“Sages’ Sayings” Is a Reaction Against a Crazy and Restless World
Wang Xieda in Conversation with a Reporter
April 4, 2009 | Source: Shanghai Securities News | By Qiu Jiahe
Q: When did you first begin developing the idea for the Sages’ Sayings series?
Wang Xieda: This series had been on my mind for a long time. The idea first came to me in 1985, when I began studying calligraphy. By 2002, Sages’ Sayings had gradually begun to take concrete form, and I entered an experimental stage. The first group of works consisted of sculptures—probably a dozen or so in total. After completing them, I felt they were still far from the state I was seeking, so I destroyed them and started over. I went through this process several times over the course of more than a year before I finally began to feel that I was getting somewhere.
Since none of my individual works is intended as an illustration of a particular saying by a particular sage, all the works in the series are titled Sages’ Sayings and distinguished from one another by number.
Q: Could you explain the relationship between your earlier sculptures and Sages’ Sayings?
Wang Xieda: The two groups of works I made at Jin Mao Tower in 1998 marked a turning point. They began to contain the embryonic form of Sages’ Sayings, and I began thinking about searching for the origins of civilization.
What I wanted to express was a natural state—calm and solemn—as well as the subtle emotional changes that occur in the process of reaching that state. This state is like a spiritual garden within a complex and turbulent world, something refreshing to the spirit. I came to realize that perhaps this feeling could bring solace to people’s inner lives in today’s materially advanced age.
The reason some people feel that my work has a religious quality is that it possesses a capacity to offer spiritual consolation, and in this respect it shares something with religion.
Q: Could you explain how the principles underlying the formation of ancient Chinese characters influenced the formal characteristics of Sages’ Sayings?
Wang Xieda: Chinese writing is rooted in pictographs. The way the ancients conceived and created characters was very simple and yet full of wisdom. It cast aside superficial ornament and went directly to what was most essential. This is also why that way of thinking remains so vital even today.
I took this idea as the original foundation for the forms in Sages’ Sayings. At the same time, I brought my own present understanding and experience into it, giving the series a quality that feels at once familiar and unfamiliar.
Q: In its pursuit of a calligraphic quality, does Sages’ Sayings consciously draw upon the concepts, techniques, and formal language of Chinese calligraphy?
Wang Xieda: Yes. The fascination of Chinese calligraphy has much to do with the lines produced by the writing brush. The amount of information conveyed through these lines is incomparable to that conveyed by the written lines of other civilizations. Because of the unique properties of the brush, Chinese calligraphic lines can readily communicate different emotional qualities through variations in pressure, speed, and the amount of ink held in the brush.
Because I have a particular love for the expressive power of line, and because my understanding of Chinese calligraphy has continued to deepen, I feel that drawing on these methods allows me to express what I feel in the most direct and lucid way.
Q: How should we understand the spatial relationships within the art of calligraphy? The Sages’ Sayings series employs a range of artistic forms, including sculpture, painting, and installation. What are the similarities and differences in the way you approach spatial relationships through these different forms?
Wang Xieda: In calligraphy, the brush should be held so that the tip remains centered within the stroke, with a force that seems to penetrate through the back of the paper. The brush may reveal its expressive potential in all directions, or it may remain subtle and restrained. In the use of ink, there are what are traditionally called the “five shades of ink.” The traces produced in this way inevitably possess a sense of three-dimensionality.
I work with multiple artistic forms because some of the sensations and ideas I want to realize cannot be achieved through sculpture, whereas painting and installation can each accomplish them in different ways. When Sages’ Sayings is expressed on a two-dimensional plane, I introduce the spatial and temporal concept of the nine-square grid, giving Sages’ Sayings a four-dimensional mode of communication. Installation then transforms the two-dimensional once again into the three-dimensional.
Q: Why did you use rubbing techniques in the paintings of the Sages’ Sayings series? And why did you choose materials such as paper pulp and silicone?
Wang Xieda: Rubbing has traditionally been a Chinese way of approaching the classics. Since this is Sages’ Sayings, this method naturally had to be used.
In my work, I tend to favor natural materials—wood, cloth, paper, paper pulp, water, ink, sand, rattan, and so on. These materials are closer to nature. As for my use of neutral industrial silicone, beyond its water-like visual quality and its capacity to form different textures, I also wanted to use what is known and unknown about the material’s durability to express my reflections on nature, society, relationships between people, and the history and future of the individual.
Q: Do you consider your work contemporary art? Where does its contemporaneity lie?
Wang Xieda: This world is crazy and restless, and the emergence of Sages’ Sayings is precisely a reaction against the reality of this world. I hope that viewers can resonate with me.
Contemporary art must be closely connected with contemporary society and with the individual. There are many different ways of engaging with this relationship. My work engages with the contemporary from a spiritual perspective, seeking to bring solace and calm to restless hearts and to a crazy world.
I will continue working on the Sages’ Sayings series, developing different understandings and expressions on the spiritual level. Its forms will also become freer and richer.