Memory • Artist Statement
M first painting was of Tiananmen, I painted it when I was a child; the praise it earned from adults fanned my interest in painting.
The first time I entered my elementary school classroom, all I was told to do was to, “stand straight", and “report for duty" with the military hand salute - the laughter of my classmates confounded me as to what I had done wrong.
The deepest impression I have of 1972 was the day my elder brother left Chongqing for the army. The entire family was wearing military uniform with big red flowers on our chests to send off my brother to his new life. In that era, becoming a soldier was an extremely glorious affair, and he was the pride of our family. When I saw the first military photo of my brother in his platoon, I was so excited that I couldn't sleep for an entire night; in my excitement I wrote a little essay, at the time, I was only fifteen.
The years during elementary to middle school was the height of the“Cultural Revolution” and classes stopped for four years. Those two years of high school were also erratic and sporadic.
After graduating from high school in 1975, by the fate of the “Educated Youth Corps", I was placed in the countryside. The idealism of school years became obscured by the realities of life, for all practical purposes I established my independent lifestyle. In the countryside, the simplicity and sincerity inspired me to use charcoal pencil to express the real world around me. My first book of sketches “Year Book” was born. After that, I remember a recruiter from a regiment in Wuhan came to recruit troops; all of us came to the countryside and we went to sign up for the entrance exams. In the end, only one of us made it. When we sent him off, everyone was jealous and envious to see him in his brand new military uniform. After we sent him off, I felt a long period of loss; not only because joining the military at that time was an honour, but it was also a chance to leave the countryside.
After two years of living in the countryside, I had heaps of sketches on the daily lives of our platoon and our propaganda posters; I still have a few of them today.
In 1977, the college entrance exam was reinstated across the nation. I proceeded into the Sichuan Academy of Fine Arts' oil painting department, and together with 20 classmates, shared four unforgettable years of university life. I remember as a sophomore, after a full day of class, we made use of our evenings spontaneously organising painting portrait sessions, each of us rotating to sit as models. There were a few really skilled hands in that group, He Duoling, Yang Qian,Cheng Conglin ... after a while, it grew in numbers, classmates from other years wanted to join - especially when we were painting our attractive female classmates. Its popularity flourished, and the classmates in the very back could only paint from the general feeling, as they couldn' t see in detail what was happening in the front. In the second half of sophomore year, because of some new policies, a group of book companies started importing catalogues about art, and our class grouped up to go have a look. We had to first wash our hands, so as not to dirty the books. It was the first time I saw so many original images of artists from abroad. There were about 20 books, and we were all unusually excited, passing them around for a look. Through some difficult negotiating with the bookstore, we were allowed to stay there and copy some of the images for half the day; I was really moved. Having brought along my inks, and since we could not afford paper, I started copying the images onto the front and back sides of old photographs, but because the time was so short, I went into speed mode, painting furiously. That kind of opportunity was just too rare to come by at that time.
My most representative work from those four years of university life was called “Father and Son." It exposed the breadth of trauma and heaved a sigh of the era. What especially stirs my memory is the exciting creative environment of that time that was left over from that scarring experience, and it put a focus on Realism in society. When the Cultural Revolution was over, people started to focus on themselves, reality and their lifestyles; my personal focus manifested in my work. One such representative work is the “Small Shop in the Mountain Village.”
With the passing of time, variations in lifestyle, the loss of the traditional values and the unbalanced state of people' s existence from the 80s to the 90s and the new, post-rural themes, my works transformed from realist to non-realist. The first major evolution was the movement from the societal and ideological changes, towards the personal expression of emotions. There was a long period of time where I avoided what was real in my daily life.
After many years of creativity, I began to reflect on my artistic path and started to focus on the society I lived in, on modern, everyday people's lives, paying special attention to what people' s souls had forgotten or misplaced. I discovered that people' s sense of worth had changed at its very core; I realised an intense new way to express this, and started to search for yesterday's memories, as well as today's thoughts, in my works. I used the image of the“five-pointed star” to arouse and awaken the spiritual “memories” that have gradually faded from our field of vision, making my best effort to combine the modern with the past for a completely new way of seeing.
We grew up with the era - the “red star” is simply its symbol, a part of everyday life in that era. At one time, the “red star” was at the root of a time filled with emotion and idealism; it effectively evoked that entire period of China's history, and at the same time it signifies so much more, such as Chinese intrigue. The “red star” was the most important collective symbol for more than a few generations of Chinese.
Looking at the “red star” in today's modern materialist society, it seems empty and modest - and seems to also signify a generational alienation. From here it reflects a certain kind of mind-set and is an alternative way to explain society and the prevalent lifestyles of today.
Zhu Yiyong
Chongqing, August 27, 2006
“记 忆” • 创 作 自 述
第一张画，是儿童时画的一张天安门，在大人们的夸奖下使我对画画的兴趣大增。
第一次走进小学教室，是以“立正”、口喊“报告”、手行“军礼”走进教室，同学们的哄堂大笑使我不知所措。
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1972年记忆最深刻的一件事，是大哥当兵离开重庆的那天，全家为身穿军装、胸戴大红花的大哥送行。在那个年代，做一个军人是一件非常光荣的事，全家人为他感到自豪。当看到大哥从部队寄来的第一张标准军人照后，兴奋得一夜没有睡觉，在激动之余，写了一篇满怀激情的作文，那时的我只有十五岁。
从小学到初中，正逢“文革”，学校停课四年，两年的高中也是在不正常的情况下度过。
1975年高中毕业后，下乡当知青的命运不由分说地将我抛到农村，学生时期的理想主义被农村的现实生活所覆盖，从真正意义上说开始有了自己独立的生活。在农村的生活中，农民的朴实与真诚激发起我用画笔来表现现实生活，第一本自制的速写“专集” 诞生了。之后，我记得武汉的一个部队来招兵，我们一起下乡的知青大部分都去报考，结果只有一人考上，送行时，看到他身穿崭新的军装，大家既羡慕又嫉妒，送行回来后我失落了很长一段时间，因为，在那时，能去当兵不仅是一件光荣而自豪的事，还意味着可以离开农村。
两年的农村生活我先后画了佷多表现知青生活的速写和宣传画，至今仍有几张保存了下来。
1977年是全国恢复高考第一年，我考入了四川美术学院绘画系油画专业，与二十位同学共度了令人难忘的四年大学生活。我记得在二年级时，白天上完课后，大家利用晚上的时间自发的组织起来画头像，同学之间轮流排队当模特儿，我们这组有几个高手：何多苓、杨千、程丛林······，一段时间后在我们这组画画的人越来越多，其他班的同学也加入进来，特别是画到长得漂亮的女同学时，人气更旺，坐在最后面的同学就只能画个大感觉了。
在二年级下期，由于解放碑的一家图书公司进口了一批艺术画册，我们班集体联系去看，要求是要先洗手，这样才不至于把画册弄脏，这是第一次看到数量较多的原版的国外艺术画册，大约有十几本，大家异常兴奋，相互传阅。后来通过与图书公司艰难的交涉，最终同意我们临摹半天，我非常激动，带着水粉盒，在自带的旧照片上开始临摹，由于时间短，为了多画几张，画得既紧张又投入，因为，这种机会在当时来说太难得了。
在四年的大学生活中，我创作的代表性作品有《父与子》，作品中透露出伤痕的气息和对那段历史的感叹，尤其使我记忆深刻的是当时的兴奋创作状态和因伤痕经历而产生的对社会现实的关注。“文革”过后，人们开始关注自己、关注现实、关注生活，我将自己的感受和思考体现在作品中，这时期画了大量的乡土题材作品，其中的代表作有《山村小店》。
随着时间的推移，生活方式的变异，传统价值观的失落与人们心态的失衡，八十年代至九十年代即乡土题材之后，我的作品由现实转为非现实，这时期有了第一次大的转型，由社会性、思想性转为对个性抒情意味的表现，很长一段时间里自己处于回避现实的生活中······
在经过多年的创作后，我开始反省自己的艺术道路，关注我所处的社会，关注今天人们的生活状态，开始下意识去关注每个人心灵里面被遗忘的东西，我发现人的价值观发生了根本改变，我强烈的意识到要将新的想法表达出来，于是我开始在创作中寻找对过去的记忆和对今天的思考，通过人们在童年时玩过的翻线游戏这种方式，用“五角星”的图式，来唤醒和追忆当下人们逐渐从视线中消失的非物质精神的“记忆”，力求寻找过去与当代的全新解读方式。
我们的成长是伴随着那个年代成长起来的一代，“红五星”就是那个时代的标志，也是生活的一部分。“红五星”曾经是充满激情和理想时代发生的根源，它理性地述说中国的那段历史，同时也包含了太多的中国情节，而成为几代中国人最重要的集体记忆。
今天把“红五星”放在现代这个物质社会的时代里，既有空洞的质朴，又有一种时代的疏离，从中也折射出当下人们的一种心态，以及对社会生活的某种理解方式。
因此，“记忆”系列是我在艺术道路中的一个重要转折点。
朱毅勇
2006年8月27日