Ding Yi

DY: At that time I did not know what real artists meant. In those days you simply wanted to be like Chen Yi Fei. It was already something to have an art studio. We never thought about going abroad. And it was a big deal already to be able to participate in a national exhibition. We were not yet able to see a lot of alternative things, to broaden our horizon. At that time I thought, gosh, such a lot of people! Surely many of them would be eliminated at the end. I asked myself, would that school mate be eliminated? No, and neither would this other school mate be. And I certainly will not be eliminated. So with this sort of simple thinking… I spent a lot of time on works like these, the works of 1991. In 1991, there was not yet any art wave, and not any galleries. It was my own passion for art that kept me going, my insistence on becoming an artist, an artist like Chen Yi Fei who was different from the others.
DY: At that time, Chinese culture started its transformation, as western culture began to be introduced into the country. Actually things were introduced in a disorderly manner – today you could introduce the Impressionists, tomorrow Duchamp, and then the day after you would go back to Cezanne. It was totally chaotic. We were students at that time. Whatever book we could buy this day would influence us. So would whatever book we could buy the next day. These books offered a sort of western cultural system, but it was not complete. You could not follow art history step by step.

Gu Wenda

GW: When I finish one artwork and am satisfied with it, I am of course happy. Or I am happy when I achieve something with my works. I feel frustrated when I am dissatisfied with my art, or the artwork reflects nothing about its audience and the society.

Gong Yan

GY: I consider everyone special. I do not feel that I was particularly special in a certain period. Moments of frustration occur frequently, but afterwards or when you have overcome the frustration you may feel you are very special. So, on the one hand I never think of myself as someone special, but on the other hand I may consider myself special all the time. But I feel you guys are very special as well. (Laugh…)
No. Maybe some people will think that artists are “weird”, or at least full of strange ideas which are different from those of others. But perhaps art makes me become more sensitive, or it may make me pay special attention to some details and to care about certain things happening around me.

Hu Jieming

HJ: The special moments are when my artworks have some positive impact on society. Then I will be very happy. If they fail to meet this requirement or they are not good enough, I will feel frustrated.

Huang Kui

HK: Hmmmm… Basically I was frustrated when I had no money.

Huang Yuanqing

HY: Artists are special. We are born with the desire to be special. If we want to be the same as others, we will not have chosen art. I think it has to do with vanity. There are frequent moments of frustration. As an artist I experience both pain and exhilaration. Sometimes I feel like I am really somebody, and then all of a sudden I would feel like a nobody. When you have had a good period and you have become used to it, it is very painful and frustrating to change anything. Actually, the frustration is most of the time related to my feelings towards my work. Of course sometimes it is also related to the way I view society.

Liu Jianhua

LJ: And there is one more thing that makes artists different — to a certain extent, the thoughts of an artist are different from those of others. One of the most important features of contemporary art is its experimental character, which is based on the fact that artists are more forward thinking than most people. So that’s what I meant by their being more sensitive. There may be something neurotic about this, too. I think this is the main difference.

Li Lei

LL: But we do this because of our own sense of responsibility. We are responsible to ourselves, to the society, to the people we love, so we insist on doing this. Frustration does not solve problems, so I do not get frustrated. We have to face the difficulties courageously.

Li Shan

LS: Let me see. Well, I had a whole list of frustrating experiences in my life. You know we went to university before the Cultural Revolution. The revolution really started with art and literature. At least that was what they said. After the revolution started, many of us were ready to switch careers despite the fact that we hadn’t graduated yet. We just didn’t want to study art anymore. The friend I mentioned earlier was accepted by Harbin Industrial University and, after graduation, was assigned a technician’s post in a factory in Chongqing. I wrote him a letter right before graduation and told him that I didn’t want to be an artist anymore. He asked me, “What do you want to do, then?” “I would like to work in your factory,” I said. “What can you possibly do in our factory?” he asked. I said, “I can compile the black-board newspaper for your factory.” And that was followed by an endless list of frustrating experiences. Even today, I am still depressed, not because of any external factors, but because of myself.
LS: Because many of the things I would like to do could not be realized due to lots of obstacles. There are currently two major obstacles I am faced with, my limited understanding and imagination and some technological issues in practice. I may have to collaborate with scientists. But finding such a scientist could prove extremely difficult.
Sometimes I ask myself if some artists try to make themselves seem different on purpose. For example, artists in Shanghai don’t like the artists in Beijing, so they call them “pizi”, or rascals. The artists in Beijing also dislike Shanghai artists, calling them the petty bourgeoisie. But I feel you should be who you really are. If you are a rascal, you are a rascal, always using vulgar language, behaving in an improper manner, knocking over chairs, all of which are okay for a rascal. If you are a petty bourgeoisie, it’s fine for you to have a little bourgeois sentiment and a noble temperament, to talk in a more refined manner, and to dress neatly. Both are acceptable to me because they are real. What really make me uncomfortable are those fake rascals or fake petty bourgeoisie. I really cannot stand them. I talk about this issue just to tell you that if there does exist something different about artists, it must be the fact that some artists are faking things. They shape themselves with plastic; they have a smell that is sprayed on, not the smell they are born with. They are made of sheer plastic, not copper, iron, wood, or soil. I don’t know what others think of plastic, but I simply cannot stand it. Take sculptures for instance, I never have a liking for those using fiber glass as materials, even if they have good styles. This just shows if some artists are in anyway different, it must be because they like to fake. Or we can simply, like many people do, compare these artists to plastic flowers, plastic roses for instance, with their fragrance sprayed on. This may really be the only difference. But I, personally, do not appreciate such a difference. I hate plastic, or anything unnatural.

Qiu Deshu

QD: When I was young, I was a famous and active artist as well as a little red guard. My works were often exhibited in art museums and also on the national art exhibition. At that time, I represented the little-red-guards, the workers and the working class artists and attended the opening of a national art exhibition in Beijing. It was the Cultural Revolution period then. I saw the show and asked myself, “Could this type of art be considered the best art classics?” They were really different from what I imagined art to be when I was a child. I felt that art should not be as “intense” as that in the Cultural Revolution.

Shen Fan

SF: You are actually no different from someone who sweep the ground, or a peasant, or a scientist. It’s just that you have different professions, and they influence your lifestyle. If you were a white collar, then you lead a 9 to 5 life. But if you were an artist, then maybe you do not get up until 5 in the evening and play till the morning. It’s just a different lifestyle.

Song Tao

ST: I did not feel I was different in any way, career-wise. I do feel frustrated every winter, but this is not caused by problems in my career. It is more related to the season or the weather at this time.

Shi Yong

SY: Actually I felt myself special and powerful when we just started doing art, rather than in an era of marketization.
SY: It’s not the comfort but the idealism embedded in it. You thought the world changed because of you.
SY: No, at that time, it’s not called interesting, but meaningful.
We were simple that time. Either you did it this way, or you were out, right? But you had already realized how disgusting the whole thing was, how disgusting it would be when even you would talk the same way. That was why we had to come out. Although we did not have an exhibition hall, we still went to a lousy place to show our works. There were so many people. Because there weer not many strange exhibitions at that time, lots of people came. Many of them spoke ill of us, but that was okay.
SY: For example, the first exhibition was held in the basement of Hua Shan Art School.
SY: 1993. At that time, we did installations, so those who painted didn’t have an interest in it; they thought what we did was not art. But people from other disciplines came and they thought the works were good. Even the newspaper reported on it. We were happy.

Wang Nanming

WN: I feel that I have been pretty special ever since childhood. I loved Chinese painting and games as a child and by the time I reached high school I became a very rebellious person… this is partly the result of my personality, and partly because of the generation we were in. In the 80s and 9s, when we first presented our works, we generated lots of controversies in society, mainly because [they have] never seen things like these. We came into contact with the avant-garde or contemporary art of the western world, and we wanted to find breakthroughs in our traditional culture.

Xu Longbao

XL: I was different from the others. One time it was really special. Everyone said my art was really great. Jie Fang Daily, Wen Hui Daily and TV stations all organized exhibitions for me, and our school’s headmaster published an art album for me as well. I get frustrated when I feel that my works are in no way comparable to people who came before me. They were so much better than I. But I am determined to work really hard on my art.

Xiang Liqing

XL: Oh… I can’t answer. I don’t know how to answer. I cannot really think right now.Yes.

Xu Zhen

XZ: Actually I’m just an artist, doing art. What is art? No idea.

Yang Zhenzhong

YZ: I feel what makes me frustrated is the small influence of art, which cannot compare to a piece of news I see on website. The influence of reality to people is much stronger than that of art, especially the reality in China.

Yang Fudong

YF: First of all, I do what I like, I create works of art. I cannot agree with the term “career life”. I find this term strange and it reminds me of NBA players. I cannot imagine any NBA player… for example… and then he is hurt and cannot play… but I think first of all we cannot define things with our careers.

Yang Hui

YH: People who like drawing are special. They are different from ordinary ones.

Yu Youhan

YY: After the 80s, sometimes I feel helpless in my profession. In the past, my students were senior high school graduates, like Ding Yi’s group. Then, some students were from junior high school. With the reforms and the opening up of the country, everyone started to become merchants, etc. And the parents… I don’t know whether it is the parents or the students themselves, or the influence of the entire society, people’s attitude towards art was not so pure anymore. They did not love art. All that my students were looking for were occupations. I think it is still the same today. They want to look for stable jobs which are not too tiring, which will give them two to three thousand yuan per month right from the start, and then five thousand, eight thousand, ten thousand.
YY: (Laugh…) Yes. But I am not interested in this problem when communicating with students. I prefer talking about art. But this sort of conversation gradually decreased, and the number of people decreased as well. Those who remain are the alternatives. Yes, they are the ones who can discuss art in private, or they plan to take art as a career and they come to talk to me, a teacher, about this.

Zhu Julan

ZJ: For example, if I compare myself to the famous painter Qi Baishi, I would feel really frustrated because he was extremely talented in art and he was very industrious. He created lots of works almost everyday. He learned everyday. And he lived a long life. He died in his nineties. So I found I didn’t have the qualification to compete with him. I thought I had no hope of surpassing him. This kind of situation often occurred, and I felt quite frustrated. But now I no longer seem to think like that.
Because I think everyone has his own position. I have my own duty to carry out. So I don’t need to be compare myself with him. He has done his duty. And I continue with my own tasks.