Interview with Yachang: The Myth of Rope Painting —— Rope and Ink Lead to Simplicity and Beauty

It is the art season in Shanghai in June 5438+065438+ 10, which is the highlight moment of the year. Shanghai, a city, has become a platform for global art dialogue and a platform for East-West contest.

On 2021112, an exhibition about contemporary art and China's classical philosophy-Enmai solo exhibition was held in Shanghai Himalayan Art Museum. More than 50 rope paintings created by Enmai in recent five years were exhibited in the exhibition, which showed Enmai's creation and exploration with rope and ink as the media. Yang Wei is the curator of this exhibition.

Enmai, a contemporary artist and columnist, is active in the international art field. Create the art of unconscious rope painting, and be good at making minimalist semi-installation, semi-painting, painting and linear sculpture with a rope. In the aspect of ink and wash creation, it is a new atmosphere for China to innovate ink and wash art to boldly abandon the pen and strike ink with a rope.

In 20 17, he held a solo exhibition "Language of Lines" in Kassel, Germany; 20 19 was selected as the only Japanese artist at the French-Italian-China International Art Festival in Senlis, France; In 2020, he was selected into the list of 18 international contemporary artists Italian YICCA20/2 1 global award, becoming the only artist selected in Asia that year.

His books include the art of diving and flying.

Enmai's solo exhibition "Myth Rope Painting" was planned by Yang Wei, a famous art critic and curator. The opening ceremony of the exhibition was presided over by Zhang Yiwen, deputy director of Himalayan Art Museum. Guests attending the opening ceremony of this exhibition include curator Yang Wei, curator Shen Qibin of Himalayan Art Museum, director of art media of Yachang Liu Qian, vice president of Academy of Fine Arts of East China Normal University Zhang Fangbai, deputy secretary general of Shanghai China-foreign Cultural and Art Exchange Association Chen Weifeng, professor Meng Luding of Central Academy of Fine Arts, professor Li Bo of Tongji University, artist Yi Ling, artist Wu Jun and artists. Zhang Fangbai, vice president of the Academy of Fine Arts of East China Normal University, Shen Qibin, curator of the art museum, Yi Ling, artist, Ding Furen, president of the Shanghai branch of the American East-West Art and Culture Association, and Yang Wei, curator, delivered speeches successively, and Enmai gave a thank-you speech.

The guests interpreted Enmai's rope paintings from different angles and their integration with philosophy, literature and other fields. Enmai's artistic language breaks the boundaries between different artistic categories. The main vocabulary of Enmai's artistic creation in recent years is line. Specifically, in order to purify the structure of lines, Enmai even abandoned the brush completely. Throw a rope and you can draw with ink. The transformation of media and the introduction of behavior process make Enmai's art get rid of the shackles of plane, which has the characteristics of installation art and action painting.

When talking about the original intention of his painting, Enmai told Yachang Art Network: "From a few years old, I like to create graphics with my hair. This kind of hair painting was first formally presented in the form of art in Germany four years ago. With the recognition and encouragement of German artists, I first realized the personality and value of my hairdressing. Later, in Spain, I used local cotton thread and paper to complete a set of small single-line semi-finished works in one breath. "

Before 20 19, Enmai's main creative direction was rope semi-installation works. After years of repeated research and experiments on China ink stick and Xuan paper, an innovative ink form began to appear in her works after 20 19. In the unconscious realm of abandoning all thinking activities, draw the picture with thread and rope in one go.

"After studying eastern and western philosophy for more than ten years, I realized that once thinking activities are involved in creation, works of art will show traces of artists' various thinking. If the artist doesn't constantly improve through self-cultivation, then this trace will usually be exposed. " Enmai told reporters.

"A line is very simple. People's subjective thinking can never reach a natural painting and an ultimate freedom. However, this casual hair seems to be accidental, but in fact, artists need to constantly improve the height and depth of their own thoughts. Will be deeply reflected in the works of art, which also explains why China's great painters and calligraphers are also great thinkers, philosophers and poets since ancient times. I think this is the spontaneity and naturalness of art. "Enmai talked about the contingency and inevitability in his artistic creation.

Enmai's rope painting art is influenced by western contemporary art, but its spiritual core is related to China's traditional context.

At the entrance of Enmai solo exhibition in Hall 4D of Himalayan Art Museum, a work named "Dance" is the beginning of the whole exhibition. "Dance" is a semi-installation work created by Enmai on 20 18. At this stage, most of her creations are semi-installation paintings with a thread as the media material, showing the western contemporary artistic style.

The creation of Jing Hong, a contemporary ink painting on the front wall of the first exhibition hall, originated from the reality of the flood in Henan in July 20021year. In his works, Enmai broke out strong emotional transmission such as sadness and panic at the flood scene, which inspired people to think deeply about frequent natural disasters and the deterioration of human living environment with strong emotions. The whole work is magnificent and has a strong visual impact. The innovative contemporary ink and wash series exhibited this time is also a return to the oriental spirit embodied by the artist Enmai after realizing the value and charm of his mother tongue.

As curator Yang Wei said when commenting on Enmai's art, Enmai has re-embodied the traditional aesthetic spirit of China through the expansion of media and the innovation of language, such as "the road is simple" and "enlightenment lies in nature". As far as Enmai is concerned, the choice of minimalist rope as artistic language is to explain the philosophical thought of "from avenue to simplicity"; The reason why we strive to get rid of the interference of thinking in our creation is to get rid of the limitation of thinking, to receive the aura of heaven and earth, and to return art to the ultimate simplicity and complete freedom. Enmai made the ink color sway by throwing rope, forming his own unique artistic language and visual symbols. Therefore, the works are abstracted from the concrete images and have the traditional aesthetic characteristics of simplicity, beauty and nature.

At the opening ceremony, Enmai also released her new book, Enmai's Diving and Flying Art. The new book contains Enmai's works of art, critical articles, essays, travel notes and so on in the past five years. When talking about the theme of the new book "Falling and Flying", Enmai said that he likes this word very much. From Zhuangzi's "Free Travel", it is about a fish in the north, which dives deep into the bottom of the sea, and suddenly one day it gives birth to huge wings, flies out of the sea and soars in the nine Wan Li. The so-called "Kun Peng spreads his wings". Wang Yangming also said: "things in the world are not difficult to get, but easy to lose;" If it accumulates quickly, it will not be grand. "It's all a matter of accumulation.

Enmai's "Myth Rope Painting" solo exhibition is a concentrated explosion of Enmai's artistic creation accumulated in the past five years since his solo exhibition in Germany on 20 17.