 2006, the first year of this program “Contagious Love”, many artists in Yunnan responded to our program. 38 of them were involved in painting, photography, decorating, video etc. to produce art works which were focused on AIDS. The second year, we had more than 10 writers, poets and artists involved in art work and exhibitions. In the third year was a pageant of music. We invited highest level musicians from North Europe. Through the sound of nature, they cared for the sick people in their sufferings and brokenness. The activities following this program still continue. We get the overwhelming support from the artists, poets and musicians of different countries: Cambodia, France, Switzerland, Belgium, Sweden, Norway, and Finland.

This year is the curtain call of program “Contagious Love”, we are happy for the experiences we have had from this program. The gain is not how many exhibitions or performances we had, but the fact that through art, by communication and understanding, we change our apathy and ignorance. We are also touched by the artists who have been working hard to let people to close the cage of discrimination and to open the door of love.

Finally, we really want to say thanks. Thanks to the artists, to the related organizations, also thanks to the firm and persistent infected people who are full of hope and who have given the artists inspiration and encouragement. Through the sincere fellowship and mutual support for the infected people and drug users who were trying to abstain from the drugs, we realize the higher lever of human being’s value: love each other and let the love be extended.

Luo Fei /Artist, TCG Nordica Gallery Director & Curator
October 11th, 2008.
Kunming

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严仁奎作品

不安的肉身
文：罗菲

张兴旺的绘画是关于一只只或膨胀或干瘪的气球，近乎肉身的气球质感被无可名状的情欲附体，或者，隐秘于肉身内莫名的冲动、欲念竟被一只只气球揭穿，一种惶惶不安的冲动正不可遏制地燃烧着、流露着。这或许就是艺术家关注气球并以此作为艺术符号的动机和理由，这也是艺术家给当代人留下的一个比喻。

严仁奎的绘画是关于封闭空间里的人体，或飞腾或挣扎或呐喊或娱乐或无所事事，那些人体大多肌肉健硕紧绷，体势夸张，具有很强的戏剧性效果，对肉身质感的刻画显出艺术家长期接受写实主义以与唯美主义的熏陶，而画中墙上的面孔、壶里飘出的青烟则暗示着一股超现实般的干预力量。作为富有激情和梦想的人在一个封闭空间里如何自处，或如何逃离，正是艺术家内心深处所深刻体会到的尖锐矛盾。

这两位艺术家对画面中的笔法、用色、造型、画的质感等处理都有章有法，显出学院派的写实功夫和审美趣味。虽然两位艺术家的作品在面貌和主题上看上去并不相关，但在精神诉求上，却都关注于作为个体的人身，如何在当下纷繁复杂充满诱惑却又虚无缥缈的世界中安身而立命。艺术家所提出的问题，往往也是许多人深刻体会到的挣扎，而他们的作品，则像我们内心的一面镜子。

Zhang Xingwang and Yan Renkui’s exhibition:
“Restless Flesh”

The paintings of Zhang Xingwang are about inflated or shriveled balloons. Those flesh-feeling balloons are attached by untold desires; or the impulses and desires hidden in flesh are debunked by balloons, and uneasy and anxious desires are uncontrollably burning and outpouring. This perhaps is the motivation and reason for the artist to concern about balloons, which are made to be symbols of art, and a metaphor left by artist for this generation of people.

The paintings of Yan Renkui are about human bodies in closed spaces, flying or struggling, screaming or entertaining, or doing nothing. Most of those human bodies are with strong and tense muscles, exaggerated gestures and rather dramatic effect. The depictions of those human bodies show that the artist has been trained under realism and estheticism since long ago. In those paintings, there are faces on the wall and light smoke coming out of pot, which is a hint of super-reality intervening power. As an enthusiastic man with dreams, how can he get along with himself in such a closed space? Or how can he escape? These are the sharp conflicts deeply felt by the artist at the bottom of his heart.

Two artists have their own rules and principles in handling their brushwork, color, form and tactile impression of paintings, which shows both of their solid realism foundation and aesthetic taste of academism. Though the paintings of those two artists look irrelevant, their spiritual appeals are about human bodies, as individuals. How can people survive and develop in such a complicated, alluring but illusory world? This is the question raised by artists, and also the struggle felt by plenty of people. Their artworks are just like a mirror, standing in our heart.

written by Luo Fei

展览信息：
开幕时间:2008年9月6日晚上8点
展期：2008.9.6—9.29
艺术主持:罗菲
TCG诺地卡画廊，昆明市西坝路101号，云南白药厂旁

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During his time at Yunnan Academy of Art (2001-2006), Guo Peng worked hard but ignored his proper duties at school, just like me. He majored in sculpture, but engaged in contemporary art with a group of feverish young experimental artists without looking back. From live art to installation art to performance art, Guo Peng explored different art forms, and gradually found his own way of creating photography-based work. He independently accumulated a lot of experience making art when he was still in school, a rare thing among those Yunnan art students.

His first foray into photography involved a kind of performance – recording couples’ happy moments with one-inch photos, developing those photos in his humble darkroom which was once his kitchen, coloring them with tea, trimming fancy borders, then drying them. When the photos were done, he sent them back to those couples. It was warm and sincere. Maybe in the process of coloring photos with tea, he recalled a childhood memory: our parent’s generation used to color their black and white photos, the impressive scarlet lips and expressed the romantic family sensibility of the 1960’s and 1970s, yearning for a colorful world in times of scantiness. After the popularization of the color photo, hand coloration was of course abandoned. And now people modify their digital images with Photoshop. Hand-colored photography is vanishing, but is re-used by Guo Peng, a post 80’s artist.

From 2003 to 2005, Guo Peng used this out of date method to work on different contemporary subject matters. He re-took pictures of cover girls, garden landscapes, city squares, ruins, puppets, Pecking Opera on the TV screen, and other images he happened upon, hand-coloring them, creating a nostalgic and wistful feeling. These pocket-size photos were kept in an old photo album, becoming the memory of the family. Such work seemed the result of indulging oneself in private images. Since 2005,in order to get rid of this nostalgic style, he started developing A4 size silver salt black and white photos, the biggest size one could develop at home. Here he focused on water, reflected images, lotuses, rockeries and trees, totally fascinated with certain delicate qualities of light. He gradually formed his own method and style evoking the literati’s ideal landscape through hand-colored black and white photos.

The diffuse and mottled colors in the dreamlike scenes of this series of works attract and confuse us at the same time: we can hardly tell it is true or fake. Guo Peng explored different possibilities within a limited space. For example, he borrowed the idea of coloring old pictures to awaken and decorate the black and white world; coloring a photo according to its original lines to create the feeling of modern design; or dividing the picture into wave-like color domains. These photographs give a sensation of a dizzying dreamland, just like the fantastic world of the kaleidoscope, like a huge projector casting gorgeous colors from the overarching sky.

Guo Peng is a quiet and thoughtful person. He enjoys his domestic life, has very healthy habits, and spends a lot of time meditating, reading and writing. He’s not slaving for anyone – I really envy such life condition. Recently, he’s been thinking about why Chinese literati sapped their spirit by playing crickets.

Suddenly I realized there are quite a few young Kunming artists who are living independent lives. They haven’t given up their dreams, they haven’t gotten caught up in the market, and they just cultivate their art with plain living and a peaceful mood. Guo Peng is a special one among them.

Written by Luo Fei
2008.4.10
Translator :Zhou qiao

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Turn round is barren field – On He Libin’s “Wild Field” series painting
By Luo Fei

Contemporary art we discuss today in fact is a kind of art on metropolis. It points to the modern social system of metropolis in such aspects as theme, style, trend of thought, economic system and target audience. Although such an idea can’t embrace all contemporary art, we can find that such a tendency is influencing the interest of mainstream artistic circle and the creation of contemporary artists if we refer to the themes of international Biannual exhibitions held in recent years. Indeed, as a cultural incident, contemporary art has its cultural pertinence to survival in metropolis, has criticism and concerns and holds together the echoing in cultural psychology with the target group-city dwellers, organic experience and survival experiences. This kind of grand depiction on metropolis can’t provide a kind of foreseeable critical stand to the survival situation of contemporary people, for the depicter himself is also at a certain layer in the society. Sometimes, we just get the opposite to what we wish and have a kind of fawning, i.e. the coquettish art in late 1990s, today’s big face painting school, prevalent brutal youth diary style as well as auto finishing swept the sculpting circle. In order to reflect the blundering and flattering reality, artists decide to make themselves and their art even more blundering and seductive. Such criticism is just an ineffective solution.

Such beyond-metropolis themes as natural scenery are also occupied by various schools in the modernistic art movements. In result, few people are willing to face the nature, and scenic art has become a kind of concept. There’s only stale methodology, or scenery painting under naturalism. They only secure their stronghold conservatively in contemporary cultural art and have no relation with the survival situation and spiritual appealing of contemporary people.

Under such a historical environment that contemporary art is urbanized and non-metropolis scenery art becomes obsolete, people are unwilling to let go of, but willing to be apart from the term “land” and related glossary which was popular in China in the 1980s, but was regarded as foolish from the 1990s to the present. In-depth mode is completely got ride of in the tide of art marketization.

However, at present when the people are easily dissimilated by metropolis, fame and power, artists who are loyal to the realistic appealing in the deep of human nature retreat from metropolis. They return to nature and land to pursue time and space belonging to themselves, distance from metropolis and to consider the survival crisis of themselves as well as that of modern people and metropolis dwellers. We hereby branch out our expounding with He Libin’s recent oil painting “Wild Field” as an example to see how the artist faces his inner world and the current spiritual land.

He Libin engaged in oil painting creation originally. In the past 10 years, he mainly conducted conceptual schema experiences with upon-frame drawing comprehensive materials, pieced together Chinese traditional landscape schema with earth, nail and burned newspaper. Twisting newspaper into a bar and tessellating into calligraphy patterns are the representative work in this period in order to concern Chinese traditional view on nature and the situation of its schema. In late 2005, for his love of painting and captivation, he resumed upon-frame drawing. During this period, he has made a large amount of black and white oil painting sketches on rural and urban landscape. In the summer of 2007, he carried large-size painting frames to Tiger Leaping Gorge in order to paint in the face of the steep mountain cliff. We can see from this that He Libin has a special sentiment to painting and the great nature. He cares about the influence of the on-site feeling to painting, and a large amount of sketch work done in a short period of time also indicates great energy contained in the deep of his inner world.

He Libin began to create the “Wild Field” series of paintings in 2006. The “Wild Field” series I mentioned here cover three groups of works with “Wild Field” as the representative. The number of paintings in the other two groups is relatively small. One group is the “Sun Chasing”, based on the original version of “Kuafu Chasing of the Sun”, the famous myth story in the “Book of Mountains and Seas”. The other group is the “Extinguishing” of an unknown fire. As the two groups of pictures occur in the “Wild Field” and have consistency and continuation with it in methodology, style and spiritual appealing, they are embraced in the “Wild Field” series in expounding.

The scenery paintings constituted with black and white depict the trees, trails, wild fields, wild grass and reed in the wind, as well as wild field with boorish, concise and expressive style. Thick and unmixed paints are piled on the painting and special tactile feel is formed on the painting cloth. From the use of the painting brush, we can even see that the artist’s excitement at the time of painting and the brush is applied skillfully. We can even see He Libin’s pursuit of freshness in the picture and similarities in his way of painting to calligraphy in running script. “Wild Field” series have continued the visual experiences that He accumulated in comprehensive material experiment stage and the boundary between forms and structure is weakened by the mottled black and white relations, making the entire picture show an atmosphere of burning and imposing. What is interesting is that He Libin has pre-set different expression manners before making many paintings and challenges himself through the demand of scene and feeling. We can say that this series have no perfect methodology and pays more attention to the touch and creation obtained at the time of facing the landscape: some are depict of the landscape, some summarize the landscape in succinct style; some reflects the visional image in running; some presents the original tactile feel of land by piling up paints; some present the atmosphere of field with abrasive sand-alike picture tactile feel etc. Although different paintings have different expression ways, in terms of the overall style, “Wild Field” series have inherited the spiritual principle of expressionism: be loyal to the inner experience and spiritual state at the time of making the painting, and endow corresponding expression to the picture. The adoption of large amount of black and white and cool grey color has created a dream-like environment, just like the vanishing memory. Meanwhile, such a black and white picture has intensified the rational pursuit in the work. In contrast to the negligible standup and running people, such kind of “small figure and big landscape” makes people often associate the relations between people and nature in Chinese traditional landscape painting. In result, a straightforward view on nature and universe is presented. Different from traditional landscape schema, He Libin’s picture still adopts focus perspective, not disperse perspective, i.e. he enters the “wild field” in first person.

In “Kuafu Chasing the Sun” series, the first person perspective becomes very prominent, for the story comes from a literary allusion. The artist plays the role of Kuafu and goes to the fantastic and holy site of sun chasing in person. Staring at the dazzling sun in the field, what leaps before the eyes is the unevading sunlight—this is a fixed picture of the myth of “Kuafu Chasing the Sun”. As the first idealist in Chinese culture, Kuafu’s death has a strong tragical color and representative significance for sun chasing. Of course, people still have different views on Kuafu’s death and there are still many riddles. In the view of He Libin, “Kuafu chasing the sun” is not as insignificant as “a moth darting into a flame”. He firmly believes that there’s certain enlightment in the story. Therefore, he decided to go to the site for sun chasing, face the sun directly and press the pause button. According to Hegel, the realistic subject of primitive tragedy is deity. Deity here is not confined to deity under religious ideas, but divine ethic factors in the acts of some people in the world—i.e ideal(2). But there’s boundary between earth, ideal and paradise—chasing sun is not the same as being sun, which is the “boundary” that the God sets for idealism. The consequence for going beyond the boundary is death, which is the basic enlightenment from the myth of “Kuafu Chasing the Sun”.

In the eyes of He Libin, the purpose for painting is to solve questions of the human self, i.e. the ultimate question of “Where do I come from and where do I go to”. The person here is not a general concept, but an individual – or, he himself. In He’s eyes, we must go back to the wild field – the origin of spirit as there’s no modern civilization element there and people can cope with and solve many questions in urban life with a clearer mind from a distance(1). Out of this consideration, He Libin decided to step into the wild field alone to seek answer to the question in his mind.

Wild field ever was the barbarous land to exile the criminals. Later, it was made a classic image in modern literature. Both T. S Eliot’s lyric long poem “The Waste Land”, or Jame Joyce’s Ulysses are themed on the evil and declining of modern cities with the comparison of myth as the basic structure and the thinking of the fortune of the mankind as the basic topic. Why does mankind exist? What on earth shall be used as the value of mankind? It is rational or irrational, self explanation or belief? As modern industrial civilization and technology come from the soil of western rationalism, why there’s evil in the world? Why people are still sad, crying and bleeding? Shakespeare said: “The world is disordered and in chaos”. Such questions can’t be eradicated just like the flying dusts that Kuafu must face under the sunlight.

He Libin has entered a stretch of wild land overgrown with grass. It’s a place where no people govern for a long period of time, which is just the origin he expected. According to the Bible Genesis, the classic Judean work, the land when Adam & Eve stole taste the forbidden fruit is also a stretch of deserted land: “And no plant of the field was yet in the earth, and no herb of the field had yet sprung up” (“Bible” Genesis 2:5). Does this mean that before the occurrence of evil, this is a stretch of place of origin having no virtue and evil(3)?

He Libin entered the wild field – this stretch of place of origin, with first person perspective; he also gazed himself who was watching and contemplating in the picture as an outsider. I had such feelings after watching the “Wild Field” series for the first time.

When people retreat from various affairs, depart from the chaotic and busy world and go to an unpopulated land, the small-sized people no longer are animals having breath on the earth. When people face sun and land directly, they will re-obtain the thinking on eternity and truth. When people re-review their values, the physical body and will no longer are vulnerable to the temptation of the world. The heart of loners is as peaceful as stagnant water. The soul of loners is well settled. Loners just watch silently in the wild field. They just watch silently themselves, the world and the circumstances for people in the world. In this process, the mood and feeling of the loner will be well released to experience the unique realm of “integration between myself and the world. But, why shall an artist select to stay alone? I think the artist is a person who lives on the world but doesn’t belong to the world. He is the watcher of human soul(4).

According to the original intention of He Libin, the purpose for retreating from metropolis to the wild field for a period of time is to obtain the sense of distance from the world and inner peace, which I think is a field that foreseeable cognition may be obtained. Just as what Jesus spoke to the crowd about John The Baptist: “What did you go out into the desert to see? A reed swayed by the wind? If not, what did you go out to see? A man dressed in fine clothes? No, those who wear expensive clothes and indulge in luxury are in palaces. But what did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet. (“Bible” Matthew 11:7-9). Here, the purpose for people to go to the field is to see and follow the prophet. At present when the Dao has retreated（大道隐没） and prophets are absent, silently watching and reflecting in the wild field may obtain a foreseeable cognition and critical stand. He Libin regarded himself as a skeptic and his skepticism directs at the rational utmost and progressive theory in the urbanization process after modern industrial revolution. This kind of doubt is really precious, just like what the German historian Jacob Christoph Burckhardt(5) said: “the false skepticism is prevailing in some period… but the realistic skepticism is already insufficient.” The recent “Extinguishing” series are also based on such a spiritual clue. The raging fire on the wild field comes from an accident? Disaster? Rage? Abnormal phenomenon? Or absurdism?

He Libin’s retreating to the wild field is just a turning around in his eyes. He began his artistic career on wild field theme 14 years ago and now turns around to face the wild field directly for those un-clarified questions. On the other hand, this kind of turnaround also reflects the reflection and peace needed today. This just comes from our affection to nature and ideal, as well as the call from the wild field.

In our culture, seclusion is a kind of perfect method to handle the contradiction between reality and ideal. But to He Libin, the purpose for secluding to the wild field is not for enriching himself as the mountain and water in the wild land is already endangered in the process of urbanization and industrial revolution and the leisurely and carefree mood can’t be obtained. Therefore, the turnaround doesn’t mean forever peripateticism, but one must face his spiritual land overgrown with grass. He said: “I have a strong impulse to release myself. Especially in the chaos world, secluding to the wild field and returning to the coolest and calmest state enable every one to face the reality with a sober idea.”

What is respectable in this group of “Wild Field” series, is that he was greatly challenged as he not only wants to seek ultimate answer in the wild field, but also to obtain breakthrough in skill, style and schema.

Nevertheless, the topic is wild field, not yard scenery, which is the realistic progress of Literati Painting. The paintings are profound reflections on the urbanization and flattering of contemporary art, as well as a vivid paradigm to scenic art.

Written in Liangyuan, Kunming on the night of March 18, 2008

Notes:
1), Seek the Source of Spirit in the Wild Field: the Talk between Guan Yuda, Luo Fei and He Libin”, 2008

2), Hegel “Aesthetics” Book 2, Volume III, Translated by Zhu Guangqian, The Commercial Press, 1991 version.

3), According to Bible Genesis, the mankind was exiled out of the paradise for the grandfather Adam & Eve’s stole taste the forbidden fruit and the mankind becomes declined since that time. This is the original sin in Christianity.

4), The author’s blog “Watch Silently in the Wild Field” written on December 31, 2006. http://luofeiart.blogbus.com/logs/14404545.Html

5), Jacob Christoph Burckhardt, (May 25, 1818 – August 8, 1897), was born in Basel, Switzerland and died at the birth place. Jacob is an outstanding historian and his key research field is the artistic history and humanism in Europe. His most famous work is Die Kultur der Renaissance in Italian: ein Versuch.

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