Written by | Qiu Shuwan
Source | Interface art
In Europe, jewelry design has a long history and its level of craftsmanship still holds a leading position today. However, there is a Chinese artist, who is not only the top artist in the field of jewelry today, his influence in Asia, Europe and the United States, but also an internationally recognized representative of unique innovation and revolutionary technology, and his achievements in the fields of visual arts, sculpture and installation have gradually become known in recent years, which can be called a modern Renaissance all-rounder. He is Wallace Chan.
In 2012, Chen Shiying was invited to the Grand Palais in Paris, France to participate in the 26th Paris Antiques Biennale, becoming the first Chinese jewelry artist invited to participate. In China, christie's auction house and ART021 art fair have his presence.
Chen Shiying, who has now reached the age of Hua Jia, has a life story full of legends. Although he was born into poverty, he spent his life with gemstones. From the apprenticeship in the gem carving factory as a teenager, carefully touching the first piece of malachite, in half a century of artistic practice, after a period of creative loneliness, international reputation, Bole death, empty family wealth, refuge in Buddhism, return to the world, restart creation, and finally achieved remarkable achievements, looking back on life, as if like a phoenix nirvana. But he was very indifferent to his own experience, "All experiences, good and bad, are good in the end, everything is the creation of the heart." Although my growth was arduous, yesterday's tempering has made me what I am today. I have found the meaning of my existence in the world of creation, and the shortcomings in life have been rounded in creation, and such a life script is good enough. ”
Gemstones are the product of time condensation. During the period of monastic practice, Chen Shiying had a new understanding of time's interpretation. He believes that creation is the most perfect state of existence, because creation is a state of no-self, when creating, time stops, and everything stands still. Once there is no self, time is no longer important. The creator seeks his own existence from the void, and this existence is the existence of the spirit.
Chen Shiying in the working state, with a white beard and a Chinese-style long shirt
This understanding of time also extends to his choice of materials, such as titanium. Titanium is light, strong, human-friendly, and colorful, and he mastered the material in eight years and applied it to the extreme in 20 years. With titanium as the backbone of jewelry, we open up the creative space of jewelry art and create amazing art jewelry - wearable carved works of art, which will not sacrifice the comfort of wearing, but also make the works of art both futuristic and timeless, opening a new page for the creation of fine jewelry.
Titanium metal density is small, hardness, corrosion resistance, widely used in aerospace, weapons and equipment, energy, chemical fields, is known as "space metal". The picture is Chen Shiying's fusion of titanium metal and jewelry , "The Dream of a Fish".
Stemming from the philosophical contemplation of time, Chen Shiying expanded the creative space of titanium, a material material, and he once said, "If I have any 'faith', my 'faith' is creation, if I have any 'mentor', my material is my 'mentor'." During the invention of exclusive innovative technologies such as "Shiying Cutting", the jade light wave trio patent, and "Shiying Ceramics", he began to explore the sculpture of titanium metal in 2000, and further excavated the application of this new material in the field of art.
The 2021 titanium sculpture exhibition "Titanium: Dialogue between Matter and Time" in Venice is Chen Shiying's first combing of his sculpture and installation art in many years. He juxtaposes the iron representing the past with the titanium of the future. "Iron was already there 5,000 years ago, it was very active and enthusiastic, and all the substances in the air could hug it, so it rusted very quickly. Titanium has been discovered by humans for more than 200 years, and it has not yet been fully integrated into our lives, but in the field of aerospace or medicine, it will make great contributions to human society. ”
Chen Shiying at the exhibition site of Titanium: A Dialogue between Matter and Time and Space, Fondaco Marcello, Venice, 2021
This year he returned to Venice with a large-scale exhibition of totems on a specific site installation. "Totem" refers to a long-standing carrier of primitive age gods. The title connects the different dimensions of Chen Shiying's Buddhist philosophy, including reverence for the natural world and the excavation of the inner spirituality of sculpture. The exhibition opened on 20 April at the same time as the 59th Venice Biennale and lasted until 23 October.
In particular, the exhibition presents an installation consisting of parts from Chen Shiying's 10-meter titanium sculpture ("Titanium XIV, Dialogue between Matter and Time", previously exhibited in the central exhibition area of art fair Shanghai at ART021 2021), scattered across a specific spatial field of the 15th-century building Fondaco Marcello. The sense of power of Chen Shiying's large-scale installation does not come from a single image, but is generated by the combined relationship between multiple parts. Once dismantled, the sculpture's integrity as a unified image ceases to exist, suggesting the fragility and impending collapse of the past order. The work is a metaphor for the disintegration and imbalance experienced by today's society under global issues such as polarization and climate change.
Chen Shiying's solo exhibition "Totem" exhibition site, Fondaco Marcello, Venice, 2022
Interface Art had the honor of inviting Teacher Chen Shiying for a dialogue. Not only about the Totem exhibition itself, but also about the creation of art for the benefit of the reader.
Interface art: Your creative fields involve sculpture and jewelry art, all of which use the hardest tools to polish the hardest substances in nature, and the final works are all beautiful, as if they have been given new life. You once talked to Mao Amin about the vehicles you use to express your thoughts about life. Can you share your mental state and way of thinking in your creations? What is the definition of beauty in your dictionary of life?
Chen Shiying: As a creator, you must sense the beauty of heaven and earth and the energy of material existence. For example, titanium metal is cold and arrogant, does not like to deal with other substances in the air, iron is enthusiastic, temperature, humidity, etc. have a great impact on iron, titanium metal should not have much change after hundreds of years, iron will appear after a period of time. Titanium is light and strong, iron is heavy and weaker than titanium, titanium is futuristic and surreal, iron is ancient and grounded, titanium is the head, iron is the body, one soft and one rigid, the former expresses spirituality, the latter emphasizes materiality. Titanium suggests some kind of upward and ethereal existence, and iron clings to the ground and is subordinate to the earth.
Chen Shiying's solo exhibition "Totem" exhibition site, Fondaco Marcello, Venice, 2022
Interface Art: The American philosopher Dewey proposed in his book Art as Experience, published, "Art is the expression of a complete experience, adding the memory of the past and the expectation of the future into the experience, such an experience becomes a complete experience, and bringing this complete experience into a beautiful period constitutes the ideal beauty." How would you understand the point in this passage? In some lectures and conversations, you will also talk about the inspiration for your creations from your childhood life experiences or daily life experiences, such as ceramic spoons, butterflies, Zen and other imagery. Do the sculptures in this exhibition also incorporate some life experience? How are these experiences transformed through matter into the ultimate work of art? Is there the same experience in sculpture as in jewelry?
Chen Shiying: Matter is a unit of measurement time. I learned to measure in my childhood. When I was a child, my family was poor, and my school uniform, obviously shorts, had to wear knees, and my mother said that I could wear it for a few more years and save some money. Later, I only read for two years, and before my trousers changed back to shorts, I was about to drop out of school and start working full-time. I was 13 years old. In 1973, I left the master carver and set up my own studio by putting a folding table and two folding chairs in the fire passage of the building where I lived. Since resources have always been scarce, the carving knife is not sharp, and I am not willing to throw it away, trying to save its life. I learned to change the functions of the tools and revive them infinitely. About 20 years ago, I wanted to make a titanium tulip, so I went all the way and spent a lot of money to order one from the Netherlands, because I heard that the Tulip in the Netherlands is the most beautiful. Looking through the autumn water, finally waiting for the tulips, how to expect that the flower was only a moment in hand, she was dying, wanted to wither, I was in a hurry, I put her into the refrigerator, she finally came back to life, open and close, in and out many times, before completing the work. The tulip made of titanium is a Wallace Cut.
Chen Shiying brooch's work "Spring Goddess"
Because I lacked material since I was a child, I tried my best to continue the life of matter, and I was accustomed to measuring time with matter, and when I grew up, my pants fit, I found a way, the carving knife could be resurrected, the flower could be revived, and when the work was made, everything would be immortalized. All matter has life. Life is time.
I juxtapose titanium and I-beam iron to give them human-like expressions and forms, giving them a certain magnificent poetry. Titanium will live longer than I-iron, and both titanium and I-iron will live longer than I. One day, when I also disappeared from this world, the work was my most faithful, gentle, and determined carrier.
Chen Shiying's solo exhibition "Totem" exhibition site, Fondaco Marcello, Venice, 2022
Interface art: Titanium is a rare metal material that can enter the sea, and China has only begun to develop and produce titanium in recent decades, and more is invested in industrial production and the manufacture of daily utensils, for ordinary people, titanium metal materials are relatively unfamiliar. In what situations did you find titanium and incorporate it into jewelry design? This sculpture is another thematic interpretation of titanium, why are you interested in this material? In your philosophical view, how do you understand the material existence in nature? What role do these substances play in your sculptures? Is there a "relationship" between you and titanium?
Chen Shiying: I have been seeking change in change, and my understanding of matter is the same. Especially in the early 2000s, after half a year of meditation, I realized that everything in heaven and earth is a living thing. The frequency of life of a stone or a piece of metal is not the same as ours, but it may also breathe, maybe it takes hundreds of years to exhale, hundreds of years to inhale, we can't detect it. I learned to communicate with matter with love, even if it is a cup, it must be gently lifted, gently put down, and life must be cherished and valued. I chose the material that is close to eternity as the vehicle for my creation, because no matter how long man's life span is, it is still too short in the endless universe and the long river of history. I created to explain to history, history may remember me, may not, but at least my works can be a witness to life, in hundreds of years, leaving evidence of life.
Chen Shiying's solo exhibition "Totem" exhibition site, Fondaco Marcello, Venice, 2022
Anyone who knows me and what I create knows that I have a very special affection for titanium. My knowledge of titanium came from an article about cardiac pacemakers, and I found that there was a metal in the world that was so affinity for the human body that it could even fuse with bone, very light, but extremely strong. After eight years of research, in 2007, I exhibited butterflies made of titanium for the first time in Basel, and everyone felt inexplicable because they didn't know much about titanium. Today's large titanium sculpture is a breakthrough in communication with titanium for me, and I hope to once again, from a new perspective, to show the artistic plasticity of titanium.
In the series of large titanium sculptures in Dialogue Between Matter and Time, I want to express a monumental poetry, a shocking force, and titanium is a substance that is close to eternity. In the works you will see all my experiences with sculpture and sculpture, including yin carving, yang carving, Shiying cutting, etc., which have become my methods of dialogue with matter and time.
Chen Shiying's solo exhibition "Totem" exhibition site, Fondaco Marcello, Venice, 2022
Interface art: Jewelry art mostly relies on specific objects, whether it is animals or people, or natural creatures. The artistic expression language of sculpture is more abstract and needs to mobilize greater imagination and perception. Last year's sculpture exhibition in Venice was the first time you created a series of large-scale sculpture installations in the form of titanium. How do you view the selective expression of your creative path from figuration to abstraction? Will the field of creation shift from jewelry art to contemporary sculpture/installation in the future?
Chen Shiying: Since I was 16 years old in 1973, I have been doing sculpture. At that time, gemstones were my medium, and I did miniature carvings. By the time I became a monk in 2001 for half a year, I had no gems, no money, and no connections, but my heart was still full of endless creative passion.
One day, I saw an unattended piece of cement on the road, abandoned on the side of the road like garbage, and I decided to move that piece of cement home. At that time, I lived on the roof, carrying heavy cement, walking up the stairs, and the motivation under my feet came from my inner desire for creation. I made a sculpture out of cement, and my difficult economic environment didn't change at all, but my heart was released. Artistic creation has given me "the power to be self-sufficient".
I went out of the house to find the answer to life and death, and after I became a layman, I continued to explore life and death through sculpture creation. In my early years of sculpture, I used materials such as copper, stainless steel, iron, wood, and even fiber branches, exploring the themes of life, growth, death, and human struggle.
Chen Shiying's solo exhibition "Totem" exhibition site, Fondaco Marcello, Venice, 2022
I think that creation has no boundaries, life is creation, creation is life. I began to dabble in jewelry art around 2000, and I applied my years of experience in carving, sculpture, metallurgy, stupa making, etc. to my jewelry. At the same time, the various knowledge I gained in the process of jewelry creation, including inlay, colorology, optics, mechanics, etc., can also be applied to my sculpture creation. Everything is the essence of time, everything is the nourishment of thought. Being able to freely shuttle between different subject areas, and being able to travel unimpeded in the micro world and macro universe is the way to make creativity run.
So I'm not suddenly making sculptures, sculptures have always been my flowing blood, the flesh of my heart.
Chen Shiying brooch's work "Dust Encounter"
As for figuration and abstraction, whether it is jewelry, sculpture or sculpture, I am partial to abstraction. For example, the butterfly I made, everyone knows at a glance that it is a butterfly, not because it is concrete, but because of human associations. In fact, when I make butterflies, I don't think about butterflies. I think about the wind and waves when the butterfly flaps its wings, I think about the interaction between the scales and the light on the butterfly wings, and I carve on gems and metals to capture the microscopic world of the imagination. Even if I create on the theme of nature, my goal is not to imitate nature, because I can't do it more perfectly than nature, I want to create stories that I can't see, hear, touch, or discover.