Art+Interview | Chen
He said, "Without faith, I have no way out. I drew many lines and eyes. This is the world I am afraid of, this is the life I am afraid of, and this is the hope I believe in. I think people's eyes are honest and can see the soul. 」
The following is the interview.
Chi=C
Chen ruyan =Yr
C: When did you start painting this abstract style?
Yr: That should be the first time I went to Taitung, when I was still in college. Although Taiwan Province Province is very small, there are actually many places I have never been to. Taitung is a very, very beautiful place, so the first time I went to Taitung, my heart was immediately captured by the beautiful scenery there, and then I lived there for a month because of fate, during which I began to paint constantly. I am alone, looking for inspiration for painting while traveling. Taiwan Province Province is surrounded by the sea, Taitung is close to the Pacific Ocean, and the southwest is the Central Mountain Range. Wandering between mountains and seas gives me a very different feeling. It was about that time that I began to draw this more abstract style. In fact, when I was very young, I would draw some small illustrations, and then I saw an exhibition of Xia Jiaer in the National Palace Museum. Xia Jiaer's works deeply touched me. It was at that time that I began to contact oil painting, and then I came into contact with propylene, so I switched from oil painting to propylene. Now it's oil painting and acrylic. I'm drawing.
In your self-report, you actually majored in advertising design in high school. After a period of low life, you turned to faith and began to study theology. What kind of low life has changed your whole life direction?
Yr: Because I was quite rebellious in high school. Sometimes I fight and do something out of line. In short, he is a not very good child. In the meantime, a friend of my mother took me to church. Maybe it was at that time that I was moved by the spirit of religion, and then I entered the church and began to believe in religion. Then, due to fate, during the period when I graduated from high school, one day my grandmother was reading a newspaper. At that time, because my family thought I didn't like studying very much, she saw that the theological seminary of Evergreen University was enrolling students independently and asked me if I wanted to register, so I went to register, and the interview passed. In this way, I began to study theology after graduating from high school.
The preacher said, "vanity, vanity, everything is vanity." Nothing is interesting, and people can't say it all. Look, I can't get enough of it; Listening, not enough. I saw that everything I did under the sun was vanity and chasing after the wind. Because there is more wisdom and more troubles; He who increases knowledge increases sadness. 」 "
C: What exactly are you going to study at the seminary?
Yr: Theology is actually a very extensive subject. For example, I believe in Protestantism, which is different from Catholicism. Theology will also involve a lot of philosophy and religious history, such as our Asian folk religions. Of course, there are also some church etiquette courses, including learning to sing hymns. At that time, we also had a special course called "Spiritual Shaping". If you look at my report card, you will know that I have no idea what this course is about. In short, it trains our relationship with God. It sounds mysterious, but my understanding is actually preaching the meaning of compassion and love.
C: It can be seen from your writing and your painting language that art and theology are two sides of a whole for you. What do you think of art and theology, and what is the internal relationship between them?
Yr: For me, faith is the meaning of life, and then art is the driving force of life. Without this inner inspiration, there would be no motivation for my artistic creation. Art should be avant-garde, just like the prophet in the Bible, which makes people see themselves, the present and the future clearly.
C: At first glance, your paintings are very childlike. Lots of lines and figures are repeated, and bright colors jump, which can make people feel strong emotions. But the content of the painting contains many religious contents and symbols. What kind of feelings do you want to express through your paintings?
Yr: I started to create many such acrylic paintings or oil paintings, mainly from my college days. Evergreen University is a very rural place in the south of Taiwan Province Province. Surrounded by endless fields and popular pineapples, you can see a whole pineapple field. The weather in the south is fine, with blue sky and white clouds. At dusk, the sunset will dye the whole sky red. So I think the use of my colors is actually the result of the integration of the natural scenery I saw at that time and some things around me, so my works are very colorful. Of course, I was also influenced by Picasso. Whether writing a paper or drawing, I was influenced by him. Once, I drew a series of Jesus, and I dressed them all in Hanfu. I drew a very China Jesus, which is a series of small works. I showed these paintings to Professor Song Quansheng who instructed me. He said to me, "Ru Yan, you really changed your medicine. You just changed clothes for Jesus, but your mind hasn't changed. Go and see Picasso's works, how he deconstructed and reconstructed them, and how he broke his mother's things and recreated them. " Of course, faith is also what I want to express most in art. My spirit has always come from my faith, or the two are integrated, so painting is a way for me to express all this. When I understand the openness and freedom of faith and art, my works also embody openness and freedom.
C: Your works have undergone great changes in each period. How many different stages do you think your creation is divided into? What changes have taken place in environment and mood?
Yr: I think the first stage is the school and social education I experienced since I was a child. I remember one thing very clearly. When I was a child, my mother took me to that kind of art college, which was similar to a cram school, and then the children painted professional plaster statues in it. After each painting, the teachers will start grading, and then put all the students' works on the ground one by one, and arrange them from beginning to end according to the quality of the paintings. So at that time, all my paintings were put in the back, because I had never painted that plaster statue, which was something I remembered deeply when I was a child. Later, in high school, I studied the professional knowledge of advertising design, chromatics and composition. Although it was very free at that time, it did not break away from the framework education.
Then the second stage should start when I leave home and travel to various places in Taiwan Province Province. I have been to Taitung and the small island next to Taiwan Province Province, and started a self-help tour. The scenery on the trip gave me new inspiration. I'm thinking about how to talk to nature, where I live, and myself. It can be said that I found myself at this stage. I think the third stage started from 20 15 when I first came to Paris. At that time, she was an unknown world to me, and all the shocks suddenly changed some of my inherent views on art and aesthetics. At that time, I felt that Paris was above all cities, but I went to Kyoto and Beijing and then returned to Paris. For me, she is now one of all cities. Paris has not changed, what has changed is my experience and perspective in the past three years. This city is not the end for me, but the unknown starting point.
C: Actually, everyone has his own city in his heart. When you first came to Paris, what impression did she leave on you?
Yr: I remember when I first came here, I just felt that I was in a completely different world. I went to Pompidou and met my favorite artists, such as Picasso, Xia Jiaer, Van Gogh and Monet. In this city, I constantly experience a feeling of love, always falling out of love in the next second of love, as if our acquaintance is about to break up. Just like in the subway, we stand on different platforms, one east and the other west. The moment we went to tiemenguan, we lost each other and may never see each other again.
C: Some of your works, such as Self and Flowers of Dreams, remind me of the rose windows of European churches. Is that so?
Yr: That's true. I have been to many ancient European churches during my trip, and the design of church window grilles really inspired me. I also drew a picture of Notre Dame de Paris.
You see many symbols of "eyes" in your paintings. In fact, such symbols have appeared in various cultures and religions, such as the eye of Arus; Eye of providence of God; There are also "five eyes" in Buddhism. It is only said that people with Medusa's eyes in Greek mythology will become fossils, and Argos is a giant with 100 pairs of eyes ... So what does the symbol of eyes represent in your painting?
Yr: I think the eyes are the most real. When I see a person, when I see his eyes, the Buddha can see his soul. It can be said that the eye is the organ that can best see or understand the human soul. At the same time, eyes are also a kind of pressure. When you are watched, when you are regarded as the focus of everyone, it becomes a kind of pressure. For me, eyes are also the future. It focuses on the future.
He said, "The world I see is like a halo scattered from an object in a blooming flower. The world I see in my eyes is illusory and unreal, and there is no reality in the reality of dreams. I imagine myself as a flower that is about to bloom and grow in light and shadow, and I see a limited illusion in infinity. "
C: Your works have self-portraits in different periods. Self-portraits can be traced back to the Renaissance. From the beginning, the painter took himself as a model, and later, self-portrait gradually became an inner self-dialogue of the painter's soul. What kind of experience have you had in the process of drawing selfies?
Yr: All my self-portraits are honest representations of myself. They honestly reflect myself at every period, age and experience. I remember Frida Kahlo once said this sentence. She said: I draw so many self-portraits because no one knows myself better than me. So taking selfies is a process for me to find and know my truest self. When I am in a bad mood or very sad, I face myself. Or the emotions and attitudes I show when I experience various things. What people show externally may only be what others expect of him, but it is not necessarily their true self. So when I draw a self-portrait, I will record every emotion at that moment in the most authentic and honest way, and then think back about my present, my past and my future.
C: I heard that you held a solo exhibition in Paris this year. Why did you choose this city? Is this your first exhibition in Paris?
Yr: That's right, because I happen to know my current curatorial team. I like the city of Paris very much, and it can be said that it is in the right place at the right time.
C: Seeing that you have also made many products around art, I personally think that sometimes this kind of art derivative is more communicative than the work itself. What was your original intention in designing these artworks?
Yr: These design artworks derived from my paintings are very popular with everyone, and I am also very happy, because it is a very good way for a large number of people to see and accept my works, and it is also a way of promotion and image sales. For example, the funding source of our exhibition mainly depends on crowdfunding, so we will take these surrounding artworks as crowdfunding feedback. This is actually a good thing, because it may be a little difficult for some people to buy a painting, but it is relatively simple to buy a surrounding artwork, whether it is a silk scarf or an environmental protection bag, but he can also have my art and what we designed.
C: So at this time of the New Year, do you have any plans for your future life or creation?
Yr: I still live in Paris because I will hold an exhibition here in March this year. I haven't stopped traveling either. In fact, I just came back from Holland and brought back some new inspiration, so I am preparing a new creation. Later, I also look forward to the opportunity to go to the mainland to do an exhibition and let more people see me. Oh, yes, in fact, a public welfare exhibition is being prepared recently, which will be held in several hospitals here in Paris. The reason is that I met a priest in Paris before, and he liked my works very much, so I hope I can show my works in some hospitals for those who can't leave the hospital because of illness. Can bring some bright colors and warm care to these people who are tortured by diseases.
Chen Paris's curatorial team consists of four young people living in France, (from left to right) Nicholas, a multimedia and freelance designer; Song Zhengxue, doctor of biomedicine, master of classical artistic marketing; ? Wang Wei, Ph.D. in Semiotics, Department of Communication, engaged in curating and appraising Asian antique art; ? Xu Xiangyi is a master of plastic arts and contemporary artistic marketing. ? They are committed to discovering contemporary Asian artists, pushing them to the international stage and letting the world hear the voice of Asia.
Art+interview is aimed at both the traditional older generation and the contemporary young people. Inheritance and cutting-edge interweave, vicissitudes collide with vitality, and the nation merges with the world. Under all external quirks, only the love and piety of art will never change. Every interview is a search for the true self of art, and the road is long, and I am not alone.
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