On my way pursuing the truth of the art, the social background and personal experience make great influence during each period. I can not divide the art from the meaning of living. This kind of sensitive mind forms my aesthetic concept and leads my attention to the social events. But it also brings me to dilemmas with pain and confusion.

　　Chaos becomes more and more obvious in China recently. The events (like melamine in milk, Xiao Yueyue, waste oil, BMW girl, Guo Meimei, July 23 the EMU collision, Chengguan and the corruption in high-speed rail et al.) all reflect the distortion of people’s values, lack of moral integrity and the decay of the traditional cultural virtues. All these negative influences tangle me like nightmare, and make me suffering. To comfort my heart and to clean my soul, I am always finding a way to fight with these devils in life. I want to express my aesthetic thinking of calling for the Reality, Honest and Beauty.

　　During my study in Materials Studio of the Central Academy of Fine Arts and abroad, I choose the cicada as the main body of my artwork of my concept. Cicadas live on the trunk, drinking dew and sap, and never eat anything else. Since ancient times, many literati in China (such as Yu shinan, Luo Binwang, Li Shangyin et al.) choose cicada into the metaphor to praise pure and noble character. Furthermore, during the life of cicadas, they experience the period of larva, pupa and winged insects. Literates use this change as metaphor of revival and eternal life with transforming. Thus, cicada is a main subject in China’s ancient paintings (during Northern and Southern Dynasties Gu Jingxiu and Liu Yinzu are good at drawing).

　　While exploring and trying in this subject, it finally forms the artworks ‘cicada-chaos’ series presenting now. These works are between abstractionism and expressionism. Inspired by Chinese folk paper-cut, the scenes of the paintings are arrayed with large amount symbols of golden cicadas or jade cicadas. The composition uses positive and negative space, interactive methods in the painting. Mosaics express the status of panic, struggling in life and doubts about the future. Rope insert randomly to express chaos and kink. Trace of tearing express the suffering form a keenly felt pain. In addition, methods of eastern hue, multi-layer stack, complementary color, contrast coordination are used to express bitter, muddy, mysterious, absurd and alienated from the reality to stimulate people’s nerves.

‘cicada-chaos’ 1

‘cicada-chaos’ 2

　　The series of artworks ‘cicada-chaos’ with strong contradiction, integrate unusual ways of accidental and inevitable show an atmosphere of irregular. It is an analogy of the status in today’s society: the distortion of people’s values, lack of moral integrity and the decay of the traditional cultural virtues. Using the cicadas as the main subjects, through its meaning of noble and revival, I hope the viewer focus these abnormal social consciousness, balance our heart, understand ourselves, transcend ourselves, search in our minds, back to our nature of truth and honest.

at the 6th Ring International Art Zone，Beijing

July, 2012

作者：邹琼辉