This spring, ELLE gathered for the first time more than a dozen female artists in the field of Chinese contemporary art to launch a group exhibition entitled "Soft"—a "soft manifesto", works of art created with seemingly soft materials or forms, but in fact full of energy to respond to the present, and interpret the "new feminism" that ELLE wants to define.
In this issue, Wonder Women walks into the studios of three of these artists and engages them in a conversation about women's art.
Black suit top Prada
Black vest Cos
Black trousers Ferragamo
Rose gold necklace from the Borman Lando ICONICA collection
Rose gold ring from the Borman Lando ICONICA collection
Jewel Landot ICONICA rose gold set diamond ring
Jewelry Lando ICONICA rose gold coloured gem-set ring
All are Pomellato
Aijing
Artists, actors, musicians. In the early 90s of the 20th century, she was famous in Asia for her unique musical style and was known as "China's most talented female folk poet"; He began painting in 1999 and moved to New York to study contemporary art. In 2007, she was officially invited to participate in the exhibition as an artist, and is currently a representative contemporary Chinese female artist.
She was once known as "China's most talented folk poet", with a unique musical style and great era, and her first solo album "My 1997" swept Asia. She was casual and maverick, resolutely left when her music career was booming, devoted herself to the art industry, and used "LOVE" as a symbol to convey her creative ideas, leaving a mark on the times in another way. She takes us into hidden spiritual habitats, talking to us about turmoil and contemplation, about the past and the future. Her life has no boundaries, and she also believes that art has no boundaries, no matter what identity, it is guiding the arrival of love.
"The music you're playing is too young." Ai Jing walked out of the coat rack, then picked a CD called "Caramel Jazz" from the bookshelf and put it into the Sony player, and the clear and languid voice of the female singer instantly permeated. This is Ai Jing's studio in Beijing, rarely visited by outsiders, including the media. Walking through a pile of easels and laid-filled carts, the bookshelf is at the innermost part of the second floor, filled with art, music, literature books and many records, as well as the hard not to notice My 1997.
Ai Jing's debut solo album "My 1997"
This modest area is now a spiritual habitat for Aijing, who, like most people, has been trapped for most of the past three years. At that time, she was more eager than ever to swim in nature: "I used to go hiking in the mountains of Enshi, and I also went to Jingdezhen to experience porcelain burning... "Memories come flooding back. Perhaps it is the nomadic genes' restless genes that make Ai Jing "on the road" almost all the time.
Black suit top Prada
Black vest Cos
Black trousers Ferragamo
Rose gold necklace from the Borman Lando ICONICA collection
Borman Lando ICONICA rose gold bracelet
Rose gold ring from the Borman Lando ICONICA collection
Jewel Landot ICONICA rose gold set diamond ring
Jewelry Lando ICONICA rose gold coloured gem-set ring
All are Pomellato
The "nomadic" life broadened her horizons and gave her a different dimension to her musical and visual art creation. In the past, she liked the "spinning life", speed and efficiency, goals and results, but now she has gradually adapted to the rhythm of "moving and static", either quietly reading a book or creating in front of a canvas.
"We learned after the epidemic that we didn't need to run that fast. When the world comes to a standstill, we just have to live. In the past, Ai Jing was more rational in art, "I have a strong desire to conquer, and the goal I want to achieve is to transcend time and space and dialogue with the future through my works..." In the past three years, she has seen through the ignorance, insignificance and fragility of human beings, and her mentality has become more simple and humble, and she will even try to carry out some "seemingly inactive repetitive creations" that are completely different from before, without any purpose, but also bring extremely interesting experiences.
Coat Loro Piana
Shirt Louis Vuitton
Ai Jing continued his spiritual nomadism in another way. In 2020, her work "Destiny" participated in the group exhibition "When Speed Becomes Form, Live on the Screen" in Beijing, a one-minute video she shot with her mobile phone - a rotating vinyl record playing Beethoven's "Symphony of Destiny" to convey "the tragic power contained in a slowed life". In August of the same year, Ai Jing's installation "Flowers in Every Door" was exhibited in the group exhibition "In the Name of Flowers" at the Shanghai Pearl Art Museum. Flowers bloom in the "dilapidated" antique door, which is the breath and color of life she hopes to bring to the public in difficult times.
Black suit top Prada
Pomellato, a rose gold necklace from the Bormanlando ICONICA collection
For three years, Ai Jing has been reading the outside world almost from his mobile phone, and at the end of 2022 he was finally able to return to New York, a place that has become strange and familiar. Soon after, Ai Jing flew to Doha to visit the Qatar World Cup site and visit the local art museum. The next stop in Doha was Tokyo, when she was struggling with the after-effects of Covid...
"Mr. Fan Jingzhong, an art historian, mentioned that the development of art history is closely related to 'Yayou'. I thought there was a connection between 'elegant travel' and 'nomadism', and artists should live this kind of life. "Ai Jing never stopped nomadism. On the morning after leaving Tokyo, looking out the window at Mt. Fuji – it was said that anyone who saw Mt. Fuji would be lucky – Ai Jing said softly, "Hi sayonala!" ( Hello Goodbye!) ）
Every time the shooting was paused, Ai Jing would walk up to the computer to check the effect of the photo, occasionally staring at the screen and muttering: "It's always very harsh to see yourself." Perhaps in a familiar environment and out of the artist's acumen, she adjusts the set herself and moves the easel with the staff. After Ai Jing was busy on the scene, he conjured various flavors of chocolate out of nowhere during the break, and stuffed them into everyone's hands one by one...
Such a scene is reminiscent of Fu Donghua in "Moses on the Plain": gentle, enthusiastic, and a kind of pyrotechnics. It was a cameo performance. "I tried very hard to integrate into the characters, in fact, I didn't know the plot and character relationships of the whole play, which may fit the state of the characters themselves, an ordinary woman, a mother, a sister, living in a limited life situation, that's all she thinks."
Ai Jing is an old friend of Zhang Dalei, the director of "Moses on the Plain". A few years ago, Zhang Dalei approached Ai Jing and said that he was planning a movie related to her hometown of Shenyang, and felt that there was a role that was particularly suitable for her, and Ai Jing readily agreed.
Shenyang's Tiexi District, a shipwreck in the post-industrial era, has been seen in a documentary directed by Wang Bing, or heard in Ai Jing's song "Pink Street". Ai Jing grew up in Tiexi District and witnessed those glory and decline, but it was also the time she lived there that planted the seeds of art for her.
"At that time, we often held 'family concerts' in our house, my father used erhu or banhu to accompany my mother who sang dramas, and I played the role of a little maid to play for my mother, I have loved drama since I was a child, my mother taught me a lot of singing, I also once decided to be a drama actor when I grew up, of course, after I went to junior high school, I preferred pop songs." After graduating from junior high school, Ai Jing was admitted to the vocal music department of Shenyang Art School to learn bel canto singing. But then she made the bold decision to drop out of school and leave Shenyang for Beijing. Who thought it was this decision that gave her the opportunity to enter the music industry. The first album "My 1997" immediately caused a sensation, and Ai Jing became a well-known female singer in Asia.
Gray suit Stella McCartney
Black vest Cos
Pomellato, a rose gold diamond-set necklace from the Borman Landot ICONICA collection
In the mid-80s of the 20th century, Ai Jingyin went to Paris, France for the opportunity to record and shoot the MV, visited the Pompidou Center for Contemporary Art for the first time, and saw the installation "There Are Flowers in Every Door" on the street surrounding the Arc de Triomphe. At that time, she believed: "In every door we push open, there are various possibilities, there will be different life trajectories, but no matter how many difficulties and twists and turns we experience, we will eventually usher in our own flowers." ”
Flowers in Every Door #1, 2012
Indonesia 19th century antique door panel, oil painting stick
187 x 76 cm
Flowers in Every Door #2, 2012
France 19th century antique door panels, flowers
235 x 150 cm
Flowers in Every Door #3, 2012
Chinese Qing Dynasty Antique door panels, flowers
296 x 137 cm
In 1998, Ai Jing completed her fourth solo album "Made in China", but due to the hindrance of the publication and distribution of this album, she resolutely switched tracks and turned to the expression of visual art. In 2007, Ai Jing participated in art group exhibitions for the first time as an artist, thus opening the path of professional artists.
We asked Ai Jing why he was particularly touched by visual language among the many art forms. The answer has to do with music. "The visual art works form a richer sense of secrecy between the work and the viewer. I think that art is all connected, and there are some fixed elements in the way art is completed and expressed. In my career as a professional musician, I have learned how to observe and record. The relationship between music and visual art is very profound and inextricably linked, and I have experienced the practice of music creation and visual art creation, which may be the next topic I need to sort out and study. ”
Beige suit top Jason Wu
Beige lapel shirt Lemaire
Linen wide-leg trousers Loro Piana
Pomellato, a mosaic set with coloured gemstones in rose gold from the Bormanlando ICONICA collection
Singer Ai Jing's classic works are still being listened to and mentioned. "It's classic because the background of my music creation is of epochal significance, and my music works are also done by the best musicians of the time." Ai Jing responded. Although she no longer pursues music as a profession, in her heart, musical rhythm has never left her and exists in her visual art.
Whether as a musician, artist or actor, Ai Jing does not seem to understand the so-called "farewell" and "crossover", or these words are not enough to accurately describe her advantages. "I never saw the line, so I crossed it and didn't know it."
After entering the field of artistic creation, "LOVE" became an expressive element of Ai Jing. "LOVE" doesn't have to be figurative, it can be any form, and because it's everywhere, there are so many things that can be expressed and extended.
I Love color #16, 2015
Oil on canvas
90 x 90 cm
I Love Color #28, 2016
147 x 147 cm
Her "LOVE" does change all the time. FROM 2019 TO 2022, THE SERIES OF WORKS "I LOVE COLOR" HAS MOVED TOWARDS A MORE COMPLEX COMPOSITION, AND THE PICTURE HAS GRADUALLY BECOME BLURRED FROM THE ORIGINAL CLEAR AND STRAIGHTFORWARD EXPRESSION. "This is related to the state under the epidemic at that time, there was no deliberate, through the color is constantly superimposed on the picture, the original intention is covered, the facts are no longer clear, and the traces of our human beings may one day be erased and dusted, this is what I thought at that time." Ai Jing explained.
Patterned shirt Louis Vuitton
Dark blue wide-leg trousers Loro Piana
This spring, Ai Jing participated in ELLE women's artist group exhibition "Softness Chengcheng" with her work "My Mother #1". The colorful "LOVE" letters, woven from old yarn, once a tribute to my mother and hometown, have become a force against reality. Ai Jing said, "The current popular group of female artists is a global trend and a kind of concern from society, I think the focus on the group of female artists is a good thing, can do more communication with the public, can also have some academic discussions." Any artistic appraisal with gender criteria is only a public eye, it will not be a standard, and it will not affect the artist's creation itself. ”
My Mother #1, 2012
Old yarn on canvas
128 x 128 cm
My Mother and My Hometown, 2012
Waste yarn, FRP, silicone
600 x 1600 cm
But what she doesn't deny is that women's and men's perspectives are bound to differ. "It's okay to play to this trait or express it restrainedly, and the important thing is that we don't need to be gender-conscious to produce great work."
For Ai Jing at this stage, artistic creation has become a habit, and its source is curiosity about the outside world, "The expression of love is not just care and lyricism, it should bring out problems." Then, the living environment we are facing today is not only the epidemic, but also the war, and there are new thinking brought about by scientific and technological achievements. She firmly believes that the function of art is to awaken, to revive and call on people's creative spirit. As she often says, "When love becomes faith, art is where love can reach." ”
Photo: Wu Ming
Styling: Dani
Makeup: YIN
Hairstyle: Yansong
Interview/Written by: Lan Mo
EDITED BY KIKO, SHERRY
WeChat design: Zhang Tiantian
Image source of artwork artaijing.com