Shao Yinong and Muchen

Muchen: Our work is a continuing thought process, and we keep on questioning. Our earlier works come from the idea of wanting to explore what happened in the Cultural Revolution, and our recent works are a continuation of our older ones. People still want to ask whether these things really did happen, although people don’t talk about it anymore. 

Shao Yinong: The underlying element [of our work] lies in “Qi.” Imagine a river, and the wind and the water smashing on the rocks: that energy has to change. Exactly at that point, you can feel the energy—BSSH! It’s like what you see in Chinese calligraphy as well—that sudden turn, and the manipulation and control of energy. Our art is full of that Chinese essence. Qi is life; you need Qi to make things lively, which is needed in art. We’ve been changing our art style, just like the change of Qi.

 

 

M: We started working together in 2000. In our “Assembly Halls” series, our thoughts were more or less quite unified: we both had a very strong affinity with history and our role in questioning the Cultural Revolution. That was until 2008. After that, we went separate ways in our work. We are like two separate trees. We started having more personal exhibits: He began to work more with installations and drawings, and had a very different way of expression than I did. I started concentrating on my photography. His work is more to do with the spiritual, whereas my own is more to do with emotions and observations about the world. I probably am more susceptible to the outer world’s influences—the world’s changes, nature’s changes—and my inner thoughts are constantly giving a reply to that.

 

 

M: We both have always loved traditional things. Our house has a lot of old objects. Even our furniture at home is from before the Republic of China, and we buy tons of old pictures and old currency as well. In old currency and new currency, the qualities are totally different. When we chose the currency [for this piece], there were three different types: Minguo-era bills from 1911-1949; bills from 1949 onwards—that’s renminbi; and currency from abroad. When making the artwork, we made changes to most of to the currencies, especially the Minguo ones. The colors you see are already different from their original colors and tones—this is so it’s closer to our accumulated histories. It’s a way for us to understand that era. Currency is a way for us to measure history; you’ll see that they’re each 2-by-3-meter, woven silk pieces. We chose the traditional silk weaving methods and silk from Suzhou, which really takes skill to make and has a very subtle and delicate quality to it.

SY: When you’re in the space, it’s almost like looking at a wall of money. The design and contemplation behind this piece reflects the soft power of money, and its relationship with people. People deal with money all the time—it’s something you can’t avoid. By exposing its history, you’re also talking about its relationship with people.