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#12 Waiting for China
2005

798, the art factory

by Huang Rui

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Concept artist, painter, sculptor, designer, and calligrapher, Huang Rui is one of the founders of Le Stelle, the first avant-garde group in China. Founded in the eighties, the group challenged the strictures and prohibitions of officialdom against the creative freedom of artists.
After living in Japan for ten years, he is now back on his home turf. We met him in the Factory 798 precinct, where he currently lives and works. It’s a place where art and the public meet face on, with no go-betweens, in the multifarious milieu of an ever-changing Beijing.
What’s your relationship with contemporary Western art?
In my view, the Western art scene isn’t at the moment throwing out new ideas; it quite honestly lacks clout. Poor art and British art movements in the sixties loaded with ideas, contents, expressive energy are what set me off creatively.
Does contemporary Chinese art have anything to say to Western artists as a source of inspiration?
Any work of a contemporary Chinese artist is imbued with the artist’s emotions and feelings, with the artist’s life experience, with strong political connotations. Taken out of their political and social context, these works become meaningless.
Does the word “contemporary” have any meaning for a Chinese artist?
Traditional art towing the government line prevailed until about twenty years ago. What’s called contemporary art in China is the art born of the desire to break out of the official straight jacket, to gain independence and expressive freedom, to really share the work of art with the public.
So you’re saying that contemporary Chinese art was born and grew also thanks to opposition to government?
That’s really only part of the story. Refusal of the government’s ideological high-handedness was certainly at the root of modern-day Chinese art, but the time has now come to open talks with officialdom, to go and see what their cards are like. It has to be done because we need even greater freedom of ideas, an unrestricted and unhampered flow of creative potential, and the involvement of an ever wider public.

After living in Japan for ten years, he is now back on his home turf. We met him in the Factory 798 precinct, where he currently lives and works. It’s a place where art and the public meet face on, with no go-betweens, in the multifarious milieu of an ever-changing Beijing.

What’s your relationship with contemporary Western art?

In my view, the Western art scene isn’t at the moment throwing out new ideas; it quite honestly lacks clout. Poor art and British art movements in the sixties loaded with ideas, contents, expressive energy are what set me off creatively.

Does contemporary Chinese art have anything to say to Western artists as a source of inspiration?

Any work of a contemporary Chinese artist is imbued with the artist’s emotions and feelings, with the artist’s life experience, with strong political connotations. Taken out of their political and social context, these works become meaningless.

Does the word “contemporary” have any meaning for a Chinese artist?

Traditional art towing the government line prevailed until about twenty years ago. What’s called contemporary art in China is the art born of the desire to break out of the official straight jacket, to gain independence and expressive freedom, to really share the work of art with the public.

So you’re saying that contemporary Chinese art was born and grew also thanks to opposition to government?

That’s really only part of the story. Refusal of the government’s ideological high-handedness was certainly at the root of modern-day Chinese art, but the time has now come to open talks with officialdom, to go and see what their cards are like. It has to be done because we need even greater freedom of ideas, an unrestricted and unhampered flow of creative potential, and the involvement of an ever wider public.

Huang Rui

Concept artist, painter, sculptor, designer, and calligrapher, Huang Rui is one of the founders of Le Stelle, the first avant-garde group in China. Founded in the eighties, the group challenged the strictures and prohibitions of officialdom against the creative freedom of artists.

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Images

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