Wang Qingsong

© Wang Qingsong

Wang Qingsong, "Thinker" (1998)

© Wang Qingsong

Wang Qingsong, "Incarnation 1" (2002)

Jeff Koons Crazy for Koons Phillips de Pury Makes Its (Small) Mark The Appendix: New Museum Scandal Edition Warhols Send Sotheby’s Soaring A Showdown for Doig at Christie’s The Appendix: Same-Sex Couples, an Apocalypse Critic, and Iran Make Statements Hog Wild

Send a letter to the Editor

Save to Del.icio.us Digg this

I have a habit of strolling on the street, and if any phenomenon strikes me as interesting, I remember it very well and consider shooting it. But I cannot make my artworks simply emulations of real life; I need to find the essence and make my own point.

Next, I work out some draft drawings, then locate and buy all my props for the theatrical scenes. After selecting models, I find a place, usually Beijing Movie Studio, to set up the scenarios.

It takes around one to two weeks to get the scenarios installed with the help of 10 to 20 workers. The last step will be to choose one day for all of us—models, assistants, photographers, cameraman, etc.—to finish the shooting. Usually one setting is shot with three to four negatives to make sure there will be nothing wrong.

When the negative, usually an 8 x 10 large-format, is developed, I will leave it for a few days so that I can give it more thought and decide upon the final appearance. Next, I scan the negative into the computer to produce a digital file or the final version of this work made into another negative. There will be another one to two months before I fine tune the digital file/negative with its colors, hues and saturations. Then comes the final version of my art work.

How do you think your work relates to traditional Chinese painting? For example, you revisited classic works of Chinese art, such as your Night Revels of Lao Li, your photographic version of Gu Hongzhong's famous Night Revels of Han Xizai. Can you tell us about that and about what the original painting means to you?

Sometimes I do use some traditional images. I revisited Night Revels of Han Xizai because it was an ancient painting describing the fate of intellectuals. I also used the traditional scroll painting Packman in my work Knickknack Peddler which talks about children’s education. Similarly, I used the ancient painting Ladies with Flowers in my New Women to compare the ideals of women in the past and at present.

I am not interested in simple emulation of the ancient paintings; rather, I want to use the traditional images to compare to the present times since the relationship between past and present holds significance to my critique. Comparing the past to the present times, I find there are some similarities. The intellectuals are all passive—though passionate to change society. These ambitious men of letters had to give up since they are so powerless to change anything.

Does it seem a contradiction to you that while Chinese artists are highly sought after in the West, Li Xianting, a curator and editor, who is at the center of the your Night Revels photograph, was fired from an official art magazine after championing precisely the kind of work the West is embracing?

It is not difficult to understand this contradiction. What makes the Chinese contemporary art highly sought after is the fact that China is now getting a lot of attention with its escalating economic growth and that Chinese artists’ works pose a lot of fresh, new questions for this global world.

Artists are always critical of the positive things brought about by economic development. Chinese artists propose anti-mainstream viewpoints. Here the mainstream refers to the “official” which is agreed upon by the government. Hence Mr. Li was fired from the official art magazine since he would not advocate the lofty ideals that the government wanted to promote. Instead, he let the work of artists critical toward the government be published in national art magazines.

Critics always remark that there are a lot of Western brands, such as Coca-Cola and McDonald's, in your work. Why do you use these brands, and what place and meaning do they have in contemporary China?

The meanings of these pop consumer products are not the same in China as in the West. For example, McDonald’s, KFC and Burger King are nothing grandiose in the West—they’re just convenient and cheap fast food/drinks. While in China, they hold significant meanings.

They are popular with fashionable young people who get together in McDonald’s for parties. One can see the popularity of McDonald’s by the fact that over 10,000 people bought hamburgers when it opened its first store on the most popular street in Beijing. Now three McDonald’s open on a daily basis across China. The funny thing is that such pop consumer culture has become one of the most important parts in Chinese people’s life. Chinese people seem to forget their own traditional cultures by embracing the Western consumer culture.

My artworks tackle such issues relating to people’s life in the midst of dramatic social changes in present-day China. Therefore, I find it relevant to associate such a dominant consumer culture with people’s mental changes in my works.