An Archaeological Tour of Revolutionary Romanticism and the Metaphor of Camouflage

An Archaeological Tour of Revolutionary Romanticism and the Metaphor of Camouflage
–My views on Ms. Lei Yan’s latest works

Luo Fei

Before the interpretations of the two groups of recent works by Ms. Lei Yan – “Frozen Series” and “Camouflage Cloth-making”, we should know of two relevant background factors. One is that she has been a female soldier in the army for 30 years (1970-2001) and then joined the Kunming contemporary art community “Chuangku” to set up her own studio after retiring from army. Lei Yan has experienced the transformation from the traditional art practices on creation of military subjects into the use of pictures, equipment, videos and other media for the creation of contemporary art works, and each article and event could sufficiently constitute the main raw material for her current creation. Secondly, the retrospection and reflection on the Mao Zedong era (mainly during the last 1950s-1970s) by the Chinese contemporary artists have never ceased. In each period Mao and his era’s symbols and images will be appearing in these artists’ narrative methods, which not only is the historical fact of the” Passion Burning Years” that the artists can not shun away from during the time when belief was absent, but also a kind of inquiry about the future. After knowing about these backgrounds, we can proceed with the interpretations of the latest works by Lei Yan.

“Frozen Series”: An Archaeological Tour of Revolutionary Romanticism

Lei Yan’s “Frozen Series” have frozen some military articles and the typical items of the Mao era, such as sleeve emblems, leader badges, the Little Red Books, the Red Guards shoulder badges, military uniforms, red flags, and female soldiers’ photographs etc., which are photographed and can be seen dimly under the ice. By getting the typical symbols and items of the special years frozen and sealed, the artist is staring at the historical samples from a nebulous distance with a tinge of desolation, and arousing a reflection on that period of time.

As we can see, there are two clues in the “Frozen Series”, one is the “Frozen Reds”, which uses the typical items of Mao era and military articles as the narrating subjects that include sleeve emblems, leader badges, the Little Red Books, the Red Guards badges, military uniforms, red flags etc., they are not merely logos or decorations, but they also carry the spirit of that era. As a person who was filled with ideals and passions regarding the collective values under communism, each had to possess these materials and contents, which represent a miniature of the people’s political life in that period of time, and a miniature of the” Passion Burning Years”. They are also a miniature of Lei Yan’s 30 years of military life. However, since the factors of refraction, distance, and temperature, the items, which are put into the ice body by Lei Yan, display a much unacquainted historical texture and shape. The partial deforming and distortion, blurring and dimness, chilliness and out-of-touch feeling created by the isolation of the ice layer. They seem like keepsakes from a previous existence. The archaeological-like association of ideas inspired by the sealing under ice. All of these have built a sort of sadness for the time of revolutionary passions, and a reminiscence of the disappeared spirit and resplendency.

The other is “Frozen Youth”, whose narrative subjects are female soldiers’ photographs including personal portraits, busts. Some are Lei Yan herself, but most of them are her comrades in the army. These girls of youthful spirit, each with tenderness, some seem a little depressed, some only being lost, and some with a poise that is typical during that period of time with a bag on shoulder or a machine gun in hands, head high and standing erectly with a passionate face under the willows. Among these photographs are several of military groups, and in these the pure eyes are filled with the young girls’ ideals and longings, smiling with tenderness and without the slightest hesitation for the future which is the typical expression of revolutionary romanticism. However, all of these various expressions and spirit states, with the addition of the classic poise, have been frozen into the cold ice layer and forced to drop in temperature, cold as well as out-of-touch, the high enthusiasm and innocent ideals are suddenly disappearing far away in the cold ice, which is just like a group of archaeological samples from the Mao era displayed ifor all to see.

Most of the above mentioned frozen objects, which were collected during Lei Yan’s military career, are well preserved. To most of us, these items and photographs are merely conceptualized image memories of a certain period, but those specific faces and temperature, are more like the family belongings in some box underneath grandmother’s bed, which are kept by mother for her daughter. When these objects and photographs are seen through the frozen ice, they have been endowed with new concepts, which are the memory of the public images and history of a female soldier, her private memory and feelings, and the reminiscence of ultimate issues such as faith to the land, spirits and resplendency.

If political pop art is “using the shock waves made by the western consumption culture in China, and turning the ‘sacred politics’ of the Mao era into a popular and ironic political idea” as suggested by Li Xianting, and with current political pop art walking down a dead end via commercial obsequiousness, then artists, including Lei Yan, are going back to the starting point for art and soul by using a personal and poetic narrate of the Mao era. Let the real impression be explained via personal language instead of following the established groups style, it is a response which surpasses current political pop art.

“Camouflage Cloth-making”: The Metaphors Related to Camouflage

If the “Frozen Series” is the reminiscence and sadness of the long gone Mao era and its spirit and resplendency, then the “Camouflage Cloth-making” is the specific intervention in the current daily situation. Just like before, Lei Yan keeps on using the military goods as subjects, which are very familiar to a person who has 30 years of military service. However, the use of military goods in this series is different from that in the “Frozen Series”. The military goods in the “Frozen Series” belong to the section of borrowing, directly getting the existing goods embedded into ice to make them bring about the changes of concept, context and visual texture, but the “Camouflage Cloth-making” is the conversion and extension of military camouflage uniforms and patterns.

In this series Lei Yan uses camouflage fabric to make some hand-sewn items and scenes, items such as: camera, computer, teapot, vase, cup, tray, telephone, high heels, five-pointed star etc., which are daily mundane items. Setting up the items’ basic outline shape, the sewed items have more plasticity and flexibility. This series of work cross the boundaries between handicraft and sculpture. What is more, the symbolic features owned by the camouflage patterns themselves, give the remodeled daily goods the feeling of being covered by the camouflage with aggression and delusion.

In one group, the metaphor relating to camouflage is more obvious. Lei Yan has sewn with camouflage material into an ordinary family scene: a square table, a bench, a vase, two blurring persons in the picture frame and a crouching dog. The other one is the scene of a dressing table. These two scenes are modeled like reliefs, which simply present any day in our ordinary life without any dramatic moment. Persons, goods and scenes are covered by camouflage, mixing into the background, and therefore they are endowed with the meaning and metaphor of camouflage itself, the edges of people, goods and scenes are disrupted and guided by the camouflage patterns and become indistinguishable, characterless and without personality. So a metaphor related to camouflage, related to women’s identity, family and self-pity, can start. How should women live out their own unique vitality in the trivia of various household affairs? How should women be more visible in society? This is the metaphor and reflection of “Camouflage Cloth-making” by Lei Yan.

As a strong symbol of the military patterns, camouflage has been absorbed into the conceptual art of the female artist, Lei Yan. She would never have had such a profound reflection if she hadn’t had her own deep experience of the military. It is precisely because of this experience that we can see the double metaphors generated from the modeled objects disappearing into the camouflage, in addition to the interference and thawing from external forces. It also points at the internal crisis of the modeled object: a person may be defensive of their own identity, but to some extent they also face the risk of assimilation, of losing their personality and unique vitality. Maybe this is Lei Yan’s thinking in this exhibition. However, as a female artist, Lei Yan has not been assimilated; on the contrary, she has gained the unique vision and creativity. During a conversation with Lei Yan she said: “wherever we are, we should leave a window for our soul, facing the most real place of the heart to talk with your own soul and hold onto the innocence and passion found there.” And with her experience of the years of revolutionary enthusiasm and the attention to other people’s needs during her military career, not only does this become the source material and concept of her art, but it also expands her life experience. She does not rest on the complexities of this material and the hand-sewing but creates a deeper experience.

Written by Luo Fei(TCG Nordica Gallery Curator)
Translated by Liu Weiqiang

via: http://blog.luofei.org/archives/1047

Lei Yan: Frozen Series and Camouflage Cloth-making

Lei Yan’s Solo exhibition 2007:Frozen Series and Camouflage Cloth-making

Exhibition duration:9 November-22 November,2007
Openning:9 November,8:00pm(Friday)
Curator:Luo Fei

For the first Solo Exhibition in the newly renovated TCG Nordica gallery, we proudly present the recent art works from Leiyan, one of our old friend, loft female artist.

Leiyan was born in 1950s, she cultivated a special life experiences in the army for 30 years. As a sensitive and exuberant creativity female artist. Rigid military life formed tension with her personality , naturally this period constructed the special resources and thoughts of art creation. There are army stuffs often appearing in her arts over and over again,as the uniforms, the badge, te Red star, even some events of histories. Interesting is that she got inspiration from army stuffs and history stories. But, meanwhile she didn’t stop pace from these Materials, Conversely, she prestige all of these stories, to recall the privacy and romantic Feelings and more broad daily emotions.

After she left the army, she trys to use new creation language in her arts. From Traditional Prints, oil painting, Transition to photos, videos, installations and handcrafts. She is not only a generalist in art styles and forms, but also in the topics that her focus on. Included: process of Urbanization, female identity, and throughout lei yan’s works from the early army career.

The exhibition will show Lei yan’s recent art works, it is also related to about her army career. the one group, she took photos about the fozen army stuffs in the ice, the other one is the conceptual works of handcrafts. it will be the surprise from her. All of these army stuffs, history events, and handcrafts, like as the treasures stored in somewhere of grandmother’s box under her bed. We can feel a female artist how to thoughtfulness from private to public.

written by: Luo Fei

Related articles:
An Archaeological Tour of Revolutionary Romanticism and the Metaphor of Camouflage written by Luo Fei

Frozen Red

That was a memory of red, a memory of hotness and also a memory of youth.

In China, everyone who has ever lived in that time would be impressed by the frozen red. That was an age, an age had been frozen — for everyone, there could be only one faith, one idea and one dream — as pure as ice, and also as white as ice. The life though seemed to be simplified and repressed, everyone could have a stable life everyday. Since each one, living in that time, had one faith and one objective, and therefore the red then became hallowed.

However, when I watched the red under the ice, such a strange feeling, like a star far from the earth could not be reached, had rush into my mind. I’m not sure that was the illusion from the ice, or the result from a past age, but a feeling just told me, the red has left us, had left our life, had left the unfathomable age. All I have seen was the lack of faith, was the disappearance of trueness, was the lost and confusion of soul. How fast the time flies! The world has been more and more untraceable “someone has lost his ethic in the face of money, someone has dropped his honor in the face of fame, and also someone has abandoned his dream in the face of power ” the red was leaving us.

The frozen red, which would be better to consider as the protection to the past, as the thinking to dream and faith more than just frost to that time. I have a brief, we could review the past through the ice, and we also could seek for the red we ever had through the ice, because the red remain its brightness in my heart, because the age needs red!

Lei Yan
August 22, 2006

Artist Lei Yan’s CV

Exhibition Space:

Memory
by Tang Zhigang

I have known Lei Yan for several decades, ever since the time we worked together in the Kunming Military Region in the 1970s. I still remember that we spent a lot of time preparing for the art exhibitions in the army then.

Lei Yan made a series of prints, titled “We Have Lei Feng Everywhere”. It has been cited by many forms of media and been very influential. I was new in the army at that time and I felt so fortunate to receive tremendous help from Lei Yan – she was such a good and experienced teacher. It is a great honor for me.

Lei Yan served in the army from as early as the age of 14. She worked in a military hospital, a school and later in a research institution – she has been a soldier, a nurse, a scholar and researcher and also a military officer in various places. Even though she has had a range of careers, Lei Yan had always been greatly interested in art and especially paintings, leading her to produce a lot of art work which has been seen in many military inter art exhibitions. Lei Yan and I have had numerous discussions about art ever since she graduated from the China Military Fine Art College. In 1994, Lei Yan and I were invited by the Military Political Department to work together for the media art work titled, “The Pictures of an Era”, from which I found that she was no longer a soldier who only liked painting but an artist who had her own ideas and views on art. Because of her experience in printmaking, Lei Yan was more interested in printed material and was able to do a fine job. In 2001, with the completion of her new Loft in Kunming, Lei Yan retired from the military where she had served for more than 30 years and set up a studio in her Loft. Since then, Lei Yan has had more opportunities to communicate with foreign artists, institutions and art studios. She has recently finished a series of good pictures and set works, in which I found the theme “Memory” to have become her main focus in art.

We can have memories of certain people, of certain things, of sadness and happiness, of the happenings in our daily life and also of the nightmares we face in our lives. Because of the different personalities and life experiences, the memories arising from different people can be a very special element. In her time as an artist, Lei Yan used her memories of military service to express a special history of her life in the army – a story of a certain group of soldiers, a reflection of our nation and also a short biography of that time. The personal experience based on a period of national history, in other words, the memory that was created from that particular period of national history, became the fountain of Lei Yan’s art work, where she focused more on a human being’s soul, imagination, history and the future that we look towards.

The theme of “Memory” in Lei Yan’s latest work is one of the most valuable series of art done by a person born in the 1950s. I wish Lei Yan’s personal exhibition to be a roaring success!

Loft, Kunming, China
December 2nd 2006

Lei Yan’s CV

Resume
Lei Yan

Graduate from Fine Art Department of the Army Art Academy
Current City: Kunming, Yunnan Province, China

1976
started to participate all National Military Art Exhibition

2007
Visitor Artist in Getheberg Watercolor Art Museum Sweden

2009
Resident Artist in OML Art Studio New York State USA

Personal Exhibition

2007
Lei Yan’s Personal Exhibition “Frozen Series: The Camouflage Cloth”, TCG Nordica Gallery ，Loft i Kunming China
had participated in severe co-exhibition

2000
Print Exhibition “Dialog” in Upriver Loft, Kunming China

2002
Painting Exhibition “Four Seasons” in Scandinavia-Chinese Culture Exchange Center, Kunming China
The “The Long March – Dialog with Judy Chicago by Lugu Lake”, Lugu Lake China
Informal Exhibition “Experience” by 21 artists, Loft in Kunming China
“Median City – Perceptive Exhibition” Hong Kong, China

2003
“I am China” Chinese Photographic Exhibition, in Beijing China

2004
China-Sweden Co-program “The Logbook”, TCG Nordica Gallery Loft Kunming China
China Modern Art Exhibition “Internal-External” (Long March Program), Lyons Modern Art Museum France
China-Sweden co-program “The Logbook”, 798 Art Space in Beijing China
Modern Art Exhibition “Anxiety and Reservation”, Loft in Kunming China

2005
China-Sweden co-program “The Logbook”, Uppsala Art Museum Sweden
Feminine Art Set & Image Exhibition “O”, Loft in Kunming China
Germany-China Modern Art Exhibition, Landshut Gallery Germany
Shanghai Zhengda (Fall Season) Modern Art Museum, Shanghai China
China-Belgium Artist Exchange Program, Loft in Kunming China
Participated in second Guangzhou Tri-annual Exhibition, Guangzhou China
Serial Exhibition: The Eleventh Chapter of Jianghu “Tiananmen”, Shiyu Art Space in Kunming China

2006
Art Exhibition “Moral Space”, Loft in Kunming China
The “Virtual China Project”, Walkert Center in the United States
The Art Program on HIV “The Expanded Love”, TCG Nordica Gallery Loft Kunming China
Art Exhibition “Eastern & Western – Western & Eastern”, Brussels University in Belgium

2007
Participated in the third Guiyang Dual-annual Exhibition, Guiyang China
Modern Art Exhibition “The Identity and Transformation of Modern Chinese Artist”, Uddevalla Art Museum Sweden
Median Art Exhibition “The Nine Crossroads”, Kunming China
China Modern Art Exhibition, Maastricht Gallery, Holland

2008
China Modern Exhibition “Loser and Winner”, Eastern-Western Gallery in Oslo Norway
Modern Exhibition “Resume Asia”, Henan China
The Chinese and Vietnamese Artist Exchange Program

2009
“Four Season: Winter” Yunnan Female Art Exhibition TCG Nordica Gallery Loft Kunming
“First Touch” China Taipei Hongkong Artist 99 Art Space Kunming
“We Produce” Yunnan Female Art Exhibition 99 Art Space Kunming
“Creation from the Local” Art Exhibition TCG Nordica Gallery Loft Kunming
“Appearance of Color” Conceptional Vision Art exhibition Cigar Gallery Kunming
“Upon the Cloud” Outside Creative Event Kunming Dali Lijiang China
“Butterfly” Monumental Gallery Belgium

2010
“Four Season: Spring” Yunnan Female Art Exhibition TCG Nordica Gallery Loft Kunming

Seeds of hope

Seeds of hope

Swedish Artists:Eta Hedman,AnnaKarin Svensson
Curator:Luo Fei
Openning:13 Oct,2007,8:00pm
Duration:13 Oct–3 Nov,2007(Sunday and Monday morning closed)

AnnaKarin Svensson and Eta Hedman

Eta Hedman
Seeds of hope “The everyday moments turn into the seed of time.” Octavio Paz
“What seeds do we sow out in our lives?” is the question Eta Hedman, a Swedish artist born in 1953, wants to evoke through her work. Her pictures are collages where she combines photo, photoscreen and painting. I wish to be present in life, to be awaken for the moments filled with quality and to live an overflowing life. That is what the gold in my pictures represent, to live with the curiosity of a child within you and to daily sow new seeds and harvest new golden crops.

AnnaKarin Svensson
“I am fascinated by human traces and broken surfaces. I want my pictures to be like forgotten but found treasures, a glimpse of a holy presence in the midst of the transience of time.” AnnaKarin Svensson, born in Sweden in 1963, mainly works with textile applications and broidery touched up with acrylic colour. The base is often fabric which is formed into textilereliefs or sculptural works. “My work often involves seeds or cocoons, small shapes with unknown potential. What wasn’t became something wonderful”, as she describes it.

Chinese Contemporary Art- Identity and Transformation[Bohuslans Museum]

Chinese Contemporary Art- Identity and Transformation” at Bohuslans Museum,Uddevalla,Sweden
Openning:22 September 2007
Duration: 22 Sep -25 Nov, 2007
Mao Xuhui,Luo Fei,Liu Lifen were invited to attend the opening ceremony.

Curators: Agneta von Zeipel, Asa Herrgard
Critics: Agneta von Zeipel, Asa Herrgard, Luo Fei
Artists: Chen Changwei, Chen Qiji, Guo Peng, Lei Yan, Liu Lifen, Liu Deng, Li Ji, Luo Fei, Mao Xuhui, Shen Qin, Sun Guojuan, Tao Jin, Wu Yiqiang, Xue Tao, Zhang Qiongfei, Zhao Guanghui

Related article:
http://en.tcgnordica.com/2007/07/10/chinese-contemporary-art-in-a-transitional-era/

Organized by: Bohuslans Museum, Sweden and TCG Nordica Gallery,China

Curator’s statement

Contemporary Chinese Art- Identity and Change is an exhibition that has originally been put together for an exhibition tour in Sweden that will start during the autumn 2007 at Art Gallery at Bohuslans Museum in Uddevalla. The purpose is to give a brief introduction of what Chinese contemporary art can be today to a Swedish public, and we are very pleased that the exhibition also will take place at TCG Nordica Gallery in Kunming during this summer.

The exhibition presents 16 Chinese artists, the majority of them is from the Yunnan province and educated at the University of Yunnan. We will meet all genres of visual art such as painting, sculpture, photography, installation, video, ink, drawings and prints in this exhibition.

The Chinese society is rapidly changing from being an almost rural nation a few decades back, until today’s highly developed industrial and information- society. The once strictly planned Chinese economy is merging into a commercialized market economy, and it is all reflected upon the art scene. Chinese contemporary art is no longer part of a periphery, but plays a more important role on the global art scene.

One intention with the exhibition was to identify and summon up some of these reflections of this rapid change and to see how it is expressed among the artists from Yunnan. Landscape painting for instance, a classic subject, is still important, but formulated on a more observing and conceptual ground. The huge rebuilding of cities is also in focus, we see the growth of mega-cities, where commercialism replaces old traditions and history. Consumerism and the new economic era and modern life are also commented in a sometimes ironic manner.

Still it seems like the old symbols have a strong impact on daily life, and some artists are working with this heritage with a new and often humorous perspective. The body or nakedness in interaction with the landscape is also a subject that appears and expresses a kind of liberation gesture. The gender perspective is also present, where the female body is allowed to be represented in full scale and closely observed. Traditional artistic techniques like ink-wash painting are used but deals with contemporary reflections.

We are pleased to be able to offer visitors this opportunity of a powerful artistic experience. We should further like to thank all those who have contributed to bringing the exhibition to fruition.

Agneta von Zeipel, director/curator at Art Gallery at Bohuslans Museum
Asa Herrgard, artist and curator
2007 July