The Transcended Body

H: It might be only a bystander’s view, why do I believe this piece is of some absolute significance to you and the present Chinese art. One is for yourself: in terms of the process, it removed many elements and turned pure, or for you it’s a breakthrough in approaches. It’s not a breakthrough in technical senses, but a breakthrough in your ways of looking at the world. In the before there were many traces of narration and representation, you wanted to use one media to represent something. But in this piece, clearly you didn’t have to rely particularly on that media for the change, some things were already there — there’s something self-sufficient in it. The purity I talked about means this work needs nothing of meaning background; you don’t have to attach meanings to it or represent meanings by it, but it has presented something there. This is something many artists are running after but fail to get. That’s why I feel that standing-figure piece contains some narration element — including her posture, facial expression and gender. On the contrary, in this piece you didn’t emphasize its gender, didn’t emphasize the elements of youth, time or the like.
X: Your Body actually started my first person narration approach. When I was creating that piece, my life was very isolated indeed, and that instinct just burst out suddenly. I strongly wish my first person narration approach could get more established. In this new exhibition I get ready to produce a group of purer works of female bodies. Moreover, I indeed want to transcend it; when I jump over that obstacle, I will feel quite relieved.
H: Anther important thing is scale. Actually you cared not much of scale before. Some people believe space and scale are key factors for distinguishing classical from contemporary sculptures.
X: In the before I had no courage; I was not confident.
H: For another thing, the contradiction in this work is particularly striking — sex and de-sex. I wouldn’t call it neuter-sex, but I believe you must have wanted to do something of de-sex. Further, there are extra-perceptibility and extra-rationality, which intertwine together contradictorily. It’s kind of monumental expression, but gives special prominence to sex organs. There’s no contradiction in your previous works. For example, your Whole Dark, a black piece of