In the waves of development of modern Chinese art, installation art exploded during the ’85 fashionable art period as a new art form. When Robert Rauschenberg came to China in 1985, he held his exhibitions at National Art Museum of China and Tibet Revolutionary Hall. It’s safe to say that Rauschenberg was the origin of installation art in China. However, when it comes to changes in art creation and ideas, Chinese installation art benefited a lot from western conceptual art and post-modern art directly and indirectly. When Marcel Duchamp doubted the halo of classic artwork and blurred the line between art and life, he consequently freed daily objects and made them into art pieces in a new context. Aesthetics had to give way to concepts and change of form admired by western modernism surrendered to the physical property value of the material. In a post-modernism context, “objects” was given unprecedented individual meaning, especially with the emergence of New Dada, Arte Povera and Neorealism. This individuality is not only shown on the physical medium level, it also carries aesthetic and cultural value.

　　In fact, Liu was too much not concerned with the inner logic of western post-modern art in his installations during the past few years. His original work was not inspired by the idea of transforming an everyday object to a piece of art. On the contrary, the inspiration came from his personal hobby, collecting. Liu likes to collect porcelain tiles from ancient time, especially those from the Song Dynasty Ge kiln. Porcelain made in Ge kiln is known for being glazed both on the inside and outside, evenly shone, crystal and smooth, as well as the simple and elegant outline and soft and smooth lines. Ge kiln porcelains are beautiful and dignified, exuding the heritage of Chinese literature. In the past decade, Liu collected more than ten thousand pieces. Crackled Ge kiln porcelains are his favorite. When his collection grows big enough, the artist started to think about how to systemize his collection and how to display them. It takes more than the techniques to solve this puzzle. He needs to figure out how to look at the works because after all there are multiple dimensions when it comes to observing— appreciation, aesthetics and evaluation. To the artist, to design a specific way to observe the artwork is a more important aspect of the job. Therefore, following the visual logic of collect, display and observe, the artist focused on what observing mechanism the audience and the porcelain will be in. At the beginning of his creative work, however, he shifted his focus on the porcelains themselves. If porcelains were used as the creative factor of the new work, they’d become “objects”, or finished products. Gradually, in the following work, the objects become the media and move forward to culture and aesthetics.

　　Yet the new question came about immediately. How to display the work in a new viewing mechanism? Apparently the artist was inspired by the relics displayed in the museum. The visitors’ action in the museum is more gazing than viewing. This gazing is a result of the historic and cultural information of the relics. They are intimidating and mysterious. At the same time, lighting, booths, glass partition and information text of the exhibits all contribute to a sense of ceremony for visitors when staffs display them. For Liu Yanjun, gazing means a special viewing effect. It enables the visitors to discover the hidden cultural and aesthetic message hidden in these porcelain pieces. But how to make these bits and pieces of porcelains look integrated? Should I number them? What the artist came up with is to mend with staples, an artwork mending technique. This technique used to be widely applied to fixing historic relics or daily wares. The only difference is some mending requires more sophisticated technique. However in Liu’s production process, he expanded the stapling technique beyond physics and technique and gave it some spiritual meaning. For him, it’s important to mend human race’s faith and spiritual belief. So mending humanity relies on faith. When Liu talked about his collection, he said, “We fix a broken piece very dedicatedly and recreate to make it complete again or even make it better to realize even more of its value. The very original version of the piece might not be reproduced but we don’t have to wait until our next life to rebuild our soul and our belief.” Granted this concept for his work comes from Liu’s more implicit aesthetic and outlook on life, which is “the beauty of anachronism”. Damage and incompleteness means imperfect to the artwork and defect and regret to one’s life. However from an aesthetic and cultural point of view, reserving and acknowledging that beauty means being poised, calm, and detached. It is an aesthetic as well as an attitude towards life. In the actual process of mending with staples, it is a healing process for the artist. Liu created a batch of sculptures using black basalt similar to minimalism styled works during the next two years. When he was once at a mine in Inner Mongolia to get sketches for his work, he ran into these basalt rocks that were discarded. They were wastes but to his they were treasure. In his eyes, basalt rocks are the crystallization of the volcano eruption. Even though they have been sleeping for hundreds of thousands of years they have absorbed the essence of the universe. The idea of beauty of anachronism made Liu believe that these wastes could be made into art because they had characters and qualities. The question that followed was how to transform them. Liu decided to lean towards the minimalism concept that less is more. However the difference of Liu’s idea from minimalism is he does not pursue the purest form nor does he focus on the law of “one thing after another”. Instead, he wanted to keep the natural form of the basalt. He re-embraced the eastern aesthetic in his creation—to follow the ideas of “the great sound is hard to hear”, “perfection does not appear flawless” and “the most skillful may seem clumsy”. Therefore the artist’s subject will is completely hidden in the form of his work and the transformation of the basalt gives way to the physical property and quality of the rocks. However, if he is not heavily refining the sculpture or performs any arbitrary changes of the form, how would he be able to release the charm of the work? That’s the second question, which is to create an effective context for the work. Liu thinks the solution to this is the venue and the theatre effect from the interaction of the work and the venue. In 2013, Liu chose The Green T. House in Beijing as the venue for his first exhibition. The Green T. House is at a great location with a good neighborhood for arts. Black basalts stand on the white plaza. The environment is minimal and dreamlike. The decoration is scenic with classical gardens and architecture. Everything complements each other and seems effortless. Different from works during the western modernism period, which emphasize on disciplined forms and self-sufficient meanings, works in the context of post-modern and contemporary arts have open -end meanings that are inseparable from the surroundings and the visitors’ observation. In that sense, the surrounding and viewers are also creators of the artwork and the artist creates the context for the entire work to make sense. Regardless, on the level of metaphysics, the creation of an artwork is still a labor in nature. However, what attitude one holds towards the labor in artistic creation is also a question on spiritual level. To Liu, he acquires a sentiment and self-cultivation in the process of the production. When talking about his creation of the basalt series, he mentioned, “I will not lie however that it’s quite a labor working with such materials because they are heavy and high in density. From the mine to the processing site in Inner Mongolia to the studio and eventually the exhibition, it was a good experience for us physically, mentally and spiritually. It made me realize many things I had not before.” The process of combing labor and concept, exercising the body and the mind, and the experience and transformation, is as important as the final product.

　　Rebirth is the integration of the process of labor and the understanding of life. The installation incorporates process, images and concepts. In Buddhism, Gautama Buddha experiences nirvana in the end—death as well as rebirth. On one hand, this piece presents a sense of perishing of the Buddha both visually and mentally. On the other hand, the burning fire in the background is the implication of a new life in the reincarnation. The image of Buddha derives and disappears, which has in meanings in two dimensions. In the first dimension, Buddha is an index that directs. Its disappearance can be interpreted as the perishing both physically and spiritually. The second dimension stems from the conceptualization of the process of heating the Buddha in the kiln. While working in Jingdezhen, a porcelain master told Liu that during the thousands of years of porcelain making in China, a most prominent character about it is that an object can be minified by the kiln fire. In another word, every time a porcelain Buddha is put in the kiln it shrinks by 16% to 17% in size. Following this rule, Liu reproduced the Buddha every time after it was heated in the and then repeat, until the image of the Buddha was unrecognizable. The process lasted more than a year. To conceptualize the technique and the process is to find an effective integration of the shrinking during heating and the diminishing of the Buddha. Also, the fire in the video can be interpreted both as the fire burning in the kiln and the fire during the reincarnation. Perishing of the body and the escalation of the spirit explain the meaning of nirvana. The “seeds” scattered on the floor stand for another interpretation of life. They are symbols and a remind of the never ceasing inheriting of life.

　　Unlike many other modern artists, Liu Yanjun is not an aggressive rebellion when it comes to art but he doesn’t follow the so-called logic in art history. To him, the value of art creation is about the mending. It is practice, which heals one’s own wounds and perfects one’s life. There is no cumbersome decoration in his work or deliberate pursuit of metaphor. Instead, he hopes his works are connected with daily life and touch people in the simplest way. He hopes he internalizes his life experience in his work. At the same time, when it comes to the form and aesthetics pursuit of his work, Liu tries to carry the natural heritage of eastern aesthetic concepts. Because of that, he takes “perfection does not appear flawless”, “the most skillful may seem clumsy” and “the beauty of anachronism” as his most important rules. He bases his work on daily objects and ascends them to return to eastern aesthetics. His art is rooted but not confined in his life experience and is endowed with modern humanities. That is the most valuable thing about Liu Yanjun’s art.

　　Wangjing Dongyuan

　　February 28, 2015

　　He Guiyan an art critic, got a doctor degree from Chinese Central Academy of Fine Arts. He serves as an Associate Professor, Master

　　Instructor and Director in Art Department of Institute of Contemporary Art of Sichuan Academy of Fine Arts, Academic Member of Chinese Art

　　Critic Annual Meeting, Director of Chinese Sculpture Society and a professional curator.

作者：HE,Guiyan