Quicksand Works of Yang Chengwen 2011.10.08 - 11.02 PREFACE WORKS SCENE TEXT	□ Yang Chengwen-Preferring some simple beauty Zhao Xinqi This is a rectangular room, or more prone to be a square room. The sunshine of dawn, unexpectedly like the light of sunset, is covering it with a feeling of dust. This gets people wondering if the host of this room means to retain the time or, on the contrary, let it go. At 10 a.m., September 17th, in a community near the Central Academy of Fine Art, the room Yang Cheng wen leads me to seems indeed no place for painting. The atelier is just inside her home. In her home, what catches your eyes in first sight is the coach in the corner and beside the window, whose cloth cover is decorated with little plaid and floral embellishment. A big bowl, with some fruit in it, is on a little table beside the coach. Yang Cheng wen puts on another two bowls with candies and a moon cake divided into 4 quarters in them. In the corner opposite the coach is an old foldable table with a drinking water machine on it, and piles of books, magazines and many stones below it. There are so many stones that even the balcony is full of them. Her husband is fond of stone collection, taking cases of stones back home every time he returns from a business trip. Beside those stones are paintings from Yang Cheng wen, which are laid in a delicately careful order. The place for her to paint is a piece of big white cloth on a wall on the left of the door. On the cloth there are frames of different colors overlapping each other and spreading out. This is home to Yang Cheng wen’s painting techniques, and probably with some ingredients of memory. The feelings of the “sand” displayed in her paintings give us images of the ocean, beach and stars… What surprises me is that Yang Cheng wen has been living here for 5 years, as long as her stay in Beijing. She never moves from here. Yang Chen wen, now nearly 30 years old, is incredibly with a kind of magic power in her tiny body. You can never know when she will be out of your expectation. Having lived in Dong Ying( Shandong Province) for 14 years, Jinan (Shandong Province) for 3 years, Xi’an (Shan’ an Xi Province) for 7 years, and now Beijing for almost 6 years, she mentions those experience just casually. With an enthusiasm to suspense and the unknown, she still prefers a plain and peaceful sense of reality. Her attitude to her life is so leisurely. One’s paintings are a mirror of himself. This is most convincingly proved on her. Just like her painting Golden Beach last year, her works in this exhibition, the Next Moment, the Dawn, Santa Clause Is just Monk Cloth-Bag are telling the same emotions, which are “subtle quietness, silent loneliness, the staring to the childhood and thoughts of the sense of safety on a golden beach…”. Pity that she only talks little; there are her honest and plain talks about the past and the present, peaceful like her own paintings. She is not a chatty person, seldom telling any concepts or stories. She talks through her paintings but seldom talks about them. Like her moods, this is hard to tell in a few words, as she wrote 18 months ago “thirsty to light in darkness, while sink into vastness in brightness”. There may be living some morning sunshine which is bright and drifted by the wind, also some sand which kisses the beach then leaves with tides, inside her heart which cherishes peace and guards pureness. They whisper to her at her ears, right in this room in every sunrise and sunset together with her, waiting on the floor and the wall, just as those dropping colors. They are waiting for her to pick up, without any fear to be forgotten. This is probably a kind of simple beauty. Conversation: Zhao Xin qi= Zhao Yang Cheng wen= Yang Time: September 17th, 2011 Place: Hua Jiadi Beili, Beijing Zhao: This is going to be your 4th personal exhibition in your 5 years’ living in Beijing. Do you think there have been any changes in your mind; do you always keep easy or sometimes feel at a loss? Yang: In general I gradually become increasingly easy and relaxed. I don’t think I was some “uneasy” in the past, but obviously it’s even better now. I often feel at a loss when painting, but I am more able to feel those moments. Sometimes even puzzles can make me happy. I don’t like a frozen state. Zhao: You make me feel you are able to let your soul brew with time. Is it because you are on the journey to your dream? What might you be doing if you were not a painter? Yang: So far I am, on the whole, living a life in a “capricious” way. I am always living the life I want, and I’ve never thought of doing anything else, or might be unable to do it. This “authentically capricious” way of life is just a dream to most people. Zhao: Do you have any works you particularly prefer so far? Namely, is there any deeply-impressed and unforgotten painting experience? Yang: Yes. Every year I got some works which I’d just like to keep for myself, even after sending them out. The thoughts may become vaguer after some time, but I would not face them when meeting them. Maybe it’s because the very moment when painting is beautiful, such as Mother is not at home, 2006.7.13, Flower, Shallow Stream, Golden Beach, Safe Ocean, Before 0:00., the Next Moment, the Dawn, Santa Clause Is just Monk Cloth-Bag…and so on. I feel a little embarrassed to tell more. Zhao: It seems that most of them are included in your latest exhibition, doesn’t it? Yang: Kind of it. Maybe after some time I will find the thought vaguer. Zhao: You painted the image of beach for many times in this exhibition? Yang: Yes. Beach makes me feel time-flying. Zhao: Do you have some special obsession to things about to end or contradictory things? Things that look this way but actually turn out that way. Yang: Yes. Maybe the “mean” state is the most. Start and end, this way and that way, those are all hard to tell, while we can easily catch the mean-moment. With only one moment you can hardly tell its property. Zhao: Sounds interesting. Do you believe in fate? Yang: Not very, for it’s hard to explain. Zhao: Have you ever kept one of your paintings and sent it to yourself or anyone close to you? Yang: No. I drew some of the paintings for them, although I never sent the paintings to them. Zhao: What’s the priority of your life? What influences your creation most? Yang: In daily life I am more prone to emotion while lack of ration. Better if I were more rational. Every present feeling may be the biggest influence on my creation. Zhao: On the whole you regard yourself as “capricious” and emotional, and any more descriptions? Yang: Also industrial. I am always trying to know myself. Zhao: Your personal exhibition is going to start soon. Do you have any words to yourself after these 5 years? And any words to the future? Yang: Painting provides me a space, lets me see my quite changes and know myself gradually. All are just there for me to experience in the coming future. Zhao: Have you always been keeping something? Or waiting for some certain change? Yang: Pureness maybe, although I didn’t manage it sometimes. Changes are always taking place, but I am not particularly waiting for one certain change. Zhao: What’s your plan after the exhibition? Yang: No particular plan. Maybe keep drawing. Exhibition is only like a flashing moment. Zhao: It seems you are living a non-interrupting life. You are hardly affected by things around you and you seldom make a big turning point in a moment, right? Yang: I am also emotional. But the main tone of life is always there. For example, in a meal staple doesn’t vary but dishes are various. You can have only steamed bread, rice and noodles. For another example, when in Xi’an I would have noodles, I saw different ingredients produce various tastes. Even if the environment changes, your pursuit doesn’t change. Zhao: Besides painting, what do you always do usually? Yang: Bullying my husband is good both mentally and physically. Also I like unconstrained imaginations. I have no bad hobby. Sometimes I push myself to think backward where I began, but my thoughts often go other way. I would punish myself but my husband says “Forget it! You will be the same even when you are 50 or even 80 years old.” Zhao: You use green color more often in your latest paintings? Yang: I didn’t notice that, although I have always been fond of green. Zhao: Me, too. Yang: This means we are both unpolluted, aren’t we?
	Next

Quicksand
Works of Yang Chengwen
2011.10.08 - 11.02

□ Yang Chengwen-Preferring some simple beauty

Zhao Xinqi

This is a rectangular room, or more prone to be a square room. The sunshine of dawn, unexpectedly like the light of sunset, is covering it with a feeling of dust. This gets people wondering if the host of this room means to retain the time or, on the contrary, let it go. At 10 a.m., September 17th, in a community near the Central Academy of Fine Art, the room Yang Cheng wen leads me to seems indeed no place for painting.

The atelier is just inside her home. In her home, what catches your eyes in first sight is the coach in the corner and beside the window, whose cloth cover is decorated with little plaid and floral embellishment. A big bowl, with some fruit in it, is on a little table beside the coach. Yang Cheng wen puts on another two bowls with candies and a moon cake divided into 4 quarters in them. In the corner opposite the coach is an old foldable table with a drinking water machine on it, and piles of books, magazines and many stones below it. There are so many stones that even the balcony is full of them. Her husband is fond of stone collection, taking cases of stones back home every time he returns from a business trip. Beside those stones are paintings from Yang Cheng wen, which are laid in a delicately careful order. The place for her to paint is a piece of big white cloth on a wall on the left of the door. On the cloth there are frames of different colors overlapping each other and spreading out. This is home to Yang Cheng wen’s painting techniques, and probably with some ingredients of memory. The feelings of the “sand” displayed in her paintings give us images of the ocean, beach and stars…

What surprises me is that Yang Cheng wen has been living here for 5 years, as long as her stay in Beijing. She never moves from here. Yang Chen wen, now nearly 30 years old, is incredibly with a kind of magic power in her tiny body. You can never know when she will be out of your expectation. Having lived in Dong Ying( Shandong Province) for 14 years, Jinan (Shandong Province) for 3 years, Xi’an (Shan’ an Xi Province) for 7 years, and now Beijing for almost 6 years, she mentions those experience just casually. With an enthusiasm to suspense and the unknown, she still prefers a plain and peaceful sense of reality. Her attitude to her life is so leisurely.

One’s paintings are a mirror of himself. This is most convincingly proved on her. Just like her painting Golden Beach last year, her works in this exhibition, the Next Moment, the Dawn, Santa Clause Is just Monk Cloth-Bag are telling the same emotions, which are “subtle quietness, silent loneliness, the staring to the childhood and thoughts of the sense of safety on a golden beach…”. Pity that she only talks little; there are her honest and plain talks about the past and the present, peaceful like her own paintings. She is not a chatty person, seldom telling any concepts or stories. She talks through her paintings but seldom talks about them. Like her moods, this is hard to tell in a few words, as she wrote 18 months ago “thirsty to light in darkness, while sink into vastness in brightness”.

There may be living some morning sunshine which is bright and drifted by the wind, also some sand which kisses the beach then leaves with tides, inside her heart which cherishes peace and guards pureness. They whisper to her at her ears, right in this room in every sunrise and sunset together with her, waiting on the floor and the wall, just as those dropping colors. They are waiting for her to pick up, without any fear to be forgotten.

This is probably a kind of simple beauty.
Conversation: Zhao Xin qi= Zhao
Yang Cheng wen= Yang
Time: September 17th, 2011
Place: Hua Jiadi Beili, Beijing

Zhao: This is going to be your 4th personal exhibition in your 5 years’ living in Beijing. Do you think there have been any changes in your mind; do you always keep easy or sometimes feel at a loss?
Yang: In general I gradually become increasingly easy and relaxed. I don’t think I was some “uneasy” in the past, but obviously it’s even better now. I often feel at a loss when painting, but I am more able to feel those moments. Sometimes even puzzles can make me happy. I don’t like a frozen state.

Zhao: You make me feel you are able to let your soul brew with time. Is it because you are on the journey to your dream? What might you be doing if you were not a painter?
Yang: So far I am, on the whole, living a life in a “capricious” way. I am always living the life I want, and I’ve never thought of doing anything else, or might be unable to do it. This “authentically capricious” way of life is just a dream to most people.

Zhao: Do you have any works you particularly prefer so far? Namely, is there any deeply-impressed and unforgotten painting experience?
Yang: Yes. Every year I got some works which I’d just like to keep for myself, even after sending them out. The thoughts may become vaguer after some time, but I would not face them when meeting them. Maybe it’s because the very moment when painting is beautiful, such as Mother is not at home, 2006.7.13, Flower, Shallow Stream, Golden Beach, Safe Ocean, Before 0:00., the Next Moment, the Dawn, Santa Clause Is just Monk Cloth-Bag…and so on. I feel a little embarrassed to tell more.

Zhao: It seems that most of them are included in your latest exhibition, doesn’t it?
Yang: Kind of it. Maybe after some time I will find the thought vaguer.

Zhao: You painted the image of beach for many times in this exhibition?
Yang: Yes. Beach makes me feel time-flying.

Zhao: Do you have some special obsession to things about to end or contradictory things? Things that look this way but actually turn out that way.
Yang: Yes. Maybe the “mean” state is the most. Start and end, this way and that way, those are all hard to tell, while we can easily catch the mean-moment. With only one moment you can hardly tell its property.

Zhao: Sounds interesting. Do you believe in fate?
Yang: Not very, for it’s hard to explain.

Zhao: Have you ever kept one of your paintings and sent it to yourself or anyone close to you?
Yang: No. I drew some of the paintings for them, although I never sent the paintings to them.

Zhao: What’s the priority of your life? What influences your creation most?
Yang: In daily life I am more prone to emotion while lack of ration. Better if I were more rational. Every present feeling may be the biggest influence on my creation.

Zhao: On the whole you regard yourself as “capricious” and emotional, and any more descriptions?
Yang: Also industrial. I am always trying to know myself.

Zhao: Your personal exhibition is going to start soon. Do you have any words to yourself after these 5 years? And any words to the future?
Yang: Painting provides me a space, lets me see my quite changes and know myself gradually. All are just there for me to experience in the coming future.

Zhao: Have you always been keeping something? Or waiting for some certain change?
Yang: Pureness maybe, although I didn’t manage it sometimes. Changes are always taking place, but I am not particularly waiting for one certain change.

Zhao: What’s your plan after the exhibition?
Yang: No particular plan. Maybe keep drawing. Exhibition is only like a flashing moment.

Zhao: It seems you are living a non-interrupting life. You are hardly affected by things around you and you seldom make a big turning point in a moment, right?
Yang: I am also emotional. But the main tone of life is always there. For example, in a meal staple doesn’t vary but dishes are various. You can have only steamed bread, rice and noodles. For another example, when in Xi’an I would have noodles, I saw different ingredients produce various tastes. Even if the environment changes, your pursuit doesn’t change.

Zhao: Besides painting, what do you always do usually?
Yang: Bullying my husband is good both mentally and physically. Also I like unconstrained imaginations. I have no bad hobby. Sometimes I push myself to think backward where I began, but my thoughts often go other way. I would punish myself but my husband says “Forget it! You will be the same even when you are 50 or even 80 years old.”

Zhao: You use green color more often in your latest paintings?
Yang: I didn’t notice that, although I have always been fond of green.

Zhao: Me, too.
Yang: This means we are both unpolluted, aren’t we?