Luo Fei’s New Book: To Start from Art

To Start from Art

Essays and Interviews on Chinese Contemporary Art

Author: Luo Fei
Translated by Becky Davis(US), Jeff Crosby(US), R. Orion Martin(US), Xiao Diming(CN), Zhou Qiao(CN), Li Jianbo(CN), Xiong Wenjing(CN)
Publication Planning TCG Nordica Culture Center (www.tcgnordica.com)
Published by Shanghai Joint Publishing Co.Ltd
Executive Editor: Qian Zhenhua
Book Design: TCG Nordica Culture Center
Copyright: Authors (texts) and artists (pictures)
ISBN: 9787542648624
Price: 78RMB (oversea purchase please contact with info@tcgnordica.com)

Book Introduction

This book uses examples from the past decade of contemporary art in Yunnan Province to demonstrate developments in Chinese art and ideas. It is divided into five sections: “Landscape in Transition”, “Artist as Prophet”, “Past and Present”, “Local Experiments” and “Using Art to Build Bridges”. Topics for each section include, respectively, discussions of the possibility of landscape art in the contemporary era, the mission and identity of the artist, the impact of changing real life circumstances on artists, the local Yunnan art scene, and daily chronicles of two international exchange programs. An active young curator and artist, the author weaves together assessments of the artistic value of various works, descriptions of their social context, and artists’ personal stories to paint a portrait of a vibrant and fresh art scene. The book has been translated in its entirety into English, making it an important resource for Western readers seeking a deeper understanding of Chinese society and arts over the past ten years.

Contents

Prefaces
Preface by Zha Changping 14
Preface by Fredrik Fällman 20
Preface by Anders Gustafsson 26
Author’s Preface 32

Part I Landscape in Transition
Let There Be Light: On Per Johansson’s Oil Painting 40
It’s Not the Schema That Matters: He Libin’s Creative Process From 2001 To 2005 46
The Man From the Wilderness: He Libin’s “Wilderness” Painting Series 54
Inscape on the Spot: A Survey of Artists’ Inner Landscapes 65
Interviews on “Inscape” Project: Written Interviews Between Luo Fei And Artists 81
Daily Life and the Yunnanese Way: The Second Dialogue of the “Inscape On The Spot” Art Exhibition 97
An Interview With Mao Xuhui, A Contemporary Modernist Painter 113
A Clinical Report on Contemporary Society: On Zi Bai’s Photography 124
Amazed by the Wonders of Creation: “Views: Swedish Textile Art Exhibition” 130
A Revival of Landscape Art: On Oscar Furbacken’s Art 135

Part II Artist as Prophet
The Cell’s Longing: On Jonathan Aumen’s Painting 142
An artist’s Responsibility is to Recharge Society: An Interview With Jonathan Aumen 149
Digging Where You Stand: An Interview With Josef Mellergård 162
Theology Through the Art: An Interview With Jonathan Kearney 176
Disease Under the Sun: On Hu Jun’s Series Of “New Life” 187
The Sign of “One Meter Democracy” 196
Looking at the “Art Whore” Phenomenon and Other Problems Through the Lens of Art, Ethics and Faith 205
Waiting for That Day of Reconciliation: An Interview With Zhu Jiuyang 217
The Dimensions of the Contemporary Artist’s Duty: Reflections on Lei Yan’s Art 229

Part III Past and Present
Draw Your Own Life: An Interview With Yan Renkui 244
It Looks Old: An Interview With Guo Peng 258
The Dao: To Ceaselessly Grow and Multiply: Reflections on Zhang Yongzheng’s Paper-based Improvisational Works 268
Rootless: On Ching Ching Cheng’s Art 276
An Interview With Feng Xianbo And Chen Fanyuan 283
Getting Over Cultural Jet-lag: An Interview With Li Ji 295
“Mirror” And “Lost”: An Interview With Adam Lui 304
Seeking an Eastern Method: An Interview With Gao Xiang 317
Art is Childlike by Nature: An Interview With Li Yao 329

Part IV The Local Experiments
Jianghu Games 341
The Word “Jianghu” Sounds Better Than “Art”: An Interview With Jay Brown 350
Jianghu: An Avant-Garde Performance, A Temple Fair, or the Work of Guerrilla Warriors? 361
“Four Seasons: Summer” Yunnan Female Artists Group Exhibition Interview 371
The Season of Harvest: Remarks on “Four Seasons-Autumn” 379
Taste And Reality: The Collective Exhibition of Seven Artists in Mingri Chengshi Residential Area 386
Individual Choices: The Collective Exhibition of Seven Artists in the Automobile Factory 394
Chinese Contemporary Art in A Transitional Era 402
Contemporary Art in Yunnan: An Interview With Xue Tao 417
Soil for the Cultivation of Values: For the Tenth Anniversary of TCG Nordica 435
Extending The Love: Artistic Reflection on HIV/Aids Situation in China 447
Kunming’s Loft Was on Fire 452

Part V Using Art to Build Bridges
Using Art to Build Bridges: For Bridges II, A Chinese-Swedish Artists Exchange Project 458
The “Bridges” Project Journal I — Kunming 468
The “Bridges” Project Journal II and “Happiness, A Five-Year Plan” Project — Sweden 487
Appendix: “The Origin of My North Korean Nationality, and the Reason I Have Kept It” by Sun Guojuan 502

Acknowledgements 506
Postscript 509

“In this bilingual book To Start from Art, Luo Fei grasps the Word, rebuilds artistic morals, and listens to his conscience about what moves art and artists, forging the stories of Chinese and international artists into his view of the artist’s prophetic role and his critical insight into artistic phenomena. The book records the contemporary art events of Yunnan over the past decade, and stands as a local art history with global vision, complete with documents, ideas, views and original accounts of many exhibitions and scenes of creation. If you only read one art micro-history this year, it should be To Start from Art.”
——Dr. Zha Changping
Critic, Biblical Scholar, Chief-editor of Journal for Humanities and Art, Chengdu

“Through his own work and his work with TCG Nordica, Luo Fei is an important bridge builder between artists, between art and society, opening up for reflection on art, faith and social concerns.”
——Fredrik Fällman
Associate Professor of Chinese Studies; University of Gothenburg, Sweden

“The art scene already has so many people and galleries that know the price of everything, but the value of nothing. Luo Fei is one of those artists who opens up a space of what Hou Hanru would call a ‘third way’ — something different from the capitalist-dominated or state-dominated models.”
——Anders Gustafsson
Former Program Director of TCG Nordica Gallery, Sweden

About Author

Luo Fei is a curator, art critic and artist born in 1982 in Chongqing who currently lives and works in Kunming. He graduated in 2004 from the Fine Arts College of Yunnan Arts University, where he majored in printmaking. Since 2002, he has been primarily engaged in the creation of performance art, video works, and other forms of conceptual art, exhibiting both within China and abroad. In 2005, he planned and initiated the art project “Jianghu,” which received much national attention. Luo Fei has been Gallery Director of TCG Nordica Cultural Center in Kunming since 2007, where he curates and organizes numerous international exhibitions and cross-cultural projects. He also contributes art reviews and artist interviews to various media platforms. Paying particular attention to the spiritual connotations of works, Luo Fei has dedicated himself to the description of what makes local Chinese contemporary art scenes unique within international greater art landscape, building bridges for dialogue and collaboration in the Chinese contemporary art field in an increasingly globalized world.