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"Chase freedom, exile yourself."
△ Ai Jing
Not long ago, Ai Jing's solo art exhibition was held at the Shenzhen Art Museum.
Yes, you're not mistaken. This Ai Jing is the folk singer Ai Jing who sang "My 1997" in the north and south of the red river.
But now, her identity is that of an artist.
Her paintings and installations have been exhibited in several art galleries in the East and the West, and her sculpture "Waves" is collected by the National Museum.
△ Ai Jing's works exhibition site
Just last year, she was nominated for the 2017 "World's Most Pioneering Female Artist" at the Hirschhorn Museum in Washington, D.C., along with art giants like Yayoi Kusama.
From folk singers to artists, Ai Jing's turn is so gorgeous that people can't help but ask: What has happened in the past ten years?
In 1969, Ai Jing was born in Shenyang to an ordinary blue-collar family.
As she sang in the autobiographical ballad "My 1997," her music teacher was her dad and her mom was a critic.
On the road of music, Ai Jing walked relatively smoothly. Her parents love folk music and are willing to spend money to cultivate her. At the age of 17, she was admitted to the Oriental Song and Dance Troupe under the leadership of Wang Kun, a famous singer with a high threshold at that time.
At that time, the Oriental Song and Dance Troupe should be regarded as a highland of mainland pop music, and many people wanted to go in but could not, and Ai Jing left soon after.
The reason is that her restless personality is incompatible with the system.
At the age of 19, she went south to Guangzhou. With a singing throat and a pure appearance, he has recorded more than a dozen albums and is popular for his cover works by singers such as Luo Dayou and Qianbaihui.
The money is a lot of money, but "after singing so many songs, none of them are their own works", this false prosperity can not comfort her.
So more than a year later, she chose to leave again.
Then she went north, was admitted to the acting department of the Central Academy of Drama, and after graduation, she also shot several film and television works, but in the end, she did not develop in the film and television circle.
The reason: the circle was too restrictive, contrary to her free nature.
Ai Jing is half Manchu, in her self-deprecating words: her ancestors were a nomadic.
A free-loving, untethered nature lurks in her blood, calling her to challenge the "norm" again and again.
When I was a child, I wrote, because I hated the framework of tian zi grid, I deliberately wrote the words to press the line. Although he likes to draw, he hates copying a cup over and over again in art class, preferring to give up painting.
This personality is applied to her career, and it has become a "bad villain" in the eyes of others, giving up good opportunities and resources again and again to conform to the inner desire for freedom.
Fortunately, this wayward girl, in the best years of her life, met the famous Hong Kong musician Lau Cheuk Fai.
She admired his talent, and he was attracted to her unique temperament and musical talent, and the two began a decade-long relationship.
In this decade, Ai Jing was achieved by Liu Zhuohui.
The 90s were the golden age of the music scene.
Hong Kong music has never been more prosperous, and Liu Zhuohui has set up a precedent and set up a Land Records Company in Beijing, bringing the mature operation mode of the Hong Kong music scene to the mainland, and also bringing together excellent mainland musicians such as Sanbao, He Yong and Luo Bing.
Ai Jing's debut album "My 1997" was born in this context.
Liu Zhuohui gathered the most cattle production team under his team to help Ai Jing tailor-made works. All the songs are written for her temperament and personality.
At that time, wandering was still a very charming word, and from Shenyang back guitar all the way to Beijing, young but experienced a wealth of Ai Jing, he had this unique wandering temperament.
Therefore, a song on the album " Wandering Swallow" became the first label attached to Ai Jing. Liu Zhuohui also invited Gu Changwei to shoot a MV that was still very trendy at the time for "Wandering Swallow".
Under his lens, Ai Jing, who wears two small pigtails and wears a Northeastern flower jacket, appears on camera and captures many viewers in front of the TV set with her pure appearance like Yamaguchi Momoe.
But what is dramatic is that the most popular thing about this album later is not the works of these big names, but "My 1997", which Ai Jing composed and sang by himself.
After the completion of the big framework of the album that year, Liu Zhuohui felt that there were still shortcomings, so he encouraged Ai Jing to write a song by himself and create the experience of these years in the form of lyrics.
At that time, Ai Jing listened to a lot of Western country music, and was also inspired by the folk singer Suzanne Vega's colloquial lyrics, so she completed the lyrics of "My 1997" in a very short time.
After writing, I found someone to compose the music, because there were many long sentences in the lyrics, everyone said that they could not score, and finally Ai Jing had no choice but to write the song himself.
Unexpectedly, this song became a hit.
From a macroscopic point of view, "My 1997" implies the big theme of the return of 97, but the details of the lyrics record all the trajectory of Ai Jing's personal life, including the fact that her love affair with Liu Zhuohui was undergoing the test of inconvenience between the two places.
He can come to Shenyang, I can't go to Hong Kong.
1997 Come soon, let me stand at hung hom stadium.
1997 Arrive soon, and he goes to see the midnight show.
Under such a social background, Ai Jing saw the big with a small view and used the emotional appeal of a small woman to cut the public's voice.
Its life-like lyrics are also refreshing, and with the MV directed by Zhang Yuan, it is a two-pronged attack that makes Ai Jing quickly become a first-line singer.
In the music career, Ai Jing's starting point is very high, and his luck is also very good.
The first and second albums came out and sold well.
The third album was recorded in Japan, with the collaboration of Japanese national treasure conductor Seiji Ozawa. After arriving in New York, the fourth album was prepared by Li Shouquan.
△ Seiji Ozawa, along with Indian conductor Zubin Mehta and Singaporean conductor Zhu Hui, is known as the world's three major eastern conductors.
△ Li Shouquan
Many people could not ask for luck, Ai Jing got it, but she did not surrender to it. Once this luck bound her free nature, or went against her personal will, her intuitive choice was to give up.
At that time, many people in the mainland song scene were singing the painless wind and snow moon and love love, but Ai Jing did not want it.
Her works all have a distinct attitude of independent thinking, an exploration of social topics, a perspective on the world, and a reflection on herself.
Ai Jing and the audience are actually at a distance. This sense of distance is different from Faye Wong. Tianhou is cold and distant on the surface, and sits on an equal footing in spirit. Ai Jing is outwardly warm and friendly, in fact, the spirit has built a highland.
At first glance, it looks quite grounded, but the spiritual guide has always been floating in the air and will not be easily caught.
She was once asked by a reporter: Who is suitable to listen to your songs?
She replied: It must be people who are spiritually rich, and people who are spiritually poor cannot.
Therefore, when she found that the creative environment in the mainland was no longer in line with her ideals, she had a sense of resistance.
In addition, later, the mainland began to popular variety shows, singers to do publicity need to be on this kind of program to pretend to be crazy and stupid to cooperate, in the end can sing a song of their own.
Ai Jing was forced by the need for publicity, occasionally went on a show, very disgusted, woke up in the middle of the night to think about this matter, the body skin will have a "pain", the real is "the pain of cutting the skin".
From that time on, she had the idea of leaving Beijing.
In 2002, Ai Jing lived in New York and began to dabble in art.
Her relationship with art actually dates back to 1994. She went to Paris and visited the Louvre and Pompidou palaces of art in one day.
A classical, a modern, two completely different artistic styles violently collided, giving Ai Jing a strong sense of impact. After leaving the art museum, she plunged into the art bookstore and dived deep into this knowledge system.
In 1999, Ai Jing painted a promotional graffiti for her own records, which was seen by contemporary artist Zhang Xiaogang and thought it was very good, so he suggested that she learn to paint with herself.
Although he was accepted as a disciple by a famous teacher, Ai Jing did not learn traditional techniques first like other students. She likes to draw skeletons the most, and she also gives skeletons names and poems.
Others do not understand, fortunately Zhang Xiaogang knows her character, slowly guided by her temperament, until she forms her own unique painting style.
△ Zhang Xiaogang and Ai Jing
In 2004, Ai Jing began to create paintings with love as a symbol.
It is said that her dedication to painting frightened her father. In the past, people who loved beauty so much could use their time to the extreme without washing their hair for four or five days in order to paint.
But her efforts have also made her gradually recognized by the art circle, and her international popularity has become higher and higher.
All these stubbornness, rebellion, and intransigence have gradually created the current Ai Jing.
Many years later, she looked back on half of her life and said with emotion:
"If someone could influence my work, I wouldn't be who I am now." When I think what I'm doing makes sense and can do it well, I don't hear any other sounds. ”
Wandering is really an attribute in Ai Jing's blood.
From Beijing to New York, from folk singers to artists, Ai Jing has never stopped her footsteps, carrying the label of "foreigner" and always walking on the journey of pursuit.
She once said: I have never really longed to stay, which may have something to do with the fact that I am a Manchu ——— nomad. Only when you are a passer-by, you are free and happy.
In his youth, Ai Jing had clear eyes and a smile that was both shy and warm, and had never been immersed in the world.
Now more than ten years later, although Fanghua has passed away, her eyes are still clear, her smile is still shy and warm, and she is still the unworldly Ai Jing.
At that time, her relationship with Liu Zhuohui ended because of differences in their lives and creative ideas, and over the years, her emotional world became a mystery, and only her other half was a Chinese-American.
Regarding their love, there is only a simple sentence in the anecdotal report: they are now living happily.
I always felt that a woman like Ai Jing did not need to use those additional things to reflect her value. Scandals or marriages are things outside of her spiritual world.
Today, her spiritual world has been expanded like a lonely planet, vast and deep, shining alone.