Mind Set Art Center (MSAC): The Other Side of Time, your solo exhibition at ShanghART Gallery in 2012, marked a crucial turning point in your career as an artist. In addition to your consideration of visual beauty, you consciously infused the artworks with personal contemplation, reflecting the condition of your personal life in the society as well as what you thought and felt. The Beginning of Good Life is your first solo exhibition in a gallery space after The Other Side of Time. Please talk about your artistic creation during this period of time.
WU Yiming (WU): I tend to react in a slower pace to the environment. When the Chinese contemporary art was rising and attracting much attention in the 1980s, I did not feel much excitement. Only until the 90s, I became aware of contemporary art, and developed my own sense of taste and judgment towards it. Traditionally speaking, art belongs to the aristocrats and scholar-bureaucrats. It is considered superior and distant to the general public. Contemporary art, on the other hand, is different. It focuses more on our current life.
Chinese calligraphy and painting stemmed from a tradition that emphasizes models. Whether it is a tree or a rock, there is a certain format to paint it. Such systematic training is bound to become restrictive for one's thinking and mindset. In my opinion, it is fairly difficult to surpass the artistic achievement of our ancestors. My method is actually going against the tradition. Around 2004, I began to feel that my previous works were still superficial in terms of expression; therefore, I started to search for an expressive method that could convey more depth; something that was not too blunt and direct. As Chinese, we tend to be more reserve. Of course, there are artists that adopt a straightforward style and still create very powerful works, and I truly admire them. However, that is not my style, so I think I'd better stay subtle.
Conceptually speaking, I am against what the ancient literati have represented. I oppose the fact that they embody the so-called elitism in our society. They were, after all, dependent of the imperial authority, and lacked independent character since the ancient time. On the other hand, I do identify with their view of and experiences in life. From a modern perspective, their philosophy is indeed more appropriate, ecological, and enduring.
MSAC: Trained in Chinese ink painting, you inherit the tradition while departing from it. Your selection of subjects, bold use of colors, deliberate fragmented brushstrokes, and even the effect of roughness all come together to render the painting more realistic instead of closer to the idealized representation in the traditional examples. How do you see and break this framework of tradition?
WU: I actively abandoned some parts of the tradition; but I am also forced to let go of some things. Why would I abandon them by my own will? To give you an example: since we were born, we have been living a life drastically different from the ancient people. We go to the hospitals to give births to our children. Our thinking and categorization of knowledge are all different from the ancients. If we still hold on to the outdated things, it is certainly not right. It also goes without saying for the things I am forced to let go. For example, marriages used to be arranged by parents and by matchmaker's words, but it would not work in modern societies. When our lifestyle is completely changed, some things become inappropriate and must be thrown away. If one does not see this, it would be like burry one's head in the sand.
What I am pursuing now is to paint whatever I want. I have always imagining an opposing force so that I will not lose my own judgment. I paint comparatively more plain and common subjects, like the people, things and events in my daily life. I also paint my potted plants and bugs appearing in my life, like cockroaches. I like the forms and lines of the Song ceramics, so I paint them. However, I care about how to represent these subjects in a way with stronger sensibility. After so many centuries, Chinese ink painting has accumulated a vast array of symbolism; for instance, we are familiar with plums, orchids, bamboos and chrysanthemums symbolizing the moral nobility and integrity of a gentleman. This is a choice of the ancient intellectuals. For me, I have always reminded myself to avoid shallow understanding, to have my versions of interpretation, and to create my own symbolism.
In terms of colors, the ancients intentionally toned down the colors to highlight their noble character. This certainly reflects their view on morality. I was also influenced in my early period, and considered the black ink so refine that even one bit of color would make the art tasteless. Why couldn't we use colors, I then thought? Whether the colors are used in a tasteless way depends on the artist; so, I started using colors naturally. The first catalogue I bought was Henri Matisse's. I genuinely adore his art, and must be under his influence.
Too many rules just make things uninteresting. Traditional ink painting carries the ideal of pursuing harmony, but now there could be more personalized representations. I hope to stay away from the idealized beautiful representations. As a result, roughness could also be a means to do that. Artistic creation is actually more antagonizing for me, so I tend to use a lot of dark colors for the background. I think it all boils down to personal expression eventually because I wish to deliver my messages and thinking to the society from a personal perspective.
MSAC: How has ink become the main creative medium for you? What role does the ink painting tradition play in your works?
WU: In terms of my artistic concept, materials do not play a role with absolute importance. Ink is simply a medium. We have cars now, but that does not mean we cannot ride horses. For me, ink is very flexible; because xuan paper (or rice paper) is soft, its expression is definitely different from the Western oil painting with its harder brushstrokes and color blocks. Ink has its own charm; for example, it embodies the Chinese philosophy of softness conquers hardness. I started learning Chinese ink painting when I was a child, and I am familiar with this medium. Therefore, it is natural for me to utilize and elaborate its characteristics. Moreover, I think the quality of ink painting quite matches my personality and viewpoint.
My expression varies from that of the ancients. Nevertheless, it is certain that my art was nourished by them, especially the obvious influence in terms of structure. The structure of Chinese ink wash painting and that of the Western painting differ greatly. Traditional Chinese ink wash painting adopts the cavalier perspective, and rarely uses the technique of chiaroscuro. The structure of Western art is based on observation methods that use perspective, geometry and the play of light and shadow. We Chinese have our own methods, and I would like to distinguish them from the Western methods as much as possible.
MSAC: What influences do the Western art and contemporary art have on you then?
WU: This is really a broad question. The content of our education has remained very Western. We have a certain degree of understanding of each generation of Western artists, from the Impressionism masters such as Paul Cézanne, Paul Gauguin, and Vincent Van Gogh, to the big names in contemporary art world, like Francis Bacon, Andy Warhol, and Damien Hirst. Therefore, we are definitely influenced by them. However, these artists are all from the past two hundred years. Their artistic development and thinking is much related to modern day.
MSAC: In your work The Beginning of Good Life, the modern, chic lady and the trees form an interesting contrast. It seems that you want to add some different elements in the contemporary culture that seeks mainly glamour and fashion.
WU: In this piece, the woman and the trees exist independently, but also exist harmoniously in the same space and time. However, there is still something awkward, including the colors, the position of the figure and the trees. Personally, I want to express the sense of awkwardness. As for the featureless and expressionless figure, it is because facial expressions might affect the ambiance of the image. Nowadays, if I think it fits, I also paint facial expressions. I am always anxious and cautious because this era seems to make you pessimistic in every way. The food we eat might be dangerous; the air we breathe might be toxic; would the world ever become better in the future? This sense of pessimism also sieves through and gets into my works.
When I met Andre at ShanghART Gallery last time, I told him that I felt very delighted when seeing exhibitions at the gallery in the past two years: young artists nowadays tend to express joyfulness in their works. The world in my eyes is less cheerful, but it is a nice thing that the young artists could demonstrate joy.
MSAC: What keeps you creating art? What do you pursue in artistic creation?
WU: I will never stop working because there is a sense of impulse and responsibility in me as well as the desire to express. I care about the issues of humanity and the social problems, and I would like to state my thoughts in a way that carries more depth. There are three levels in terms of expression: love, wisdom and religion. We usually express ourselves on the level of love. The highest level is religious, which is the most universal; and the level of wisdom is in-between. I am working on my method of expression to more forcefully deliver my thinking. (For example, Maurizio Cattelan is operating on the level of wisdom, and is quite clever.) I would like to find my own method of expression to reach a higher level, which is something I still need to put more efforts into.
