Chenlian Dai = DHeming Zhang = Z
D: Please, tell me about the origin of this solo exhibition.
Z: In the modern society, the ready-made experiences make us direct cognitions instead of feeling the things again. Actually it's like the difference between prints and calligraphy, the former improve the efficiency, we understand the conception almost the same time when reading, but the word itself is till a kind of image, if you concentrate at one word for long, you may not recognize it, there will be similar phenomenon when it comes to normal stuff, we will give up the cognition and then re-experience. The origin of this exhibition is a circuit board, because in a design I worked on last year, it required me to collect lots of circuit boards, I have kept an eye on the waste electrical equipment. Once I transported the unnecessary materials to my basement in Tongzhou, I found some radios, the old-fashioned kind that I had never seen before, when back to studio I opened up the radios’ shield, then I had watched it for a long time, suddenly there is a feeling. "What is this?” I felt so strange about the circuit board, didn't seem to something can be produced in the world; I couldn't imagine this thing is made from nature. However, every ready product had its real history, from the basic elements to the integrated circuit, when I peel open the capacitance, I found the inside is actually simple inorganic materials, ceramics and metal, so I want to practice such a process by myself, the objects can be restored to a nearly pristine state, in my memory, the old signal receiver had the same principle with radio, but its structure are much more simple. So the practice of the reduction process has become the origin idea.
D: What is the theme of the exhibition?What do the title I don’t know how to expound my art imply?
Z:The theme of this exhibition is to present parts of my jobs, ways of composing, I think art is not just defined as works' entities, it is integral for a person. In this exhibition, some of the works that are clear-boundary, but some uncertain sections are also included. I always take artistic practice as a matter in a system like food chain, the materials I prayed were translated to tools or products and residuums, also, some immateriality, which are shown as scripts and phone-fotos, everything in this space actually existed in these two months, they really happened in my life. The range of drawing materials is a field about times and process, every little things around you will influence your works.
The title is a reflection of my real status, I hope I am always staying in a flexible state, I had never been a perfessional person and never emphasized what I concentrated about is installation art, mixed media or conceptual art. There’s a saying “Life is art”, recently I try easel art, it’s kind of experimental for me, I take it as a common behavior in life, not a serious work, in fact, many things I made were parts of my life, I did it not for working, just did it because I wanted to. Sculpture and painting are special in such lots of life behaviors, they demand me to immerse myself in a process of dealing with one matter by a single way.
This let me reflect on my ways of creation, besides conceptual thinking, I should not give myself a fixed identity or creation mode, as installation artist. Installation art has become more and more systematic nowadays, the same with painting and other artistic languages, it can be applicable for expression sometimes, and creation should finally turn to yourselves’ thinking process, motivation comes first, then the expression ways. So for the first time as a solo exhibition, I cannot give myself a definition, what I said is still a logical thing, rather than the expression of works.
D：What are the correlations between the works in this exhibition and the works you did before?
Z:The action of creating itself is a kind of exploration, is a way of thinking by the entire body, all things are not thinking well in advance, original plan provides only a direction for actions, when you are truly doing this, intuition will always prevail. Because my thought and life are coherent, so the works are naturally attach to each others. Works of this exhibition and works I did before are Associated in two ways: from macro view, the problems I payed attention to, the creation method, favorite materials will be gradually clear during practicing, by comparison, I found that I also have a main line, or that the stream of consciousness is the main line; specifically, every time I take part in the exhibition will always inherit methods from the last, element or thinking, such as the posters and exhibition hall on the right side of the main room, the mirror, the non-logic arrangements, cutting back the readability of the text. And there is a similar thinking process started from the substance, but different direction.
D: How do you understand the whole meaning of all the tree works?
Z:This time, in the choice of the image, my decision logic is clear, the tool is some substance that people selected from the nature and also the media for human beings transforming nature to meet their own needs. People have three basic demands: surviving, information interaction, positive emotions. This can be summarized as physiological needs, social needs, spiritual needs, so I choose three kinds of tools corresponding to the three kinds of demands, they are also three directions to acquire materials from the nature, in the production process I actually gain some experience, such as hearing the human voice from the signal receiver in the midnight by finding a special spot on the silicon, fun from sewing doll, a dinner with the rest of the rabbit flesh, cut the meat with a sharp glass edge. In addition, the integrity of the exhibition is not limited to the association between three groups of works, my material is the whole space, works and the phone photos, manuscripts, raw materials, tools, the residuum, so I didn’t label any of works, this is a blurring of the boundaries, let audiences not only focus on the fixed works but the whole field structure, it can show my feelings and ideas in a better way.
D: I knew your working process is very rigor but special, how do you understand the process of art?
Z: The material is not completely controllable, dealing with these unstable materials may finally leads to a result which is different with the expects or even failure, compared with the theoretical guidance, at least, at this stage, I think trial and error is more suitable for me, making an item, the principle is not my problem to deal with, what I want to do is to produce a perceptual acknowledgement, and then push on next step, the process is an accumulation of failures, the form and conception in the final presentation will change, will also change, so the works on show don’t deny the failures, in contrast, it is also part of the failure, every time you failed is a chance to accomplish your work, even one day you may find yourself completely different even contrary with before, the theory or conception of the work, it doesn’t mean that you are mistaken in the first, you don’t have to question your art wether it is in your system or not, you should have confidence in yourself, what can touch people is a feeling thing, the viewers can feel the author through the works, art is not the work of a set of strict logic theory, or nothing but a beautiful form, it is your reflection, wether the items’ identity is valid or not is less important than doing the work itself.
D: How do you inderstand the performance in the opening of exhibition?
Z: I have the plot of the ceremony, wooden hammer, steel cone, water, salt were placed on a piece of linen, which also presented a sense of ritual, furthermore, the actual function of the steel cone is the earth wire,a part of the installation, so that the magnetic energy which is received by signal receiving device could pass from the antenna through the device and into the ground, forming a loop, this behavior also completed the function itself. Finally, the beating movement is a kind of repeated exertion, getting deep into the underground a bit by bit, I think this behavior just like my creation state. In the original plan, the steel cone should extend into the ground completely, but the thoughtless rain reduces the show time.
D：Can you talk about your scripts? Are they scripts of the installation?
Z: The manuscripts isn’t only for installation, but also notes triggered by creation within these two months, most of the content interspersed something associated with the work, but there are also other content, it represented a state of mind during the creation process, the picture is another language, which is captured and made by mobile phone, it recorded my state of each slices,some are taken in the collection of materials or production, some other ideas derived from the records itsself, some of which are occurred during this period that really can touch me. Manuscripts and pictures are also in accordance with the three groups of works corresponding to the needs, to a certain extent,it reflect the stream of the consciousness.
D: Do you have plans for exhibitons or projects in the next few months?
Z:Well，it pushed me too hard this time, I’ll make a try on more freed, natural ways to do the works, performance, photography, vedio maybe. In aspect of exhibition, I am eager for opportunity to participate some group exhibitions, because I don’t have much expierence for this, brand new thing!