Skylight onto the True Abyss

The Core is My Individual Point of View
Guo: The day I went to your studio, we talked about “S”, and I have a few follow-up questions. Would you say that “S” represents your thinking? Does the train of thought underlying your work have a complexity that defies categorization? Just now you were talking about order, and the problem of how to restore a sense of order where there is disorder. Did traditional or ancient ways of thinking lead you to an epiphany? Many artists use the symbol of a snake. Did some long forgotten ancient methodology spur you to rethink this? In terms of relationships, complexity, and so on. When I saw your studio, and when I was discussing the title of the exhibition with Zhu Zhu, I got the impression that you don’t view this exhibition as a summation, but instead see it as a way of confronting an open-ended future. When you said just now that “only the one who was in angst finds rest,” what I got was that sense of calm you get after strenuous effort.
Over the past decade, you’ve mounted no fewer than four major exhibitions. Each of these could be seen as the summation of a different phase. How often would you say you do some sort of “summation”?

Xiang: Every three years. This time the interval was longer than usual—it’s been five years since my last big show.

Guo: The current show is a culmination of the last several years of thinking and art making. The key word of this exhibition (Core) seems to mark a significant departure from your previous work. I’d like to know, what are your hopes for this exhibition?

Xiang: In the past, I would structure my process around what you could call a theme. Despite the structural complexities, I liked working from a fairly comprehensive main theme that could draw me in and keep me engaged. It’s easier for me to work this way. But this time I was secretly hoping for something else, namely that it would conclude my work as a sculptor. I’ve always been able to use the medium of sculpture to fashion a structure for creative thinking, and I’ve been able to make adjustments within it. Because the process of sculpture has to many limitations in and of