Category Archives: English

“不安的肉身”：关于张兴旺和严仁奎的作品

Luo Fei 发表于 2008/08/31 — 评论

zhangxingwang
张兴旺作品

yanrenkui
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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The Fantastic World of the Kaleidoscope

Luo Fei 发表于 2008/06/14 — 评论

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

Luo Fei 发表于 2008/03/29 — 评论

helibin-poster

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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Let There Be Light

Luo Fei 发表于 2008/02/21 — 评论

per

Per Johansson, who was born 1984 in Sweden, is a post-1980s artist. Different from many post-1980s artists with inhospitality and indifference, Per is a mild and modest person willing to think and communicate. Per is good at seeing the enchanting moments of the mysterious nature: the sun breaking out of a cloud, a tiny part of a lake, or some vaguely seen shadows. These parts of nature are all in some way related to light: in the ripples on the lake, in the fog, in the sky over an island, or in the twinkle below the eyelid when somebody just opens his eyes. Sometimes the light is clear and sometimes it’s vague. Different kinds of light finally become paintings: the phenomenon, the illusion and the vision of light. The phenomenon of light is Per’s observation on light and shadow in nature; the illusion of light is different pictures in his mind; and the vision of light is the spiritualized light Per experiences in prayer, within his soul.

Per has been passionate about light for many years. In the process of his observation and contemplation on light, Per transforms the light into abstract paintings on canvas. They are mainly in warm colors with an atmosphere as light as air, which brings a sense of rhythm into his paintings. Per’s depiction on light is inspired by William Turners (the forerunner of French impressionists) great accomplishments on picturing
light. Different from Turner, Per omits the factors which are interrupting the natural atmosphere, such as forests, trains and bridges which often appear in Turner’s paintings. In addition, Per’s paintings are not so obviously connected to specific religious issues as Turner’s. Per focuses on the light and the reflection of light, creating a pure atmosphere of meditation for both the audiences and himself.

Per never received formal art education. He was born with his love and passion for painting. He paints by intuition and from his own experience, which makes his painting unadorned and simple. Normally Per uses black color as background and on top of this foundation he paints with warm colors to create different levels of light, which is very similar to the style of heavy color painting in Yunnan province. Due to his high ambitions, Per is still working on some technical issues, such as the grasping of drawing style and color, the building of the airy sense. All of these elements need more exquisite skills to make the pictures even more vivid.

I believe Per is a tenacious and persisting painter, very interested in the process of art creation. A metaphor can describe him: if he believes there is water underground, he will dig until water comes out. Per’s pursuit on light comes from the desire in his heart, and his natural inspiration is the dialogue between his soul and God. In this process, Per gets familiar with the phenomenon, illusion and the vision of light.

Among the so-called emerging human beings – the post 1980s people who are closer to consumption and popular culture – there are some persons who still has passion for life and enchanting scenery, which
originates from the thinking on ultimate life existence. Regardless of time, human’s have always looked up gazing for the light, this search for an answer, for light and for spirit is urgent and inevitable. Therefore it’s very valuable that Per, who is such a young artist, already has reached such a high spiritual level.

Luo Fei,January 30, 2008

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A Conversation with Zhang Yongzheng: The Significance of Process

Luo Fei 发表于 2008/01/07 — 评论

Zhang Yongzheng VS Luo Fei

Zhang Yongzheng: Professional Artist.
Luo Fei: Director and Curator of TCG Nordica Gallery in Kunming, Artist, and art blogger.

Time: the afternoon of 24th, December, 2007
Place: The Studio of Zhang Yongzheng on the Road of Longquan in Kunming
Record Script: Xia Yun 继续阅读 »

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An Archaeological Tour of Revolutionary Romanticism and the Metaphor of Camouflage

Luo Fei 发表于 2007/11/02 — 评论

An Archaeological Tour of Revolutionary Romanticism and the Metaphor of Camouflage
–My views on Ms. Lei Yan’s latest works

Before
the interpretations of the two groups of recent works by Ms. Lei Yan -
“Frozen Series” and “Camouflage Cloth-making”, we should know of two
relevant background factors. One is that she has been a female soldier
in the army for 30 years (1970-2001) and then joined the Kunming
contemporary art community “Chuangku” to set up her own studio after
retiring from army. Lei Yan has experienced the transformation from the
traditional art practices on creation of military subjects into the use
of pictures, equipment, videos and other media for the creation of
contemporary art works, and each article and event could sufficiently
constitute the main raw material for her current creation. Secondly,
the retrospection and reflection on the Mao Zedong era (mainly during
the last 1950s-1970s) by the Chinese contemporary artists have never
ceased. In each period Mao and his era’s symbols and images will be
appearing in these artists’ narrative methods, which not only is the
historical fact of the” Passion Burning Years” that the artists can not
shun away from during the time when belief was absent, but also a kind
of inquiry about the future. After knowing about these backgrounds, we
can proceed with the interpretations of the latest works by Lei Yan.

“Frozen Series”: An Archaeological Tour of Revolutionary Romanticism

Lei
Yan’s “Frozen Series” have frozen some military articles and the
typical items of the Mao era, such as sleeve emblems, leader badges,
the Little Red Books, the Red Guards shoulder badges, military
uniforms, red flags, and female soldiers’ photographs etc., which are
photographed and can be seen dimly under the ice. By getting the
typical symbols and items of the special years frozen and sealed, the
artist is staring at the historical samples from a nebulous distance
with a tinge of desolation, and arousing a reflection on that period of
time.

As we can see, there are two clues in the “Frozen Series”, one is
the “Frozen Reds”, which uses the typical items of Mao era and military
articles as the narrating subjects that include sleeve emblems, leader
badges, the Little Red Books, the Red Guards badges, military uniforms,
red flags etc., they are not merely logos or decorations, but they also
carry the spirit of that era. As a person who was filled with ideals
and passions regarding the collective values under communism, each had
to possess these materials and contents, which represent a miniature of
the people’s political life in that period of time, and a miniature of
the” Passion Burning Years”. They are also a miniature of Lei Yan’s 30
years of military life. However, since the factors of refraction,
distance, and temperature, the items, which are put into the ice body
by Lei Yan, display a much unacquainted historical texture and shape.
The partial deforming and distortion, blurring and dimness, chilliness
and out-of-touch feeling created by the isolation of the ice layer.
They seem like keepsakes from a previous existence. The
archaeological-like association of ideas inspired by the sealing under
ice. All of these have built a sort of sadness for the time of
revolutionary passions, and a reminiscence of the disappeared spirit
and resplendency.

The
other is “Frozen Youth”, whose narrative subjects are female soldiers’
photographs including personal portraits, busts. Some are Lei Yan
herself, but most of them are her comrades in the army. These girls of
youthful spirit, each with tenderness, some seem a little depressed,
some only being lost, and some with a poise that is typical during that
period of time with a bag on shoulder or a machine gun in hands, head
high and standing erectly with a passionate face under the willows.
Among these photographs are several of military groups, and in these
the pure eyes are filled with the young girls’ ideals and longings,
smiling with tenderness and without the slightest hesitation for the
future which is the typical expression of revolutionary romanticism.
However, all of these various expressions and spirit states, with the
addition of the classic poise, have been frozen into the cold ice layer
and forced to drop in temperature, cold as well as out-of-touch, the
high enthusiasm and innocent ideals are suddenly disappearing far away
in the cold ice, which is just like a group of archaeological samples
from the Mao era displayed ifor all to see.

Most
of the above mentioned frozen objects, which were collected during Lei
Yan’s military career, are well preserved. To most of us, these items
and photographs are merely conceptualized image memories of a certain
period, but those specific faces and temperature, are more like the
family belongings in some box underneath grandmother’s bed, which are
kept by mother for her daughter. When these objects and photographs are
seen through the frozen ice, they have been endowed with new concepts,
which are the memory of the public images and history of a female
soldier, her private memory and feelings, and the reminiscence of
ultimate issues such as faith to the land, spirits and resplendency.

If political pop art is “using the shock waves made by the western
consumption culture in China, and turning the ’sacred politics’ of the
Mao era into a popular and ironic political idea” as suggested by Li
Xianting, and with current political pop art walking down a dead end
via commercial obsequiousness, then artists, including Lei Yan, are
going back to the starting point for art and soul by using a personal
and poetic narrate of the Mao era. Let the real impression be explained
via personal language instead of following the established groups
style, it is a response which surpasses current political pop art.


“Camouflage Cloth-making”: The Metaphors Related to Camouflage

If the “Frozen Series” is the reminiscence and sadness of the long
gone Mao era and its spirit and resplendency, then the “Camouflage
Cloth-making” is the specific intervention in the current daily
situation. Just like before, Lei Yan keeps on using the military goods
as subjects, which are very familiar to a person who has 30 years of
military service. However, the use of military goods in this series is
different from that in the “Frozen Series”. The military goods in the
“Frozen Series” belong to the section of borrowing, directly getting
the existing goods embedded into ice to make them bring about the
changes of concept, context and visual texture, but the “Camouflage
Cloth-making” is the conversion and extension of military camouflage
uniforms and patterns.

In this series Lei Yan uses camouflage fabric to make some hand-sewn
items and scenes, items such as: camera, computer, teapot, vase, cup,
tray, telephone, high heels, five-pointed star etc., which are daily
mundane items. Setting up the items’ basic outline shape, the sewed
items have more plasticity and flexibility. This series of work cross
the boundaries between handicraft and sculpture. What is more, the
symbolic features owned by the camouflage patterns themselves, give the
remodeled daily goods the feeling of being covered by the camouflage
with aggression and delusion.

In
one group, the metaphor relating to camouflage is more obvious. Lei Yan
has sewn with camouflage material into an ordinary family scene: a
square table, a bench, a vase, two blurring persons in the picture
frame and a crouching dog. The other one is the scene of a dressing
table. These two scenes are modeled like reliefs, which simply present
any day in our ordinary life without any dramatic moment. Persons,
goods and scenes are covered by camouflage, mixing into the background,
and therefore they are endowed with the meaning and metaphor of
camouflage itself, the edges of people, goods and scenes are disrupted
and guided by the camouflage patterns and become indistinguishable,
characterless and without personality. So a metaphor related to
camouflage, related to women’s identity, family and self-pity, can
start. How should women live out their own unique vitality in the
trivia of various household affairs? How should women be more visible
in society? This is the metaphor and reflection of “Camouflage
Cloth-making” by Lei Yan.

As a strong symbol of the military patterns, camouflage has been
absorbed into the conceptual art of the female artist, Lei Yan. She
would never have had such a profound reflection if she hadn’t had her
own deep experience of the military. It is precisely because of this
experience that we can see the double metaphors generated from the
modeled objects disappearing into the camouflage, in addition to the
interference and thawing from external forces. It also points at the
internal crisis of the modeled object: a person may be defensive of
their own identity, but to some extent they also face the risk of
assimilation, of losing their personality and unique vitality. Maybe
this is Lei Yan’s thinking in this exhibition. However, as a female
artist, Lei Yan has not been assimilated; on the contrary, she has
gained the unique vision and creativity. During a conversation with Lei
Yan she said: “wherever we are, we should leave a window for our soul,
facing the most real place of the heart to talk with your own soul and
hold onto the innocence and passion found there.” And with her
experience of the years of revolutionary enthusiasm and the attention
to other people’s needs during her military career, not only does this
become the source material and concept of her art, but it also expands
her life experience. She does not rest on the complexities of this
material and the hand-sewing but creates a deeper experience.

Written by Luo Fei(TCG Nordica gallery curator)
Translated by Liu Weiqiang

about Lei Yan’s solo exhibition

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Chinese Contemporary Art in a Transitional Era

Luo Fei 发表于 2007/07/08 — 5条评论

Chinese art poster(uddvalla)

Chinese Contemporary Art in a Transitional Era
For the exhibition of Chinese Contemporary Art –Identity and Transformation

Foreword

I felt a great pressure when I tried to write this essay. I’m sure that this pressure is common to anybody who attempts to characterize and describe Chinese contemporary art. None of us is able to define it with a couple of simple concepts or frameworks because of its rapid and stupendous evelopment. Even though we only want to talk about art, we can hardly grasp its complicated evelopment and the vast energy contained deep in its reality. The key point is that contemporary art is constantly growing. In addition, I still feel I lack sufficient accurate data and information to write anything like a definitive account. Thus, I can only contribute my own feelings about Chinese contemporary art, as seen From my own perspective.

Background

China, as a big country with a huge population, is undergoing an incredible change brought about by rapid economic development and internal investment. This seems to have given tremendous energy to Chinese contemporary art. Since 1993 when Chinese artists attended the 45th Venice Biennial for the first time, artists From this vast nation have participated frequently in some of the most important international art fairs and have developed into a remarkable group in the current worldwide art scene. All this was inconceivable for those who lived in the late 1980s.

Today, when we talk about Chinese contemporary art, we have to pay close attention to two characteristics. One is its interaction with social progress. How did it cultivate the freedom and significant individual consciousness in China during the course of modernization of China’s society? I will develop this point by reviewing the drama of Chinese art and the construction of an art community. The second characteristic we must note is the special role Chinese contemporary art has had during the course of globalization and the increased international attention China now receives. I am aware that these two points are not enough to describe all details of Chinese contemporary art; however, they offer two aspects that can lead to a greater understanding.

Arousal of individual consciousness

Before the later eighties, China was still suffering From poor material supplies, decadent mental amusement and insufficient knowledge resulting From the chaos caused by war and long-time political campaigns. Artists of that time only acted as advertisers for political propaganda. Free creation was a luxury for them. They were not allowed to have their own ideas; instead they had to follow the national will. The reforms, which started in 1979, opened the door of a closed nation and created new opportunities after the conflicts of the previous century. Along with the break-dancing that appeared on the streets, a modernism of thought started to be seen among young artists. Thereafter, the rise of a series of modern art groups and movements formed a conscious, or perhaps unconscious, departure From the restrictions of the past. This awakened the individual will and independent awareness in China for the first time. Throughout this time, which included the likes of ‘85 Thought’1 of the 1980s, ‘The New Generation’2 of the early 1990s, ‘The Cynical Realism’3 and the increasing use of new media and performance in the later 1990s, the one consistent factor has been that all the art movements and trends which have emerged look like fast-moving clouds driven by strong winds.

All of these trends have broken through the ideology of ‘greatness and unity’ and the aesthetic style of ‘red and bright’ which was promoted in the Cultural Revolution. They have stepped out of the psychological shadow, and have made a true move towards original thinking and an exploration of contemporary life in China. The 1980s can be regarded as an enlightening time for individual awareness of Chinese contemporary art and elementary experimentation in art styles. Some post-modern Western philosophical monographs were introduced into China during this period. These monographs became the idealistic support for artists and their desire for enlightened self-awareness. The key phrase of that era was ‘The Great Soul’. At the same time, poorly printed painting albums in the style of Western modernism started to spread silently among Chinese artists.

It is not very hard to imagine the uniform nature of the art scene at this time and the tremendous potential energy behind it, which was desperately trying to burst out as things gradually opened up. This potential energy was completely released in the late 90s. Artists changed their focus From national thinking to individual experience, From revolutionary aesthetics to daily aesthetics. Their mission also turned From carrying forward truth, kindness and beauty to addressing social problems, From singing the praise of political figures to gazing intently at ordinary people, From the ‘Public Square’ to the home, From a political event to an unintended yawn, From the vague and general cultural saying to a practical exploration of the possibilities of varied media.

Today, when we review the history of the past twenty years, we find that the spirit and ideas of art have developed From national ideology to individual experience, then to an illustration of styles, then to the searching for different media and materials, and this has mirrored the rapid economic development. Contemporary Chinese art has an ambiguous relationship with official aesthetic ideas. The official mainstream ideas still focused on eulogizing ideologies such as ‘beauty’ and ‘harmony’. The reality in the mid and late 1990s was that the rapid economic development was causing the whole of society to experience amazing change. During this period, artists’ hearts were stricken by a dramatic rise in materialism, a deficiency in human spirit, a demise of morality and a collapse of belief.

All of this created a sense of anxiety amongst intellectuals and artists, which was clearly reflected in the work created during this time. The spirituality of Chinese classical art came From a poetic pastoral mood; however, the spirituality of Chinese contemporary art is rooted in the anxiety of real life. This situation can be understood as a permanent conflict between the artist and reality. Chinese contemporary art has converted an evasive spirit of classical art into a worldly spirit of the present age, and in doing so has risked danger on the “edge of reality”. Reality is always an aggressive force behind us. It moves artists to step down into the boggy marsh of simplistic reality From the plateau of super-organic thinking and virgin style.
The art historian Lu Peng once said: “The development of art history of this century was introduced by ‘thought’, ‘-ism’, ‘political event’, ‘governmental paper’, ‘instruction’, or ‘ideology’, but broke away From the matter of style.” In other words, the development of Chinese contemporary art in the past twenty years has totally rid itself of the impact of Cultural Revolution thinking. However, as a type of art formed From individual experience and experimenting with different media, Chinese contemporary art still can’t really break free From the morass of reality. It must respond to every occurrence in this land. It is not only a fact of China, but also a fact of Chinese artists.

This is one profile or collective portrait of Chinese contemporary art. The combination of repressed energy and the introduction of Western modernist thought, early in the opening of China, produced a freedom of thought and will among Chinese artists. ‘Vogue art’ and ‘pioneer art’ are common terms used to describe Chinese art From the late 1980s to the middle of the 1990s. Yet this did produce a definite distance From the general public.

Establishment of public surroundings

Since 1995, curators and artists have tended to utilize the neutral term ‘contemporary art’ to identify their exhibitions, instead of ‘pioneer art’ or ‘vogue art’. Of course, discussion and debate about modern art, post-modern art, pioneer art and contemporary art were also launched in the academies. Finally, we are mostly called or call ourselves exponents of ‘contemporary art’ or ‘Chinese new art’.

Since the mid 1990s, an artistic movement, which used new media and performance art, quickly developed, supported by the experimental spirit initiated From Chengdu, Kunming, Hangzhou, Nanjing, Beijing and Shanghai. Its impact has reached to the big and small cities, and continued to develop in the cities mentioned above. Thus the initial regional pattern of Chinese contemporary art was formed. Flourishing and active artistic movements emerged endlessly, but formal exhibition spaces were not sufficient, so most of these movements generally happened in an underground way. The audiences for exhibitions were limited to the artist circles. The official attitude toward contemporary art was suspicion while still watching From outside. This kind of attitude did not change until the Shanghai International Art Biennial in 2000. This event is now seen as the first official recognition of Chinese contemporary art.

In 2000, when LOFT, one of the very first art communities not only in Kunming, but also in China, was founded, only a few Chinese artists owned their independent studios. There was not enough normal exhibition space for young artists to exhibit their work, but the artistic thought and practice that had flourished really needed an exhibition platform to open them to a wider public. Then the artists started to construct and operate the art space themselves. In the beginning, it was a type of space in which artists could both create and show their work. Due to the characteristics of non-profit and cheap rent, this kind of space supported numerous young artists and experimental art groups and provided many opportunities to develop their practice. This type of art space suddenly emerged everywhere throughout China, resulting in endless experimental exhibitions. It was a rapidly growing stage for Chinese experimental art; the major methods for artistic exploration were performance, new media and installation. Until the establishment of the Chinese art market in 2005, more and more artists owned their self-supported art space and studio. But with new investment coming From increased national wealth and international capital, and with gallery practice now firmly established, extensive art communities grew up, in particular the Beijing 798 art space. With this change, the pattern for Chinese contemporary art communities was formed.

This new industry also drove economic development in other respects. It was a hard process, which began with nothing and integrated some other industries such as tourism, culture, real estate, recreation and food provision. After absorbing investment From many parties and various resources, these art communities contributed fresh blood and motivation to the Chinese contemporary art scene and the Chinese economy. On the other hand, this establishment also added some elements of simply following the latest fashion, entertainment and humanism into the city.

Nonetheless, students, art fans and “common people” all had a chance to enjoy art exhibitions in some art communities. They could learn more about Chinese contemporary art history of the past twenty years and international art trends. Press media, universities and civil organizations started to cooperate with art communities. This kind of cooperation even supported some social programs with marginal groups. Chinese art no longer praised itself as “emerging art”; it has entered into communities and become a necessary part of the city by keeping its characteristic of aesthetics and spiritual elite and criticism. Therefore, we can conclude that a city without any art communities is not a complete city.

Chinese contemporary art in an international perspective

As I have mentioned at the beginning, Chinese artists often appeared in many important international exhibitions since the 45th Venice Biennial in 1993. Some of them have been familiar with international Biennials, and Chinese contemporary art has become a notable force in the art world. There are many reasons that can be used to explain why Chinese contemporary art has won so much attention: it is in the largest developing country, this country maintains continuous high-speed economic development, the Olympic games are going to be held in the country, the price of Chinese art keeps rising, the label of Mao-style revolutionary romanticism, huge international investment, environmental issues, the so-called ‘workshop of the world’ among others. However, I want to summarize all of them into three main reasons. The first is people. Incredible hard work during the period From ‘85 thought’ to the middle of the 1990s enabled Chinese emerging art to accumulate a distinctive history and become noticeable. A number of excellent artists who are competent in using visual language have grown to be important components in international art. The second is geographical position. Since the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, China is the last experiment in international communism and holds a unique position in the world. The third is international climate. Cultural diversity increasingly became fashionable in international art criticism and exhibitions, and post-colonial theory also came to an end, creating many more opportunities for Chinese contemporary art.

Today, the prosperity of the Chinese artwork market, its increasing percentage of international auction sales, and the establishment of art communities are escalating China to greater heights and increased dynamism in international art. The holding of international art biennials and festivals symbolizes the fact that Chinese contemporary art is no longer a representative of an exotic culture appearing on the international stage; it is directly participating in the creation, construction and development of international art.

Epilogue

The purpose of this description of the general characteristics of Chinese contemporary art and its development is to help generate a greater understanding of the art and artists of this country. It is by no means complete; this would not be possible with such a vast and fast-changing art scene. However, I highly recommend the exhibition of “Chinese Contemporary Art – Identity and Transformation”. This is a great opportunity to learn more and gain a greater understanding of Chinese contemporary art. The artists involved in this exhibition include some of those pioneers of the later 1980s as well as some other young and unsophisticated artists. The composition of artists in the exhibition is varied in age, use of media, and theme. Their art forms cover photography, painting, sculpture, video and Chinese ink painting. Their art themes relate to current social problems, individual life, the current situation of Chinese traditional culture and folk art, female art, body art, and simple exploration of style and materials. They are revealing their own mind and China’s reality in a sincere and intelligent way. With such abundant vigor, this exhibition can be seen as a living sample of Chinese contemporary art and well worth sharing with our Swedish friends.

Notes:

1 ‘85 Thought’ refers to a kind of Chinese artistic thought that arose in the mid 1980s. The young people of that time were not satisfied with the conservative art guidelines. They grew tired of Russian artistic patterns and some of the values of traditional culture. They tried to seek new elements From Western modern art and generated new artistic thinking in the whole country.

2 ‘The New Generation’ painting revealed an individual political narrative and a kind of hopeless counteractive political emotion which occurred in the political society of northern China in the early 90s. What the painting stated is a kind of mental description of vanity in a closed social space. The movement was committed to exploring the visual localization of realism, expressionism and modernism.

3 The ‘Cynical Realism’ has not yet acquired an exact definition. Commenting on this idea, Mr. Li Xianting, a Chinese art critic and an independent curator, once used the terms ‘rogue humor’ and ‘rascal culture’. When he analyzed the situation of these artists, Mr. Li said: ‘It is the artist’s sense of vacuity that led them to describe the familiar, tiresome, occasional, even ludicrous living scene with a self-mocking, ruffian, cynical and indifferent attitude. Finally it formed a kind of rogue but humorous art style.’

Luo Fei – curator at TCG Nordica Gallery and artist
July 1, 2007
In Liangyuan, Kunming

Chinese vision of this essay, 阅读本文中文原文。

chinese art exhibition
Chinese art exhibition from TCG Nordica

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