Good is good
which is good
ARC
Size: Varied, Mixed media installation with sound piece (15:00 mins) [TBC], 05/2018
Good is good which is good seems like a none-mistake English sentence. But it is quite interesting that after you read it so easy and quick, especially listened my singing of this sentence, you may get brain wash. And even all adjectives are good in the sentence, after you read several times, you do not feel really good, and even beginning to question what is good. It does not have full stop, so it may have two ways of understanding. One is it is a declarative sentence, or it is a question. It depends on how you read the latter half sentence (which is good.) or (which is good?).
This work is related to a Chinese Talk Show in which once a talker said three times positively assertive expression will turn around the meaning of positive to negative. And the example is that when a girlfriend asks boyfriend, am I good at dressing it? The man probably says good, good, good. Even the language changed in English. It seems the rule still works. It is more likely that people have the same thinking on this point and capture the mood of language. And obviously the girlfriend absolutely will recognize her boyfriend’s impatience, and giving the man a slap (exaggeration).
The sentence came from an accident; it came with a melody which I singed in my sound record. I cannot explain why they all came together and then I quickly realized that I need balloons flatting in air and something underneath. I think I am attracted by this idea, and I want to do it even I do not know why, and what is my purpose of doing it.
Definitely, the media I choose for this installation was affected by the melody and words. The reason might be that I felt so light and nothingness when I heard my sound, so I choose foil balloons. And probably because I am unsatisfied to hear everything is good, especially in the marketing-rely on world. It seems too many things are too good and keeping good then for what? It is hard to make a judgement, but I am aware of the danger of finance.
Lego toy is quite flexible, so I can make it in any form. And another reason I choose Lego is it is one of my favourite toy since from my childhood, so I am familiar with building it. And the property of toy and foil balloons composed the sense of fantasy in adult world. The fantasy feeling rightly fits the sentence and melody.
I build a small broken building and a little figure underneath the two groups of balloons. And I planted some grass in the base. One reason of making these decisions is building and the sentence all from human mind; they have huge comparison of nature. No matters, how human society came and gone, the natural like these grass are still developing themselves. Another reason of making small figure is the symbol of human could be more visually affect people to think about themselves, especially, when the little figure is standing alone and under the spot light. The format of the foil balloon sentence was inspired by Edward Ruscha’s painting, so I arranged people can read words in common order rather than random arrangement. The verbal information is strong and direct, which is the key point to build up a basic communication with audiences.
JAPAN IS AMERICA
Edward Ruscha
1985
oil on canvas
64 x 64 inches
La Nora Ora (the Ninth Hour)
Maurizio Cattelan
1999
Maurizio Cattenlan’s work La Nora Ora, the ninth hour gives me sense of humour that also is what I want to have with my art expression.
Sometimes I still considered I am a handicraftsman. I was not aware of the importance of manufactured things in the context of nowadays art world. And during the process of making this work, as the materials in this project are all manufactured, I began to realize that using manufactures is also a fundamental ability of contemporary artists. Besides, using manufactures also is a way to explore potential connections of daily life and readymade materials. And during the working process of this work, I gradually paid more attention on analysing cultural meanings and attributes of materials. Though Good is good which is good is in opened condition that allows people to read it by different ways. But the opened condition also brings me to meet so many issues out of my control, then I realized that I have opened another door to percept my work, my viewers and this world. Probably, this is my biggest break through during the two years. And I have got deeper understanding of the importance of perception towards an artist. Actually, the ability of perception is the key of reading the world, as stronger ability of perception helps human beings to firstly get information from objects or environments. And intuition gives us chances to naturally and smoothly join different culture, races, geographic environment. That is not only about making art, it is about to be a better human.
IT
digital Chinese design by programming, 02/2018
It is a Chinese language based work. The idea was inspired by Chinese artist Xu Bin’s work A Book from the Sky. But my work is a practice of expressing my understanding of art. I redefined art has its property of subject and object. When we call art in accusative, art is it. However, it in English and Chinese is mainly to express object, so I got the idea to make art in accusative has its own special none which includes subjective and objective property. Therefore, I choose the most subjective and objective symbols from Chinese language. They are he, she and it. Then I made to two new Chinese characters that mixed with he, she and it. Finally I got those new Chinese words that no one Chinese can read it, but Chinese people are very familiar with them. The work It has the same making process as Xu Bin’s work, but the stress of my work and Xu Bins are different. He aimed to show art through revealing the unexplored area of Chinese language,and I aimed to show art through collect meanings in one word. This practice let me understand the part meaning of art existing is creating opportunities for differences.
Book from The Sky
Xu Bin
wood print
1988
A cup of orange juice in high speed
A Cup of Orange Juice in High Speed
acrylic on canvas
65 x 20 cm
01/2018
This is a joke. Then I realized it was the beginning of my Dadaism work. Probably it will not attract others to enjoy art, but it is evidence that I am unchained. The process of unchaining takes quite long as my locked mind should be unchained by several parts that are quite likely from my childhood and my learning background in China. I do not mean I am unchained so I simply throw away what I used to do. I keep them and open my mind to get more information coming in. Sometimes my mind is just like two systems computer, two systems conflicting with each other. And interestingly, when the process of getting used to with two systems is longer, my ability of perception is stronger. Then I began to enjoy the unexpected situation and issues during the making and painting process. And more interesting textures come up with sudden ideas inspired by random solution.
Wishpers
Whispers
acrylic on canvas and wood-board
200 x 470 cm
11/ 2017
Unexpectedly, I did one work about political issues of China. Though the theme is hugely different to previous works, the way of visual expression was as the same as windows painting I did. And those small figures like brush marks I designed are quite emotional. They all are extracted from my previous drawing practice of stressful human bodies and other human body painting and sculptures from ages. Especially, I learned from The Thinker (by Auguste Rodin), The Sower (by Jean Francois Millet), and Noon Rest (by Van Gogh). And the calligraphic style of those human-like figures was mainly inspired by Kathe Kollwitz’s etching work Peasant War, as I felt that current authorities secrets are hurtful to people, and the true situation is just like what Kollwitz drawn in her work. Some potential power is controlling people, but we do not really know what it is. And the tone of whole painting is in dark and red. The choice I made was inspired by John Martin and Joseph Mallord William Turner’s war-subject paintings that were mainly in black and bright red tone which successfully gave strong sense of confliction and stress. And I painted and followed that way. But also I changed a bit that I expanded the black and red tone paintings gradually to cold tone, aimed to emphasize the intense atmosphere and also to show how small the game human beings are playing. Maybe the natural environment on the outside of human society is laughing on human beings negative humanity like cheating, lying, selfishness, pride, and greed etc.
Spheres
Sphere
acrylic on wooden board
all in 45 x 45 cm
2016 - 2017
4 spheres are in 4 different types. The pink aimed to make visual confusion of colours and space. The two black and white spheres aimed to help me to experiment the sense of volume of sphere when the light comes from inside and outside and from front and back. The one with flat and 3D spheres on the same board aimed to making visual confusion of distance. Those four experiments are helpful for analysing shapes that mainly based on circle.
Windows
Windows
gauche on paper
39 x 27 cm
2016
Windows was the series of sketches for a preparation of experimental binocular painting. It was related to spheres and other geometric forms. But after I painted, I was guided by my emotion of every time to paint the window scenes. Then I was interested in German expressionism, romanticism. Particularly I learn from Emil Nolde and Caspar David Friedrich. I was trying to mix the concept of expressionism and cubism together, as I thought any geometric shapes can be used as elements of representation of reality on painting. And the best way of presenting geometric shapes is to express strong emotion, just like expressionism does.