TALK: SCOPE Wang Jing ×Chen Wenji

　　2016.12

　　Since 2009, comparing to the previous works, your personal expression has changed hugely. From figurative to abstract, what is the motivation of this change?

　　In this decade, I tend to be abstract and minimalistic in terms of artistic language. I basically walked in this direction in these years. There is also different emphasis during the process. There is a slowly changing process. Slight?tendency of figurative in the early years. Later, it gradually focused on abstraction, de-concretization, and withdrawal the original material form and meaning of things. The overall position of my language expression cannot be said to be purely abstract. In fact, there are figurative basis in it. This is an embodiment of my personal experience. The language approach of each one has a habituation and relies on knowledge-based. I also hope that I can change little by little on this basis. This change is not tactical. I want to find the traces of convergence between the changes. When the artist really devotes himself to the creation process and at the critical point where every detail happens, they always can experience the new understanding of their own, which is more valuable to the artist, more worth the wait.

　　The form and color of the abstract artwork has its utterances. Is color in your work an expression of a subjective experience?

　　The color contains the emotional composition of a person. For example, in my works in 2011, the colors were relatively light and bright. But before 2011, the colors were relatively deep and vigorous. In the past few years, I have made a little more expressions by using colors. It is hoped that the emotions will not be revealed too directly, so that the language structure becomes more important, and the colors will act as a weak reminder.

　　As an artist's orientation, it is related to life habits and personality. As for whether or not purely minimalist expression is not something I care about, I have more often chosen a life attitude and aesthetic orientation, to pass my own inner mentality. I did not regard minimalism as a personal spiritual symbol. It is a natural expression and linking. In the process, it is more of a self-satisfied desire than an attitude-oriented expression which is not quite like me. I may be more in the process of completing myself in the natural state. This makes my body and my mind not with too much pressure. And this is related to my weaker physical condition. I instinctively want to protect myself. So I have always been conservative in my actions.

　　At the figurative stage, the choice of colors is generalized and clear. You will see a strong contrast between bright yellow and black tones. Does this generality also have abstract thinking inside? How do you think about your progress in abstract art?

　　When I painted figurative images in the early days, my thinking style was established in the range of surrealist expression. It was not so close to the real thing, and it had a little sense of disengagement from reality. Slowly my formal language became purer, which made it easier for me to move towards purely visual results, as if this was an inevitable process, and it was also related to my original starting point. In addition, the process of Chinese contemporary art has grown much faster than ever under the influence of Western art history. In this context, it is a very objective result reflected in my expression. It is not only my response as an artist's response; in fact, the whole China is changing. This is caused by the background of the times. I can't control this trend in this environment. I'm also driven by the times, or I've been pushed by the times very easily and very comfortably. I'm not entangled. I don't want to go against this kind of passion. I think that the artist's personal behavior is related to his thinking. The artist should have his perspective and need to maintain a kind of style to complete the self. At the same time, the artist also has his involuntary nature, because he can't consider it so thoughtful, but the artist must have the reason for his creation and his creative value. If it can be used as a social model and is concerned by the society, there are certain social values ??inside. However, artists do not exist for the sake of society. He actually thinks based on his own existence. Sometimes the form only serves as a medium for conveying innermost feelings, and it is more often to use this form to complete the experience of a lived person and to reflect one's self-worth in society.

　　In this process, has there been a retrospective and re-examination of figurative painting? For example, the end point of the concretization and the possibility of continuation?

　　I really did think. I had such desire but I did not implement it in the end. I hope that my understanding of things has an objective natural response and that there should be no restrictions on the means. At this stage, I was more concerned with abstract thinking. However, I am not thorough simplistic, or that my eyes are not completely on purely abstract thinking. I still express with basis, which has origin of thinking. I want to find my own sense of reality, not what way is more beneficial to me. I am more concerned about what kind of current method is more suitable and true to me. In the past long time, realistic painting has influenced on me a lot as an expression of my nature, and it is also an important part of my personal experience.

　　What's your point of view on the current understanding of abstraction and the desire for abstraction is becoming stronger and stronger? How do you think the reason and significance of this change?

　　I think this is primarily due to the accumulation of knowledge. In the past, Chinese people's understanding of the world's artistic language is more on the material level, which is also related to our cultural habits. It should be said that the expression of abstract thinking has always existed in our Chinese culture, but it is more about thinking about the language of expression on the basis of intentional expression. It does not rise up to a purely abstract expression like Western art. Pure abstraction is a reflection under the guidance of rational painting in the West. The angle of view is very different. Today many China's abstract expressions are the establishment of the inner heart, not the creation of ideas. More of us are the expressions of sentimental elements and ideas. The abstraction in China is not the same starting point with the abstract expression in Western modernism.

　　Everyone is aware that the power of abstract aesthetics has affected more people in China. We have changed the aesthetic consciousness of a visual language. We are also packaging abstractions driven by art and commerce. However, I feel that more artists are pure in their own clues. As long as artists can maintain their understanding of their own language forms, excessive business operations will have little impact on art development, and abnormal business operations will not last long. Artists using abstract language have strong subject consciousness. He will not interfere with himself. Chinese abstract language will develop gradually.

　　On the other hand, we see that Asian artists have their own emphasis on abstract expression, which is not the same as in the West. We take a look at the works of Korean artists, such as Lee Ufan, which are very different from Western artists' works. This is precisely the particularity of culture. This particularity is valuable to the development of the world art. If Chinese artists think slowly, they will form their own direction and find their own cultural position. But do not be disturbed by too many benefits. Such exploration can be relatively healthy and have a healthy development. This kind of expression must be in a pure environment; otherwise it will interfere with, influence, and even destroy the rationality of its development.

　　How do you think about the reasons and direction of the development of contemporary abstract art in China?

　　We see a lot of things that we did not realize in the past after Chinese art began to link with West. This has caused us to face the multiple choices. After these new experiences are connected with the previous things, they will produce new results. The result is unpredictable. I feel that there is no need to deliberately emphasize that I am an abstract artist or a figurative artist, or even whether I am a contemporary artist. What should stress is what kind of time we are in and build a valuable system on this basis. When thinking about this, artistic experience can be very free. As an artist, we need to make ourselves feel that there is a new possibility, which is not influenced by old visual habits and visual experiences.

　　It is very difficult for us to be completely unaffected by the surrounding, because there are still a lot of experiences that come from the outside world. However, this external information must be combined with our own thinking in order to produce new conclusions. This conclusion is not necessarily universally accepted, but you must have your own unique perspective, as long as you dare to speak out, through a medium, to make a complete expression. You don't have to emphasize the universal value approval and meaning, but to emphasize whether you feel your particularity.

　　The existence of artworks does not extend and expand. The so-called success is recognized and accepted at a larger level. As an artist, the mind is exactly the opposite of this kind of consciousness. On the one hand, the artist hopes to be accepted. On the other hand, he hopes to have the independence under the consensus culture. That's why the artists are often tangled and often contradictory. However, in terms of human thinking, art still has its own significance, which cannot be replaced by science, philosophy or other fields.

　　Does it mean that abstraction has more spiritual orientation and capacity, and figurative are prone to fall into the details of description?

　　Painting is actually a visual abstraction based on the plane. Abstraction is to make things that should not have existed to be sustainable through abstract thinking. In the past, figurative painting also contains many abstract elements. And during the development, there are many elements in figurative paintings have been occupied by other media which squeeze the painting to a purely abstract perspective. A visual image on a plane is different from real three-dimensional objects. The artist must complete the imagination and recovery through thinking and composition. The result may make us to read in a way that we can refer to. The reason why we need to get rid of the original figurative habits today is that the original qualities may be replaced by other things, such as, photography, which satisfies our more concrete and materialized desire, and human nature needs. However, artists do not think at this level. This is more of a desire for audiences. Realistic painting also let us getting more materialization desires. It is only now that the desire for materialization is increasingly being placed by other media. The painting was forced to shift its perspective at this time.

　　Therefore, it can be said that today's purely abstract perspective is a rebellion against certain attitudes, but it is essentially not a rebellion against painting, but against certain visual perspective which painting selects. But today, when we talk about abstraction, we pay more attention on abstract positions, and attitudes towards painting have been somewhat distorted. I feel that painting should not have so much interference, be labeled with various labels, and be judged whether you are figurative or abstract. There are many emotional components in painting itself, and rational and abstract components as well. The ultimate goal that it wants to achieve is ultimately the embodiment of human values.

　　So in today's artistic expression, painting has undergone a great transformation with the functions of 100 years ago, or can it be said that it is advancing?

　　Painting has always been questioned about the necessity of its existence. Even art is doubted about the value of existence. I think it is not so simple because artists are constantly changing and growing. Under the influence of other factors, its form has undergone a fundamental change. With the threat of photography, Cézanne has appeared, and then modernism and abstractionism have emerged. Art constantly finds its own advantages in survival. Human civilization allows it to constantly upgrade. Art needs updating and exchange of blood. While it is widely accepted, it will naturally be replaced by some medium. The artist has been living in a very narrow space. At the same time, he also believes that the human soul is infinite. However, in fact, as of today, painting may not be the focus of our attention. The real emphasis is on the growth of people and their sensitivity to the value of their own independence. Artists create self-expression in this category, and the behavior of an artist is much more important than his artworks.