Yang Yongliang was born in 1980 in Jiading, a town in Fujian province; he now works and lives in Shanghai. The issues his art deals with are quite obvious but it doesn’t make them less interesting. That we can see when first watching a picture by Yang is the whole Chinese pictorial tradition. The scrolls catch the watcher’s eye to bring him to a journey in the eternity of shānshuĭ landscapes. Shānshuĭ, (literally Mountain-Water) means, in Chinese, landscape painting, which indeed, often represents mountains and rivers. It is precisely what we see watching one of Yang’s painting. And there is no doubt that not only he masters the technique of shānshuĭ but, most of all, that he knows its history and appreciates its spirit, its deep philosophical implications. The goal of shānshuĭ was above all to reflect the painter’s states of mind; it is an intimate and highly intellectual exercise which calls for an active contemplation by the spectator for what is offered to him is a journey inside the painted landscape itself. There is no perspective in Chinese painting for there is no focal point. The artwork is generally composed from several juxtaposed points of view, thus making the stroll along the stream or the mountain path as important as the stream or the mountain.

Thousand Li of River and Montains-Wang Ximeng (11th Century)

And, it is the way we gaze at Yang Yongliang’s landscapes, as they are often inspired by famous classical art pieces. But, after a few minutes, we have to look closer for we begin to feel some discomfort, like if the quietness of the piece was cracking. And, indeed, it is only very close to it that the whole sense of the picture appears. These quiet, eternal landscapes reminding of the retreat of the Literatis, symbolic of contemplation are nothing but trompe-l’oeil which represent in fact an outrageous urbanization where nature doesn’t have its place any more. What we thought to be fine strokes for pine trees are, in reality, power lines towers stretching as far as the eye can see. Mountains are jumbles of skyscrapers which one day were built on a hill and, since, had entirely engulfed it. Yang Yongliang’s landscapes are urban landscapes disguised in shānshuĭ.

Viridescence N°2, 2009 - Source : Paris-Beijing Photo gallery

Yang artworks come from two kinds of inspiration which can, a priori, seem contradictory. He is a child from the countryside who arrived in Shanghai when he was in his early twenties; he is a contemporary artist with a very classical background for he learnt Chinese calligraphy and shānshuĭ; he saw the city of Shanghai grow and expand upon Pudong, a village on the other side of Huang Pu river, which used to provide the city with fruits and vegetables and which is now a field of luminous towers. He knows, for he lived it in Jiading, his home town, the expanding urbanization of the years 2000. His work shows the modification of the rural landscape to its complete disappearance. It obviously contains all the environment issues related to this kind of development. The intrinsic contradiction of Yang Yongliang’s shānshuĭ – showing an unstable landscape under the appearance of the very symbol of stability and immutability – emphasizes the deadlock situation to which the Chinese urbanization politics is doomed.

Moreover, Yang’s work reflects cultural concerns, beyond the urbanization concern. There is, of course, the matter of confrontation of classical art and modern technology. In this confrontation, Yang’s interest lies in promoting the cultural heritage he has and feels responsible for. Mixing shānshuĭ, photography, and software, is, above everything, a way for the artist to rely on tradition in order to create contemporary art: “But as a Chinese artist, what I need to reflect upon is whether our culture should be revolutionary or evolutionary? Should our contemporary art be a castle in the air or based in the roots of our traditional culture? The form is contemporary but what on earth do we understand what is contemporary art?”[1] he says. It is, according to him, a matter of creating an art heir to its own tradition. The lack of link between Chinese contemporary art and Chinese art history is a regret he incessantly expresses and which causes his aversion for movement like Political Pop, considered by him to be disconnected from any Chinese artistic reference.

Phantom Landscape III N°4, 2007 - Source: Galerie Paris-Beijing

At this point, we could use a minute to dwell on Yang contempt for movement inherited from Socialist Realism. As we have already noticed, Yang was born in 1980. In Chinese recent history, the generational issue is one of importance when it comes to artistic background and heritage. Thus, the fact that he was born after the end of the Cultural Revolution have allowed him to benefit from a classical education. The eldest, more deeply influenced by the Socialist realist aesthetic and less by the traditional forms of Chinese painting, were more disposed to create according to their own pictorial heritage, which is very different from Yang’s. Even though I share his lack of interest for those movements, the argument on which he grounds his reproach seems quite unfair. For this generation – an even from an objective point of view – the Cultural Revolution and Socialist Realism belong to cultural History of China and it was unthinkable that a particular form of art had not be born from it.

Besides, it seems that this volition Yang has to integrate tradition to contemporary creation belongs to a larger movement of the Chinese cultural field consisting in a recovery of tradition and history. One of the most striking examples is the one of film industry who invests more and more in historical productions: pictures about famous characters of History or important historical moments. The Emperor and the assassin by Chen Kaige (1999), Hero by Zhang Yimou (2002) – both about Qin Shi Huangdi, the first Emperor –, and The Red Cliff by John Woo (2008) – about the Three Kingdoms era – are few examples to which we can add The Dream in the Red Chamber by Cao Xueqin adaptation for television (2009). The cultural world, doing such a return on History, appears to be willing to support Chinese economic growth by recalling what a great power China used to be, thus signifying that it is nothing but normal that it gets back to what it was. Relying on pictures from the past – and even sometimes imitating them – Yang Yongliang expresses a kind of cultural nationalism which recollects the greatness of the past to justify, and motivate the present development.

Among them, one of the most talented is Li Songsong who is interested in the historical value of image, of its signification and in seeking a new aesthetic language inducted by the dialogue between two artistic practices: photography and painting.

Taoyuan Airport, 2008 - Source: Pace Beijing Gallery

Li Songsong was born in Beijing in 1973. He was three years old when Mao Zedong died; and yet, it is precisely this period going from the Civil War to the Cultural Revolution that his work deals with. One of his first pieces – The Square (2001) – was inspired by a magazine cover of 1976. The photograph shows a crowd standing on Tiananmen Square and mourning Mao. Li’s painting takes up the pattern of the countless busts wearing white shirts, and brown-haired heads slightly bended down in sign of respect; the perfect alignment creating an effect of endless perspective. The place – Tiananmen Square – has disappeared from the painting, leaving to this scene nothing but the weight of numbers and emotion. Speaking of this piece, Li highlighted the difficulties he encountered to recreate the photograph in its wholeness.

Without changing the source of the photographs – all his pieces of work from 2001 to 2004 are taken after pictures showing great events or great places of Chinese contemporary History: Nixon’s visit in 1972 (Watching a play, 2004), second sino-japanese war (Gift, 2004), the People’s National Congress (The Decameron, 2004) – Li changed his method after this first try. In order to catch the photograph in its integrity, he decided to fragment it; each fragment is due to be a painting of its own. It is only the assemblage of all paintings that reconstitutes the original photograph.

Long Live The Revolution, 2009 - Source : Pace Beijng Gallery

Beyond the paintings’ photographic source and fragmentation, Li Songsong’s method must be explained in greater details. He paints, one layer after another, until he obtains a thick coat of paint which he works on with wide brushstrokes or with his fingers. There is a contrast between these large and flat parts of colour that highlights the segmentation of the piece and the traces of fingers that unifies the motif. This manner is due to Li’s personal search of disconnection from oil painting history. The artist declares that his goal – and pleasure – lies in the endeavour of creating a new manner consisting in painting on colour instead of painting on canvas. It is nothing less than taking distance from oil painting tradition.

Moreover, this way of working on the material itself coheres to sculpture, to bas-relief. Indeed, the thick paint only becomes figurative when worked in its depth. Therefore, it is only with distance that the wholeness and unity of the picture can be seen and understood. Like Giacometti’s sculptures and paintings, Li Songsong’s pieces keep an irremediable distance with the viewer for they bear this distance and impose it to the viewer.

The picture takes is narrative power from this formal work. Indeed, Li’s relation to History must be understood through the prism of distance. Obviously, his work deals with politics. But the artist never accentuates this aspect of his works; on the contrary, he insistently minimizes it. He constantly declares that the choice of historical photographs is nothing but an aesthetic one. It is the artistic value of the photograph that imposes itself to the artist and not its topic. Precisely, if he doesn’t deny the political aspect of his work, he tries as much as possible to give it autonomy. The work is political per se, but there is no political intention given to it by the artist. In interviews, he refuses to give any opinion because the link between his work and him is an intimate one: physical and emotional. Everything coincides to make the artist’s subjectivity disappear: from the choice of the picture, to the fragmentation approach which make the picture abstract by concentrating the attention on a little part of it, through the act of painting in itself which is only a way for the artist to relax. For Li Songsong, painting is a game. Reality is much more fun than what art can make from it and doesn’t need art to be translated or beautified. He even adds that it is not the goal of art to construe reality. Therefore, he considers his work to be a dialogue between two artistic facts, painting and photography. If the viewer reacts to the picture, it means that the event showed still represents something; then, Li can only notice that the memory is not lost yet. History recollection is not aimed, it is only incidental. The effort to make the piece physically distant can, thus, be read as an effort to keep the historical event distant, as well.

Public Enemy, 2008 - Source: Pace Beijing Gallery

Since SARS epidemic, which shattered Chinese daily life, Li Songsong has diversified the photographic sources of his paintings: next to the historical picture, there are, now, pictures taken from the news. This diversification does not change the meaning of his approach since there is no difference for him between historical pictures and news pictures. As History, photography is something past; every kind of photograph will, thus, belong to history. Nonetheless, the choice is restricted to newsreel, which can be understood as History in construction (Public Enemy, 2008[1]). Both thought and look must take the same distance in front of recent or old event, anecdotal instant or historical situation.

The fact that Li Songsong’s choices does not go as far as private picture – family pictures for example – shows that he still interrogates notions of History or collective recollection. The way that he persistently refuses to take any political position or that he minimizes the ones his works can show brings us to read his attitude as litotes.

According to Gao Minglu, in Chinese art, “Realism is always and only a methodology. It is a set of self-constructed, virtualized visual forms by which the artist gives shape to his or her own understanding of reality, and not a so-called true reflection of reality.[2]” From the 70’s to the 90’s, realist aesthetic used by artists (photorealism, observation of daily life reality, metaphysical interrogation) was mixed with idealism. For the following generation, – the one of Li Songsong – there is no more room for such a thing as idealism. Realism is not able to transcribe reality anymore. Therefore, even if these artists’ works has a realist appearance, it is a fragmentary one which often takes form of snapshots. In this context, Li Songsong’s work has a unique technique and aesthetic inasmuch as it subtly introduces the notion of distance. This distance is both a physical distance between the painting and the viewer, a critical distance taken by the artist with his own painting practice and with notions of History or event, and, whatever he may or may not say about it, a demand of reflection and detachment.

[1] The man on the picture is Yang Jia. In 2008, he was arrested in Shanghai for a supposedly bicycle theft and was beaten up by the policemen. A few days after, he came back to the police station armed with a Molotov cocktail and a knife: he stabbed about ten policemen and killed six of them. A great support and protest movement was generated by the fact that his trial was stained with great irregularities (among them, the suspicion of conflict of interest bearing upon his lawyer). He was executed on November 26^th, 2008.

[2] The Wall, Reshaping Contemporary Chinese Art, Gao Minglu, The Albright Knox Art Gallery and China Millennium Museum of Art, New York and Beijing, 2005, p.116

Since I am a modern art specialist, I first chose Anna Ning Fine Arts, for it “Exhibition of Masters of 20^th century Chinese Art” among which I would be able to see some pieces by Zao Wou Ki… The welcome of the lady in charge was not so warm and cordial; but, after all, it wasn’t her I came to see. The pieces were gorgeous, as powerful that I imagined them. Zao Wou Ki is the symbol of what the meeting of two different traditions can best give. His abstract paintings are highly evocative; they foster imagination and reverie like no others. It seems that he has a universe of his own that he dares share with the spectator, who is literally absorbed with fascination. The depth of the colour and the subtlety of the brush give to his pictures a rare elegance and nobility. No wonder their lyrical abstraction inspired most famous French poets of the twentieth Century, from Henri Michaux to Yves Bonnefoy, including René Char: a painting by Zao Wou Ki is a breath-taking poem.

Source : Anna Ning Fine Art

Then, I went to see Ben Brown Fine Art Opening Exhibition on Pedder Street. The elegant, large and bright space offers a subtle mix of Modern and Contemporary art. Some Warhol’s, a drawing by Giacometti, Gerhard Richter, a little Matisse next to Damien Hirst’s Aurora, and photographs by Helmut Newton or Candida Höfer. If you want to talk about a potential purchase, you will sit on a Ron Arad chair and if you actually buy a piece, you will sign your check on a table “Bleue” by Yves Klein… Secure values in times of crisis, but a really fine taste. It is a nice place to review your classics, both ancient and modern. Tamsin Roberts will welcome you cordially and take time to guide you within the gallery.

 My paces got me to Hollywood Road. It is like “la rue de Seine” in Paris: a street full of galleries. But as everyone can imagine they are not equal. I stopped by the Connoisseur Gallery where I saw some pieces by Jia Juan Li. She is a Chinese artist based in South of France. She is inspired by the tales of Qing dynasty’s times and her paintings shows luxurious gardens, palaces and young ladies. Though the portraits are well designed and expressive, her landscapes or gardens are far more interesting as they suggest with subtlety and delicacy a bygone and carefree atmosphere. The colors and the paintbrush show the influence of the École des Beaux-Arts d’Aix-en-Provence where she studied twenty years ago; indeed, the golden veil that seems to filter the light is distinctive of Mediterranean countries, it is the same gold that you can find in Cezanne or Van Gogh paintings. Furthermore, the thick material she uses and “sculpts” gives depth to the picture accentuating the shadows thus giving a vivid impression of the play of light on the surface. Watching at a big sized painting by Jia Juan Li reminds you the summer games of Jia Baoyu and Lin Daiyu in Cao Xueqin’s Dream in a Red Chamber.

 Next to Connoisseur Gallery is Connoisseur Contemporary where I have been able to see pictures by Guo Hongwei. This young artist works on the process of memory, how it can be both vivid and blurry. What is most interesting is the technique he uses as it reflects this very process of memory. Indeed, his paintings are made from his family’s pictures that he draws with black or dark blue ink on a white neutral canvas and which he dissolves afterwards. This manner is also related to the artist’s technical concern with traces and marks of images, what is left of an image after it is seen.

Little Knight - Source : Connoisseur Contemporary

The result is strongly affecting as the painting seems to be a reminiscence of the past: imprecise, yet utterly present; something coming from the depth of the artist’s mind and softly entering the spectator’s. Doing so, Guo Hongwei’s art evinces the generation gap between artists born in the sixties and early seventies on one hand, and, on the other hand, his generation, born in the early eighties. He is a one-child policy child, born in times of Reform, stability and economic growth. Thus, he doesn’t deal with collective, political or sociological issues, his are more individual, personal – intimate we can say –, and it is precisely this that makes it strongly universal.

 My last stop was at the Contemporary by Angela Li’s exhibition I am Rich! I will have a few words about Liao YiBai. He is a sculptor born in the early seventies in Sichuan Province. His work deals with the symbolic objects of both Chinese and Western’s culture. His sculptures are made of a bright and polished stainless steel. It gives the impression of a shiny show-off material which fits exactly the objects represented, especially those of the Fake Series like the banknote of RMB  18 (RMB 18 HD 90), or like the Real Rolls-lex, a big wrist watch referring the famous brand. Liao Yibai makes his point with an ironic and intelligent sense of humour which proves that it is not incompatible with aesthetic quality.  

RMB18 HD90 - Source : Contemporary by Angela Li

Can you explain to me where does this piece come from, how did you create it?  

I will try to explain it step by step. I tried to include all that I learnt from my studies: I learnt how to record movies; I learnt interactive things, new media, programming things, hardware: these are all the things that I wanted to include in my work. Then, I thought about choices related to money… First of all, I like the experience of inserting money to buy things. Nowadays, we use the Octopus card[1] but I love the experience of inserting coins. I find interesting to understand buying-machines. I travelled through Europe and, I don’t remember where, but there were a lot of buying-machines. Not only the ones in train station from which you can buy drinks or snacks but ones from which you can buy a bag maybe! Nowadays there are mobile phone in vending-machines and many other things; it is interesting. And I was wondering if it was interesting to buy something from a movie. Finally I chose the pixel as a kind of product.  

From the beginning I loved interactive arts, hardware and programming, and it had to be an installation. These were my three own requirements for this work. For the interactive parts, it had to deal with audiovisual event and the movement of the body. And that makes me think that inserting coins is actually an interaction.  

The basic one…  

But no one thinks about it as interactive. Also, I wanted to bring a vending-machine in a space of art. Art as a frame to place a vending machine is somehow commercial. The comparison there is quite unique and interesting for me.  

So you choose to sell pixels of movies; there are twenty movies. Can you tell me which movies you have chosen and why, and also how did you choose those particular excerpts?  

Actually, the original idea is that I love the sky[2]. From the very beginning I wanted to have a general subject matter and that could be anything… a thing totally objective and somehow subjective. After I thought about feelings, emotions, memory and I thought of the sky because it is totally objective. But if you have seen this movie, you will have your own feelings. I provide my feelings to you but I like to know which one you choose. I provide myself, the things I care for and I want to know your response.  

Originally I would like to have movies mainly about the sky, like Tokyo.Sora. But it is hard to find. The other criterion was that these movies had to be famous, if no one has seen it, it is pointless. The problem is that Titanic is too famous!  

You told me that you’re an artist because you want to express yourself. But do you think that art should hold a message? Do artists have a role of teaching people about issues?  

Oh! No! Of course not! Some works can express me, express feelings, emotions; but some works can have more ideas. I love the movie if I just have  

a correct reading of this kind of work, if you look much deeper, it is another work. I like the different stage of thinking.  

It depends on what the artist feels and not on the role of art?  

It depends on the moment of their life… I think that diary is a kind of artwork: the audience is yourself, but each time you read it, you have different feelings. Every feeling can be art if you put a frame of art. But, there are many effects after doing that. Do I think that you need to place your diary in a gallery or in an exhibition? I don’t think so. But you can. But once you do that, there is a different perspective for many people for thinking about these things.  

A famous French writer, André Gide said: “Art rises in restraints, lives of battles and dies of freedom”. In situation, of lack of freedom, people use art to speak. Is it contradictory with what we said before?  

Art should stand for itself. Art is a language to express oneself. There are many people who use art as a means to aim some political purposes. But I think if they have a strong feeling of that in their deep heart, they can do it. If they use this as a way to impose, when art is use to teach something behind, I don’t like it.  

What do you hope for the future?  

You are asking me about my plans?  

Plans or Hopes! If you have plans and you can tell me about it, I will be glad to hear about it.  

This is a big question. At that stage, I am still thinking about it. Since I have just graduated, I am still wondering about who can I… what can I do for a living…  

You were about to say “Who can I be”, weren’t you?  

Yeah! There are many roads for one person: you can be the daughter of your mom, you can be part of the society… many roads and many things that you need to be. But for my future, I just try to keep thinking, try to do something and then keep thinking again. I need to fulfil the basic daily life for me and for my parents, the people that I feel concerned for. I need to follow the rules of society first. Beside I can do something I want, something to express myself.  

What do you mean by “follow the rules of society”?  

Money!!! I have to maintain my daily life, and to achieve the things I want.  For example: If I need to do this kind of work, I will need more money; I will need new technologies, I will need to evaluate the costs. I need to afford it.  

You told me about your parents: Have they been supportive?   

I choose art as my study, so they couldn’t blame me. My sister loves painting but she has just finished her studies and she needs to work. If she spends a lot of money on painting, they will think that she’s wasting it. Or if she paints overnight and wakes up late for work, they will be worried: worry makes them unhappy, and unhappiness makes them blame. It is always about cause and effect. So it was one of my survival skills to make art as my studies: at least, they won’t blame me.  

What do your parents do for a living?  

My mom is a worker in a clinic, my father is retired; I still support them to do whatever they want. They can do it if I have power to get money. It depends on my ability; I think I need to bear the responsibility for my parents… at least, because they are the most important people in my life. Parents are the most important things! You always have worries about the persons you really care for.  

[1] Octopus card is a kind of paying card used in Hong Kong to take the subway and to pay cheap items in small shops.  

[2]The sky occupies a prominent place in the excerpts chosen by Naomi Chan.

Where were you born? And how old are you?

I’m from Hong Kong and I’m 22.

When did you decide to follow an artistic path?

I studied art by myself until I was sixteen. Since my school didn’t have art classes, I went to the painting centre, where you can learn and meet local artists. The reason why I choose art is because I wanted to express myself. This is interesting, because I love art, I love drawing, I love painting but painting is different from text: You just need a pen to draw to express yourself and deliver a visual message to the public. I think it is a much stronger way to make people think.

During your studies, you learnt about art history: did you learn about foreign art history, Chinese art history, or both?

Actually, I learn about local art history, Hong Kong things first. Since my teachers are local artists, they teach many things about local art. And only after, at university, I learnt about the –isms: Cubism, impressionism, etc. At the very beginning, I just learnt how to express myself from the basics.

If that is possible, because it is not always possible, can you tell me what is your favourite piece of art?

Present? or yet to come?

Laughs!

Interesting comment… First, present?

I can provide two maybe: I think this one (she shows the Video Vending Machine – A Piece of Sky) because I really like the concept; it represents the concept of my mind: through this work I understands myself more. And the other piece is a kind of prototype actually. It is a cube that I can rotate, light can diffract in the water inside, but I can’t get above the technical problems yet.

And from other artist, is there piece of art that you really like? Is there an artist who you feel close to?

I can have a little bit of connection but it is easier for me to think of the artist’s work. For me it is a little bit hard to feel associated to another artist’s work, since creating is a self-analysing process.

Actually, I can give you a name, Tian Shu (天书) by Xu Bing (徐 冰). His work impressed me very much. He took about four years to try to do a stamp. I think the duration of making work is somehow enjoyable or depressing, the process is interesting, really interesting. I love to experience that, so I love his work. And the piece is really massive!

Talking about the process of creation, how do you work? Do you work on one piece after another or do you work on different pieces at the same time?

Interesting! It depends on the stage of my studies or life I am at. Since my pieces are related to my studies, I need to have a grade so I need to have as much pieces as possible going on. So I keep thinking about all the ideas I can have: on Monday, I develop this one and one Tuesday I develop another one. There is always an on going project.

Do you enjoy working like that or is it difficult for you?

Sometime I would blame it: too easy! But I think work needs time to develop, so it buys me time to work. If I have ideas, I drop it down and maybe, one month later, I pick it up again. Since the stage of my life or my thinking is always changing, I just need to think about it again and again. Every time you think about an issue, you have different opinion, you may think about it with a new perspective.

And a piece like the Video Vending Machine-A piece of sky, how long have you been working on it?

From the brainstorming to the actual realization, with all the researches, it took three months. But due to technical problems you need to be always involved in it. And as there were many programs, I needed to solve them one by one. There were some programs I hadn’t used before, I’d only had the basic information from school, and I had to learn by myself.

You told me before that you like to draw and to paint, yet you choose media art to express yourself through art, why is that?

Good question… I have been thinking in the previous months about it. Painting is a one way media: I show my painting to you and you may feel something: I just provide you a feeling. But interactive or new media art give a two way connection. You can provide ideas to me by your actions here… Just like if you buy a pixel, which one will you choose is a kind of interaction, you can make choices: this is interactive. I like you to response.

Why did you choose programming?

One of the reasons is that it is what the school teaches us. But there are a lot of interactive courses. I choose programming because it is a way to foster new media art and it is a way to frame our present. Also, technology offers a lot of possibilities.