Last year, at the UCCA exhibition titled “Painting Unsettled," Wang Xiaoqu unveiled her most recent series of works, centered around the pansy as the subject of creation. At first glance, the exhibition hall seemed like a showroom of vibrant floral specimens. However, upon closer scrutiny, the "flower-like" images morphed into portraits, with the intricately twisted pistils becoming mimetic microexpressions. These microexpressions, seemingly suspended in space, stared intensely at the viewers, as if conveying a specific message. Tracing back through her artistic development, such visual impressions were not unfamiliar.
Two interviews were conducted with Wang Xiaoqu. The first session explored general themes of painting and visual language broadly, while the second was more relaxed and expansive. In the second interview, through her evoked memories, I came to understand the visual experiences embodied in the human contours she depicted, the reflective awareness of the individual towards the group, and her critical examination of male collective images from a female perspective.
Wang Xiaoqu, Conference Room, 2023, watercolor, acrylic, and oil stick on canvas, 160 x 220 cm
Delving once again into Wang Xiaoqu's Conference Room (2023), I continue to perceive that the imagery presented is not merely of flowers themselves; rather, they are part of a game concealing portrait codes. The myriad flowers painted by Wang Xiaoqu actually represent the myriad facets of humanity. There is no need to experience a shift in identity when viewing her works; any observation inevitably reveals a mesmerizing interface, intertwining aesthetics with satire, concepts with specifics, and reality with imagination, thus forming a captivating pseudo-reality.
This notion of "pseudo-reality" in Wang Xiaoqu's recent works pertains to an abstract expression closely related to figuration, typically grounded in the relationships between the body, identity, and society. The watercolor-diluted petals and the drip-treated pistils create a texture akin to human skin. Upon close examination of the distorted portraits, predominantly plump male visages emerge, seemingly caught between laughter and scolding.
Approaching from a superficial visual elements perspective, Wang Xiaoqu excels in portraying group images, drawing from collective photos sourced from the internet as models. The fusion of imagery with specificity in her artworks presents a particularly interesting visual tension. Facial expressions characterized by distortion connect with nuanced emotions, surpassing mere visual pleasure and illustrating the diversity and uniformity of individuals within societal groups.
In the artwork Galloping Horses (2023), which does not focus on flowers as its subject, the displacement and shift in perspective also provoke both laughter and contemplation. Named after Xu Beihong's famous horse paintings, this version of Galloping Horses seems to depict the distorted forms of several men in mid-sprint. Viewing Wang Xiaoqu's work from a female gaze emphasizes the inequities in power, money, status, and age, transforming them into a visually oppressive impression. Although these “collective male impressions” sourced from real photographs do not fully unravel the humorous nuances in Wang's paintings, they still powerfully and innovatively display certain aspects of group behavior and ideologies.
Wang Xiaoqu, River Crossing, 2019, oil on canvas, 120 x 150 cm
In the 2021 solo exhibition "Welcome" at the SSSSTART project space of the START Museum, Wang Xiaoqu's painting marked a pivotal transition from portraits with blurred faces to more concrete and realistic depictions. In that exhibition, Wang often utilized vivid, jarring colors to outline a world of imagination and illusion, as seen in works such as Spin (2018) and River Crossing (2018). These works "approach a tangible object infinitely closely," guiding viewers to ponder the boundaries between reality and imagination and the roles they play therein. This visual experimentation, using distorted bodies as subjects of painting, represents a game between physical portrayal and image arrangement, and can also be considered as the artist's reflection on corporeality.
"Wang Xiaoqu: Welcome", installation view, 2021, START Museum project space SSSSTART
A comprehensive overview of Wang Xiaoqu’s painting trajectory reveals her consistent engagement in exploring the vague yet concrete, a method of expressing social life and various human facets through the language of images, representing the collective's impact on the individual. This approach is both confrontational and dialogical; through complex image construction, it immerses viewers in exploring the relationship between reality and imagination.
You frequently depict the same themes or compositions multiple times. For instance, Measure (2021) is followed by The Medal (2021), and Serious Man (2021) is followed by Conference Room (2023) (the Tricolor Viola series is ongoing). Behind these repeated illustrations, do you intend to create or plan a reading path for your audience? It is noticeable that your subjects are predominantly middle-aged men (laughter).
Wang Xiaoqu: When I initially began my painting creations, I aimed to explore connections between painting and the physical environment. I noticed that in various official art museums, most of the displayed artworks are traditional Chinese paintings—landscapes, waterfalls, majestic sceneries—these images dominate the museums and are juxtaposed with portraits of the artists, who are often male painters from associations. This juxtaposition also appears in many people’s souvenir photos. Consequently, I created a series of portraits primarily focusing on male subjects. In my creation process, aside from the stereotypical juxtaposition, I also pay close attention to the emotional connection between each individual and the landscape.
Wang Xiaoqu, Measure, 2021, oil on canvas, 150 x 150 cm
Wang Xiaoqu, The Medal, 2021, oil on canvas, 100 x 100 cm
How do they become the subjects of your depiction and the focus of ongoing exploration?
Weng Xiaoqu: Portrait painting as a genre attracts me significantly, because this topic has undergone many iterations throughout art history, leaving a wealth of perceptible information. From an early age, when I first encountered painting images, I was fascinated by the vivid intimacy present in individual portraits; meanwhile, collective portraits had once been regarded as a form of public art. I aim to create group portraits from a personal perspective. My motivation for creating art stems from contemplations on humanity—how power and discourse shape human images is a pressing issue that I urgently address. My creations fall into two categories: one is group portraits, and the other is individual figures under the same thematic proposition. I subjectively categorize these characters and create within various themes and narratives.
Looking at it from the opposite perspective, how do you view and reconfigure these traditional elements? Based on this, what are you pursuing?
Wang Xiaoqu: Since my previous materials were derived from public images such as group photos, tourist snapshots, or news pictures, it is evident how these images define the self and relate to the environment. In other words, the presentation of these photos seems to convey personal artistic concepts, manifesting as a form of portrait creation. Recreating based on the ideas of the original creators of these images is something I find quite engaging. These images also enable me to observe some unconscious elements, such as the influence and shaping of individuals by traditional culture or social history. This observation has led me to begin tracing back to the archetypes of these characters.
Last time we also discussed "synesthesia," a perceptual phenomenon where multiple senses influence or intertwine with each other, which is often reflected in your paintings.
Wang Xiaoqu: Yes, it is an element that brings me pleasure during the painting process. This is not seen from the perspective of image expression, but more so from the linguistic characteristics of the painting surface, an abstract sensation about the rhythm between poetry and shapes that cannot be described with words.
The main subjects of your paintings are actually a group of people who have memories of collective life. I am also curious to know whether you have shown these paintings to them, such as to our parents’ generation.
Wang Xiaoqu: Many years ago, I created a graduation piece based on people I photographed on the streets and in everyday life, where the figures in the paintings were performing the same actions as if imitating each other. My father, who is a reserved and stern man, rarely communicated with me, but he mentioned feeling a sense of familiarity when he saw it—this feedback was relayed to me through my mother. Perhaps his familiarity came from the crowd in the paintings; I depicted people who are commonly seen everywhere, including figures from advertisements, like the image of a nurse.
Wang Xiaoqu, Serious Man, 2021, oil on canvas, 60 x 70 cm
Have you ever looked back to understand why you chose to depict these individuals within a collective?
Wang Xiaoqu: Because I am a member of it myself, and my insight into these figures stems from my memories of collective life. I remember walking into the schoolyard every afternoon during middle school and seeing all the students in uniforms marching into the academic building to the sound of broadcast music. Their steps and rhythms would sometimes synchronize perfectly with the music. I was daily captivated by this scene, as if people were acting under the guidance of some force. The figures I paint are likely always connected to this kind of passivity. The collective brings a sense of security but also confines the individual. I often feel as if the figures in my paintings are trying to escape from the so-called "thematic image," fleeing from defined representations. I also hope that heavy confrontations can be communicated more easily and reach viewers more profoundly through light, easily disseminated images.
During last year's “Painting Unsettled" exhibition at Shanghai UCCA Edge, your "Pansy" series instilled in me a sense of novelty. It varied from your usual "concrete ambiguity," resembling instead a "vague concreteness." Will you continue to explore this theme and medium in your future works?
Wang Xiaoqu: In this series, I meticulously depicted the pansies because the faces of these flowers stem from a childhood fear; they somewhat resemble skulls. I enlarged them and found that they bore a striking resemblance to the crowds I had previously depicted. Consequently, I began to use these flowers lyrically, projecting my observations of crowds onto them. The purplish-red hue of the flowers made them appear like drunkards. I set different scenes, establishing varied relationships among them, as if the charging horses were also a form of lyrical expression under a drunken brush. The entire series felt like a mixture of various lyrical expressions. This series sparked certain thoughts in me, such as the connections between alcohol culture and the masculine ethos in ink wash paintings. I may continue to focus on this theme, but painting, after all, is not about writing stories; intuition often precedes deliberation. I hope to follow my intuition more closely in my creative process.
Sometimes when I view your works, I am reminded of Francis Bacon’s portraits, with their unique deformations and dissection of movement. However, your paintings tend to focus more on the contours of forms. What symbolism do these symbols and the bodies themselves represent?
Wang Xiaoqu: In my painting, I attempt to connect various contour forms and establish relationships between them. Rendering contours feels like leaving a mark, and leaving a trace is also how I understand painting. As for the elements of the body, since the body is the most familiar thing to everyone, using it as a metaphor for everything can bring people closer to objects. The body also acts as a tool for measurement.
Wang Xiaoqu, The Greeting Pine, 2018, oil on canvas, 160 x 200 cm
Or perhaps we might say it revisits the objectivity in painting.
Wane Xiaoqu: This question is quite intriguing. Painting itself is a highly subjective form of art. Precisely because of its subjectivity, at the beginning of my painting career, I sought to practice it from the opposite direction, aiming to create a form of “objective” painting (such as using images from others), which often leads to a sense of disconnection and frustration between my ideas and my execution during the creative process, ultimately leaving behind some awkward traces of objectivity. Looking at it now, my "objective" painting more accurately represents a kind of "subjectivity" by depicting external environments, not through traditional dream-like or fantastical methods. By subjectively organizing people and objects in an environment, I externalize my own subconscious into a societal subconscious.
If you wish to convey some message to the viewers through your paintings, what would it be?
Wang Xiaoqu: Despite painting specific images, my actual aim is to convey the invisible aspects, a connection and release of feelings, which is very personal. I hope the audience can sense this aspect, rather than any specific message.
So, it seems that painting simply serves as a method for you to express beauty personally, but it happens to be visible to an audience?
Wang Xiaoqu: Yes, it's a mindset of viewing. For example, I do not trust the images under my brush, and I hope the viewers will question them as well.
