Weeding

Today is cloudy, and the plan that I've prepared requires sunlight or else I can't do it. After spending hours picking my brain, I thought of that abandoned railroad, every time I pass by it I start to feel that glorious desolate attitude of yesterday, the two trains that will never run have already been photographed: an archaic background with modern tourist style.

In the course of removing the weeds, all kinds of people kept coming up and asking all kinds of questions, some people asked if I was hired to do the work, then when I said I'm an artist, said give me some money and I'll find someone to help you do it. It was certainly exhausting, but I think that the difference between performance and performing photography is that I have to personally do the actions. This process is the necessary spirit of performance work.
 
Looking for Change

I think that there isn't anyone who doesn't reap fame and profit, but greed should not spread to excess, fame and profit follow our fate, work is for a purpose.

I think it was 2004 in Shanghai, during the first discussion forum hosted by Wang Lin I spoke about the plight of performance art. I believe that is China's best stage for performance art, first because it is an official platform with a wide audience, and, at the time, most people had large misunderstandings about performance art; the second is because at that time the art market was in a rough spot and performance art is the hardest art form to predict. Only due to these circumstance could performance art, around the year 2000, advance to better perfect and refine itself, and to offer the position of artists the best opportunity for expression. The reason artists are not the same as craftspeople is because artists are referred to as intellectual types, and why artists include those who have a spirit of cultural recollection or awareness of our realities.

789 Art Space's money is certainly not easy to find, I was tormented for a night, close to nine hours, and have yet to obtain even a little money.

The Misunderstanding Test

With this piece I will test mistaken readings of art. Erroneous readings are unavoidable, but what I'm interested in is the different interpretations different people have in front of the same work of art.

Art is spread through different mediums, to what degree can artists maintain their creative intents? Is the weakening or variation in interpretation of one's intent unavoidable? Is it important to always maintain one's intended meaning? Is an audience’s mistaken interpretation inevitable? Are such misinterpretations active or passive? To avoid misinterpretation and to pass on the accurate meaning of art is it allowable for one to sacrifice the artistic nature of a work in order to satisfy an audience?

If misinterpretations bring so many meanings to a work for art, then is it necessary to preserve or even exaggerate the ambiguous meaning of a piece?

Today I suddenly decided to use my art to present these seemingly clear cut topics.

Inauspicious Shadows

The forms of the trees and buildings outside reflect onto the wall of the residency space through the window, it's very demonic. I thought I could make an installation by cutting the shadows into black cardboard.

One time I spotted an old-fashioned miner's light, it was like starting to see a coal mountain, and I thought about turning it into an art work. Today at noon, the light was, by chance, blocked by clouds. I talked about my work "Nail" and "Pedestrian," and about coal and miners. Later the shadows returned.

In the darkness, light contributes to making shadows, it moves and flickers, full of vanishing illusions, and miners live in these circumstances, it is a storehouse full of different feelings.

The conception of this work made me excited, and I looked into how to concretely present this style. Coal, pulverized coal, to fill the shadow of a miner's light, it no longer has to depend on light, but it exists or disappears in order to grasp where it appeared from all along. “Inauspicious Shadows" was born unexpectedly from finding coal, smashing coal, spreading out coal, and filling out the shadows’ shape. Then the piece was gradually completed, and I decided that I will continue to use coal in the future to make an installation series involving shadows, and then hold an exhibition called "Inauspicious Shadows."

Jump

At the beginning I want to do a performance about jump. During the process, the idea changed into a video installation work, which still focuses on body.

For years I have been insisting performance as the only medium I use for my work. One reason is that the language charm is quite strong, with an open form, full of vibrant and various possibilities. The other reason is contemporary performance art is restricted by government and misunderstood by public. Under the commercialized art scene contest, the persistence of performance art is the reaction to reality; it is a necessary expression of the position and attitude.

Up to now, my work began to emit into a creative network, the implications of various elements and progressive thinking, continuing to expand and explore the inner self examination and questioning the realistic conditions.