Interviews with Artist Luo Xinyue
16th Apirl,2023
Lisirui
Good afternoon, Xinyue. I have been very interested in your contemporary art practice ever since I saw your work in the CAP catalog, some of it was even very moving to me, and I am happy to have a conversation with you today. I understand that the starting point for your series 'Chaos' is related to your own experience. I learned that being born into a family with patriarchal attitudes. Your father gave up on you and your mother because of your gender and you had to follow your mother into a new family life. Such an experience was undoubtedly a deep pain for you in your childhood, with the darkness that enveloped it. How did you emerge from such pain and turn to think about the female gender itself?
In your opinion, do differences between genders lead to different ways of seeing the world and different modes of thinking about things? Is there a commonality of genders, is it only in human nature or various universal aspects? What are the ways and theories through which you interpret this?
For me, as a child I grew up more independent and wanted to have strength that could match that of a male. However, as I grew up, I gradually discovered that true strength is androgynous, with the endurance of a woman and the impetus and courage of a man. Gradually, I turned to thinking about the female gender in my work.
I think everyone should have an equal and friendly view of the world, but the way we think about things is influenced by gender differences, with men being more rational and calm and women being more emotional. An equal and friendly world view is not just for people, it is for all people. I usually relate this worldview to the universe, which is the source of all life.
Xinyue
Lisirui
When did you turn the focus of your artistic practice toward female themes? Will this thread be central to your work in the future?
Well, I didn't really have a clear direction for my art making during my undergraduate studies, but when I was preparing my personal portfolio for postgraduate studies, I started to have a direction and area of research that I wanted to focus my art practice more professionally on feminism. Yes, the focus of my future work is still on feminist themes.
Xinyue
Lisirui
Your second work in this series, Vanish, has had a strong visual impact on me, both in the process and in the finished product. In recent years, stereotypes and gender confrontations have become more frequent in China, I think partly because of the increased media coverage, but also because the women's sense of resistance is much higher than before, in terms of education level, higher economic income and so on. This is not just a collision between the sexes, but an impact between ancient feudal society and contemporary capitalist society. In China, our modern society has been modernising since the May 4th Movement, and has begun to learn from Western societies in terms of ideology, education and propaganda, moving through the Nationalist government towards the People's Republic of China with its communist ideology and women's liberation movement, influenced by the Soviet state. This was only nearly a hundred years ago, whereas before that 100 years was an endless history of thousands of years of restraint and oppression of women. In this history, you mention that "it is clear from the study of Chinese mythology that women did not participate in the construction of human civilization in feudal society, which led to a stagnation in the development of women's social status." I think this involves a long process of the "Great Mother Goddess" being replaced and tampered with by the "Great Father God". In our mythology, we have 'Nvwa making man' and 'Nvwa mending the sky', both of which were created by the Great Mother Goddess, and after this, the single mother goddess appears in the story as a male god, and the 'Fuxi' The appearance of 'Fuxi' shifts from brother and sister to husband and wife. The single goddess of the ancient gods, ‘Xiwangmu’（Western Queen), also became the spouse of the 'Eastern King' in later Taoist mythology or the 'Jade Emperor' in film and television. It is no coincidence that such a story also appears in Greek mythology. The artist Nancy Spero has mentioned that her work is an attempt to abandon the traditional perspective of history writing, to deconstruct and juxtapose the past with the present, and to create a revisionist artwork of women's history that is not written in history books.
So, do you think it is more important for artists to tell women's own new stories through art, or to 'fix' the stories that have been tampered with? How can we take over women's voices through art?
I think both approaches are viable and powerful, whether it's to tell your own story or to revise it through the lens of history. For me my approach tends to be a combination of both, using my own inspiration and historical events as a reference. Art itself is born out of life and above it, but faithful to it. So rather than using art to occupy the voice of women, it is because of the changes in society, the progress of society and the emancipation of people's minds that we now have the voice of women.
Xinyue
Lisirui
I was very impressed by the work 'Rebirth'. You draw on your own experience to discuss ways of soothing pain, a part that many women artists overlook - Exactly, we suffer not to suffer, but to seek happiness. Your favourite quote from thinker Llia Delio is particularly applicable here, "Love is the deepest good that recognises the interests of others." -Everyone has the right to pursue happiness. Gender inequality is still very serious at the moment, although it is whitewashed on many levels - but that's no reason for something to 'disappear'.
In your creative process, I see you exploring your relationship with water. Water gives the impression of being a flexible, yet mysterious substance that contains the birth of life. When considering the second and outer layer of materials you used silk and white Orsagen, which is also a very soft and light material, but I find it difficult to relate it to "a perspective that shows rationality and representation", can you tell us what you understand? Both materials show a vulnerability in the feminine context and convey an energy field of love in the universe.
Yes, the water and the yarn are both energy fields that I want to convey outwardly from a female perspective of identity. In the second layer of silk, the solution to these injuries is mainly expressed from a rational and figurative point of view - the energy form of love, the acquisition of human energy firstly by the emergence of life, which gives rise to the life layer, and secondly by the emergence of thought, which gives rise to the mind layer and for the present and the future modern man tries to establish a connection between man and the universe, and God as the subject of the universe, and thus considers the new God The image of God is within us and God is the driving force towards the future. The future itself is a nebulous existence, so it is placed on the second layer and covered with a hazy organza.
Xinyue
Lisirui
In your view, do you consider women to be vulnerable or flexible? This seems to be a topic that feminism has often debated over the years - are women inherently vulnerable or are they shaped into vulnerability by the secular context? One part of the argument is that women's ability to influence change the world should be understood in terms of their biological makeup, and one part of the argument is that women simply use flexibility to release energy in the universe. In this view, do you think that the concept of "pretense" that you mentioned applies?
I think women are flexible, and in Beauvoir's The Second Sex, it is mentioned that women are not born, they are made. I agree with Beauvoir and I also think that some of the disadvantages women have now are socially constructed.
I like the word "disguise", as I am disguising the male power I have. I also agree with you, and yes, I think it fits.
Xinyue
Lisirui
And the last question is about the "evolution" you talk about in this work. What is the "coming evolution"? Is it the transformation of your state of mind brought about by the trauma, or does it represent the transformation of women in a new future? Do you think that the conceptual tendency of this work is closer to the traditional story of "The Jingwei fill the sea" or "The Nirvana of the Phoenix"?
I guess it's the second level, a metamorphosis of the mind, a kind of transformation after a self-awakening. Perhaps much like the Phoenix Nirvana, the rebirth that comes after experiencing darkness.
Xinyue