The artist Wang Jiazeng was born and raised in the northeast, and was a steel worker long before going to college, so steel is a familiar material for him. He has been working on the ruins of northern industrial cities since the 1990s, and after 2018, he began to bring steel materials into his creations, opening up a new exploration of his relationship from shelves to sculptures, installations, and the relationship between works and space.
This article unfolds in the form of an interview, expounding his relationship with steel and various feelings in his creation from the perspective of the artist, listening to Wang Jiazeng talk about "old iron".
Video loading...
▲Video work "Trail"
Q&A
When did you start bringing ready-made steel to your artistic creation?
Wang Jiazeng: Steel is indeed a material that I am more familiar with, before the age of 24, I have eight years of factory work experience, familiar with the process of plate from raw materials to finished products. In my works before 2018, although there is no direct application of metal materials, my works have always been expressing reflection on the process of industrial civilization. The Tiexi District of Shenyang, where I have lived for more than 20 years, is the root of my creation. Its prosperity and decline have profoundly affected the lives of me and those around me. Now, every time I go back to The Iron West, I feel both strange and familiar. The factory that was once a Bauhaus style has become the foundation of a certain home, it has the sameness as other districts and other cities, it has the appearance of a modern city, but I always vaguely feel a kind of mediocre, desolate rust belt atmosphere.
▲Part of Wang Jiazeng's work
In the summer of 2017, I returned to Shenyang to visit my relatives, passing by a scrap steel market on the outskirts of the city, and saw all kinds of waste metal products squeezed and piled together, when they lost their functionality, no longer car shells, spoon shovels, machine parts; when they gathered from their original location to the scrap yard, into colorful, curvy folds, I felt an inexplicable visual and spiritual impact. It also reminds me of scenes from the Czech film Wingless Sparrow, mountains of scrap, turned into tools or abandoned people. At that time, I bought some large scrap iron plates, shipped them to my relative's small factory, and tried to make the first metal works in the sweltering heat. Until the end of 2018, the first metal works exhibition was done in Beijing White Box - "The Folds of Things".
▲Wang Jiazeng solo exhibition site of Today Art Museum
In the spring of 2019, I went to Tangshan Delong Steel Factory to participate in the International Steel Sculpture Camp, and I was really shocked by the huge material factory, and at the same time, a very familiar and excited feeling surged in my heart, and there was a very strong urge to do something. Stepping on the rolling scraps, climbing to the top of the mountain, the sea and scattered buildings in the distance are small and quiet, and only the sound of the wind and the collision and sliding of the iron under your feet are heard. On this iron mountain, I may be a rusty, indescribable object. In the 15 days of the steel mill, with the cooperation of the masters in the factory, I used steel waste to complete an installation work - "The Folds of Things - Fake Landscape". The time is too short, and many ideas are too late to be implemented, so the experience of this creation camp can also be said to be the prelude to the "Iron Incident" of the Today Art Museum.
From painting on the shelf to creating steel sculptures, will your creation make a difference? Are there new challenges?
Wang Jiazeng: It is indeed more physically demanding to make steel works. In April 2020, when the domestic epidemic subsided a little, I went to the Delong Steel Factory to do works after quarantine and testing, working from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. every day. This kind of large-scale, pure physical labor, now think about it will feel very tired, but at that time, because of more concentration and excitement, physical strength is still no problem, but later back to Beijing, the foot did hurt for a long time. Therefore, the physical challenge of creation is not a big problem, it is important that the artist has the courage to challenge and break the usual way of thinking, to have the courage to explore the material, and to maintain the sensitivity to the material! In the process of exploration, we must get out of the comfort zone and dare to subvert.
There are many groups of figures in your works such as "The Fold of Things", "Gap", "Wandering", etc., what is the special significance?
Wang Jiazeng: The numbers in the work are first thought of the numbers on my early factory toolbox, and the person corresponding to each number. Later, of course, numbers have a random and more open interpretation space, such as our identity code, computer digital signals, the time marked, a norm and constraint, and so on. The accidental combination of numbers is mysterious, it may also be an encounter, it is the moment when fate reveals itself, it is short and eternal, and the number is also musical, an inner experience. We'll be labeled numbers and can't get rid of it.
When did you start thinking about using Yunnan Special Craft Paper? What was the impetus?
Wang Jiazeng: From the perspective of the printmaker, when making prints, we must consider the paper characteristics of the printmaking works, test various papers, understand the characteristics of various papers, and relatively speaking, we are more sensitive to paper materials. Five years ago, I accompanied my daughter to Nanjiao Town, Yunnan Province, on a social investigation to understand the problem of war refugees in Myanmar on the China-Myanmar border. By chance, we found a small village in the border area that is unique to handmade papermaking, which is said to be an intangible cultural heritage. The raw material of paper is very distinctive and durable. I stayed in the local area for a while, personally made some paper in a small paper workshop, and after returning to Beijing, I made some comprehensive material works on paper, and gradually discovered and adapted to the characteristics of handmade paper. Initially, I created by painting on a shelf, and the rich changes in paper muscle allowed me to see more possibilities in creation.
Why did you choose to use the original fragile paper to create a hard texture like steel? What is the personal thinking behind this?
Wang Jiazeng: The raw material of this handmade paper is the local unique bark, so the toughness, thickness and plasticity of the paper are very good, which is very suitable for my creation. I gradually used the characteristics of paper to enlarge its texture effect, and made some references and correspondences to the plasticity of paper and the extrusion effect of steel. The use of materials has always been consistent with my creative thinking. Soft paper can shape a richer and finer curve, and at the same time, under the infiltration of pigments and auxiliary materials, it gradually becomes tough, like transformation and rebirth, with a strong character. And the hardness of steel will have a soft poetry after squeezing, becoming deep and charming. The material eventually takes on the appearance of being dissolved by inherent concepts.
▲Fold of the thing -53 (100x245cm) handmade paper, wood board, ink, acrylic 2019
What is the special significance of running an exhibition at such a time? What kind of feelings do you hope to convey to the audience through the exhibition?
Wang Jiazeng: For me, every exhibition is a summary of my artistic creation for a period of time! The visual effect produced by the same work in different fields is different, so put the work into the space of the art museum, you will find the future possibilities of creation, and move forward in subversion and inheritance.
In my works, I want to express my attitude to life and my thinking about the social environment in my life, and express the living conditions of people in the living environment through the folds of squeezing and being squeezed. I hope that my work will bring more thinking to the viewer!
Today Art Museum will continue to launch a series of interviews with artists around the exhibition, presenting the stories behind the artists' creations, so as to get a closer look at their spiritual world.
More exciting, just in "Today"!