"Snow Child" in Beijing Winter Olympic Park
It is not easy to have a road that others have not traveled in this era.
——Liu Yang
Before meeting Liu Yang, "International Sculpture Creation Camp" was a new word. In short, it's " go around the world and make sculptures and leave them local" .
"The sculpture camp is an international cultural exchange method, funded by the government or institutions, and selected sculpture artists from all over the world to create sculptures in a public area in a public area for 1 to 6 weeks. Materials are mostly stone, but there are also wood, metal welding, bronze and a small number of devices. The number of people is as small as three or five, and as many as 1200 (there were 200 people in Beijing once, in Beijing International Sculpture Park). At the end of the event, a sculpture park is built for these sculptures, or placed in important locations in the city. The camp will hang the flags of the participating artists' countries (the five-star red flag is something I can be proud of because I have been raised in more than 30 countries). In addition to being responsible for food, accommodation and travel expenses, the organizing committee will also give a part of the manuscript fee. Compared with the self-speculation and self-sale in some art fields abroad (such as appearing in a certain hall), in fact, this is what really makes Chinese culture go to the world. Liu Yang introduced it in his essay collection "Fighting Stones".
It sounds so good, so good that it's a bit angry. "It's all this era, and it's not easy to have a road that no one else has taken." Liu Yang himself said.
Liu Yang, a native of Harbin, was born in 1972 in the Daoli shantytown. The university studied food engineering at the Northeast Agricultural College. After graduation, I opened a bakery for a month and pedaled three rounds to deliver goods for a year.
In order to have a serious job at his girlfriend's house, he was recruited into the Heilongjiang Morning Post in 1997 to be an american editor, an editor of the news department, and a director of the sports department.
In 2002, he was admitted to CCTV and served as the planner and choreographer of "Tell the Truth". In 2006, after 250 days of CCTV's "My Long March" (probably China's earliest outdoor reality show), Liu Yang led one or two elite outdoor expedition teams from Tsinghua University to explore the way, and was called "pioneer officer" and won China's highest outdoor award.
Later, he made documentaries and micro-films, hosted Hong Kong health TV programs, worked as a news commentator, wrote NetEase columns, won international bronze medals in costume design, and even made a cameo appearance in the famous TV series "My Regiment Leader My Regiment", a sad Japanese soldier "Duozui Hashimoto".
And sculpture is basically Liu Yang's self-taught - he worked as an apprentice in a sculpture studio in college. Since 1999, his sculptures have received awards and exhibitions on national and international platforms.
In 2010, he began to participate in the International Sculpture Creation Camp, traveling around the world and starting a free sculpture career. So far, his sculpture has spread to 34 countries and regions on five continents, and 76 large-scale public sculptures have been completed, and his sculpture "Soft Power" was presented to the municipality of Santiago de Chile, and he won the Montenegro City Contribution Award together with Milan football superstar Dejan Savičević. His works have also been installed in landmark locations such as the Trento Museum in Italy, Zermatt in the Swiss Alps, Pamukkale in Turkey, the Nile River in Egypt, and the South Courtyard of the National Palace in Taiwan.
In 2012, he founded the International Alliance of Sculpture Creation Camps (ISSA) and served as secretary general, passionately promoting sculpture creation, participating in sculpture seminars and lectures in various countries. He also served as a curator of sculpture exhibitions, and traveled while creating sculptures. He is the author of the best-selling book "Walking on the Blade".
On October 1, 2021, Liu Yang's work "Snow Child" was selected as a public sculpture of the "2022 Beijing Winter Olympic Games", enlarged into a huge version of 5 meters high, and was first stationed and permanently displayed in the Winter Olympic Park.
On February 24, 2022, "Territory: Liu Yang Sculpture Solo Exhibition" was launched at Artspace K Space in Hong Kong until July 3.
I saw Liu Yang twice, one autumn and one winter, with an interval of more than a year.
He was not tall, smiling, carrying a backpack, and could walk at first glance. The dressing style is very common, gray and abrupt, and a closer look can see the color scheme with low saturation but difficult for ordinary people to control. "There is a kind of person who can always make you feel relaxed, Liu Yang is like this, whether in the crowd, or in nature, I rarely see his cramping and anxiety, which is rare in the current human body... I have a lot of respect for people who live like this, don't get away with it, be honest with themselves, accept themselves, and then live comfortably with the world. His former colleagues, hosts and Jing commented on him.
"In fact, we should not use words to interpret sculptures, but use life to interpret them." When you think about the whole person, you know why he made this sculpture. "Liu Yang's suggestion I think is good.
A troubled life will make your body better
Beiqing Daily: I see that your physical condition is quite good, are you fit?
Liu Yang: I don't work out. I'm a manual worker, and I'm fit. I have to save some energy to work.
Beiqing Daily: Do you usually play football?
Liu Yang: I play football and basketball. But that's to form a team, now there is no one around, it is good to play one game a year. Because like my age, this figure, I crush you know, I live them like playing with them now. There is a saying: "When you cross the road in the morning, you will cross the road in the morning." "Because a lot of them are already fat, and they're stupid." I've been in this state.
It has to do with my life. First, I can't drive, and then people like me who don't have much money and don't spend money, take less taxis, and I basically take the bus. Recently, I got a small scooter myself, which is not electric, can be folded, can be on the car, subway, unrestricted. Recently, Langfang lent us a place in the International Sculpture Creation Camp Alliance for 5 years, and I want to go to Langfang. Recently, when there is an epidemic car is particularly inconvenient, I have that small scooter, and when there is no car, I am particularly convenient to "pour short". Such a difficult life will make the body better, because you will walk a lot more every day than others.
I used to hike more than 6,000 kilometers for more than half a year, but at that time it was a documentary. I'm an explorer in a way, and I'm also a member of the Chinese Explorers Association. Modern society has almost been replaced by machinery, men rarely do physical work, and the hormones and blood in their bones are nowhere to be released. And making sculpture is a kind of release, especially to do sculpture all over the world, so that you feel as if you can fight the sword and walk the rivers and lakes.
In the early years, I didn't know that people could still live like this--I could go around the world, see all kinds of people, put sculptures in all kinds of places that I had never imagined before: on the Banks of the Nile, on the Sahara Desert, on the Himalayas (Daulagiri)... And you can have an income, and I think this kind of life is simply too ideal. I am not a person with particularly grand ideals, nor can I be a great sculptor of the kind that influences history. In fact, as a professional sculptor, I did not want to choose a career, but to choose a life.
I can have a higher degree of freedom in making sculptures and create works that are entirely my own. From an artistic point of view, foreign artists are also more practical, and they have stronger hands-on ability. Chinese artists will have weaker hands-on ability, not only in China, but also in India, why? Because labor is cheap. Many of us artists don't do large sculptures ourselves. I often compare sculpture to having a child, we do sculpture abroad like we have a child ourselves, to be a mother; at home like a father, after doing what we have done, the rest is someone else's business.
Beiqing Daily: When was the first time you went out? What is the opportunity?
Liu Yang: 2010. I knew a Korean when I was attending an event in China, emailed him about doing an event, and asked if I had done it myself. I said "done". In fact, I have not done large stone carvings myself before. This thing is not done by yourself in the country, there are assistants. Don't even do it, take a small draft to the factory, and put it there after processing. But abroad is done by themselves. I found an opportunity to practice myself, and I felt as if I could deal with it, and my courage was also big, so I went. I have always said that people are practicing and then competing, I am "practicing with races", all in the creative process of training.
Beiqing Daily: Where to go?
Liu Yang: South Korea. There were a lot of jokes, because I hadn't done it before. I don't even know how to buy a round-trip ticket, so I can buy a one-way trip. That was my second trip abroad. Go and not make the machine, at that time 23 cm a saw blade is very large, I cut the saw blade and exploded, very dangerous. After blowing it up, I didn't dare to tell them, so I threw it away without anyone noticing, and went to get a saw blade. Later, the Korean asked me many years later, "Is that the first time you have participated in a sculpture camp abroad?" ”
All my successes are luck
Beiqing Daily: So from the root, I still like the sculpture thing that has made you, can you say so?
Liu Yang: You said how much I like sculpture, I can't tell myself. I'm not that persistent person. Junior high school liked art, and later for various reasons I could not pass the academy of fine arts, went to engineering college. A colleague of my dad said, "Oh, kids love art, and it's a shame they didn't go to college." I have a friend who is engaged in art, and you study with him. "In the past, the relationship between the family was like this, just go and learn, it just so happens that the family is a teacher of sculpture."
At that time, I didn't know that I could do this in the future. Because the family is average, you don't know what a good life will be in the future. Because mom and dad are both school workers, the only thing you can see is that going to college may be a good way out. According to the local saying when I was a child, "maybe I can ride in a car in the future", so I don't have to work as hard as a worker.
I remember very clearly, on the second day of the second lunar month in 1992, I went to the teacher's studio. He didn't think much that I could follow suit, anyway, he didn't have students, because doing sculpture is a hard job, he worked hard all day long, and it was still very good to have an assistant. When I studied with him, I didn't take the initiative to learn, just worked with my head down. One day he said with great compassion, "So you make a Hercules." "Just under his nose, he did that, and he helped me point it out, fix it, and tell me how to do it."
Beiqing Daily: Is it equivalent to using you to work for him?
Liu Yang: The apprentice is like this, he also gives me a salary. But that's fine, there were a few things that were very important at the time: First, the teacher had a lot of books there. The teacher is a graduate of Lu Mei, which is considered to be a good school. At that time, there was no Internet, and there were very few professional books. At that time, professional books were not allowed to be bought by our non-professionals, and even bookstores were not allowed to read them, because there were human bodies in them. I have not done human beings. It is quite scary to do sculpture without doing the human body, because the core of sculpture in the early years is to make people very similar. Then you have not done the real human body, which is equivalent to a huge absence. At that time, I wondered every day and asked my brother, "Do you recognize the people who opened the bathhouse?" I'll give people a bath. "In this way, I think I can see a lot of human bodies." The teacher has a special number of books, and in an instant, a door is opened, including foreign books and books on sculpture techniques, which cannot be bought in bookstores.
Second, he brought some small sculptures abroad, including some of his own sculptures, which are actually of great value to see. When I was in college, I did more because the conditions were better, and the teacher had space, mud, and plaster. On rest days and holidays, I am basically in the teacher's studio, and I go when I have time. After college, there are fewer.
Later, I made a sculpture, and my teacher was very surprised, he thought that I was just going to follow the mix and mix it up. And I didn't follow him as soon as I graduated from college. Later, I became the deputy secretary-general of the China Sculpture Professional Committee, and he served as a director. He wondered how I was.
I later came to Beijing and have been doing sculptures. In 2001, I began to participate in two national sculpture activities, and it was not easy, everyone was professional, only I was an amateur. I have gradually become more familiar with some institutions, such as the director of the Beijing City Sculpture Office, who is very good to me, and he thinks that I am a very legendary figure. When I first met him, I said, "Beijing is not bad, I will come to Beijing in two days." He said, "What are you doing in Beijing?" I said, "Go to the central station, there's no other place to go." After two days of coming, he kept saying in the back, "This person is very powerful, saying that if you go to the central platform, you will go to the central platform, and the central platform is what you say you can go to?" "Then there's a sculpture magazine that's more familiar over there, because I've been to their events before. The two bodies are more tolerant. In fact, all walks of life have sects, not disciples of the gang, and there are few opportunities. These two institutions are more open and can allow me to enter a non-professional person. So I think all success is luck.
The whole world is my studio
Beiqing Daily: What kind of circumstances did you start to turn to a professional sculptor?
Liu Yang: Since around 2005 and 2006, I have participated in some sculpture creation camps in China, met many foreign sculptors, and gained a lot in the process of chatting with them. At the earliest, he didn't know foreign languages, nor did he know foreigners, so he Chinese. By 2006 and 2009, it was different, because at that time, I was older, my self-confidence was up, and I had more contact with foreigners. Listen to them say to me, "Look at me this year, after your China is finished, I will go to Korea, go to South Korea to the United States, and go from the United States to where to go..." It feels too good, you can travel the world again, and you can leave works.
I decided to go. Of course, it is not easy, I have been submitting articles since 2006, and I have not gone out for 4 years. Then I don't think that thing is a setback. I always give you an example, I said that people are like snakes, and you can only grow up after you take off this skin. When you are young, change will bring you something very new, and you have to be able to bear the risks of change. Finally, in 2010, I went out, and if I didn't go out, this threshold was actually very sad. Why don't so many people in China go out? Why can I go out? China is active outside of four or five people, they are a file, I did 30 countries unique file. This thing is not a horizontal thing, it's time, the amount of time I spend on it and how much I do outside.
Beiqing Daily: What do you usually do with more works?
Liu Yang: I am not very selective about materials, but in fact I have completed more stone carvings. Because in creative camps around the world, stone carvings can be done independently in a short period of time. And I prefer permanent materials because they can be kept permanently.
The Egyptian Minister of Culture said a word when he asked us to do sculpture, he is a poet, he said that Egypt has a civilization of 5,000 years, 5,000 years ago the Egyptians left the pyramids, the Sphinx, and so many temples for us, so what do we have to leave for Egypt 5,000 years later? So ask the sculptural artist to make the sculptures that can survive. I think it makes so much sense.
About 70% of these sculptures we make are not in tourist cities. That approach is a bit like a calligraphy pen meeting, leaving the work in a cultural exchange way, which is a particularly good way for the city. Because commercial sculpture is expensive. In this way, it pays you the equivalent of a grant, and then it can also leave a lot of works. They will take you to play, treat you as guests, and you will have a lot of communication with the locals.
Beiqing Daily: How many countries do you generally go to in a year? Are you coming one stop at a time?
Liu Yang: I went to a country in 2010, and we had 4 foreign artists plus a few Korean artists, and those 4 artists became my very good friends. In 2011, he went to Russia and Egypt. We went out 9 times in 2012, which is also rare in the world, because it takes time to make sculptures, and we have to be invited. People have to prepare stones, people have to have activities, you have to go. That year I was really all going abroad to do sculpture and visas, and I did almost nothing else. In the middle, I also took time to go to Mount Everest. After that year, I was established in my international position. In 2017, I went to 10 more creative camps. The other year is about six or seven.
Beiqing Daily: In this way, you are now in a very cool state of life, doing what you like and are good at, and then the path is also very smooth.
Liu Yang: And it is a very proud thing. Our cultural output is very benign, we did not spend a penny of the state, it was the other party who took money to invite us out. We were also treated very well abroad, in Griffith, Australia, where posters were hung all over the city; when I was in Nepal, helicopters sprinkled me with flowers and felt like a superstar.
Beiqing Daily: Why did you choose "Territory" as the theme of your solo exhibition in Hong Kong?
Liu Yang: People often ask me where the studio is, I don't have a studio. I didn't take public sculpture projects in China before, and small sculptures can also be done at home. Practitioners in Sichuan have an old saying: "One horse has the troubles of one horse, and two horses have the troubles of two horses." "When there is a studio, there is a trouble with the studio. So when people asked, I said that the whole world is my studio, and the whole world is also my exhibition hall. This gradually became my "territory", and I used sculpture to expand my territory. I now have works in 34 countries and regions, and I will open up a broader sculptural territory in the future.
Writer/ Reporter Wu Fei