Outsiders always think
The art world is a hideaway
Many artists always think
Art is the most beautiful ideal country
When dedicating yourself completely to art
It may actually be doing idolatry and sacrifice
Here is the black box
A museum that houses all the extraordinary spiritual worlds of the universe
A dream showroom exhibiting countless horrific wonders
PS: This interview is in collaboration with "Kering Moves Her Shadow"
Liang Miao, "Beauty in the Hall of Flowers", 180× 94cm Color on paper, 2021
Born in Beijing in the 1960s, Liang Miao, who grew up with her father's paintings of China, became one of the first Chinese students to study in Germany in her early 20s. During his time at the Academy of Fine Arts in Hamburg, Germany, Liang Miao was far from the entanglement of his hometown and began a free exploration of art. There, she studied under KD. Bremer and Werner Büttner, but most of the time she remained on her own, for whom art meant freedom from the beginning, and for Liang, this freedom was the opposite of the grand mission, and what she showed was a fresh vitality to life, without any constraints or frameworks.
She was one of the first female artists to integrate Eastern traditions with Western contemporary art. German Expressionism, action painting, and printmaking and ink painting are integrated here in Liang Miao, and even in her eyes, Expressionism is no different from Eastern ink painting, only the material is different. For her, the artist being defined by a theorist is a helpless substitution, because the true trajectory of the artist is often not limited by theory, nor can it even be predicted. In Liang Miao's view, the artist is only a person, since he is a person, there are all the weaknesses and bad habits in people, and there are also brilliance and highlights, so art does not really look as noble as it is hung on the wall, and since people are the existence of social relations, then art must be inseparable from social relations.
Artist Liang Miao
Liang Miao is good at storytelling, just like her "Liang Miao Diary", she only records the "only words" or "random thoughts" in real life, this habit has begun since the German period, she pays attention to every drop of emotion in life, naturally rejects any grand ambition narrative, refuses to forge some kind of Chinese card that tries to pass the international, and she is not afraid of the humor in her works. It is a kind of artist's attachment to freedom, just as she returns to China, constantly investigates historical monuments, and fully integrates the Eastern and Western elements she has witnessed into her works, and the road she has traveled is like her life, sweet and sour, but sonorous and powerful and humble.
After the year of Hua Jia, Liang Miao called art a kind of "work" and did not lift it completely, because she knew that art was just a kind of life, and it was necessary to pull it from the high platform to the flat ground, because this should be its original appearance, as she said: "You really understand what life is, you know what art really is." She cautions young people not to try to think of art as a form of devotion, because you don't really understand what it is, and the alienation of artists is simply not too common. It is more important to maintain an authentic self than to be an artist, because the real value of our living in this world comes from the essence of being human, not from the essence of many identities (artists).
Liang Miao during his study in Germany
Black Box: Can you tell us about what has influenced you the most in your life experience in Germany
Liang Miao: For me, freedom is more open. Both the former tutoring and the study of art in China have a framework, and the invisible concept of family inheritance is holding you back. After arriving in Germany, none of this mattered, everything started from scratch. The academy of fine arts that I studied in Germany is also different from tradition, it is more modern, studio-style, so that you can breathe the atmosphere of free learning. There, no one tells you what to do, not even a curriculum at all, everything needs to be completely on your own, and although the school has many big-name professors, the opportunity to meet in a semester is few.
My professor at the time was one of the first to engage in conceptual art, and the college I was in was also called free art. Other professors may only come once a year, and each time students can line up at the school gate, while our professors come once a week. At that time, I was drawing with a brush, and he told me that whatever I did, I should take it very seriously. Later, I went to study printmaking, and from the beginning of the grinding stone I had to come by myself, using the oldest machines. Overall, the biggest impact is likely to be more free, more open, serious and independent.
Liang Miao in his youth
Black Box: How has the experience of studying printmaking in Germany changed your work? How did you later move from printmaking to ink?
Liang Miao: Prints could provide me with living expenses at that time, a small print could sell for 60 marks, and a larger one could sell for more than 100 marks, plus my scholarship, which was basically enough to live. I went to Germany in 1983, when many international students went to restaurants to work on plates, I relied on selling prints, and making prints was also a method of painting ink, such as the earliest can write some Chinese characters to corrode the layout, which is very popular in the West. At that time, some Chinese artists discovered the trend and called such subjects "contemporary art". But I want to live purely well, I don't want to do much in art, I don't want to become famous and have that ideal ambition, while other artists are "full" of mission.
The holidays in Germany were so clean, there was almost no one in school or life, and I was particularly bored, so I went back to China, went to Datong and carried a large pile of paper from the windows to Germany, and began to draw like a diary. Purely nonsense painting, in the studio at that time, it was painted with extra-large paper, and even painted with a cow's tail as a brush on it. After the beginning of the school, the teacher said that this was interesting, and even made a solo exhibition, at that time, it was like the bamboo pole hanging clothes between the Building in Hong Kong, all the paintings were hung up, and different materials were connected, which was a change at that time.
Liang Miao, "Immortal Zhen miao", 96×180cm×3 Color on paper 2019
Black Box: In the early days in Germany, Expressionism had a great influence on you, how did you fuse it with ink?
Liang Miao: At that time, in addition to painting in Germany, I went to see exhibitions or go to other parts of Germany. At that time, Germany was not yet unified, and we had to drive from Hamburg to West Berlin, all passing through East Germany, which was a very stressful experience. When we got to our destination, we looked at Pablo Picasso and max Beckmann, and I thought it was no different from Chinese painting, it was all black lines. Max Beckman, in particular, paints black lines, isn't that the same as a brush in Chinese painting? At that time, I thought that it was just a different material from ink. Although Chinese Gongbi is a kind of craftsman-style painting, especially on porcelain, German porcelain is also very neatly painted, so I think there is no difference, it is just the difference in materials.
Liang Miao", "Flowers Bloom rich" series
Black Box: Today we saw a lot of floral motifs in the studio, and I remember that there were some themes related to legends and myths.
Liang Miao: I painted a lot of small paintings like diaries, and people affirmed me, it became as if there was a diary, but in fact, I was still doing other paintings, such as the so-called mythological series. When he was young, he walked around with his father, and went to the Longmen Grottoes, Dunhuang Grottoes, Thousand Buddha Caves, the mausoleum of Zhao Kuangyin in Gongyi, Henan, and so on, many places where cultural relics were protected. All of these experiences became the source of my series of painting immortals.
Liang Miao, "Golden Retriever, One Skin", 122×141cm, color on paper, 2019
Black Box: Recently, I saw a work called "Golden Retriever, a Skin", which reminds people of former US President Trump, will Teacher Liang still pay attention to social and political issues?
Liang Miao: In fact, this is mainly because I love to draw acrobatic figures, such as people top bowls or something. There is an acrobatic in China called the top cylinder, that is, a woman's legs are playing with flowers in the top of the cylinder, when I was a child, I thought it was a kind of oppressive male culture, wrapped in small feet and given you a cylinder, lying there dancing legs, giving men a special sexual satisfaction. While I'm not talking about feminism, I've always focused on acrobatics. There was a show lion dance that I watched during the Spring Festival, which I thought was very interesting, that is, a lion controlled by the line, which reminded me of such a meaning, that is, the meaning of feeling that people are manipulated. The artist who danced the lion on TV was dressed in a performance costume like a cadre Zhongshan suit, and I thought the image was too cool, and the lion was like the president of the United States at that time. It's as if I'm particularly socially responsible, but it's not.
Liang Miao, "Yao Shun Does Not Shepherd Sheep", 96× 178cm, color on paper, 2019
Black Box: The series "The Diary of Liang Miao" has been extended from Germany to the present, and it seems that the characteristics of diaries and storytelling have been fully integrated into your life.
Liang: Because you are much younger than me, and you have to listen to a 60-year-old person tell stories at your age, the distance is too far away, and they must be brought closer. Another reason is that family life will have different guests from a young age, scooters, national leaders, deputy prime ministers, etc., I have indeed met all kinds of people, I have been exposed to things that I can't see in many books, and the whole way of thinking is like a narrative form like a diary.
Liang Miao, "Green and Black", 290×140cm×2 Color on paper, 2021
Black Box: After all these years, how do you see your art? Is it to make it the highest pursuit of one's life?
Liang Miao: If I want to know something else when I am young, I guess I will do something else, and I really don't regard it as a kind of thing. Now that I'm at this age, I can't do anything else, so I did it as a thing. If you don't do this for a day, it's really a little bit alive and boring, you feel that there is a thing, it will be less empty, and it is enough for me to draw a picture with a little sense of accomplishment.
Liang Miao, "Green Mountain, Immortal in the Cave", 175× 95cm Color on paper, 2018
Black Box: The reason why I ask this question is because in the interviews of other artists, I can see a certain kind of high artistic supremacy, and I think that art is the highest value embodiment.
Liang Miao: There are some artists who always say that they want to find a kind of Medium Chinese and then how to conquer the world, which I really haven't thought about. I can say that I invented a lot of Chinese, but I didn't keep it going. Then you have nothing to say, because you don't continue to discuss it as an academic, so you should have not succeeded, but I think I am not so tired, so it is good. Every year, young children come to school, they have a special admiration for art, what if a beautiful girl wants to dedicate herself to art? I said hurry up and fall in love, what to do, don't be fooled around here, make a boyfriend is better than anything. You really understand what life is, and you know what art really is. For me, art really isn't as noble as that.
Liang Miao, "Flower Nap", 24× 36cm Color on paper
Black Box: Can it be understood that life is actually this feeling, there is no special pursuit of it, but in what way do I record what I see?
Liang Miao: It can be said that I think a lot of people have been arranged for him by theorists. Young people, exposed to contemporary art, also want to see through painting whether this person is worth paying. There are some people who do have the ability to be skillful and very delicate, and I can't do this. There is also a state of very relaxed people, and I know that this person must be a sincere person. Just like singing, some people are singing with real voices, and some people are pretending with false voices. In fact, there are a lot of painters you can see who he is learning, but this is not bad, because Chinese painting has been copying, there are many people who have not copied it well and become their own, maybe also become a genre, this is the people's own business, it depends on whether you think he is successful or not, you can also think that his success is not positive.
（End）
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The silver chain is broken
The pot of gold cracked
The bottle was damaged by the spring
The water wheel was broken at the wellhead
The dust still returns to the ground
The spirit remains to the Spirit-giver
The themes here are: psychoanalysis, dream studies, and anthropology
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