Various materials have their own characteristics, how does one convert properties of materials into “individuality” while retaining a visual sense? Qu Qianmei’s unique life experiences infused her thoughts, feelings and life consciousness into the applied materials. With these experiences stored in her heart and through the production process of creating scenes by heart and moving heart by hand, the patterns or forms of her works flowed through the screen subconsciously while also permeating her personified “personalities”, which in turn accomplishes the quality of original art that possess an aesthetic value. Then, where can we find the manifestation of the uniqueness of Qu Qianmei’s art?

At first, who uses the ordinary kaolin to create such imposing works? Originally kaolin is the raw material of pottery, with a pure texture, good plasticity, cohesiveness, strong affinity and expressive force. Qu Qianmei’s works use such pristine soil as their main material, and through the methods of accumulation, extension, rising or flowing, she shapes a variety of different forms, creating textures with rich textural expression: they are skins of rugged earth, ridges and trenches of high mountains and lofty hills, rivers and lakes with glistening ripples; or demonstrate the philosophizing of brightness, heckling of life, deep prayer to God or the questioning of God…

There are often rugged, winding, and stretched tracks in Qu Qianmei’s works, with boundless charm leading people to dream. Who would have known the inspiration of the “track” sign as being full of verve was derived from the common trace of the track. One morning after fresh rain, Qu Qianmei was deeply touched by the natural artistic appeal demonstrated by the rugged track on the road while she was running. In her eyes, the track was like the path of life, though it experiences all ordeals, it was still persistent in continuing. As the sign of her works, “track” narrates her experiences, her fate, her perseverance and her soul. During this moment, these materials are not materials, but an image of the soul. They refract Qu Qianmei’s life and enlighten all living things to look into the soul.

Secondly, she imaginatively applied hundreds of Jins’ of heavy building material – the square steel, to be the outer frame of her works. The heavy square steel framework, with deep iron gray, mottled rust red, either square or rectangular, was not just a framework, but the same as primitive, simple, and massive gates that open with a squeak, leading people into a primitive desolate desert then when the world fades away in the end there is the boundless and indistinct universe, which inspires a resonated induction between man and nature. Could this heavy square iron frame be giant chains representing the tightening of man’s ideal of freedom and liberation? Could such a frame be the gate of history sealing millennial, the buried history of an ancient nation? ... In the art of Qu Qianmei, the pristine and massive kaolin, the strong and dignified square iron steel frame make a perfect collocation of soft and hard materials, heightening her dignified, imposing and majestic art style into pliability with hardness and complementary forces of yin and yang (two opposing principles in nature).

Thirdly, the device works of Qu Qianmei using rotten wood result in a spiritual miracle, which can also be called a sculpture that turns the rotten into the ethereal. The rotten wood abandoned in lumberyards are disposed of without difficulty by her hand, such as the fragmentary trunks, the cracked and peeled off barks, the decayed tree cavity and wisps of the honeycomb core of trees. Standing in front of us are weather-beaten desolation, incomplete pathos, lofty and unyielding fortitude. The miracle of the natural creation quietly erects the majestic and towering monument of humanity, which is the totem of life visibly representing the lofty spirit of life.

Qu Qianmei captures and elaborates from her heart the harmony between life and nature. With her personal life experiences, thoughts, feelings and spiritual pursuit she is able to cast into the material language with an expressive force, creating multi-meanings of kaolin textures, a symbolic sense of rust iron frames and divinity of rotten wood articles. The materials in her hands are come to life as if they have a voice. Thus, the materials she uses are converted into the carrier of a cultural spirit. Her works do not just evidence the personal perception of life or the spiritual realization of the physical universe, but also the manifestation of the human spirit which is scarcely seen in this era of material consumption and the affecting force of her works lies just here.

Recently, Qu Qianmei has produced a string of new works, and has plans to exhibit soon in a Shanghai Gallery. There are some changes compared with her works from last November, although we can also feel the wandering holy Tibetan soul, and see the bright colors flapping in the five-color flags. In her recent works, obviously there is slightly less evidence of depression, less bleakness and her pieces are a lot more lively and bright, which is probably because she has gone through a low point in life, and is heading for the magnificence of the phoenix’s nirvana.

Life is abundant with suffering, and art is splendid with all its’ changes. Qu Qianmei contrasts the soul of pilgrimage with her own years and life, and the penance of the journey of heartfelt art. Her works are the recounting of her heart, the outlet of emotions as well as a kind of conversion of her life spirit. She has surpassed the world of mortals by turning into inaction, so the artistic connotation and her being are more closely integrated. It is better to say these works of art are like a rebirth rather than saying they are what she creates.

2011.3.29 Mingjia Garden