Wang  Maggie

The  girl  wears  the  red  scarf  was  the  character  on  Li  Zhihong’s  paintings  for  a  period  of  time.  Many  people  think  the  metaphor  of  red  scarf  strongly  connected  with  the  politics.  Li  Zhihong  didn’t  explain  it  a  lot.  Whether  he  was  in  Ganzhou  or  Beijing,  what  he  was  really  interested  in  was  reflections  about  Fate.  The  contents  on  his  paintings  were  red  scarf,  red  underwear,  tie,  playing  cards,  the  chair  in  the  air  for  the  Thinker.  When  the  increasingly  complex  elements  that  appears  in  his  new  artworks,  we  can  feel  the  powerlessness  uncertainty  from  his  paintings.  Were  these  his  new  ideas  and  feelings  about  the  fate?

conversation:Wang  =  Wang  Maggie
                         Li  =  Li  Zhihong

Wang:  I  guess  these  several  months  you  came  to  Beijing  this  year,  it  must  influence  you  a  lot.  
Li:  I  came  to  Beijing  in  March.  I  already  stayed  here  for  four  months.  Because  I  rented  for  a  year,  so  I  will  stay  for  a  few  months.  Next  year,  I  will  see.  

Wang:  Why  you  came  to  Beijing  to  do  the  paintings?
Li:  I  wanted  to  improve  my  career.  In  my  home,  the  place  is  a  little  isolated.  I  only  could  get  in  touch  with  art  world  by  internet  and  two  art  magazines.  I  can’t  get  deep  feelings  only  by  watching  artworks  from  internet.  On  the  other  hand,  I  need  something  new  for  my  mind,  I  don’t  like  to  paint  the  same  things  year  by  year.  

Wang:  Why  you  stayed  in  Beijing  only  for  three  months?
Li:  I  had  no  ideas  what  I  could  paint.  I  have  very  few  friends  in  Beijing.  I  stayed  at  my  room  and  just  do  my  paintings.  I  also  went  to  see  some  exhibitions  and  expos.  There  were  lots  of  artworks,  who  were  fresh  to  me,  but  I  can’t  find  the  connection  related  to  me.  Maybe  it  was  because  of  I  only  stayed  here  for  short  time  that  I  couldn’t  get  used  to  life  here.

Wang:  Did  you  come  across  some  limitations  when  you  created  works  while  you  were  away  from  your  own  living  place?  Maybe  your  artworks  were  more  inspired  by  your  own  life.  
Li:  Yes,  while  I  left  my  familiar  environment.  It  took  time  to  adapt  to  new  environments.  Who  knows  I  can  create  new  artworks  while  live  in  a  new  environment.  I  rented  a  place  for  doing  the  paintings,  and  I  also  received  living  expense  from  a  gallery.  It  was  a  comfortable  life,  but  I  didn’t  create  the  artworks  out.  Then  this  kind  of  live  was  over.  

Wang:  I  barely  heard  of  artists  need  live  with  sense  of  crisis.  Can  we  see  this  from  your  artworks?  
Li:  I  have  a  friend,  he  knows  many  good  artists.  He  often  talked  about  them  and  their  artworks.  I  don’t  want  to  compare  my  works  to  others.  I  only  care  about  whether  I  express  the  truth  of  my  heart.  I  think  if  an  artist  expressed  his  true  heart,  but  he  can’t  become  a  good  artist,  then  I  think  maybe  he  needs  to  change  his  job.  I  lived  in  this  city  before  I  was  twenty  years  old.  Then  I  worked  in  a  unit.  This  was  a  small  community.  I  thought  there  was  everything  I  can  experiences  from  here  about  our  society.  

Wang:  I  find  in  this  series  of  works,  the  little  girl 's  red  scarf  disappeared?
Li:  I  stop  using  it  from  last  year.  My  original  intention  is  to  express  some  sort  of  relation  between  politics  and  destiny.  But  my  point  of  view  has  changed.  I  started  to  think  about  the  possibility  of  using  another  symbol  to  express  this  idea  in  a  different  way.  Then  the  bow  tie  came  into  sight.  Now  I  feel  the  bow  tie  is  the  real   "symbol ".

Wang:  Why  you  chose  the  tie  as  a  symbol?  In  fact,  there  are  very  few  Chinese  people  wear  ties.
Li:  The   "symbol "  is  just  a  symbol.  What  I  really  want  to  reveal  is  the  truth  hiding  under  the  exterior.  I  think  the  bow  tie  represent  a  thought  of  western  and  elitism.  And  the  red  panties  stand  for  tradition,  blind  faith,  uneasy,  origin...  You  can  see  the  contradiction  here.

Wang:  The  tie,  the  cat-type  person,  poker,  and  even  the  thinking  cat,  there  are  many  contents  belong  to  the  West?
Li:  I  think  nowadays  there  are  few  traditions  still  affect  our  life.  Maybe  in  the  future  they  are  still  valuable,  but  now  the  ideas  from  the  western  influence  us  a  lot.  While  face  western  culture  and  Chinese  traditions,  I  think  a  person  should  create  his  own  new  value  about  this  world  based  on  the  reality.  He  should  be  critical,  forward-looking  and  independent.  I  watched  a  movie  called  The  Last  Samurai.  The  idea  from  that  movie  was:  There  can  be  no  Samurai  in  Japan,  but  the  spirit  of  warrior  can’t  be  lost.  This  is  worth  while  for  us  to  think  about.

Wang:  Is  there  something  we  can  see  from  you  paintings  which  keeps  Chinese  characters?  
Li:  We  are  always  search  for  something,  but  it’s  hard  to  decide  which  should  keep.  When  you  can’t  create  a  new  value  when  it  needs  to  be  created,  you  will  feel  powerless.  

Wang:  You  seem  particularly  like  cats?  Even  the  name  of  this  exhibition  called  thinking  cat?
Li:  Cats  are  animals,  have  animal  nature.  Human  beings  are  human,  they  have  human  nature.   'A  cat  can  catch  mice  is  a  good  cat ',  I  don’t  think  it’s  right  if  we  put  this  character  on  humans.

Wang:  You  think  the  evaluation  standards  of  people  are  too  simple?
Li:  No.  I  mean  our  values  of  life  are  too  simple.  Some  values  in  our  society  which  most  people  have  are  too  simple,  they  just  are  animal  nature,  not  human  nature.  The  values  are  the  results  of  politics  which  leads  our  fate  directly.  

Wang:  About  three  of  the  poker  series,  I  think  they  focus  on  fate  again.  
Li:  About  theme,  I  always  want  to  express  my  sense  about  uncertain  fate.  The  images  of  the  clown,  king,  queen,  and  warrior  are  all  based  on  a  reflection  of  reality.  I  guess  the  invention  of  poker  come  from  augury.  Augury  is  kind  of  forecasting  and  controlling  our  fate.

Wang:  You  only  chose  several  characters  to  paint.
Li:  I  think  in  these  characters  include  much  information  and  meaning.  Court  cards  are  a  very  playful  game.  It  is  said  that  poker  is  invented  in  China,  then  it  spread  to  Europe.  I  can  find  close  connections  between  the  meanings  from  poker  and  us.      

Wang:  What  the  information  you  can  find  from  it?
Li:  The  poker  is  from  Europe.  The  face  cards  are  king,  queen.  I  think  the  result  was  shown  European  feudalism’s  favorite.  So,  there  were  no  farmers  and  others’  faces.  The  class  was  clear.  Everyone  can  play  cards.  If  someone  has  a  king  in  his  hand,  the  feeling  is  different.  Different  combinations  of  pokers  indicate  the  result  of  gambling  or  augury.  It  just  like  human’s  fate.  The  wisdom  of  individuals  is  a  reason  for  who  wins  in  the  poker  game  too,  it  just  like  people’s  talent  which  belongs  to  fate  as  well.

Wang:  From  other  interviews,  you  said  the  little  girl  which  in  your  paintings  was  your  daughter.  Some  people  misunderstood  that  the  image  represented  your  own  life.
Li:  Yes,  they  are  right.  My  daughter  is  an  image.  To  take  photos  of  her  was  easier  than  mine.  To  tell  the  truth,  it’s  not  only  a  kind  of  way  of  expressing  my  own  life,  and  also  representing  my  own  situations.  Of  course,  I  get  some  inspirations  from  my  daughter 's  life  too.  

Wang:  What  the  inspirations  from  her?
Li:  I  think  the  contents  what  she  is  learning  are  similar  to  what  I  learnt  when  I  was  young.  But  I  noticed  that  the  society  has  changed.  I  thought  what  I  learnt  from  school  is  close  to  the  society,  but  what  she  learnt  are  far  from  the  society  and  reality.  I  am  suspicious  of  the  effects  on  her.  

Wang:  Can’t  keep  up  with  the  times?
Li:  The  key  is  why  they  can’t  keep  up  with  the  times?  What  are  the  causes  and  consequences?  We  need  to  be  aware  who  we  are,  where  we  will  go?  How  we  go  where  we  want  to  go?

Wang:  You  started  thinking  about  people’s  core  questions.  There  are  lots  of  different  answers.
Li:  When  you  can’t  find  an  answer  for  what  your  question,  you  will  lose  into  a  sense  of  fatalism.  The  fatalism  is  different  from  the  old  times.  Someone’s  fatalism  reflected  disappointment  about  the  politics  and  modernity  itself.  There  are  hopes  for  us  about  the  modernity.  We  can  have  expectations!  

Wang:  We  talk  about  your  paintings,  boys  and  girls  are  individuals  who  were  controlled  by  fate  and  society?
Li:  They  sometimes  were  controlled  by  others,  sometimes  they  control  their  own  life.  I  don’t  know  whether  man  can  decided  their  own  fate  or  were  controlled  by  fate.  The  boys  and  girls  on  my  paintings  are  plane  layers.  They  are  shallow,  and  without  too  much  meaning.  They  are  man,  not  only  kids.    

Wang:  What  are  the  influences  from  your  social  ideology  to  your  artworks?  
Li:  What  I  want  to  represent  is  the  situations  I  face.  I  like  Fang  Lijun’s  artworks.  That  kind  of  art  is  good  indeed,  there  is  no  connection  related  to  me.  We  know  a  person  who  didn’t  eat  food  for  three  days,  he  must  choose  steamed  buns  not  a  bowl  of  shark  fin  soup.  Art  is  kind  of  tool  for  artists  represent  different  purposes.  Art  is  the  result  of  the  elites.  The  ideas  of  the  elites  are  different  from  the  common  people.  The  elites  can  lead  and  control  the  common  people.  The  elites  artists’  represent  the  attitudes  from  elites  about  the  common  people.  If  the  elites  are  fake,  there  must  be  more  complex  conflicts  and  problems.

Wang:  So  in  the  past  one  year,  you  considered  more  about  the  social  problems,  not  limited  small  things.
Li:  If  art  is  not  related  to  our  society,  it  is  meaningless.  This  idea  is  from  the  West.  When  I  studied  in  evening  university,  the  teacher  told  us  art  is  about  playing.  The  teacher  have  the  chance  can  play  with  art,  because  he  had  stable  pay,  he  got  that  kind  of  position.  In  China 's  feudal  society,  those  who  could  enjoy  art  were  the  rich  people  and  officers.  Common  people  didn’t  have  the  chance.  

Wang:  You  mentioned  your  artworks  related  to  the  reality.  What’s  the  relationship  between  them?  How  about  you,  how  you  related  to  the  reality?
Li:  Some  artists  are  good  at  find  something  from  the  external  environment.  I  prefer  to  search  from  inside.  I  didn’t  have  much  art  education.  I  thought  painters  are  artists  before.  I  got  to  know  the  ways  of  representing  art  later.  At  the  beginning,  I  only  thought  that  painting  was  a  good  career.  Now,  I  don’t  want  to  only  do  paintings.  Art  is  not  that  important  to  me.  To  be  an  artist  is  not  easy.  I  want  to  have  the  insight  to  think  from  different  points  of  view.  I  think  this  is  the  value.