The Adventure - Cui Jun Solo Exhibition
| Venue |
Hi Art Center B36-B-1F, UBP, #10 Jiuxianqiao Road, Chaoyang Dis., Beijing |
|---|---|
| Artists |
Jun CUI
|
| Organizer |
hi art store |
Introduction
My creation process is in fact a rivalry process with myself, which is full of unknown anxiety and the surprise of discovery from the initial concept to the final completion on the canvas. As a Virgo, I have my certain requirements on the image effect, so my painting process is relatively ritualized, flat painted strokes, meticulous outlined edge, abundant details hidden in the obscure corners, these need to consume a lot of time working at his desk to achieve the final production visage, this sense of accomplishment which is acquired after time-consuming works really makes personal satisfaction being met.
I seldom made the full and complete idea about the picture before I started to paint, a lot of image and details were randomly or on a sudden inspiration added into the works during the painting process of painting, trying to remove the craft of painting meanwhile keeping the feeling of freshness of finding something new. The black edge lines in my paintings were hand painted, not by the ruler or such kind of tools, this handcraft sense had been deliberately kept.
I am a person who can sit still, I do not particularly go out to meet with friends or for shopping. I could stay at home painting for a month and do not go out, except occasionally go downstairs to buy cigarettes or go to the market to buy some food. The most time I stay at home was spent on my paintings, the rest was basically spent on games and watching movies. This feeling of isolation from the outside world makes me keen on observing everyone passing by when I go out of the door. The characteristics that I could stay at home should also have a great relationship with the delicate effect of the image which was achieved relying on a great deal of time.
Being a post-80s, the corners of my textbooks was densely painted by me with the imitation of the electronic games and the graffiti of comic characters, every day after school I paid my snack money or lunch money to the boss of the game room for a few game coins to play arcade game. I remember when I draw a figure from 2D to 3D in primary school for the first time inspired by the image in a game, now I think it’s because I played too much so I memorized, thus it naturally came out. Japanese comics and animation and model were the partners that accompanied me growing up.
The meaning of this is that these are my inspiration and a part of the style and features of my works. There are also some low-budget foreign junk movies that I love to watch since the internet gets popular, in which some of jokes caused by low cost and black humor makes me feel very interesting. Kuso culture from Japan is also the sub-culture I’m interested, all these strange things which open up my mind stimulate my recent creations.
What my works want to display is the world that I see, think, hear and feel, the subjects of grotesque, parody, black humor and so on are what I prefer to practice. A fragment of life in the memory, a picture, a screenshot of a movie, the world view setting of a video game, the cranky imagination when I occasionally drink too much or get cold can become the source of my creation. To some people these things are far from traditional art, however the contrast generated when bringing this kind of things into the mainstream value concept makes me feel fresh and interested. These permutations and recombination make up a world view of my own, and I try to show the world that I have built by my paintings.
I tend to be more relaxed and witty in the atmosphere, and try to avoid heaviness, which should also relate to my personal preferences. Chaplin and Stephen Chow's kind of comedy which have laughter in the tear, is the form of expression I like very much. British graffiti artist Banks and Italy artist Maurizio Catalan, they all have an uncanny sense of humor in their works.
In the past two years of preparation for my solo exhibition, I found the limitation that in the past I often the theme of many people scenario, so I began the experiment creation on the new subjects. I slowly try to reduce the number of characters appearing in the image, enrich the expression and action of the characters in the picture. The event-related nature, the atmosphere and the tones have changed, the characters have a variety of identity and occupation, through their dresses and actions, their social attribute and character is suggested, the small absurd details in the image show a little inexplicable humorous atmosphere. There are part of tributes to the famous paintings which apply the classical compositions, through my restructuring and re processing I gave the work new meanings.
What is gratifying is that now I look back to my works a few years ago, after a few years of accumulation and precipitation the picture effect has formed a fairly stable personal style and the expression of my personal world view is also gradually becoming handy.
I am a control freak about the details, there are a lot of details hard to discover for the views if do not point out. These Easter eggs, were personally added into the image or elaborately, or out of whim inspiration, even some individual works serve for these details in a few centimeters in size.
Actually I don't personally loved to explain the implications of my works, I hope the views stop for a long time in front of the paintings, to discover interesting details, find their own reflection from the characters in the picture, also hope that they have more of their own imagination space about the image.
——by Cui Jun
