Return

Writer/Wang Jiang

What return represents to Bi Jianye indicates a journey of past and present; there and here; fantasy and reality.

What’s Past is Prologue

Rewind the clock to early autumn in 2012, when The Endurance Machine, the first sole exhibition of Bi Jianye in his art career, opened in Platform China. With the thought-provoking theme, the exhibition displayed a range of artworks featuring “everyday objects”. However, what unfolds behind that quite “legitimate” contemporary painting theme was not worldliness one might reasonably expect. Instead, they revealed his hesitation about the daily world. Perhaps at that time, a strenuous state in creation still cannot eliminate the pessimism long haunting the painter. A sense of alienation was always being mirrored in his paintings. Now, in another type of still rare paintings, Bi tried to inherit and develop the underestimated possibilities contained in works from some old masters by borrowing and reshaping.

Worth noting is a document on display. It records an in-depth conversation between painter Bi and Karen Smith, a British art historian specializing in contemporary Chinese art. They discussed techniques, themes and introspection involved in painting. One of his works, Horse and Green Cloth (2012) was highlighted in their discussion. The painting shows a black war horse galloping ahead seemingly in response to the calls from afar. The work was inspired by a little-known small painting created by Italian artist Giorgio de Chirico, actually becoming a “variant” of the latter as Bi sought to find his own painting language while quoting existing image and surpass the predecessor in salutation.

This painting is mentioned here because it will be an important symbol leading to the many sections below, and will be discussed again later. But now, we must start with why and how this exhibition is initiated.

Return, from where? The exhibition is an attempt to put together a variety of complicated images presented under the artist’s brush strokes and uncover the implications hidden in his works through a crazy fan-style narration. True, while amassing pictures giving a piece of the painter’s mind, the exhibition will inevitably absorb traces of the writer’s thoughts. From a viewer’s perspective, superficial observations are not enough for one to capture the essence of Bi’s paintings. Instead, only more thorough examination, analysis and empathy will bring a complete understanding of his allegorical creations. The writings below can be compared to a journey of discovery striking a chord deep into heart, unfolding the story of how the artist embarks on, ventures into and returns from his painting practice.

Start, Gallop

When we turn back to the work designed for saluting Chirico, Horse and Green Cloth, the running black horse becomes a symbol for starting a journey.

Tall, strong, nice-looking and well-proportioned, the horse has a black, shiny coat. As it gallops ahead, its powerful horseshoes constantly hit the ground hard before rising quickly, giving an impression that both the earth and the wind are yielding to it. The dense mane around its neck moves like black burning fire, unleashing courage and power. Its deep-set eyes are penetrating as well. The presentation of the muscular body resonates with viewers sensing the dynamic rhyme of life. The green cloth tied to the saddle looks like a cloak flying against the wind. In the painting, the horse is not used only for riding, but has become an incarnation of a hero dashing along the journey ahead.

Since then horse has been a regular element in Bi’s paintings. The most recent one is Galloping Horse (2019) where the painter began to depict the horse in a simple yet bizarre way with the addition of individual taste to strokes and shapes. The horse in the painting may look familiar to audiences with much knowledge of art history. In fact, it comes from The Equestrian Portrait of Prince Balthasar Charles (1635), a royal portrait painted by Diego Velázquez. Through exquisite brushwork, the leading Spanish artist in the seventeenth century portrayed a young prince riding on a handsome horse. While gaining inspiration from the court painter with excellent craftsmanship, Bi, not confined to modesty, adopted a conceptual strategy of alteration: with the power-endowed young prince removed from the center of the picture, the saddle-carrying horse jumps into the air, showing a tinge of wildness.

Here horse becomes the original embodiment of the painter, rushing ahead to start a journey supported with beliefs within the heart, and experiencing variation in the rushing.

Sunshine, Beach, Encounter War

A war of knights breaks out on the beach with the sun shining –– painting becomes a song of heroism, albeit without distinguishing justice and protagonist.

Imagine that on an afternoon, the sun shines on the sea surface; graceful clouds float across the blue sky. A light breeze brings people the smell of the ocean far away. Sea waves gently lap onto the beach time and time again, moistening pebbles on the shore and softening the mood of the earth.

Yet in one painting by Bi, Beach (2016), such comfortable and wonderful seaside scenery is missing, replaced by a strange background highlighting tangled warfare. Beyond the attractiveness of the vivid images in the painting, there is no way of figuring out the reason for the beach war, relating it to certain specific historical moment, or distinguishing justice from evil and protagonist from supporting characters. When viewers want to have a closer look at those images, real-world experience will gradually move from the ground, with resemblance to dreams. In the center of the tangled warfare stands a robust, handsome horse, its head raised toward the sky far away and mane flying. Its body is full of infinite power, looking like the shekinah (divine presence) of Hierophany, so much so that the surrounding chaos is incapable of weakening its might. Around the handsome horse are knights wearing a suit of armor and a silver helmet, Arab swordmen and warriors from African tribes. It is perhaps because of some kind of unexpected tempo-spatial knot that the fierce fighting has happened. In form, it looks like an episode of comedy, where war and its result is not that cruel, and duel and sacrifice play a romantic duet.

On a sunny beach, we witnessed the war.

Fighting: A Lasting Illusion

Bid farewell to the beach, the next painting is featured with change of time and space and advancement of adventure. The division and struggle of the crowd are constantly reappearing - a lasting illusion under the painter's brush strokes.

What comes next is totally different from the war of knights. In the first painting of the new series (Mud and Pond, 2016), the ocean is replaced by a pond, and the beach by a wet land with weeds, on which several naked men are "fighting". The painter has deliberately interpreted the “fighting” as a conflict among tramps. In the scene, the crowd attacked the only clothed person with a weapon - mud in their hands, which made the fight a frolic. Obviously, the painter endowed the image an ambiguous meaning. These strong and handsome bodies, frolic postures, and skin wet by sweat were all tinted with an unknown sense of eroticism. At the foot of the figure on the left, a python was leaving from the center of the incident. Also in the pond in the distance, there appeared the back of a young man who was outside the incident center and fighting close to a python longer than his arms. The image of the figure holding a long python pointed out the allegorical characteristics of the scene, and all of this, like Freud's "dream of snake", symbolizes the maturing power of the dreamer.

The fight has been sustained, but become increasingly intense in the painter's creation. As time and scene change, the images are sometimes chaotic, and sometimes exaggerated. It is obvious that the painter interpreted movement in a futuristic form here, and the ghosting images shown are merely the continuation and overlapping of time and space. In the recent illusion (Smoke, 2019), the fight became more and more mysterious. With the green aurora mixed with smoke, the scene of fierce fighting was like the legendary clash of the titans. In the painting, one figure shook his fists and seemed to have more arms than the giant Briareus, while several other bodies were transformed into surging waves with the release of power. It seems that at this moment, fight has solidified into an eternal illusion in the painter’s mind.

Illusion occasionally reappears in the daily scenes. In a painting titled Roof (2019), there are figures in suits. Through a special form of treatment, the painter shaped the violent fight process into lumps of time and space. The sculptural structure of the figures’ struggle might remind people of a sculpture in ancient Greece that depicted warriors fighting each other. At the moment, it is being placed on a new base - a modern high-rise building that is concealed by the frame but specifically indicated by the title.

Hunt of Gathering Friends

Haunted by fables about metamorphosis, the painter continued to stage on a new chapter with several animal paintings titled Hunters. At the moment, he again found a new theme that can relate to himself.

In the vast grassland among the mountains, four or five hounds prostrated themselves, waiting for their preys to come. Their common mission drove them to work together and fight with those stronger than them. Perhaps one of them would get killed by stronger opponents or due to mistake in cooperation. But the long-term fight side by side had cultivated trust among them and maintained their eagerness to catch preys. Whether it was a yak, a reindeer, or a wild boar, no fear was seen from the hounds’ eyes.

In a work about wild boar hunting (Hunter No. 3, 2020), the painter depicted the critical moment of a decisive battle. The warrior charging in front was knocked to the ground by the ferocious wild boar. Another rushed forward to rescue him, while the others bitterly bit the boar's right ear, thigh and hind hoof, trying to restrain it from breaking away. At this time, the black beast, which was under siege, opened its mouth and showed its tusks, trying to scare the warriors away.

This hunting theme, which resembles Flanders paintings in the 17th century, seems to be a reflection of the painter’s mind. Strangely, a figure riding a motorcycle appeared in the sky in the background. According to the painter, this image was inspired by a close friend whom he had not met for a long time.

Eccentric Tempter

Like the curse on Actaeon, skilled hunters would eventually face the test of temptation. We can often find some strange deviation from the artist's clue of creation, but it can always become an interesting sample beyond the main line.

In the midsummer, within the horizon was a sea of flowers. The gorgeous and weird flowers, like heart-shaped ribbons, were continuously rising to the sky. The place cannot be identified because such a spectacle can hardly be seen even in Hokkaido flower field in the dream. In the center of flower field stood a girl, dressed in a sex sailor's suit and short skirt with two beautiful legs exposed, which looks very rustic now though, is actually an erotic symbol in east Asia that has emerged since the 1980s. She bent her arms and made an odd heart gesture to the audience in front of the picture (The Girl in Heart Gesture, 2019). Seeing this scene, people might be reminded of a young girl in the webcast studio, who commonly uses such a gesture in her daily work. Perhaps at this moment, a fan at the other side of the world is clicking on the electronic reward in the webcast interface, and the girl needed to respond politely to this reward. Bi thinks that such works have clear intentions and form a significant contrast with paintings featuring masculine strength. Indeed, popular images drawn from the online world have stimulated artists' thinking, forcing them to constantly examine the value of images and renew their meanings.

Some strange cultural symptoms always set off a wave of popularity in cyberspace, but sometimes they are just like an absurd competition. Peach heart shaped breast, coins in clavicle, A4 waist, bikini bridge - these new words born in the webcast space vividly portray a strange and narcissistic Muse which, however, becomes a tempter of popular culture.

Sharp Changes: Heroic Comedy

When I retrospect all kinds of legends in my mind, the heroic images before the cocoon broke into butterfly always linger in my mind. Every time I thought of some funny episodes, the memory of youth hidden deep in my heart could always get stirred up.

Out of the heroic deeds people might gain the spiritual strength. They are sometimes a historical legend, and sometimes a movie story. However, some classic movie and TV clips have long been shared memories of a generation. Bi tampered with the contents of these images in his works by lifting the narration out of the original fixed context and embedding these images with personalized significance and open interpretation.

Perhaps it is an episode of a lonely future hero (Three Paintbrushes in the Body, 2020) - he escaped after getting wounded in the battle, galloping with three paintbrushes stabbed into his shoulder, the pursuers were closely running after him and it was a critical moment. The picture is fixed here. The paintbrushes can hardly be explained based on rationality, because they are only the images the painter used to refer to himself. What is rather hidden is that this future hero's face is ingeniously overlapped with another great painter's face in The Desperate Man (Self-Portrait) (1843), a work of Gustave Courbet in his youth. Perhaps the self-metaphor about the sharp change of hero is deeply hidden in this face with complicated emotions. In another painting (Flying into Sky, 2020), the plot was sustained, the protagonist seemed to have gained extraordinary strength and his body kept rising. In the high air, the hero opened his strong arms and soared like an eagle flapping its wings. In contrast, the opponent's body was curled up out of fear, and the balance of power had been reversed.

Two white headed sea eagles looked at all this as if they were going to join in. As the traditional political totem of the West, they are bound to bring new implications to this movie sequel like dream. Perhaps the sequel to this heroic comedy will soon continue in the painter's dream/personal myth.

Returning Back, Destination is Just Another Starting Point

Like a monster changing its form all the time, it creaked on the gravel. Apart from the rapid gasp, no sound was uttered from their mouths. Their expression could not be seen clearly, only the shiny muscles were twisted together, sometimes connected and sometimes separated. The fuzzy soft light and shadow were transformed into sharp blade-like shapes, some of which attached to them like scales and armors, and some became part of their bodies. The scales and armors record the past and the future, the blue sky and gravel, the outside and the inside, steel and the body, love and hatred, reality and illusion, all of which are intertwined with each other. (Narrated by Bi Jianye, May 2020)

Bi narrated as if sharing his experience after coming back from an adventure. Before the exhibition, he exchanged with the writer his experiences of creation. Many details in the talk aroused the writer's resonance and association. It is obvious that Bi's creation does not reject literary interpretation. The things narrated and described above are like an "anthology film" in that the establishment of the overall framework, the change of independent fragments, and the arrangement of psychological images all relied on the prototype of a kind of eternal story - departure, adventure, and return. The entire works of Bi was narrated with a symbolic rhetorical strategy. Literally, "return" is to emphasize the current working context: when the works enter the exhibition site, they will become another body of the artist to have a face-to-face dialogue with the audience. For Bi, who has been in Shenyang all the year round, the exhibition Return is also his return across a distance.

Obviously, confrontation of power has become the most common theme in Bi's creation, which comes from his experiences in the real world. In his self-narration in 2016, he talked about the periodical influence of Paul Cézanne's Bathers on his creation. From Bi's Mud and Pond (2016), we can see something similar to Bathers: wilderness, pond, trees and nude, except that the female nude is replaced by male one. However, these combinations were not inventions of Cézanne. He only inherited and developed a long-standing image heritage - the theme of countryside recreation in traditional paintings, a painting generated out of Dionysos worship. More references can be found in the retrospection of art history: Manet, Watteau, Van Dyke, Rubens, and still earlier Tiziano were all trying to depict this dream paradise of humanists. There, they reposed their dream of utopia. What is quite different is that Bi's works started from frolic by the pond, but were gradually interpreted into a fierce fight in the subsequent series. In this way, on the historical clue of this painting theme, Bi did not follow the illusion of harmony, but followed his will to fight, and responded to the reality of contemporary society with his cruel courage.

From the clash of titans, the duel of heroes, to the war and trauma in reality, fighting was also regarded as an important theme by the previous generation of painters. Today, the real war has subsided in most parts of the world, and international politic situation has shifted from regional armed conflicts to new competition in information technology, financial trade and ideology. Sports, games, and other competitive activities have constantly been used to satisfy the individual's desire to fight. Bi once indulged in the theme of sports competition during a period of creation, and released his painting Golden Cup and Snake about football in 2018. However, in the deeper and more abstract social scene, the fact is as stated by Pierre Bourdieu in his “field theory”: “All social fields are fields of power and conflict, with the power changed or preserved in these fields” - each circle has its own field, such as power field, economic field and art field, and has its own system structure, power relations and forms of conflict. At this point, the audience can think in their minds whether some works in the exhibition Return also imply this tangible and intangible conflict.

“Return” does not mean an end, and all will not return to peace. Competition and confrontation are everywhere at any moment, both in a concrete and abstract scene. Therefore, returning also marks departure, and the adventure will never end. On the other hand, in Bi's creation, lasting battles are always full of romance, love and satisfaction of inner desire, which is just what can be shared by the exhibition Return.

2020.5.17

May 17, 2020