Rebuilding the Chinese people’s divine spirit
------------"Beijing Youth Weekly" 2010.7.22
Black shirt Zheng Lianjie, wearing dark green military trousers, a Harley steel chain around his waist, wearing black super, and long flowing hair, is very eye-catching as he walks along Genbei Street in Huangcheng at noon. Examining the artistic spectrum of a Chinese contemporary artist, "Beijing native" Zheng Lianjie, is just like the rainbow after the rain, with colorful colors and blurred boundaries: he has dabbled in performance, installation, video, sculpture, and conceptual photography.
Since 1996, Zheng Lianjie has lived in the United States for 14 years. During this period, he and his friend Susan Greenwell created and implemented the performance art work "Zero Degrees of New York" on West 14th Street in Manhattan, USA (December 13, 1998): Zheng Lianjie first sprinkled cold water on his body and hair on the body, and then smeared the body with flour, and Susan wore a black Chinese cheongsam. Zheng Lianjie used flour to draw two circles of the same size on the ground. Susan stood in one circle. Zheng Lianjie walked into the other circle holding a facial mask, gazed at Su Shan, and then entered Su Shan's circle and put the mask on the ground. Handed it to her, the two looked at each other and exchanged facial makeup - Zheng Lianjie left holding the facial mask, returned to his circle and looked at Su Shan solemnly. This behavior lasted for 40 minutes and there was no specific verbal communication.
ROBERT LEE, curator and chairman of the Asian American Art Center, later commented, ""Zero Degrees of New York" created an opportunity for real communication, a space that faces the needs of this era*** The sound of survival. His choice of performing this work in winter illustrates that living in a civilized metropolis, gray and cold, is not only the first memory in the soul."
Whether you call him avant-garde or modern, black and white ink clouds and smoke are always flowing in his blood.
The interview between Zheng Lianjie and BQ was scheduled to take place in Shuxiangmingyuan, No. 19 Genbei Street, Huangcheng, a club that imitates the architecture of the Ming Dynasty. After meeting, he was not in a hurry to invite us to sit down. He pointed out the ink paintings hanging on the walls of the club with great interest. He said that since 2004, he has returned to China every year to sketch and create in Huashan. “The beauty of Huashan is unique. Yes, its majesty is suitable for the atmosphere and generous elegies of the Yan people. At the same time, Huashan is also the birthplace of Taoism. Many of the highest realms of Chinese classical ink painting are drawn from Taoism, such as these works, which use large splashes of ink and freehand brushwork. , using a loose brush to integrate the Taoist spirit into the painting."
“Exploring the moon in the water, viewing flowers through a curtain.” In the ups and downs of creation between existence and nothingness, how can Zheng Lianjie achieve a clear and clear vision? He said that he had to first empty himself among the mortals in the world, which was also "escape from the city." However, he despised the pretentious "farmhouse fun" that the petty bourgeoisie used when escaping, and let his creative process undoubtedly follow the wistful chants of travelers, " I grew up in a city like Beijing, and later I went to New York, which is a cement forest, the capital of capitalism. Every time I went to Huashan, I lived in a Taoist temple without running water or electricity, and drank snow water and water. Rain, chopping firewood and cooking with the little Taoist priest... I hope to forget the traces of my city life and get closer to nature in a completely authentic state. The atmosphere of the market is terrible. The more secular smell you have, the less human you will be. My art works want to create a whistling atmosphere of the mountains and forests."
Zheng Lianjie, who pursues "selflessness" in art, obviously cannot achieve "forgetfulness" in life.
The Tomb-Sweeping Day always has a different meaning for those who travel overseas. "The Chinese people's grief and remembrance of their loved ones are unique on this day. It is not only a personal expression of emotion." At the same time, it is also a recollection and inquiry of history in reality.” Zheng Lianjie said that on April 5 this year, he and 18 members of his family took photos in front of Tiananmen Square to commemorate their relatives in the form of art - his mother passed away in March this year, and his father also passed away in 2000. Zheng Lianjie took photos of his two relatives Place them on chairs and take photos, naming the work "Family Years".
In fact, this is the third time that he has completed his behavioral plan in Tiananmen Square.
The earlier works started with an old family photo in 1957 with Tiananmen as the background: On April 5, 2000, Qingming Festival, Zheng Lianjie and his son took the photo in front of the "Tiananmen" backdrop in a photo studio in 1957. The old photos were enlarged and displayed in front of the real Tiananmen Square for the first time to commemorate the death of my father. In the spring of 2004, Zheng Lianjie, his mother, brother, sister and eight other people were in front of Tiananmen Square and once again recorded the gathering and changes of family members. This year's "Family Years" constitutes the continuation of the work. The famous art critic Wu Hung believes that Zheng Lianjie's series of performance photography projects "show the existence of the present tense that is fixed at the same place, and the old photos in the work acquire an emphasized past tense."
The "past tense" is also like a "knot" that Zheng Lianjie cannot break. After the interview, he and the photographer were taking pictures in a narrow and winding alley. He suddenly became thoughtful and pointed at the mottled His poem "Shijingshan has a childhood I can't take away" is chanted on the wall.
"My home is in Shijingshan, from where I can see Jizhou Terrace. The prosperity and desolation of the past have been given to today's Beixin'an. My home in Beixin'an, Shijingshan is outside the Fifth Ring Road. The eight major sites of Fahai Temple are connected to the entire Xishan Mountain. The snack bar and photo studio have disappeared in front of my long-awaited window; my home is in Shijingshan, my home is under the stars. How many friends have left the past, how many relatives have left. Once upon a time..." BQ: Looking at the pedigree of your works, it seems that there are no barriers or frames?
Z: This topic involves the nature of art. Any art has its limitations, just like photography. When you face the real environment, you can only take its moment, and I don’t want to Trapped. For example, in the late 1980s, I began to express installation art and easel art. However, flat paintings could not satisfy my desire for expression, so I had to seek a breakthrough.
BQ: Going back to the starting point of your creation, Chinese classical ink painting and Taoist concepts, the elegance of life, the appreciation of literati, etc. are all closely linked. How do you deconstruct, break up, and then rebuild?
Z: This challenge is very big. In the late 1980s, I basically continued to learn towards new ways of expression. At that time, the reunification of Germany and Germany had a great impact on me, and I realized that I had to transform. For example, I painted a lot of themes from "The Classic of Mountains and Seas", mythology and folk art, Guizhou Nuo masks, Peking Opera masks, and Indian masks. It contains the spirit and beliefs of ancient people, and its composition is highly abstract, strange and mysterious. I went to the Great Wall at that time, bringing my sleeping bag and tent with me every three months. I continued to make rubbings of the Great Wall for three years, and then continued to return to the studio to complete my works. This experience also became a part of my future creations. The spiritual origin of.
BQ: I noticed that one of your photos of works related to the Great Wall was auctioned at Sotheby’s. Can you tell us about that time?
Z: You are talking about my "Big Bang - Binding the Lost Souls" performance installation and landscape art work. This is a milestone for Chinese contemporary art to enter the Western capital market. The price at the Sibi auction was US$30,000, which was among the top six prices for Chinese photographs in the world at that time. It was also the first auction of mainland Chinese contemporary art in New York. The buyer was the French Louis Vuitton Group.
BQ: You have been resisting the turmoil of secular life. How do you feel about your work being acquired by the world’s largest luxury goods group?
Z: I think this has nothing to do with me. After the chicken lays the egg, will it care who eats the egg? Once the work came out and the concept was conveyed, it was enough. At that time, creation was just a young impulse.
When I made this creation in 1993, the Simatai Great Wall had not yet been developed. Now when you look at it, the overgrown weeds in the photo are no longer there, but instead they are smoothed cement and blue bricks. But the feeling of "if you don't see the sunset at the Great Wall, who knows that the world will be sad in autumn" is gone; in 1993, I stood at Simatai and wrote a poem, "The wind blows over the Great Wall and the sunset is blown away, and the moon shadow on the mountains and rivers is still cold." I don't have that feeling now either Now, it looks more and more like Badaling.
But what is the Great Wall? It is a place where Chinese people pay homage to history and find their spiritual foundation. If it is turned into a tourist spot and a racecourse to attract Western tourists, this is actually a crime against the future of the nation.
Thus, I would like to say that Chinese contemporary art still has a tendency to be marginalized. Marginalization is also a better test for artists and is beneficial to the spiritual experience of artists’ creations. However, if Chinese contemporary art only has money, On the side of success, this is actually another kind of self-exile and edge.
BQ: You have been creating since the beginning of contemporary art in the Mainland, and then you have been living and creating in New York to this day. Under the different cultural perspectives of the East and the West, what are your views on the future direction of Chinese contemporary art?
Z: We must admit that a large part of modern and contemporary Chinese civilization was introduced from the West. What I expressed in my work "Black Coke 1993" is Coca-Cola, a symbol that represents Western values. It is a way of life and a strong manifestation of Western industrial civilization. The New York Times once commented on my work as "Coca-Cola placed on the Great Wall is an important symbol of Western capitalism knocking on the door of China." Today's world is dominated by both economy and culture. Can we export our own cultural values ??and then influence the world? It’s not enough to see it now. There is a lot of popular culture in the United States, but the elite culture is equally powerful. It is a country dominated by the middle class. China’s middle class has just started, and people’s requirements for the material level have not yet entered the spiritual level. Our exquisite culture and gentleman culture have been destroyed, and the ancient tradition of "no calligraphy and painting in the palace is not the old family" has been destroyed. Westerners respect Chinese Taoism and like Chinese porcelain, but they are all from the ancients. Do we have anything new? Today's ink calligraphy art can confirm this, but contemporary things must be injected into it, and the individual divine spirit of the Chinese people must be reconstructed. This is what I admire and pursue.