Yuan jinhua mail：yuanjinhua2017@163.com | yuanjinhua_nft@163.com
A Road to Self (2009)
GU Chengfeng
Yuan Jinhua’s “Embrace” series is very confusing. The strung-together little people who seem to be dressed in kasayas, hugging with their legs twisted like pyramids, against a background of mountain rocks, show us various poses. The mountain, water, tree, and rock are all conceptual. Sometimes, we can also see crows or a little paper airplanes. What is he trying to say through his paintings?
By analysing his works, for a period of time, we can feel that the basis of the “Embrace” series is the unselfconsciousness and forthrightness of the artist. As we can see from his works, he belongs to the group of artists who do things according to their own conscience. He is forthright compared with those who “scheme”: the artists who have a thorough plan about their marketing and public images, which might take them great effort, but once they succeed, they can get the respect they want. The forthrighteous artists do not have many restrictions and they get along. Once they are happy, they may surprise you or make you shake your head. They are free and easy, although they will hardly become masters.
“Embrace” as a symbol of posture is not unfamiliar for contemporary graphic arts. The Gao brothers had an “Embrace” series of performing art, which is a record of real human hugs. They did it to claim the distant relationships between people. The organization of the scenes is quite similar to American photographer Spencer Tunick’s naked states. And in fact, the ideas they want to express are also close.
In comparison, Yuan Jinhua’s “Embrace” series is a lot more personal. It should be called “hold” rather than “embrace.” Very few postures fit the definition of embrace; most of them look like they doing pyramid sport where the highest person is giving out instructions, or holding two little fish in their hands, or spreading out like paper airplanes. The actions are uncertain, just like wonders in a dream. This embrace is more like a game that does not follow any tradition that deconstructs traditional landscape paintings.
The weird actions with a weird background can only be called mountain rocks instead of landscape. The rocks are twisting, in which we cannot find any traditional landscape skills. The river is even stranger: it looks like a ribbon swinging among the rocks, flat and green, more proper to be named color ribbon instead of water. If there are any connections in his work to traditional ink and wash, that would be the black wires the artist carelessly put up with a brush pen; some are like hackled firewood, others are like caltrop, sometimes with a blackbird lingering around.
Strange scenes, postures, and atmospheres… how could they make us feel what the artist describes as “all is one” and “forgetting the boundaries”? Even with the description from the artist about the origins of his creation, we are not able to put them together. The artist said in his Q&A session: I think it is possible to express a spirit of embrace among the mountains. It is like the relationship between humans and nature: from “lying down and enjoying the sights” to “thoughts flying, spirit high,” from “scene in poetry, poetry in scene” to ”the union of nature and I.”
Obviously, this statement is too conceptual to reveal the artist’s true feelings. If language speaks for the heart, then a painting must present the mind. If the graphic postures shown us the words that the artist cannot say, then the secret language is an expression that cannot be explained by daily experience but can only be presented as a dream. The artist mentioned Dali as his influence when asked about his favourite foreign artists. Dali’s surrealism is an irrational expression with weird combinations of substances and shapes. He never explained; instead, he only said it’s a “paranoid criticize,” which is partly why he is so successful. Yuan Jinhua had created several series of rational and regular paintings; compared to Dali’s surrealism, this inspiration that comes from nowhere is precious for his inner needs of expressing. Everything starts from himself without being fake and catering to public taste, without considering the acceptance of the market, which should be the creative idea an artist adopts. (Extracts)
Yuan Jinhua’s “Embrace” series is very confusing. The strung-together little people who seem to be dressed in kasayas, hugging with their legs twisted like pyramids, against a background of mountain rocks, show us various poses. The mountain, water, tree, and rock are all conceptual. Sometimes, we can also see crows or a little paper airplanes. What is he trying to say through his paintings?
By analysing his works, for a period of time, we can feel that the basis of the “Embrace” series is the unselfconsciousness and forthrightness of the artist. As we can see from his works, he belongs to the group of artists who do things according to their own conscience. He is forthright compared with those who “scheme”: the artists who have a thorough plan about their marketing and public images, which might take them great effort, but once they succeed, they can get the respect they want. The forthrighteous artists do not have many restrictions and they get along. Once they are happy, they may surprise you or make you shake your head. They are free and easy, although they will hardly become masters.
“Embrace” as a symbol of posture is not unfamiliar for contemporary graphic arts. The Gao brothers had an “Embrace” series of performing art, which is a record of real human hugs. They did it to claim the distant relationships between people. The organization of the scenes is quite similar to American photographer Spencer Tunick’s naked states. And in fact, the ideas they want to express are also close.
In comparison, Yuan Jinhua’s “Embrace” series is a lot more personal. It should be called “hold” rather than “embrace.” Very few postures fit the definition of embrace; most of them look like they doing pyramid sport where the highest person is giving out instructions, or holding two little fish in their hands, or spreading out like paper airplanes. The actions are uncertain, just like wonders in a dream. This embrace is more like a game that does not follow any tradition that deconstructs traditional landscape paintings.
The weird actions with a weird background can only be called mountain rocks instead of landscape. The rocks are twisting, in which we cannot find any traditional landscape skills. The river is even stranger: it looks like a ribbon swinging among the rocks, flat and green, more proper to be named color ribbon instead of water. If there are any connections in his work to traditional ink and wash, that would be the black wires the artist carelessly put up with a brush pen; some are like hackled firewood, others are like caltrop, sometimes with a blackbird lingering around.
Strange scenes, postures, and atmospheres… how could they make us feel what the artist describes as “all is one” and “forgetting the boundaries”? Even with the description from the artist about the origins of his creation, we are not able to put them together. The artist said in his Q&A session: I think it is possible to express a spirit of embrace among the mountains. It is like the relationship between humans and nature: from “lying down and enjoying the sights” to “thoughts flying, spirit high,” from “scene in poetry, poetry in scene” to ”the union of nature and I.”
Obviously, this statement is too conceptual to reveal the artist’s true feelings. If language speaks for the heart, then a painting must present the mind. If the graphic postures shown us the words that the artist cannot say, then the secret language is an expression that cannot be explained by daily experience but can only be presented as a dream. The artist mentioned Dali as his influence when asked about his favourite foreign artists. Dali’s surrealism is an irrational expression with weird combinations of substances and shapes. He never explained; instead, he only said it’s a “paranoid criticize,” which is partly why he is so successful. Yuan Jinhua had created several series of rational and regular paintings; compared to Dali’s surrealism, this inspiration that comes from nowhere is precious for his inner needs of expressing. Everything starts from himself without being fake and catering to public taste, without considering the acceptance of the market, which should be the creative idea an artist adopts. (Extracts)