Yang Xi's "Between Mountains and Rivers Series One"
Editor's Note
In the past five years, there is a group that cannot be ignored in the jade industry, they have received everyone's attention from the beginning, they graduated from colleges and universities, received education in the Academy of Fine Arts, and devoted themselves to jade carving, and even crossed over from other fields to jade carving. They are different from the traditional apprenticeship system of gradual learning, but on their own basis and contact with the familiar jade material, their style in the past form of jade carving has not even appeared, they have made improvements in the inheritance, or redefined or used new methods to interpret, their works have both experimental successful exploration and controversial cases in the industry, their works are highly recognizable, in the recognition of at the same time there are people criticized, the outside world has given them a special label "academy jade carving" or "academic school".
What do the big coffees think about the academy's jade carving? What about Yang Xi, a representative figure of Suzhou jade carving? Yang Xi in many public occasions is the industry's most supportive of this young new forces of the predecessors, and high hopes for them, during the Zigang Cup by Yang Ming, Nie Zixiang and Li Teng creative and initiated the "first jade salon - jade ontology and jade carving creation seminar", Yang Xi as a guest made a speech exchange, he objectively looked at the college jade carving, and put forward some questions and views, this issue of the editors will be Yang Xi's words on the scene to excerpt as follows, to share with you, many views are worth exploring.
...... There is too much homogenization, and the market is mostly working, because there are too many antiques.
Because of the antique, its requirements do not necessarily require people who have studied art, so most of the jade carvings are actually very rare in the study and foundation of art. (Because especially in the past to suzhou to do jade carving, such as brother in Suzhou to do jade carving is a money-making industry, the conditions are good, these relatives in his countryside have come, anyway, he saw the jade carving this condition also do antique, and then he also followed his relatives to come, work in the unit, study and study, so it formed a whole Suzhou at that time an overall jade carving team, including until now many of the situation is still like this, so now everyone is out, there is a "college" this system.
However, I have also thought about it, maybe the college system or the academic school (or not called the school, I don't consider this detail), I think "college" may be a specific term for a special period. Why? Because with these "not colleges" in the early stage to make money, these do a support, there is the entire Suzhou jade carving background. Then, many people in the academy didn't actually pay attention to jade carving, and he saw the arts and crafts like our previous state. But in fact, many people in the academy may do jade carving to take the oil painting route, take the sculpture route, he may not be famous and become a family, may not be able to make money, nor may be able to earn bread, but now return to our jade carving inside, but can support themselves, can support the family. So many people in the academy turn to our jade carving, and then it becomes a system of our academy.
Then I'm thinking about moving to the college system, which I personally think is still a term for a specific period. Why? You are the future of jade carving, including I am going to take apprentices now, or I will take apprentices in the future, and the only requirement I have now is that you are not a college? You are from the academy, I can take you as my student, why? I also have requirements, the academy of his can build skyscrapers, if you are not the academy, his line may not be too high, because you have not developed yourself, you are at most a migrant worker is difficult to create. So I may think that our future jade carving industry should be college, and in that period, we will not exist to find "college (pie)", because the entire jade carving industry is a college, right? So I'm thinking about some of those questions as well.
"Autumn Rain In Jiangnan" is included in the British Museum
Since I arrived at the jade carving factory, and later developed to do my own antique, make money to make money, and then also encountered a bottleneck in sales or business, when my taiwanese friends also proposed to bread at the same time to do innovation, then indeed I think it is correct, whether to do "bread" life or their own development to innovate, so from that time to think, we have to change some ways and methods of jade carving to do, in fact, for a period of time always do this thing, for themselves have formed a norm, A framework. I don't know how to innovate, I want to think about my own art, I don't know how to innovate. Later, slowly groping and groping, I began to start step by step, starting from small pieces to innovate, and then slowly spread some of my own (ideas), that is, after coming from a point, slowly walking away, to the time to spread thinking. So now I also see some of your current innovations, some of the innovations that may now be "colleges", but in fact, I chose myself at the beginning, and then I had to give up in turn. Why? I think that now some of the beginning of some of the creations of some colleges (of course, this is my personal opinion), I think sometimes it is not completely all innovation, it is just a form of transformation, that is, I see the academy has some paper bags or some sculptures directly to the jade carving.
In fact, this direction I also considered when I was creating, but I think this is not enough as an innovation, just to say that you converted the symbols of the academy into a material representation, and made those pure plasters, making a mobile phone and making a mouse. Of course, I am not the most suitable for me, and I think this is not the direction of my dry jade carving. I think this is also a certain understanding of copying. So on the other hand, why do I say it is not innovation, everyone knows that I don't talk too far, we look at the problem very realistically, he just made a dog realistic, and the cabbage in our lives to do realism. So I think this kind of creation is a direction but not an innovative direction.
Yang Xi's "Impression Garden"
I personally still prefer design, this concept, I have always liked to talk about design every time I talk about the forum, because I think design is like Master Fan said that some things should be viewed from another perspective, or a kind of friction. Some things are something that breaks the division and reorganization, and it is viewed from the perspective of another kind of perspective, whether it is the original thing itself. Yes, we also did Taihu stone in the first two years, this year also did Taihu stone, of course, not You Zhiguang to do that, this Kind of Taihu Stone already exists, everyone can see in life, are in our lives, I think this does not need to let us tell you from the perspective of jade carving, itself this thing can be seen everywhere, so I want to redesign him, re-use my aesthetic concept to deal with the performance, plus some symbols I need, plus some of the shapes we need, Or something that includes some limitations of this material itself, to re-aestheticize it. So in this way, my work has its own concept and my own ideas, which cannot be simply realistic.
So this time I said me and (Nie) Zixiang said, I said I also want to talk about my own (opinion), because your college may not do this for many years at once, then we have done it for many years after all, in fact, I have done jade carving for decades, in fact, step by step, step by step, step by step, step by step to change, and then share my experience with you, it may make you be able to shorten the time to do a lot of things in doing jade. Because if you first enter, there will definitely be a period of exploration. So if you share our experience with you, I think you can squeeze out some of your unnecessary time.
Therefore, I personally still like to continue to create, to change, in fact, there is a point that I am not quite like Master Fan said to return to this old maturity period, I do not want to return to the old maturity period, (hahaha) I think I still have to go forward, I do not want to return first, I still want to go forward, to explore, I think I personally think there are still many things to do. I also found that at our current creative point, especially our current so-called popularity, in fact, this aesthetic change is too fast, because the aesthetic change is too fast, resulting in our current creation can not stop. Why? In the past, the work of the jade carving factory, such as the older generation and now the seventy-year-old generation, what they did in the jade carving factory all their lives was a style, which never changed, why? Because of the specific product of the specific period of that period, the specific object it corresponds to, he does not need to change, he plays with technology, we play with technology, we play with ideas, we play with an aesthetic. Because now the aesthetics of the whole society are updated too quickly. For example, pop songs, in the past, a Fei Xiang pop song, can be played for many years, but now a pop song may not come out for a long time, and it will be covered by another song.
Yang Xi's "Sketch Jiangnan Series"
Now the aesthetic I found is that the replacement is too fast, and then it will cause us a lot of people who do jade carving, you can't put it next year, that is, the continuity will not be very long, you have to change, in order to continue your own artistic life. So now to do jade carving, I also realize that we must be very difficult to do, and now everyone is working hard, I think everyone is particularly competitive, so I don't want to return, I think I still want to go forward, because in fact, my works are changing every year, that is, I consider the current aesthetic fatigue, and it will be gone.
So I think it's much more difficult for us to do jade carving now than the older generation, they may be delving into technology for a lifetime, as long as I do it more delicately and in place. We may have this idea now, the next link will go this way, we will do it next year as I am doing now. So this is to say that there is a lot of pressure for us. It's because you want to maintain your own state, once you don't have a work, in fact, all your things are made in vain, very realistic things.
So in fact, there is another point that is to say that your current jade carving is to say, I feel that it may be too "college", that is, because you have not experienced the jade carving factory, I and Master Fan Junmin have experienced, this jade carving factory within our system. So sometimes my works are like Teacher Fan said, go back, I have been keeping two legs to walk, sometimes it will be a little more traditional, some are business goods, some may reflect some skills, some I will reflect some of my creativity, concept, some things I want to express, then sometimes I may also consider others too much, I will think about other people's views on their own works, sometimes can not fully reflect the real self, because I also consider everyone's acceptance.
The Lotus Phase is included in the British Museum
So in the past two years of this work, I've been thinking about some parts that are a little bit different, because there's a lot of technology mixed in. It's because I think too much about myself that I can't completely abandon it. I can't do it yet, I'm who I am today. Whatever you think. So my work has a part of the technology, then from the whole, I think like we said to Zixiang before, I am from the academy to the tradition, and then slowly and slowly from the tradition and then back to a point of the academy, but not completely to too much "college" this type, but I also hope that like you college can not be completely too college, because the college, I think with us to do jade carving also includes jade culture, and the material itself, it seems that there is still a great sense of distance.
Because you are the things of the academy sculpture, there may be some works that do not have to be expressed in jade, but can be expressed in stone or even other materials, which will completely waste jade things, so I think I suggest that you actually go in a direction of compromise, in fact, I am also like this now.
Today in fact, I actually don't have much preparation, in fact, I just want to talk about my own views, some ideas about the college are not too much preparation, maybe after you talk, I think maybe a certain point I still want to say a few words I will say again, because for a while I can't think of it, because I think the real achievement is a kind of discussion that everyone can let go of the topic, let go of the topic, I think what ideas you have is actually for me to learn, Because sometimes we will also be a long-term concept and progress of this jade carving, and then listen to you who are more avant-garde or your academy things, which in turn will stimulate me with some ideas, some inspiration, so that I feel that mutual discussion, I think it will be better than us simply talking about some issues, because I am not purely talking to you today, I think this is also a mentality, is to learn from you mentality, because I may have a bottleneck in this jade carving for a long time. Then there will be gains for me, rather than simply instilling ideas.
Prajnaparamita
Biography of a famous artist
Yang Xi, born in the 1960s, is a Chinese jade carving master, a representative inheritor of national intangible culture (Suzhou jade carving), and a representative figure of Suzhou jade carving.