Text / Yimo
Although the goal is there, the road is not. What we call road is nothing but hesitation.
-Franz Kafka
In the spring of 2011, first time I came to Me Jie’s studio, he patiently took out his paintings, showing to me piece by piece. There were nearly a hundred pieces, large and small, some even covered with dust. I was amazed at his fertility and passion without any echo. At that time, he has already graduated from the Print Painting department of the Central Academy of Fine Arts for more than four years. Although he still worked day and night at full blast, there was few exhibitions and opportunity for him.
Soon, at the end of the same year, Mi Jie gradually found a looming road in chaos. After a long time of fumbling in abstract and expressive painting, he realized that he could get rid of the long-term disturbing "trace of others " only by returning to his own way. "What can I do? " became the primary problem that he had to face. Questioning on this problem prompted him to quit the ambiguities on the subject and image and come back to his own heart place, Mi Jie gleefully started to depicted the familiar objects with great interest. This is the beginning of the Here I am, without a Move series, which also marked the turning point in Mi Jie’s painting career.
In this series of works, the creation context of Mi Jie gradually became clear. He tried to avoid the distant and empty poetry which was once fascinated to him as far as possible, and avoid those grand narrative which he still couldn’t clarify, Mi Jie started to return to his delicate earthly feeling, which was infructuous, frustrating and lonely. Different from his previous fragmentary attempt, the appearance of this series became complete little by little. The images we saw are always in a corner or a forgotten space. Although the main characters in the pictures were arbitrarily sketched by the artist, they are inadvertently like himself – looking nervous, standing restlessly, sometimes with a nosebleed which symbolizes desire. However, contrary to the inner struggle, the image is implicit and tranquil. The artist chose moderate warm gray tone, with iterative glossing and overlaying by the thin and fast drying acrylic color, he tried to conceal the mood in the picture over and over again. In this series of paintings, Mi Jie described the living state of a group of people including himself, which resulted from the observation into personal experience to the whole population in society, as well as the root thinking towards the issues of the society and time.
1.
Nietzsche had narrated in a small chapter "Becoming Yourself " in the Making Sense of Madness: “How can people know themselves? He is a dark, shaded thing. If the rabbit has seven skins, so, people who even take off seven by seventy skins, still can not say: 'This is the real you, this is no longer the shell’. " Admittedly, "knowing oneself " is not an easy thing. Although Mi Jie was not in vain for it, the little guy in this series is still considered to be the portrayal of himself, not just because its vivid figure, more important is that the temperament is exactly the same. This seris become the artist 's "self-portrait " out of coincidence, and the self-analyzing in the creation thus becomes a process that he got to know himself.
"What kind of person I am? " - in the process of painting, Mi Jie often goes through a long period entangling and tearing with the images. His wavering and uncertainty, cause him a long way of searching for each work. "Most of the results are satisfactory. " When it comes to the overall appearance of the work, he became confident. He always says that he is a heavy person, looking quiet and sophisticated, in fact he is hesitated, contradictory and easy to get stressed. This "heaviness " not only derives from the uptight character in his childhood, but also from the environment and experience of his life. In the frenzy period from 2005 to 2008 in China contemporary art market, although he was in the midst of the tide, he did not get a decent chance, this somehow will cause a little anxiety to a spirited dreamer. And n Post Olympic era after the economic crisis, more and more severe survival pressure associated with self-doubt cause great challenges to Mi Jie’s psychology. After numerous attempts and failures, at last, he chose to face himself frankly and express the unspeakable physical and mental difficulties and emotions out loud.
In a long period in the predicament, Mi Jie 's self-positioning and expectation became conservative and sincere. He had mentioned several times that his wish was to become a “Minor Poet” mentioned by the well-known contemporary Japanese writer Yoshiyuki Junnosuke, to be a sincere minor poet with backbones, not the first class, however cannot be ignored. The conception of "minor poet " originated from a piece of music essay by Murakami Haruki "Cedar Walton- The Minor Poet with Tough Style ", which referred to his predecessor Yoshiyuki Junnosuke often described the nature of his own is a "minor poet ". Today, we seem to have no way to verify the source and evolution of this parlance, and it’s very apropos and appropriate for Mi Jie to describe himself and use as the guide for his life - "Music and language, which can reach people’s heart, is not measured in physical size. " In my opinion, artist Mi Jie though seemingly has no great aspiration, in fact has the insight and ambition, only he is convinced that all the "aquisition " eventually need to rely on the day after day’s silent and andante labor.
2.
In fact, the interest and description in human began to show up quite early in Mi Jie’s creation. From 1998 to 2002, Mi Jie was in undergraduate study in Hebei Normal University, school of Fine Arts. In his youth, Mi Jie showed more sensitivity and diligence than his peers. In the passage gallery at school of Fine Arts, he held two mini solo exhibitions successively in 2000 and 2001: "Night Boat – Sketch Exhibition of Mi Jie ", and "Free Profile – Solo Exhibition of Mi Jie ", which at that time made quite a stir in the rather quiet and conservative school of Fine Arts.
If you go through the works from that time, you will source back to the origin of Mi Jie 's creative method and idea. In the preface of his Night Boat exhibition in 2000, Mi Jie had mentioned: " Take people along with their rich spiritual world, and subtle change of their feelings as the creative motif.” From those sketching drafts without big sizes, we can find Mi Jie’s idiomatic processing of space and obsession with the subject about human characters. The elements of the images are extremely simple, most are one person (or a few) standing or sitting, Mi Jie simplified the background as much as possible, or give a slight hint in the atmosphere of the image, so as to put the focus on the state, action or expression of the characters. (Picture 1) From these not so mature paintings we can find the past of Mi Jie as well as the linear venation in his current creation, the loneliness and depression emotion in the image is so similar that the viewer will fall into a trance: after going around circles, Mi Jie seems to get back in time.
During 2004 to 2007, Mi Jie entered the Printmaking Department of the Central Academy of Fine Arts doing his graduate study. In the miscellaneous capital of art, getting in touch with the first-class artists and professors, and confronting abundant exhibitions and information, Mi Jie ushered a startling transformation. The touch and training of the silkscreen print brought him a new understanding about the "images and ideas " in the creation, and the specific procedure of the printmaking was also a good training of inductive ability about "color " and "form ". Looking back into this stage, Mi Jie said he spent half of the time reading in the library, the other half familiarizing himself with the manufacturing method of silk screen prints, and thinking about how to combine his past painting experiment and creative way of silkscreen printmaking. (Picture2) For Mi Jie, the art practice after he coming to Beijing was an “eye opening trip”, however accompanied with which was the self-introspection, chaos and confusion in creativeness. After graduation, he had been searching for a language only belonging to him, the searching was started from the "reference ", Mi Jie drew inspiration from his favorite Chinese and foreign artists, conducting experiment of abstract or expressive painting(Picture3&4), however, the attempt over the past few years couldn’t convince himself. Until he returned by the side, back to individual, and returned to himself, he could only find the feeling he had been searching for a long time.
3.
After the series of Here I am, without a Move, Mi Jie extended the series of Your Happiness My Sorrow, and Night. About the media, most of Mi Jie’s works are oil or acrylic on canvas or paper, the choose of such a traditional and direct way to paint, objectively is derived from the art education Mi Jie accepted, and subjectively from his "interest ". Regarding the content, the scenes of the recent series came from Mi Jie’s studio which is most familiar to him, the space he presented was almost restricted exclusively an indoor corner with only one horizon. Talking about the small guy standing blankly in the picture, Mi Jie had described in a self-narration this way: "The major characters are painted following my heart as always, not rigidly adhering to a particular object, they are just innermost images, which are almost dressed in suits and ties, however the formal wear on them always seems so uncoordinated, as their petty look and restlessness reveals all, how could a handsome outfit conceal a small nobody’s grounding? " Thus we can judge from this, no matter according to the motive or the effect the picture presents, Mi Jie’s works leave a very "realistic " impression to people(Picture5).
Surprisingly, Mi Jie doesn’t care about the metaphor and symbolic implication in the images. He often stresses that he is not an "analytical " artist, and most of the time he just follows the "feeling ". In the still space and time of the picture, we can hardly find the trace of the narrative. Although he nuances in drawing the object so specifically, it is still very difficult for us to classify his painting as "figurative " or "abstract ", the choice and description of "objects " not only comes from his experience, but also beyond the experience, this can be easily sensed from perspective relation beyond visual habits, as well as the variation of the image.
And as for the recent new series Your Happiness My Sorrow, there are subtle changes occurring from the inside of the works. The tone of this series is more dignified and dull, the layout of space and the description of objects although points to more complexity, yet they expresses a more tranquil, treacherous and rich temperament. This is closer to the artist 's original intention, the more thorough the darkness is expressed, the more he could escape from the anxiety of pleasing the audience. If the paintings from the previous stage are more hesitant, over the past year, Mi Jie is concerning more about his inner experience, abandoning the external interference to his thinking, so that he could make the painting more unrestrained and honest. For Mi Jie, he is still acquiring the process of self-cognition and self-improvement through painting.
4．
Individuals and times are always reflecting and generating each other. Mi Jie is faithful to the life experience of his own, an epitome of the young artists still in striving in the background of big times, and also provides a channel for us to study the psychological state, living environment and spiritual demands of the contemporary artists group.
In fact, the group of artists who were born in the 80 's has a common practical background. They haven’t experienced great social turbulence or political movement, they grew up under the profound transformation of China 's politic and economy, and the national policy of reform and openness. Facing with the multiple effects produced by marketization, globalization and consumer culture, they often manifest rich and diverse in the form of creation. This generation of artists has received a good education in the academy, and different from the age symptoms of relatively integral appearance of the previous generation, they pay more attention to their own experience and individual surviving feeling. From "Planned " to "Market ", from "China " to "World ", the identity, language, vision and standard of value of post-80s artists have changed dramatically, it is hard for us to sum up a relatively stable collective artistic feature. It is undeniable that they tend to mind their own business, manifesting the response to many questions to the world and individual history of growth.
The creation of Mi Jie represents such kind of simple young artists, whose presentation for subject, media, and forms are inconspicuous. In the era of installation and video art, he never wavered. Although he is aware that any kind of media or style has its vitality and value, he advocates manual paintings still left with artist’s temperature and emotion, meanwhile he keeps vigilant about the "ideas " in conceptual art or the ready-made art. Therefore, he does not need to rely on abstruse and mysterious theory, and only need to consider the vision and atmosphere, purely polishing and tangling with the painting language such as structure, image, hue, light and texture.
Looking through Mi Jie’s works, we can precisely find a journey returning to himself, in which he doesn’t want to imitate or reappear the world, nor ridicule or contend against the world, but tries to build the world in his mind with the richness of his inner feelings, so as to find the lost spiritual home.
Yimo = Mo, Mi Jie = Mi
Mo: What does this time’s exhibition mean to you?
Mi: The exhibiting works are basically created after Here I am, without a Move exhibition in 2013, the creation period spans from 2013 to 2015, which is not too short. The album was named as “Mi Jie”, which is a result of the discussion with Mr. Wu Jin, we both agreed that this was more direct and explicit, and more conducive to connect my creative conception from 2011 to 2015. The works in this exhibition is in fact a continuation of the previous creative ideas, but personally I think it’s more mature and deep-going in the technique of expression.
Mo: The new works of this time with the theme Your Happiness My Sorrow, comparing the previous series Here I am, without a Move, is there any change?
Mi: There must be some change, but more is from the inside. I think this series of works is more sincere than before, more direct and certain. Of course, the process of creation is also more tangling.
Mo: The tone of this time’s works is more depressed, the reason is?
Mi: I think it’s a kind of psychological need, I want to conceal and hide myself in the picture, layer by layer. Perhaps this trait is related to the characteristics of my personality, and the status of creation. I can 't analyze the reason more precisely.
Mo: How do you regard this series of works? Which do you personally satisfy with?
Mi: Rather than the work themselves, I prefer the process of creation. During this period, I feel my confidence is building up, which is a kind of bravery to face my imperfections. What I satisfy is that the temperament of most works is matching to my status, and for sure they are not perfect. Many places could be more perfect, more wonderful.
Mo: Through the previous exhibition, we are familiar with your self-portrait. There are new elements appearing in your new works, such animal head portraits and the images of "house ", how do you consider about the creative themes of your works?
Mi:The attempt of other subjects has just begun, the most important is to build up confidence. I’m trying to relax in the creative process. When confidence comes the desire to try other themes will also strengthen up.
Mo: There are a lot of specific objects in your paintings, such as carton, stool, water pipe, electrical wire, roll of toilet paper and wine bottle, what is your consideration about the choice of these objects, what do you think of the metaphor about the objects and figures?
Mi: My choice of these objects is random, paint whatever is at my hand, as long as they are harmony in the image. Because they are the most familiar stuff, so they certainly emit my personal breath.
Mo: You are always faithful to manifestation of easel painting, please outline your painting language and painting concept.
Mi: The reason I 'm obsessed with painting is because although the process is painful, every time I finished a piece I’m still very happy, based on this kind of happiness I can still stick to it. My concerns can be said relatively narrow, that is the present, personal life status. Rather than making scenes in the street, I prefer sitting down talking peacefully to myself.
Mo: You want to manifest the relationship between the individual and the living environment in the painting, thus to reflect on the times. How do you look at our times, and contemporary society of China?
Mi: Without any question, everyone agrees that now China society is expecting quick wins and instant gratification. Understanding this, for the artists who can only work on with extreme patience and perseverance, this is both opportunity and challenge, the society provides you with a sufficient number of subjects and possibilities, then it’s a call for artists to make their own choice.
Mo: Your experience is closer to a unique case, or a representative living state of the young and middle-aged artists?
Mi: For sure, I can only represent myself. Impetuous artists are not just a few. But as far as I know, most young artists is in the similar situation, they are working silently with great life pressure, however they are all holding on. They are more willing to live a valuable life, which is worthy of respect.
Mo: Can you talk about your next move?
Mi: I hope that I could be more free and relaxed in the creative approach, and the theme can be broader. Most important is to straighten out the attitude, to calm down, and to stabilize my own mental aura, I think it can 't be very wrong to do any kind of work by so.
