In 2021, Ye Jintian brought the stage play "Love in the City" adapted from Zhang Ailing's novel of the same name, through multimedia film images, flowing and changing stage installations, gorgeous and beautiful costumes, the overall aesthetic effect was achieved to the extreme, giving the audience a multi-dimensional sensory experience.
For this creation, he said: "It is precisely because Zhang Ailing is closed and introverted, and each of us has a Zhang Ailing angle in our hearts, so she is omnipresent. ”
At the beginning of the new year, the launch event of director and artist Ye Jintian's new book "A World without Time" was held at the PAGEONE Bookstore in Beijing on the evening of January 14. At the event, Yip shared more than 30 years of creative history, the aesthetic views of "New Orientalism", and his unique thinking on "creative development" and "the essence of life".
Screenwriter and planner Shi Hang and writer Chen Guanzhong attended the event as special guests, discussed oriental aesthetics and artistic creation with Ye Jintian, and led the audience into the "aesthetic world of Ye Jintian".
Event scene from left: Shi Hang, Ye Jintian, Chen Guanzhong
In the field of beauty, we are constantly looking for new possibilities
At the event, Yip Kam Tim told his creations and thoughts over the years through pictures and video materials, and also previewed the upcoming exhibition of works to be held at the V&A Art Museum in the UK.
Director and artist Yip Kam Tim
In 1986, Ye Jintian was favored by Xu Ke and served as the executive artist of "The True Colors of Heroes", and became acquainted with the film. For more than 30 years, as an art director and costume designer, he has cooperated with many outstanding directors such as Ang Lee, Chen Kaige, Li Shaohong, Feng Xiaogang, Guan Jinpeng, etc., to create a unique visual imprint and aesthetic style for many film and television dramas such as "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon", "Chibi", "Night Banquet", "Daming Palace Words", "Orange Red", "Dream of the Red Chamber", "That Year the Flowers Bloomed and the Moon Was Round". He has participated in film and television dramas, and every frame is a poetic flow.
For Mr. Ip, film and television are just a part of his art world. In the field of stage, he has collaborated with many world-renowned artists and famous art groups in China, Austria, France, the United States, the United Kingdom, Spain, Japan and Israel. In 2004, Tim Yip designed an overall vision of costumes and choreography for the "Eight Minutes of China" handover ceremony at the closing ceremony of the Athens Olympic Games. At the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, he designed a medal gown for the Chinese delegation that "conforms to the Chinese charm and body structure".
Editor and planner Shi Hang
The stage play "Love in the Fallen City" is another attempt by Ye Jintian. Guests Shi Hang and Chen Guanzhong watched this stage play on the same day. Shi Hang said: "I think that there are many video components in this play, not only the exploration of Jintian's stage techniques, but even let us see that for Fan Liuyuan, a white tassel and a beach reef, and a princess, and the back of an umbrella, may be the same valuable aesthetic, an image." ”
Writer Chen Guanzhong
Chen Guanzhong said: "'Love in the City' has been adapted into stage works three times before and after, the first time was in 1944, Zhang Ailing wrote her own script. The second time was in 1987, the Hong Kong Repertory Theatre performed, which I did with an adaptation. This time for the third time. ...... Ye Jintian's approach is to use various techniques to express the rhythm of Zhang Ailing's script, and even every sentence. ”
A video was played at the event, and after a performance at the Beijing station of "Love in the City", Ye Jintian stepped on the electric balance car and paid tribute to the audience after a week of walking around. The increasingly mature creation and the childlike heart that is revealed from time to time are reflected in the artist at the same time.
Do not want to be defined by the label "artist"
This is Ye Jintian's first time as the general director of a stage play, he said, this is very different from his past experience, in the past as art director and costume design, many things had to be done according to the requirements of the director, and this time it was his turn to make a decision, he needed to have a strong "sense of intention" and desire to express.
His creative accumulation in stage, film, and costume also prepared for this breakthrough and creation. In "A Timeless World", he talks about how to put everyone in the crew in a proper position and put them together: "In the era of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, I saw that Ang Lee's ability and method of combining various heroes and good men into one is to integrate the uniqueness of each person, and to produce their uniqueness in each different paragraph. ”
From film to stage, sculpture, and now as a director, Ye Jintian has been experimenting with new areas. "Much of my artistic creation stems from my intense curiosity about the world." His exuberant curiosity and curiosity have become the driving force for him to make many cross-border attempts, and have also given him a unique charm.
Regarding the aura of "Best Art Direction" and "Artist" at the Oscars, Yip said that "the title is just a "label", and I do not want to be defined by a title like "artist". I like to get to know a lot of people, and there's a long way to go to understand "people themselves": where they come from and where they really go, what are the real life issues they face... Everything is far more interesting than being defined by labels. ”
Poetry truly reflects the value of man
Ye Jintian constantly crosses over a variety of fields, exploring and introducing the aesthetic concept of "New Orientalism" and interpreting the enlightenment of ancient culture for the future.
His "New Oriental Aesthetics" has actually gone through decades. After filming "The True Colors of Heroes", the young Ye Jintian traveled to Europe, and with the deepening of his understanding of Europe, he found that he "lacked some of the power of the source, and he had to shoot his own language, not to follow the language of the West all the time." So he began to study the traditional aesthetics of China.
Use systematic visual language to express the beauty of China. When participating in the movie "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon", Ye Jintian was already following such a concept. The art design of the film abandons the vulgar and complex elements, and the elements such as the ancient city wall, bamboo forest, and gray tiles create a simple and classical atmosphere, which is light and elegant, and conveys the poetry of Chinese painting.
Regarding poetry, Yip said in "A World Without Time": "Poetry may be the most precious thing that really exists in human culture, because it cannot be measured by the reality of time and space. It is beyond some worldly value, it is a metaphysical beauty that has truly existed, it always exists beyond the meaning of facts, and it more truly reflects the value of man. ”
The entanglement of desire in the thick and dark charm of "Rouge Buckle", the classical literary popularity of "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon", the flowing beauty and fragile sadness infiltrated by "Daming Palace Words", and the Zhang Ailing-style "Luo Sorrow and Hatred" in "Love in the Fallen City"... Ye Jintian can always use a unique aesthetic language to show the inner emotions of his works to the fullest, and his "new Orientalist aesthetics" have influenced the global understanding of the beauty of Oriental art.
"Actually, I haven't been doing classical, I've done a lot of things for the future. My New Orientalism is in fact an infinite number of possibilities. ”
Art makes us people who love the new and the old
The world we live in is in the midst of rapid change, and people's understanding of the world has undergone a very big change. At the same time, our understanding of human beings themselves is constantly breaking through the existing categories. Yip Kam Tim's artistic creation is derived from our past memories, present cognitions and judgments, and is based on human thinking and exploration. He has a very rich and special experience, accepting cultural influences that span the East and the West, which makes his artistic creation unique, and his works can be interpreted from different angles.
Guests took a group photo with the audience
Reflections on the universe, the temporal dimension, and the material and spiritual situation of human beings in A World Without Time provide the source of thought for his creation, as he says: "My interest is to re-feel where this thing comes from, how to find this source, and establish it as a new starting point." ”
"Spiritual DNA" is a concept that Ip has been expounding in recent years, and it is also an important theme in "A World Without Time", trying to rediscover time, memory, relationships and the truly important spirit in the modern society of consumption and technological alienation. This is his inner perception and expression of the self, as well as his understanding and exploration of the spiritual world.
Yip Kam Tim signed
Chen Guanzhong said: "What Ye Jintian is doing, simply put, he himself has been producing new ideas. When it comes to books, many of the words in it are very interesting, such as his view of time and his understanding of the word 'God'. ”
Shi Hang sighed: "Art is a bit like the accounting room in the world, it will count what we lose every year, what we lose, what we have moved away, art will tell you that this thing has, art has been born some that has not been, and some have been left behind, which is how we all become people who like the new and love the old." ”