1. Space

Travelling from Beijing to Hong Kong is like entering a huge steamer. People hold their breath and rush from one air-conditioned room into another, trying to spend as little time as possible in the hot and humid climate. Indeed, to get used to Hong Kong, one has to get used to the ubiquitous and powerful air-conditioner first. After three month, you finally understand what Singapores founding father Lee Kuan Yew meant by “without air-conditioning, there would be no growth of Singapores economy”.

Yan Lei got accustomed to air-conditioning very soon. On a drowsy subtropical afternoon, he is looking at swaying palm trees through a glass window, whose beauty could outstrip Hangzhous West Lake, yet deep inside, he is well aware that once you step out of the air-conditioned room, the hot and humid air will immediately smash your sweet dreams. You will instantly realize the gap between contemplation and experience, artificial and natural, as well as desire and reality; all over Southeast Asia air-conditioning is in the process of creating a particular kind of extremely artificial and extremely fragile happy life.

This is a very different and unusual kind of life experience, Yan Lei soon entered a self-created new stage, though he has always suspected that the Southeast Asian climate might lower ones creativity and vigour, however, considering his work, starting from mula dito papuntiang Kassel (This way to Kassel) to International Passageway , Hong Kong’s metropolitan environment has definitely provided him with a broader creative and reflective space. Yan Lei happens to be an artist who is very receptive to his surroundings and makes the best out of his life experience. The intrinsic power of his changing works does not come from improving and perfecting a certain “style,” but from a continued questioning of the changes in his own space of existence. Our expectations towards his work are precisely derived from an unknown: his work and future are open.

2.“Mistake”

In China there are not enough artists who are afraid to make mistakes. Yan Lei and Hong Haos work Invitation Letter from 1997 caused him to pay a certain price for his “mistake.” This work that was full of “aggressiveness” was carried out in a—for an outsider—unimaginably gentle way – it was nothing more than the sending of a letter with a German postmark and a poor signature (reminiscent of “The Emperors New Clothes”), which resulted in a direct hit on the core of the art circles power system. At the same time, it put George Soros “Trial and Error” theory fully into practice: this is not an open society, otherwise nobody would have suffered such deep damage.

Maybe his early work Invasion from 1995 was already an omen, in this work Yan Lei assumed the role of a victim, this victim however, rationally documented and displayed the process of abusing/being abused, in which we saw an allegory of the disintegration of the artists character. Soon afterwards, Are You Included at the Show in Germany? planted the seed for Invitation Letter (and also for his return to the graphic arts, which is to come many years later). Only in this work the theme is manifested through a slightly melancholic and nostalgic political propaganda poster style and only after sending Invitation Letter, Yan Lei really got a taste of what it means to be a victim – “demonizing” Yan Lei became a game of its own. One might say that the value of Invitation Letter just lies within the different reactions of the art world.

If we also take Yan Leis May I See Your Work? and Yan Lei – Welcome to Shanghai from the same year into account, we might regard these as a complete break between the artist and the modernist aesthetic. Yan Lei is precisely challenging that self-contained system emphasized by modernism, as in reality, this kind of self-containment had already become an illusion in the ‘90s in China. Artists had generally lost their independent personalities under the predominance of the western art system (note that Yan Lei uses interrogative phrases as titles for his work from this period: “Are You Included at the Show in Germany?” – with a longing undertone towards the power system; “May I See Your Work” – under a polite pretext, it is not easy to decline or doubt the authoritarian voice). Under these circumstances, the artist ingeniously transforms the art systems plague into creative material; this is just an artists real life experience, which apparently can also reflect a broader displacement of the social power system.

3. New Stimulations

Hong Kong, this exquisitely planned, artificial capitalist space gave him new stimulations, mula dito papuntiang Kassel (This way to Kassel) can be seen as a continuation of his previous themes. Of particular note was this works exhibition space (Kai Tak Airport, shortly before its relocation) and presentation mode (imitating the practice of a photo studios tacky landscape settings). Living in Hong Kong’s unique political environment highly increased the range of his work, mula dito papuntiang Kassel is almost an allegory of a series of questions Yan Lei had to concern himself with in an unfamiliar environment: airports, passageways, space, commerce, the tourist mentality, a second class citizen complex, colonial atmosphere, arts awkward position, etc..

Second Hand Shop reflects his sensitivity to the environment and the attempt to integrate it into his work. The artist placed his personal belongings in bookstores and various exhibitions and sold them at regular second hand prices. Here, Yan Lei did not sell these items as art objects, but as real second hand goods, demonstrating once again his rejection of the modernist notion. This kind of display, similar to unlicensed peddling, especially attracted the interest of Hong Kong’s ordinary citizens. They curiously went through the objects and started to get familiar with the ideas of this new Mainland immigrant artist. Ironically, there was a “Hallelujah” banner with a red sun on the wall, to the sounds of this holy song Yan Lei threw all his used items—from clothing to books—at once at the people prudently living in the crowded concrete jungle. Was this a farewell to the past?

This kind of extreme closeness between art and the people completely broke the mystery of art production. This can be compared to Yan Lei starting to sell the cover paintings of exhibition catalogues at different exhibitions two years later (from the catalogues of Chengdu and Guangzhou Biennales). Like the books in the second hand shops, the paintings were immediately sold, however they were no longer second hand goods, but art works about second hand goods.

Through the seemingly simple act of “selling,” Yan Lei discovered another secret of arts power system.

4. Art and Power

(…) Art is not a power. Religions, states, capitalism, science, the law, public opinion, television, etc. they all are powers. Art may have its internal conflicts, but those are no more than a couple of ridiculous battles. Not being a power, art cannot fight against the powers that be, yet it fights a war without battles, a guerrilla campaign against them. Art cannot converse with them, it has got nothing to tell them, nothing to communicate, art can only negotiate. Since the powers are not satisfied being external things, they also permeate each one of us; therefore art throws us all into constant negotiations with, and a guerrilla campaign against, ourselves.

The text above is a quote by Gilles Deleuze that I have adapted; the original was a passage about the relation between philosophy and power. I have replaced every appearance of the word “philosophy” with “art.”

The absurd thing is, even though art is not a power, there are games in arts internal system about power and which imitate power, moreover the rules of these games are currently permeating artists (as well as everyone).

During one exhibition Yan Lei was sitting on a wheelchair, attached to it was a siren, which constantly sent out piercing shrieks.

For Red-Light District Yan Lei transformed an art space in Hong Kong’s Oil Street into a red-light district. He placed a special neon sign used in Hong Kong’s red-light areas (a prominent VI logo) in a street-facing window; in another, he built a column using Mahjong stones (everybody knows that the Cantonese love Mahjong); and in the third window, he placed an LCD screen showing a karaoke dialogue (all Chinese love Karaoke).

5. The Possibility of Negotiations

Talking about May I See Your Work?, Yan Lei once mentioned that “in addition to communication, there is also antagonism between the artist and the curator, the curator always tries to get rid of any interference, but what he rejects might just be a key element needed by the artist.”

Yet, on the other hand, apart from antagonism, there is also communication between the artist and the curator (or a general authoritative institution). The idea of a unity of opposites in May I See Your Work is constructed by both parties together, resolving the antagonism and turning it into what the artist needs; hence, this is just the negotiation strategy a Chinese artist has to master today.

Yan Leis “paintings” since 1999 can be seen as investigations into the possibility of negotiation, but even if we set aside these “mundane” observations, his monochrome paintings still convey a profoundly moving image. All those scenes are related to Yans everyday life, photographs of his own and collected from his friends, form the basis of the paintings, using his self-invented “Yan-technique” he hired people to finish the works for him. At the exhibitions no frames are used. But instead, the paintings are clipped to boards; this kind of “roughness” turned into the distinctive feature of these works. Defining whether they are photographs or paintings is not important, what matters is that the artist found a form of expression which set him apart from others and which also accomplished that extensively and convincingly. The subjects of these works are exceptionally simple, they are descriptive texts without any deeper meanings, but together with the penetrating layers of grey, the images give the viewer a certain pleasure of enlightenment. Also, Yan Leis special kind of “grey humour” can easily be released from these visual works, from Sanlitun to Negotiation Building, from Curator to HSBC, from Hangzhou to Berlin, their significance clearly goes far beyond the works themselves and turns into a true portrayal of Yan Leis artistic career.

In my opinion, Yans paintings are not an interruption of his artistic concepts that he has had since the beginning. In fact, they have strengthened them. He hired people to paint, made an effort to sell “second-hand goods.” If we put his ventures into the graphic arts in the context of the general transition of Chinas contemporary art sphere at the end of the 20th century, we will realize that his creation, the “painting operating system” has won some space for his negotiations with the art market, and this space is just what a contemporary artist needs for his continued development.

6. Passageways

From three moves within five years, to the creation of International Passageway, from returning to Beijing to his gigantic painting about Beijings Central Business District for the São Paulo Art Biennial (imitating the style of billboards), Yan Leis stream of life/art is perpetual. Art is where life is.

International Passageway resembles a sculpture with architectural components, but also a sculptural building, I still remember, when he was talking to Hans Ulrich Obrist about this idea (which was just conceived back then) last year, his face was full of confusion. The camouflage patterned fabric used as the exterior for this work made it resemble a guerrilla warfare tunnel, yet this is only a matter of appearance, Yan Lei only needed a reasonably-priced material which could be easily folded. What to look out for is the microcosm of this strange living space constructed by eight different-sized doors and narrow corridors. This kind of dense living space can only be experienced in Hong Kong. While living in this kind of space, the artist also goes beyond it by transforming it. Finally, experiencing this space and turning it into the point of departure for his observations, this is only what matters.

Maybe this passageway is really like a boarding bridge to an international flight, but even if this international passage led to Hamburg, Yan Lei would still paint the things around him: 12 paintings, each one of them depicting a dish prepared by himself, from Chinese dishes to Italian pasta, every space in Yans memory, every form of living will be turned into an art form, eventually, what he gains is still space for his art and life. In the course of this exploration, every passage finally leads to the artists inmost world.

Hu Fang

(Published in ArtChina, 06.01.2003)

Translated by Weina Zhao

Hu Fang, Born 1970 in China. Fiction wrtier and art workers, based in Guangzhou and Beijing.
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