Gu Wenda

GW: I think artists have the responsibility for providing possibilities for new ethical standards.

Gong Yan

GY: I feel that an artist may become especially outstanding in a certain period, but those works may be related to his mood. Sometimes when a person becomes extremely immoral, it could lead to another possibility, that is, he frees himself from the artistic perspective, and allows that unethical thing to become a new reality.

GY: I think a work can show people something about the artist, whether he is complicated, upright, or wretched. But I don’t like to set a standard for artists and ethics.

Huang Kui

HK: Good artists are morally sound. Many artists just want to reflect something through their works. It does not mean they are unethical.
HK: When you are trapped inside the question, you have a problem. But if you are an outsider, yo are judging the good and bad of a certain issue. Morality is not something one is born with. Some things especially require thinking by the artists. I think morality is just a very vague word.

Lu Chunsheng

LC: There’s none. It’s wrong to judge art with ethical standards. Art has its own standard. It cannot be judged with common moral standards.

Li Shan

LS: One artist ate his own child. In this way, he created his own ethic. And he is o.k. with all that. Principles of morality and rules of conduct are actually are created by mankind itself. Can they be altered? Artists have a wish to change them. But it is quite another issue as to when the society will accept the principles created by artists.

Qiu Anxiong

QA: Art is allowed a broader territory than what society normally allows. That is to say, maybe things that are considered unbearable in ordinary life can still be endured in the world of art.

Qiu Deshu

QD: It could be because of my way of living all these years. I am a poor person. I will not hurt other people. I will not create social upheavals.

Shen Fan

SF: So this relationship is: if ethics is natural, than art is natural. If art is natural, than ethics is also natural. It’s just like a leaf in Nature; it has its ethics.

Song Haidong

SH: I had considered happenings before. I have been to Europe and lot of museums in China. Art is too important. I thought to myself, I really ought to consider this questions – creating less art, but create higher quality art . At least I will use up less resources. For example if I made something with bamboo which needs to be transported from elsewhere, then I can use less of these resources. There are more and more people on this earth, and more resources are required. So I want to start with myself, to use less and create better works.

Tang Maohong

TM: Sometimes art does not guide, but raise a new point of view, which may even perhaps lead to a new ethical standard.

Wang Nanming

WN: When a work of art can realize its criticism of society, it is praiseworthy whether it is beautiful or ugly. There are some works of art which do not inspire anybody and has no effect on society. No matter how good that work of art is, it is not worth us paying attention to it. If we only perceive art to be some visually pleasant thing, then we have turned away from the theme of contemporary art, because contemporary art is no longer just about aesthetics.

Wang Tiande

WT: How can art not have a moral standard? For example, as a professional artist you become famous after this gallery exhibits your work. And then another gallery offers a higher price and you leave the first one the second day. I find this not acceptable. You should have basic professional ethics. It should guarantee a minimum number of years. And I think when you are selling your work, and in comes a Fortune 500 CEO who can offer a price much higher than that of the gallery, you still should not sell your work to the CEO for the high price but only give the original amount to the gallery. This is not acceptable. This is a moral question.

Wang Xingwei

WX: Firstly the common moral standards we talk about have nothing to do with it. The morality we talk about is part of our living condition, something widely accepted by everybody. In the field of art, in order to preserve diversity, there are lots of things which most people find repulsive. In this case, morality may have to give way to the need for artistic expression.

Xiang Liqing

XL: It is something you cannot touch, but then there are lots of artists who want to touch it. Then they get an electric shock.

Xu Zhen

XZ: For me, art is very broad, and it leaves room for us to try lots of things. Maybe after we try something the results are not good or are problematic. But then we can discuss ethics, systems and the society a little. Yet before we start anything we should not consider the question of ethics too much.

Yu Xiaofu

YX: I think my art contains something devout, religious, pure. I don’t like oppositions. I don’t like subversive art, because our country’s immunity level is low, and there’s no law to protect that. Subversive art makes Chinese people even worse.

Yang Zhenzhong

YZ: A simple illustration is the gradual acceptance of nude models. At first, it was totally unacceptable according to the moral standards of the time. There are lots of similar examples. It seems an ordinary example.

Zhu Julan

ZJ: I basically agrees with this view of his. The ethics of each era could be different, and each religion or culture has different judgments towards ethical standards. I think the basic things won’t change a lot. The most basic requirements of ethics are reflected in art. For example, honesty is a basic moral criterion. If an artist is not honest, his artworks are definitely false or deceitful and cannot become good works. Secondly, I think it is sympathy. No matter what ethical standard you follow, there is always the need for sympathy. The more sympathy he has, the larger impact he would have on others.

Zhou Tiehai

ZT: Ethics is constantly changing. This has something to do with culture, society and art, right? Right, ethics is always changing. What we couldn’t accept before is accepted now. We used to reject homosexuality, now we accept it. The status of females has improved. These represent changes in ethics.
DQ: What about art?
ZT: Art is changing, too. But some artists want to test the moral bottomline.