Art Used Against Void Pressure Imposed by the Universe

　　----A Dialogue between Professor Zhang Qikai and Artist Fu Yuxiang

　　Time: Feb. 29, 2008

　　Location: Fu Yuxiang Studio of 501 Contemporary Center of Art, Chongqing

　　Form: Audio live recording

　　Zhang: We know you’ve created a couple of new works, and with these most recent creations would you please talk about with us your understanding of contemporary art?

　　Fu: What I have in mind is a rather simple thought, which made me realize that my previous paintings were too flaring and posed no challenge to myself with no new stuff. And I’m not even contented about this situation myself. However, contemporary art embraces a diversified range in profound depths and it’s a lot closer to the reality we have to face in the contemporary life. Based on this, I’ve made every effort to get closer to and incorporated into the contemporary art.

　　Zhang: Problems exist in the artistic ecology here in the city of Chongqing, and apart from Sichuan Academy of Fine Arts there is almost nobody really interested in contemporary arts.

　　Fu: Yes, indeed.

　　Zhang: The artistic ideal used to be a dream that we pursued in our younger years and we tried to convey our attitude towards life through artistic expression. While today, the idealism that were a popular belief in the 1970s or 1980s was long passed and the obsolete mode was no longer found workable because it finds a hard way into our present daily life and a new approach should be sought after. Perhaps this brand new system of mode completely comes from the west but this should not bother at all. The reason lies in that culture is a universal venue, from where everybody can take the mode that he or she wishes for ------no matter it’s western or eastern, from the past or the present. Therefore from this point of view, it’s very important to stand your ground of ideology and show your concerns about the current status of living through the expression of art; to engage in artistic creation, one must have his or her feet on the ground of reality and get directly related to the current spiritual circumstance. For instance, we used to stress on the importance of going deep among the masses and observing life, which is nothing wrong. But the problem is people in the past epoch did the observing with an imaginary attitude and the result thus obtained was palpable. On the contrary, the difficult situation that contemporary art is confronted with is a real circumstance rather than a state only in someone’s imagination or a false state of idealism. As a society of people, it has created way too many problems and for this reason artists should feel a responsibility on their shoulder to maintain a critical attitude instead of a superficial glorification.

　　Fu: Regarding the theme of “contemporary”, my previous paintings like Wood Sprite, Buddhist Journey in Recollection, View Talking, Tibetan Land, Tibetan Land and etc. along the way have all manifested an effort of seeking a “breakthrough” and a new approach as well. You once said to me, “Contemporary art is about pushing your limits, about trying whatever others haven’t experimented, and about getting ahead.” During this process, I was all the way hesitant, painful and at loss. Although a lot of my works also came out during this period, I did feel like I would give up because it was really difficult. For instance, when you mentored for graduates of oil painting majors in Sichuan Academy of Fine Arts for two years, I had been to their exhibitions of graduation works. Some of these paintings really impressed me while some others gave off a feeling of floating uncertainty. But I did realize that it represented a new system. It was a rather long period of time before I finally recognized and correctly comprehended it. It was the end of the year before last when I moved here in 501 and there was a high frequency of exhibitions and lectures here in Huangjiaoping back then; for instance in the activity of graffiti in the street, 501 had organized a forum hosted by Wang Lin and sparkled by speeches made by you, Wang Nanming and Zou Yuejin. I have benefited a lot from it! As far as I am concerned, a good variety of academic activities have well served as an optimum cut-in point for finding oneself, understanding oneself or proving oneself.

　　Zhang: I’ve seen your complete series of Wood Sprite and many others too. They were well done and demonstrated certain thoughts as well. But still I would categorize them into something belonging to the last century and that is because Chinese artists didn’t start showing a concern for themselves until the 1980s or 1990s and artists back then hadn’t broken away from the restraint of that time. While in the west at the turn of last century, artists have started to care about themselves as an individual person. This is a symbol of a whole generation, a state of romanticism and idealism, but a past tense too. The contemporary, however, focuses on the study of the entire contemporariness, the whole world in general and the present plight. This is unlike the 1980s or 1990s when the past art used to be an expression of imaginary prosperity of spirit, which is different from the reflection of real anxieties over reality by today’s art.

　　Fu: And that’s why I invited you for a visit a couple of times during my process of searching. I remembered you told me that you were unable to “point the way” but could “block the way”. After being “blocked” for several times, I went down with my confidence for a while. But I was also very happy because I started to do black and white paintings since then. You then commented after seeing my works, “That’s it now”. I suddenly felt like I had finally made it to the top of a high mountain and for a while have floated away from myself, really relieved, the kind of comfort when you saw a silver lining of a cloud.

　　Zhang: I might be engaged in artistic creation for a longer period and seen relatively more in this field. As a teacher facing a great number of students I’m not able to rely on any means to point out a feasible as well as effective way because each individual has his or her own way to blaze. However, what I can do instead is to “block the way”, which means that I’m capable of making the judgment as what you do is appropriate or not and then let you pass or keep searching. When I saw your collection of black and white paintings, I immediately felt that a system is possible and it is capable of sustainable development as well. As a result, I made you pass.

　　Fu: That’s why I also felt a relief or relaxation ever since then. The previous works all had a focus on a thought-provoking nature and delicacy although with a magnitude of talent and power. The works in that period were created solely for the purpose and pleasure of painting and still remained at the phase of seeking a painting language and therefore had nothing really related to the reality. These paintings, however, have found the best verbal image and representative form for the various moods, thoughts and anxieties of all kinds that are related to my present existence as well as in my mind.

　　Zhang: The explanation is due to the variation of contemporary art and there is no such thing as a unified standard. It is judged by intuition and each individual artist represents a unique mode. I can tell your artistic creations in the past were an obvious obsession with the last century while your current works can be easily categorized as the paintings by an contemporary artist at glance because these paintings are “on the spot”. Art doesn’t need parking or repetition, but rather a push-forward; innovation can be really difficult to achieve but we may not necessarily need that. But what we can do is a bring-in on the basis of our predecessors.

　　Fu: Since I’ve moved here I’ve been to a lot of studios such as yours and those of Guo Jin and Yang Shu. When I saw the black and white Mr. Crow series by Guo Jin, I was immediately in love with them. Guo Jin then said to me, “You can also try with black, white and grey tone.” This came as a major enlightenment to me and ever since then I started the creation with white, black and grey tones. The trying began in a fairly slow and laid-back fashion but was not so much of a profound perception. It was like people eating pizzas. You started with one pizza and then moved on to the second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth and the seventh until you feel you’re full. In this case you can never skip the first 6 pizzas and jump to the very last one directly. With a lot of people in Chongqing engaged in painting practice, Huangjiaoping has always been the most concentrative and effective spot in contemporary art and I think it’s a very good platform for interactive communication.

　　Zhang: It has well developed into a tradition.

　　Fu: My relocation here was back in 2006 when, in my own point of view or in other artists’ eyes as well, my style has undertaken a kind of change. This change was actually fundamental ever since I moved here in Huangjiaoping.

　　Zhang: You still put a lot at stakes, didn’t you?

　　Fu: That was for sure. I didn’t sell any of my paintings created in recent half a year while a lot of people showed interest in collection and among those would-be buyers are most art organizations and art galleries. I would want a retrospect and allow my thoughts precipitate. I’m thinking of having exhibitions of my own like personal exhibition or group collection.

　　Zhang: My suggestion is you should not misled by the market and should have a clear idea about where you’re going. All masterpieces bear a close relationship with current times and only the contemporariness can catch people’s attention. Although artistic works themselves are commercially labeled, they can never be taken as a pure commodity.

　　Fu: Those paintings in the past were basically self-entertaining, showing off artistic passion or simply doing what I already felt home at. With my current creation, however, I feel a more strong involvement and will think about the quality and honesty conveyed in the connotations of a specific painting. Besides, a sense of urgency and mission will also start me thinking about the fact that this painting is what I have to present or not.

　　Zhang: Is there anything else you care about apart from the painting?

　　Fu: I’ve got a wide range of concerns: national defense and military affairs, religious beliefs, philosophy and psychology, cultural geography, mysteries in deep space, fossil archeology, mysterious cultures, etc.

　　Zhang: All these can find expressions in your paintings?

　　Fu: These are the themes that have always captured my attention. I often watch National Geographic and World of Animals channel and they can offer you quite a lot of unexpected visual sensations. It was quite a while since I read a report about this place in Norway in northern Europe where a kind of animal called lemming has a surprisingly strong reproductive capacity. Roughly, an adult female lemming can give birth to 20-30 baby lemmings within one single week. Then what about the over breeding? They have their own regular rule to solve this problem. When some get old or sick, their bodies will turn into a kind of orange color and the purpose for this is to attract the attention of their predators like eagles up in the sky. If this doesn’t work out and proliferation unfavorably continues at a rate too fast for the capacity of the prairies and rangelands, what will these little creatures do then? Quite surprisingly, they will desperately keep running towards one direction. The running may last about one whole month during daytime and at night as well for a total distance of over one kilometer. They will make a daring dash towards anything that comes in their way, including stones and trees without the thought of dodging. As a result, a great number of lemmings will get killed in this way. They will never stop in front of rivers either, in which case the front runners will unite in a clump and those coming up will cross the water by stepping on those dead bodies and keep running forward. They will never dodge along their way.

　　Zhang: Kind of suicide?

　　Fu: Definitely. When the masses finally make it to the cliff along the Norwegian coast, they will fearlessly conduct the collective act of jumping off the cliff and get drowned in the sea. That is something tragically heroic. Similar stories about animals keep occupying my mind and stimulating my nerves. I gradually feel a special attachment to them and naturally they have found a way into my works as object matters and images. It is also easy to combine them into different pictures.

　　Zhang: Artist’s creation has close relations with his or her way of thinking, and the artist’s structure of knowledge is also an influential factor to his or her paintings.

　　Fu: This is subconscious and involuntary, always precipitated and sifted in my thoughts and feelings.

　　Zhang: The nature is a great mystery indeed. I used to be an antitheist and always believed in determinism, which states the nature has its own rules and such rules are graspable. As I get older and older with knowledge piling up, I feel my personal power becomes more and more insignificant.

　　Fu: Just like a poet once put it: we have an imagination that only God possesses but we have only wings of mortals and therefore can never fly up into the sky. There’s no transcendence.

　　Zhang: The great nature also has a “God” of its own to govern it. I do not believe in gods but I do believe there is a supernatural power. Who is in charge of that great power? How does this power come into being? This is an ultimate question.

　　Fu: Now there comes a series of questions to tackle, for instance, the existence of God. Space science and technology have seen a great development in the world today but we are instead at a loss as to where to find the God. This is also confusion.

　　Zhang: It’s for sure that God will not be found because he’ll never exist in the space.

　　Fu: This has similarity to an action art.

　　Zhang: If God really exists, he will not be a specific regulation either.

　　Fu: This is the same as the expression of consciousness through this selection of my paintings. There’s also a religious feeling, a Buddhist feeling to be specific, involved. The power of Buddha has no limits and this kind of “limitless” should not be understood in a confined context of physical magnitude, but instead should be explained as an unbiased position with no extreme preference and be placed in vanity. Therefore, each painting of mine has left a lot of vacant space without any occupation and this is for leaving room for more imagination to come in. I traveled to the Jiuhua Mountain in the year 2002 and took my lodge on that mountain that night. However, when I woke up in the next morning I found a tangle of hair missing at the back of my head. I checked the pillow and bed sheet and found no traces of any hair. I thought it was quite magical and was shocked too. When I came back from my trip, I read an issue of Reference News which carried a report about American aerospace crafts Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 which had traveled at a speed of 57000km/h for 12 years and would soon fly out of the solar system; the latter part of the news coverage is even more interesting: what is the concept of solar system? It is one of the quadrillion of the Milky Way system. Then what is the concept of the Milky Way system? It is one of the quadrillion of the galaxies. It is not worth mentioning how insignificant we human beings are. That is a rather illusive emptiness and it immediately arouses a rootless feeling, which consequently and naturally finds expression in my paintings.

　　Zhang: This cosmic view and the attitude towards the nature will definitely influence your artistic creation. As far as my understanding goes, mankind are insignificantly small and lowly, and what we can only do within our range of capability is to do art right by relying on our own means and then use it to fend off the powerless reverie about the sky. This is the minor comfort that artists obtain when confronted with the void pressure imposed by the immense and infinite universe

　　Notes sorted out by: Li Xingqiang, postgraduate of Academic School, Sichuan Academy of Fine Arts

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