Even if-none of the stars shining for me Works of Biimrock 2011.04.16 - 05.18 PREFACE WORKS SCENE TEXT	□ From One Horizon To Another Hule From Shenyang to Tianjin, then to Chongqing, Biimrock said he was always the lucky one, “Cause I can always met good people, and they helped me to strengthen my feelings of art in many ways.” Feelings is a critical artistic quality to Biimrock, “It made art a part of my soul instinctively, I simply can’t get rid of it. In other words, if I made a good live because of art, I’m willing to accept it, if not, I still won’t change my mind.” But the road of “feelings” is not an easy one. After experiencing the chaotic status in Tianjin Academy of Fine Arts and the hard time of preparing for postgraduate entrance exam, Biimrock found his temporary shelter from the Ferris wheel in the park, as well as accomplished redirecting his art from public oriented to self oriented. Biimrock says: “It was like recovered from a long-standing illness, everything just came back to normal.” Conversation:Hule&Biimrock Father’s Feelings Hule: So you start to learn drawing first with your father? Biimrock: Yes. He is an art teacher of a high school. I still remember that he instructed me to copy Xu Beihong’s drawing when I was very young. Then after I grew up a little, I copied Sargent and Bystrov’s portraits and Monet’s landscape. I kept doing this everyday, even my work is not so good, and I had to continue. My father tutored me using his aesthetic method, or preference, which is both interesting and bitter to me. Hule: When you look back, in what way do you think your father influenced you the most in pursuing art? Biimrock: First he helped me to build a solid ground, which allows me to be accepted by art school easily. After introduced me to the world of art, the most import thing he gave me is the feelings which made me determined walking down this road. This is crucial, it made art a part of my soul instinctively, I simply can’t get rid of it. In other words, if I made a good live because of art, I’m willing to accept it, if not, I still won’t change my mind. And this feelings was burnt on me by my father. Hule: Then did you went to class for art student in your high school? Biimrock: Well, no. I went to a normal private school. It was not much a disciplined one, and the instructors didn’t emphasize the learning and exams so much. But the students there all have their specific personalities. So a kid learning art was not a big deal in such an environment. Hule: Was entering TAFA your idea? Biimrock: I didn’t have a clear target at that time. I just wanted to get in the oil painting department, and my score met their requirement. So I went to Tianjin. Before the junior year, all the courses are fundamental, I learnt modeling, material and other foundation classes. And in my junior year, I was assigned to a studio and studied with Yu Xiaodong, Ma Yuan, Jiang Zhongli and Guan Yong. Guan Yong has greater influence on me respectively. In a sense, both my father and the courses of my first two years were trying to cultivate me into an artist. But Guan Yong told me that I first have to be a thinker or an intellectual, then try to use painting as a channel to express my thoughts. So the public intellectual came to the first place. This was a big shock to me. My whole thinking style began to shake. Artist and Intellectual Hule: Do you think there is a clear borderline between artist and intellectual under current standard? Biimrock: In my opinion the difference is vague. For instance, when ever you talking about the works of He Duoling, the first thing you will think of is their aesthetic and poetic feelings. But can you deny the thoughts in them? It is hard to define which part is graphical or ideological. Now I believe no matter it is insight, logic or reason, it has to fuse into the flash of artistic instinct. That is the essence. Hule: So when creating the “Refit” series at TAFA, you already affected by Guan Yong? Biimrock: Yes. You may feel funny when looking at the “Refit” series now. They are things that copied indiscriminately. But for me, he had triggered a new aspect in my artistic thought. But that time was also a chaotic period of time. All my old understanding with aesthetic prejudice or inertia was shaken, but new understanding was not established yet. If writing and ideas are more advanced, then what is the usage of painting? Maybe I can just take photos? But how should I release my affection of classic aesthetics? In any case, I am still an artist, so what should I do? I have no solution at that time, but kept drawing. So my works look chaotic. Hule: Besides Guan Yong, is there any other teachers have influences on you? Biimrock: Xin Dongwang. If Guan Yong’s influence on me stays only in thinking level, then Xin Dongwang stands in front of me as an outstanding artist. From a blank canvas to a perfect portrait, from nonexistence to pass into existence, no album or lecture can match such live and charm. Another teacher is Yu Xiaodong. He went to Tibet every year for inspiration. I visited his studio at that time. Seeing such long but detailed and accurate sketch, I was greatly impressed by his careful and devout working style. Positive Fatalism Hule: Then why you decide to apply for graduate study in Sichuan Academy of Fine Arts? Biimrock: I still consider myself a student when I graduated from TAFA in 2006. At that time, I have no idea about the art market, and only wanting to keep studying and painting. If I found a job, then my possibility will be limited, I will regret about that. So I came back Shenyang from Tianjin, rented a small house and started preparing the exam alone. My English was terrible, so I have to take the exam twice to pass. But I think the experience of learning English strengthened my will, which is pretty import for painting. Hule: Do you think it is worth spending two whole years for an exam and became a graduate student? Biimrock: Of course! During my preparation time, I can see the Ferris wheel in the Shenyang South Lake Park every day. Then I felt it must mean something, like fate, or the wheel of fortune. So the “Ferris Wheel” series come into being. Hule: Was fate a thing with pessimistic impression? Biimrock: Well, you can consider it as positive fatalism. I believe I must experience something, I felt good after that, and won’t regret. Hule: When did you start the “Ferris Wheel” series? Biimrock: From the beginning of 2008. I kept working on this series until I entered SFAI in fall of that year. So I already have a clear goal before I start my study. And the chaotic situation caused by thinking about the artistic problem was calmed down. Let me put it in this way, the experience of the exam preparation provided a material. I have to visualize it, to express it. Then my entire problem before was solved spontaneously. Hule: Do you keep thinking about the relation between artist and intellectual after you entered SFAI? Biimrock: Yes, I never stop thinking about that, but I also keep moving. Yu Minhong has a saying that life is walking toward horizons. Every time you crossed a horizon, the next horizon is waiting for you. I think this can also apply to pursuing art. Hule: Since you already have a goal before you enter the SFAI, does SFAI have any influence on your artistic creation? Biimrock: TAFA emphasizes the foundation training of students. It has a clear teaching guideline, like what course the students should learn in the first or second year. The SFAI on the contrary, has more freedom, it thinks more highly on cultivating the live and creativity, and is closer to the contemporary art. Moreover, SFAI has an annual exhibition for oil painting department. All teachers will vote students works. The best ones will be elected for the exhibition. So from TAFA to SFAI, I need to adopt a new system. There is no shortcut, I have to adsorb the new thoughts and adjust my self gradually. The result is the “Innocent Kids” series I started to create in the second half of 2009. I can’t imagine creating this series if I was still in TAFA. During that period of time, I was instructing senior students on surrealism. In the hope of not misleading them, I did the research very carefully, and created this series. Of course when creating, I already knew this series is a transitional work, and no doubt that my thought will still change. So from 2010, I start to create my “Camouflage Uniform” series and “Fallen Leaves” series. Additionally, my study supervisor Chen Shuzhong also has great influence on me. I can still recall when I was working on Spring of 2009 – Record of Chongqing Power Plant in 2008, I was so enthusiastic, that I kept painting 8 hours every day and for over three months. I was pretty proud about myself. But when I met Chen, founding that his “crazy” working hours are much longer and more durable, I felt ashamed. His professional working attitude is my example, and also enhanced and strengthened my feelings of artistic creation. Implicit and Subtle Hule: Please summarize your creative ideas for these years. Biimrock: First thing first. Feelings is really important. This is not just a requirement for artist, but for everyone. When we experienced so many troubles, if we still hold a feelings toward a thing, then it worth your while doing it. The experience of preparing the graduate entrance exam tempered my will, as well as solved many questions. For example, when creating the “Refit” series in 2006, I was perturbed. No wonder I can’t explain myself well when asked, because my mind was in chaos. But when I started the “Ferris Wheel” series, I temporarily put aside my question about public, and turn to observe and research my own thought, which is a huge change to me. At that time, the thinking about public is more like a training to expand my imagination, creativity and observation. It takes effect from internal. As for painting, they work in concert, not against each other. Then in the “Innocent Kids” series, I threw always all the photos, opened the gate of imagination. The form itself maybe a little bit repetitive, but it is a new activation to me. And in the “Fallen Leaves” series, I use my imagination to command all my life experience, like the northern poplar, fallen leaves in Huangjueping, camouflage uniform, kid playing guitar, mountain of Benxi, etc. I channeled them to canvas, activated an illusion world. From reality to illusion, then flow onto the canvas, this is the process of my creation. So I always pay attention to understand the reality, no matter if it is visible, invisible and even instincts, I try to found some implicit and subtle meaning. So I can express them on my canvas in a same way.
	Previous

Even if-none of the stars shining for me
Works of Biimrock
2011.04.16 - 05.18

□ From One Horizon To Another

Hule

From Shenyang to Tianjin, then to Chongqing, Biimrock said he was always the lucky one, “Cause I can always met good people, and they helped me to strengthen my feelings of art in many ways.” Feelings is a critical artistic quality to Biimrock, “It made art a part of my soul instinctively, I simply can’t get rid of it. In other words, if I made a good live because of art, I’m willing to accept it, if not, I still won’t change my mind.” But the road of “feelings” is not an easy one. After experiencing the chaotic status in Tianjin Academy of Fine Arts and the hard time of preparing for postgraduate entrance exam, Biimrock found his temporary shelter from the Ferris wheel in the park, as well as accomplished redirecting his art from public oriented to self oriented. Biimrock says: “It was like recovered from a long-standing illness, everything just came back to normal.”

Conversation:Hule&Biimrock

Father’s Feelings

Hule: So you start to learn drawing first with your father?
Biimrock: Yes. He is an art teacher of a high school. I still remember that he instructed me to copy Xu Beihong’s drawing when I was very young. Then after I grew up a little, I copied Sargent and Bystrov’s portraits and Monet’s landscape. I kept doing this everyday, even my work is not so good, and I had to continue. My father tutored me using his aesthetic method, or preference, which is both interesting and bitter to me.

Hule: When you look back, in what way do you think your father influenced you the most in pursuing art?
Biimrock: First he helped me to build a solid ground, which allows me to be accepted by art school easily. After introduced me to the world of art, the most import thing he gave me is the feelings which made me determined walking down this road. This is crucial, it made art a part of my soul instinctively, I simply can’t get rid of it. In other words, if I made a good live because of art, I’m willing to accept it, if not, I still won’t change my mind. And this feelings was burnt on me by my father.

Hule: Then did you went to class for art student in your high school?
Biimrock: Well, no. I went to a normal private school. It was not much a disciplined one, and the instructors didn’t emphasize the learning and exams so much. But the students there all have their specific personalities. So a kid learning art was not a big deal in such an environment.

Hule: Was entering TAFA your idea?
Biimrock: I didn’t have a clear target at that time. I just wanted to get in the oil painting department, and my score met their requirement. So I went to Tianjin. Before the junior year, all the courses are fundamental, I learnt modeling, material and other foundation classes. And in my junior year, I was assigned to a studio and studied with Yu Xiaodong, Ma Yuan, Jiang Zhongli and Guan Yong. Guan Yong has greater influence on me respectively. In a sense, both my father and the courses of my first two years were trying to cultivate me into an artist. But Guan Yong told me that I first have to be a thinker or an intellectual, then try to use painting as a channel to express my thoughts. So the public intellectual came to the first place. This was a big shock to me. My whole thinking style began to shake.

Artist and Intellectual

Hule: Do you think there is a clear borderline between artist and intellectual under current standard?
Biimrock: In my opinion the difference is vague. For instance, when ever you talking about the works of He Duoling, the first thing you will think of is their aesthetic and poetic feelings. But can you deny the thoughts in them? It is hard to define which part is graphical or ideological. Now I believe no matter it is insight, logic or reason, it has to fuse into the flash of artistic instinct. That is the essence.

Hule: So when creating the “Refit” series at TAFA, you already affected by Guan Yong?
Biimrock: Yes. You may feel funny when looking at the “Refit” series now. They are things that copied indiscriminately. But for me, he had triggered a new aspect in my artistic thought. But that time was also a chaotic period of time. All my old understanding with aesthetic prejudice or inertia was shaken, but new understanding was not established yet. If writing and ideas are more advanced, then what is the usage of painting? Maybe I can just take photos? But how should I release my affection of classic aesthetics? In any case, I am still an artist, so what should I do? I have no solution at that time, but kept drawing. So my works look chaotic.

Hule: Besides Guan Yong, is there any other teachers have influences on you?
Biimrock: Xin Dongwang. If Guan Yong’s influence on me stays only in thinking level, then Xin Dongwang stands in front of me as an outstanding artist. From a blank canvas to a perfect portrait, from nonexistence to pass into existence, no album or lecture can match such live and charm. Another teacher is Yu Xiaodong. He went to Tibet every year for inspiration. I visited his studio at that time. Seeing such long but detailed and accurate sketch, I was greatly impressed by his careful and devout working style.

Positive Fatalism

Hule: Then why you decide to apply for graduate study in Sichuan Academy of Fine Arts?
Biimrock: I still consider myself a student when I graduated from TAFA in 2006. At that time, I have no idea about the art market, and only wanting to keep studying and painting. If I found a job, then my possibility will be limited, I will regret about that. So I came back Shenyang from Tianjin, rented a small house and started preparing the exam alone. My English was terrible, so I have to take the exam twice to pass. But I think the experience of learning English strengthened my will, which is pretty import for painting.

Hule: Do you think it is worth spending two whole years for an exam and became a graduate student?
Biimrock: Of course! During my preparation time, I can see the Ferris wheel in the Shenyang South Lake Park every day. Then I felt it must mean something, like fate, or the wheel of fortune. So the “Ferris Wheel” series come into being.

Hule: Was fate a thing with pessimistic impression?
Biimrock: Well, you can consider it as positive fatalism. I believe I must experience something, I felt good after that, and won’t regret.

Hule: When did you start the “Ferris Wheel” series?
Biimrock: From the beginning of 2008. I kept working on this series until I entered SFAI in fall of that year. So I already have a clear goal before I start my study. And the chaotic situation caused by thinking about the artistic problem was calmed down. Let me put it in this way, the experience of the exam preparation provided a material. I have to visualize it, to express it. Then my entire problem before was solved spontaneously.

Hule: Do you keep thinking about the relation between artist and intellectual after you entered SFAI?
Biimrock: Yes, I never stop thinking about that, but I also keep moving. Yu Minhong has a saying that life is walking toward horizons. Every time you crossed a horizon, the next horizon is waiting for you. I think this can also apply to pursuing art.

Hule: Since you already have a goal before you enter the SFAI, does SFAI have any influence on your artistic creation?
Biimrock: TAFA emphasizes the foundation training of students. It has a clear teaching guideline, like what course the students should learn in the first or second year. The SFAI on the contrary, has more freedom, it thinks more highly on cultivating the live and creativity, and is closer to the contemporary art. Moreover, SFAI has an annual exhibition for oil painting department. All teachers will vote students works. The best ones will be elected for the exhibition. So from TAFA to SFAI, I need to adopt a new system. There is no shortcut, I have to adsorb the new thoughts and adjust my self gradually. The result is the “Innocent Kids” series I started to create in the second half of 2009. I can’t imagine creating this series if I was still in TAFA. During that period of time, I was instructing senior students on surrealism. In the hope of not misleading them, I did the research very carefully, and created this series. Of course when creating, I already knew this series is a transitional work, and no doubt that my thought will still change. So from 2010, I start to create my “Camouflage Uniform” series and “Fallen Leaves” series. Additionally, my study supervisor Chen Shuzhong also has great influence on me. I can still recall when I was working on Spring of 2009 – Record of Chongqing Power Plant in 2008, I was so enthusiastic, that I kept painting 8 hours every day and for over three months. I was pretty proud about myself. But when I met Chen, founding that his “crazy” working hours are much longer and more durable, I felt ashamed. His professional working attitude is my example, and also enhanced and strengthened my feelings of artistic creation.

Implicit and Subtle

Hule: Please summarize your creative ideas for these years.
Biimrock: First thing first. Feelings is really important. This is not just a requirement for artist, but for everyone. When we experienced so many troubles, if we still hold a feelings toward a thing, then it worth your while doing it. The experience of preparing the graduate entrance exam tempered my will, as well as solved many questions. For example, when creating the “Refit” series in 2006, I was perturbed. No wonder I can’t explain myself well when asked, because my mind was in chaos. But when I started the “Ferris Wheel” series, I temporarily put aside my question about public, and turn to observe and research my own thought, which is a huge change to me. At that time, the thinking about public is more like a training to expand my imagination, creativity and observation. It takes effect from internal. As for painting, they work in concert, not against each other. Then in the “Innocent Kids” series, I threw always all the photos, opened the gate of imagination. The form itself maybe a little bit repetitive, but it is a new activation to me. And in the “Fallen Leaves” series, I use my imagination to command all my life experience, like the northern poplar, fallen leaves in Huangjueping, camouflage uniform, kid playing guitar, mountain of Benxi, etc. I channeled them to canvas, activated an illusion world. From reality to illusion, then flow onto the canvas, this is the process of my creation. So I always pay attention to understand the reality, no matter if it is visible, invisible and even instincts, I try to found some implicit and subtle meaning. So I can express them on my canvas in a same way.

□ From One Horizon To Another

Previous