Laughing at Life’s Frustrations

One of the most outstanding painters on the Chinese Contemporary Art scene since the 1990s, Beijing-based artist Yue Minjun is best known for oil paintings depicting himself in various settings, frozen in laughter. Recently Yue came to Macau, together with 52 of his works, including sculptures, created over the past two years.  Macau CLOSER spoke with Yue in person to learn more about his journey to becoming a distinguished icon of contemporary Chinese art. 

 

 

Yue Minjun: I’ve been doing this since the 1990s and it’s purely for art’s sake. What you draw, for sure, indicates how you understand art and the things that surround you. Such a big smile reflects the way I do art and my attitudes. 

 

 

Yes, of course, I do. My work talks about my self-searching, as well as my feelings toward living, and thus it has much to do with my inner self. I project myself in them as an image to create. Artists always project themselves in their works and the way of projection varies from person to person, but it all shows our perceptions towards reality. In my work, each of my self-portraits is an actor in a movie, playing a role in a particular setting.

 

 

I laugh at the frustrations in our lives. So many things happen that don’t necessarily follow the plan we have for our journey in life. That’s an undeniable fact. We all have to face our own problems. So what I’m mocking are the fantasies or illusions to which we cling.   To realise this is not easy and that’s a process of life. Regardless of who we are and where we are from, each of us has to undertake this process.

 

 

I’d like to let them to know more about my daily life as an artist by showing them my creative process. This will help them get some idea as to why artists do art in this way and how they select the content. Visitors can readily sense the desire of artists to create by the demonstration of sketches and tools. Usually it’s easy to observe how they collect materials and make things work. But as for how artists make good use of what they have, it’s quite complicated. It can’t be simply explained by a few words.  It’s a matter of choice. It has something to do with their personal experience and their own theory of art, both of which are fabricated over decades of practice. For me, I try not to constantly abandon my old self in my pursuit of art; otherwise I will lose my impulse to create. As an artist, I love being in a state of confusion and mysticism. That’s how I obtain inspiration. Also, I don’t make things too clearly. It’s open to interpretation.

 

 

I like being in motion. I love brainstorming in the moment while I’m moving around. I often get inspired when I move from one point to another, either by bus or on foot. Only working in various places from time to time flexibly, can I be inspired and improve my way of creating.

 

 

They all articulate some social concerns in common and express how I see the world – my perception of humanity. The major difference is that I’m no longer confined to one particular type of artistic expression in particular. We have to take bold steps to contradict what we have done in the past, rather than to make things easily predictable. Such a paradox plays a key role in the process of creation. My work always gets born in such a way as to break through the cocoon of paradox.

 

I’m open-minded and I disagree with the notion of singularity. There is always more than one way to express ourselves, especially in art. The notion excludes the possibility that we can pursue multi-diversity in our society, and thus limits our creativity as well as our understanding. So my current exhibits, which foster a sense of being contradicted, aim to oppose this notion. 

 

My recent work twists the focus a bit, sort of depicting landscapes and faceless images, which are obviously different from, but still similar to, the previous works. Perhaps such paradoxical way of doing art will inspire the audience to think more.

 

 

To me, the more you understand and realise about the world, the more pessimistic you become. When you acquire more knowledge, you come to see various problems rooted deeply in our humanity and shared in different parts of the world. Plus, life is short and sometimes, in the face of adversity, there is nothing you can do about it. 

 

 

Well, frankly speaking, it can’t change the reality of life much, however I do believe that art can work when it touches people and translates into a cultural language.  Then you can sense a vivid life-force energy in your body, influencing what you believe. It’s like a stream of spring water in a dead lake. It helps you stand firm in the face of adversity.

 

 

Yes, I do. All that we know begins from the perspective of art. It’s simply because art questions what we get used to in our daily life as well as the notion of normality. So in the eyes of artists, the more normal it is, the more problematic it could be. And thus artists are trained to question and challenge. Every change in life starts from art, rather than science. Science is merely a tool to quantify things, when art can directly empower us to look at society from a human perspective.