Feng: And those images are kept being covered by new ones?

Jia: Exactly. All covered. As a matter of fact, I never thought I could make it one day. And this just demonstrates the connection between art and artwork. The former is presented by the latter, yet in most of the time, the latter just couldn’t prove the existence of the former, which is the best description of the status quo we’re stuck in or some forms of art that I have sensed or have seen. During my creation, I also made some records on the wall about this process to get away from some kind of conclusive status as best as I could because I did not believe I could manage those so-called fixed results.

Feng: Well, I think I can get that. But is this continuous recording process a kind of challenge to the artwork itself?

Jia: That’s right.

Feng: So you think the process itself outweighs the completion or afterwards. Is that correct?

Jia: Well, I just believe that the process could more or less express some certain status of my mental activities.

Feng: A status of uncertainty and change?

Jia: Exactly.

Feng: So you keep stacking and covering images, and present it via fragments of no logical links and collage patterns. It is full of memories of the past, conditions of the present, and illusions of the future. The seemingly realist style of painting is in fact abstract which uses physical image to go beyond itself and uncertainties to question certainties. Is that so?

Jia: Most of my uncertain feelings make who I am, and I try to present this reality. I’m not sure of what I will do, but at least, I’m certain about what I won’t. In my early days of learning, I was influenced by those representational painters like Floyd and Liu Xiaodong. This type of painting has long been affecting my relatively realist way of expression till today. Liu Xiaodong had great impressions on me in that he can present the current social realities and social psychological conditions in a very delicate, vivid, and precise way. Yet the fact is that they resort to a direct and visual operating method to manage their expression. And just as you mentioned, my works might be way too abstract. It seems that realist themes can hardly turn me on in that it might be a bit narrow for me.

Feng: Actually I sense that it is you who focus on these very specific things. But how do you manage to include this kind of influence into your expression? I myself am very interested in Li Dafang for whom I once wrote an article called Suspense in Broad Daylight. Painters like you and him are more or less alike. For example, you all like to focus on large scale of presentation which depicts the boundless sky or earth. There are apparently realist elements, yet also some juxtapositioning weird suspense and conflicts. You know Li quite well, don’t you?

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