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Wang Jixin |
About rays of light which are falling into deserted halls
The Lost Glory paintings by Wang Jixin
Essay by Alexandra Grimmer
However the context in a painting may be cruel, hard, alarming or sad, its beauty should never be harmed and respecting the laws of elegance and dignity many things can be said in art. Wang Jixin’s paintings from the Fade refulgence-series show working places: deserted places now belonging to China’s past, the Chinese history of manufactories and handmade crafts.
In his book The Unknown Craftsman Soetsu Yanagi develops a concept of two ways of artistic accomplishment: The way of the genius and the way of grace. The way of genius is reserved to a few craftsmen with high talent, having the ability for ingenious creations. The way of grace is for the craftsman who through years of experience and practice finds a form of perfect accomplishment; accomplishment of the expected model by fulfilling the procedure without creating their own artistic statement.
Building a monument for craftsmanship, Yanagi follows the long tradition of Japanese crafts that, finding their roots in the Chinese history, share their ambition for perfection. In spring 2007, Wang Jixin brought his camera to the former porcelain manufactures in Jiangxi province and took thousands of pictures and several hours of films of the 10 different factories which used to be the most important ones in China after 1949 and during the culture revolution. By documenting photography and dialogues with former workers he learned about their lives in the factories and their history. This work came to the abrupt end when those factories were closed down in the 80s.
After several months Wang Jixin went back to Jingdezhen to have his studio the Capital for imperial Chinese porcelain during almost two years. The main part of his The lost glory series about the porcelain manufactures, resulted from the intense and fruitful working process in his temporary Jingdezhen studio.
The basis for Wang Jixin’s paintings are photographs resulting from a comprehensive documentation by the artist. Visiting the places and observing them through the camera eye is the first step of his working process. Coming from the “true and unambiguous” photographed image to the “untrue” since “interpreted”, painted one on the canvas, Wang Jixin transforms the objective view to his own subjective statement on the canvas. Gerhard Richter says in an interview with Armin Zweite that photographs are true and objective, unlike paintings which are subjective and artificial, because as soon as the painter starts drawing or painting, he is stylizing the work.
Wang Jixin is consciously adding his observation to the picture by the camera. His Fade refulgence-paintings are an interpretation, showing the speed of decay, but in the same time without being narrative. This interpretation does not exist in a narrative form; it comes from the historical background which plays an important role in Wang Jixin’s work. Through his own family background, he learned from his father about life and work in factories. The research about the place, the mental examination with the situation ahead of the painting process affects and determines the context of his paintings.
Thus the historical background plays a role in his study, including the working places which used to represent the worker’s center of living in earlier days, giving them through their skills for perfection a special status and a secured life. The manufactories have been shut down from one day to the other, leaving the places in the state of a breakup. Wang Jixin’s paintings unmistakably show that those places have been left in a traceable rush, transmitting a scary weird feeling to the observer. This atmosphere created in his paintings is the first message to the observer. They remember history, giving a strange feeling of what remained on those sites. However by saying this, colors and forms are in an esthetical equivalent, having a sincere message transmitted through beauty and perfection. Showing his deep respect to those former workers and in the same time towards China’s history and its unique porcelain, the critical context in Wang Jixin’s works can’t be negated and yet titles as lost glory emphasize this.
Wang Jixin is creating charged images (l’image chargé, as Jean Luc Godard used the term for images and moments which are loaded in expression and density), having a rich context with historical, sociological and political information, through his own perception. Using the term of l’image chargé in Wang Jixin’s paintings, many arguments arrange themselves to one another: Not only their substance is dense and loaded with content, it is also about the technique, about Wang Jixin’s handwriting in his paintings. Their basis is a strict drawing creating the macro structure and serving as a skeleton which builds up tension being even in the very large formats a strong constant. However the main part is due to his use of color, which differs from very thin, transparent surfaces to thick, almost “molded” parts. Especially in his smaller scale paintings this surface may become rich of material and lumps of oil color. Spots of color and dripping parts establish the micro structure of his paintings which creates tension in contrast to the strict macro structure. Here, especially his gestural paintings are fascinating. Their surface with thick material and spots of color properly build a second level over the image on the canvas, creating a vibrating impression.
While approaching to one of his paintings to see from closer distance, there is instantly the question coming up which part provokes the impressions of light, that sometimes seem to be appearing as a strong ray of light shining from behind the painting and sometimes as reflecting spots of color on the surface. Probably this mystical incidence of light brings “the positive” and the beauty into the executed places.
Lonely, deserted places may evoke feelings of regret, but in the case of Wang Jixin’s paintings, which are often in very big dimensions (300 x 600 cm), the observer is engaged by a certain fascination. His paintings capture the view, and what is fascinating to find out, they actually direct the observer’s gaze from one point to the other. The situation of getting lost in an artwork, such as the observer’s attention becoming independent is something very interesting.
In order to find a suitable explication, one comes back to the aspect of the light, together with the presence of movement, of motion which play a role. Wang Jixin plays with the visible incidence of light, shafts of sunlight are coming through windows and slots of the buildings, supporting the certain vibration of the colors. Especially in the perception of Wang Jixin’s large scale paintings the result on the canvas anticipates a static impression.
By observing works by the futurists (an artist movement coming from Italy in 1910s and early 20s, with Umberto Boccioni, Giacomo Balla, Gino Severini, Carlo Carrà as well as the few paintings by Marcel Duchamp) one can find similar characteristics in the perception. The visible movement became an important part of the artwork. By including several stages of the motion, several moments of time are being included into the painting. In Wang Jixin’s canvas it is not question about movement but in their case with the exposure of the decay and the proper tempo of decay. A certain futuristic aspect is evoked and can be considered as a link to his critical standpoint. He is also literally painting, documenting the decay, the extension of emptiness. The impression of vibration through the effects of light can be interpreted as well as slight movement.
Wang Jixin’s paintings have a critical message and show respect towards his country’s traditions. They show his passion for painting and a generosity with form and color. In one moment they capture the observer, directing his gaze and inspiring everyone to find his own points of interest. In the next moment they have a high esthetical potential with an equal proportion between elegance and tension. But most of all Wang Jixin lays much of his personality open in his works. It is possible to “enter” into his paintings. They are open and give the possibility to add one’s own interpretation, without being predetermined. By permitting the observer to enter he also makes an honest statement, certainly melted with a degree of concern and regret towards ruins of history.
Alexandra Grimmer, May 2009
The Lost Glory, The stave scene
Essay by Wang Jixin
Five years have passed so quickly, yet magnificently as I have worked continuously on my paintings of abandoned work places. The state-owned porcelain factory from the northeast Shen Yang’s Tie-si district has gone out of business 60 years ago. It still remains standing. This imposing industrial period carries a deep impression inside me; I feel a natural affinity towards this place. It has been abandoned by the giants of our social history. It still stands: lonely, deserted, chillingly sublime and so solemn and stirring.
When this industry was is its infancy, its brightness and productivity held a great attraction. By looking closely at these ruins; I feel alone facing this grandiose edifice. There is a deserted darkness, hidden in the continual implication of waning light. I listen and hear the soul of these workers who put their lives into this place.
In my work, I have observed all the details that have deeply moved me in memory of this once life-filled building. I have struggled with my inner dialogue to find the meaning of this space. I feel at once surrounded and captured by this time spirit. There is a lofty idealism that I wish to capture myself. After so many years, I ask myself whether I can make heroes of these prisoners of time. Time has abandoned them. Time pushes inexorably forward; nonetheless, I desire to give unity to a single spirit. A spirit that gives in all its conceivable power the strength and dignity of a single life; I wish to to capture and revive such a force in my painting. It's a feeling that flies high in the sky or speaks in a low, deep voice; both allow for spaciousness.
Since 2003 my work has reached a point where my affections and understanding of Jing De Zhen, where I feel the life of a past life infusing these remnants of industrial giants. Yes, the columns stand lifeless and still, as does the ancient kiln and piles of old bowls, stacks of broken, dull plates, and the towering chimney. Yet, the innermost feelings of this place reverberate into my soul; incessantly. I do not feel imposing constraints of this structure, nor the lonely emptiness that is covered in dust; instead from the enormous roof the air dances and perhaps, as always, the air gives fresh hope.
As a painter, I continually seek a connection of my subject and my soul. My innermost feelings do not lie. The is always a truth that runs far deeper than a reality that shows us only one face. Beginning back in 2003, I started to create the “Time elapsing Magnificently” series. My inspiration was my own childhood when I remember my father’s generation struggling for a successful enterprise. I feel a sadness of a wasted effort. There is a sadness also in the blind devotion to the Communist Ideal. I wish to dispel the gloom of this era. I want to use this deadening mood of industrial movement as a spring board into a much brighter future. Let us re-consider the livlihood of our parents. I find myself following the same destiny; perhaps the same feelings as I attempt to re-create “scene” past.
Here in Jing de Zhen, there was a national industrial model. It represented a country-wide effort to push itself forward. But it goes far beyond a period of industrialization. Jing De Zhen has a long history: reaching back 1800 years. My picture is deceiving. The industry of the exqusite, centuries-old porcelain making process is till thriving and very much intact. Jing de zhen exists currently in an aloof position.. This porcelain environment; with hand-pulled carts laden with vases, bowls, and cups, occupies the same space as the antiquated factories now bereft of any sign of life. The old factories represented perhaps an arrogance of a people who believed blindly in mass production. Instead the fine art of porcelain making relies on a high quality verses a vast quantity. The industry captains of old now leave the field, the audience becomes a distinguished guest who arrives late; too late to revive this scene of mass chinaware; yet, we can restore and record these efforts to re-produce the earthenware that made ‘china’ renowned throughout the world.
I want to record them faithfully. Let’s come and discover together the heroism of the past ‘Red Industry’. I use the strength of these images to resist the relentless push of time’s dust broom. I believed these words convey my sentiments. These feelings mere language and thoughts constructs cannot express. They have a direct pull on my heart where kindness and clarity dwell. The immensity of time dwells in this giant scene where it splashes like whale of the ocean; drenching me to the bone.
Wang Jixin
Wang Jixin's Fading Effulgence Series: The Debris of Circumstance
Essay by Ms. Colleen Stricker
(Director of Fresh Paint Art Project Beijing, PRC）
Innovation and its ensuing movements are the substance of art, and there is nowhere in the world where developments are occurring at a faster pace than in China. Representing a sort of liberating free-fall, the oil-on-canvas screams which characterized early waves of Chinese Contemporary Art seem finally to have passed. Likewise the shock value of Cynical Realism’s odd fusion of repulsion and guileless charm has ebbed. The interest in deformity, nudity, male and female genitals has run its course and many artists are now exploring more complex realistic themes springing from identifiable social contexts.
Artists such a Wang Jixin, with his Fading Effulgence Series, are now working through personal hardships of their pasts and examining the chaos and social change provoked by widespread urban reconstruction in China today. The Fading Effulgence paintings document the sense of tragedy attached to an event not unusual in any developing country. Factory towns traditionally shelter and support their workers; they are complete and self-contained communities. When these are forced to close, livelihoods are lost, families are displaced, friendships shattered. In Wang’s case, his father’s lucrative job at a refinery in the Da Qing oil fields. When the refinery was finally abandoned, leaving the family faced with father’s early retirement and the death of a world.
Wang’s factory images convey this sense of abandonment with their vast factory spaces rusting in shadow. Perhaps most poignant is Number 16 of the series where a rolling coal car stands upended – the plough horse left to die. Yet unlike Western Realist schools, the work of Wang and his fellows does not transmit an overriding sense of despair. The brushstrokes are decisive and strong; where crisp detail gives way to grey impressions, the effect is soft and unthreatening as thought the artist has made his peace with history. Great shafts of light penetrate the factory spaces, fighting back the gloom, and nearly every painting is alive with sparks of white paint. These could be interpreted as a sort of ectoplasmic residue and yet they bring movement, brightness and an excitement into the paintings that is anything but morbid.
Transparent profundity
Echo
I have always thought that the true art should be pure, a real artist should have a pure soul. Wang Jixin is a artist just as that. His paintings did not cater for the market taste and not pretended to be deep and sophisticated. He just has painted the truest thing in his heart by his pure soul.
The frist time when I stood infront of his big painting, a huge inspire power shocked me forcefully. At that instant I have almost stopped breath and thinking. There is something becoming more and more concrete and ture in my eyes which are the magnificence frame and fluent colorings of the painting. You can feel the fanaticism and pandemonium which had been from the faded glory period.
You cannot find the shadow of pessimism or the cynical emotion from Wang’s workings. Instand of that, he used his unique painting elements to express the positive spirit of this nation. And this spirit agglomerate the power and dignity of life.
Just as Wang Jinxin’s creed: It is always a truth that runs far deeper than a reality that shows us only one face. Both his works and his character has expressed this truth. He treated the wealth and fame as dust, but he is absorbed in finding the purity and tranquility of spirit. He put himself into a monotone and longly painting life but he enjoy it very much.
Because he knows: only painting by pure soul, he could create the pure art. That is a real, essentially, transparent profundity.
Ms. Colleen Stricker
©All images copyright of Wang Jixin
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