Wu Jin
After visiting my parents in Chengdu for the Luna New Year, we attended the wedding of Yan Shilin in the rainy city-Changsha.
Shilin’s home is located dozens miles away from Changsha, beautiful scenery along the way, after a place named Coal Town, passed through several hills and woods, we arrived his hometown, a small village with charming views. Shilin’s mother insisted to hold a traditional wedding at home for her son. It was also my first time to attend a hometown wedding. I was full of curiosity, and the wedding was very interesting, in addition to the delicious Hunan cuisine, there were many impressive traditions: a dragon dance that was formed by dozens of middle-aged ladies; “raiding”attending guest-raising them in the air, singing local songs. It’s so local that I did not understand a word of it, anyway it always ended up as asking for red packet. There was also some traditional opera and pop song performances. All these took place at the open area right at the doorway, while guests sitting under some temporary shed, with a fire burning, and kids running around. In short, it was a very interesting experience. After the Luna New Year, Shilin is no longer a bachelor.
Seems to me, for several years, Shilin was always alone, even in his sculpture, images for girls were not often used. The first time I saw his sculpture was in 2009, in a group exhibition with over 100 artists which was curated by Lu Rongzhi. The exhibition was held in a gallery in 798. The sculpture of Shilin was not big in size, it was a bald head boy, holding a little duck, with his ear plugged, staring into the front, alone in the corner. It was an interesting sculpture, thinking back to it now is still much fun. The pureness of it was rarely seen in contemporary art exhibition. On the other hand, the ear plug reminded me that the artist is not conservative. I also realized his skill is pretty great too. After that exhibition I visited a solo exhibition of Shilin in Dun Gallery located at the villa area of Shunyi District in Beijing. It must be his very first solo exhibition. After the financial crisis, it became hard to maintain a business; Dun Gallery was soon out of business, which gave us the chance to collaberate with Shilin.
When Lin Gallery was still in 798, a disheveled flower girl was standing at the front door for quite a long time, she was not good looking, but very vivid and interesting. This piece was named Gatering Flowers, it was Shilin’s graduation work, might be the work he was well-known for. This piece won a national sculpture competition award in the year of his graduation; but I’m afraid it was the chance that the girl standing in front Lin Gallery that people really got to know her. Too many people have taken pictures with her, so many pictures was taken that one of the photo became IKEA’s product. After that, numerous pictures was taken for Shilin’s work Don Quixote’s Dream, that is a little boy who was ridding on a horse situated at hi art store‘s front porch. Shilin’s work became our symbol or even a mascot. Of course Shilin’s works were no longer limited in our gallery, they could be found in many places. Over the past five years, Shilin has been moving forward, he has become the most popular sculptor that was born after 1980s.
In the past five years, we have held three solo exhibitions of Shilin, his improvement was apparent in every step. While the pieces became richer in expressions, the most valuable thing is that Shilin has never discarded his pureness. I believe this is why we all treasure so much of him. We are not lack of artists with skills, however, very few young artists could express himself through an icy cold sculpture, Shilin is one of them.
I usually said, of figurative sculptor in China, besides Xiang Jing, Yan Shilin is the best. Few believed me, but now seems everyone does. In comparison to painting, I personally feel that sculpture is more difficult; there are more problems to be solved in three dimensional spaces than in two dimensions. I have tried, the feeling of not being able to take care of all aspects did not happen during my experience of painting. Therefore, in my personal highly respected artists list, Michelangelo was close to the existence of God. I was not able to find someone as good as Michelangelo, who had both strong rationality and vigorous emotions. The best in our century would be Xian Jing. Within the senior artists, Hua Tianyou would be the big mountain that not many can get over; Pan He had his touching works; Tian Shixin is pure and powerful……My list isn’t very long. It must be fated that I could meet Shilin, he met all my imaginations about a sculptor, even the simple and naive element in his personality appears to be nature to me.
I have watch Shilin growing in the past five years. But I am still curious of his quirky ideas, and I still cannot completely understand where his inspiration came from. It was like his wedding, I didn’t understand what are the ladies singing, but I could feel them. Shilin told me a story, when he was little, he and a little girl from the next door set a small wood on fire when they were playing，Shilin’s father beated him really hard. But what I was really curious about is what this little boy felt when he was facing a life-threatening fire. Was he staring out with a pair of big eyes, with his ears plugged, just like that sculpture he made？
