10 Questions with Xuanlin Ye

Al-Tiba9 Art Magazine ISSUE12 | Featured Artist

Xuanlin Ye works and lives in Chicago. He received his BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (2017), received his MFA from Hoffberger School of Painting at Maryland Institute College of Art (2020), and graduated from the University of Chicago with an MA in Art History (2022). Ye completed his thesis under the guidance of renowned art historian Wu Hung. He is the recipient of the Hoffberger Fellowship and MFA Juried Exhibition in Print by New American Painting, featuring one issue #159. He has been exhibited around the world, including Still, life at Art Cake Brooklyn, NY(2021), and has been featured at the Asian Students and Young Artists Art Festival at Hongik Museum of Art in Seoul, Korea (2021).

artworkarchive.com/xuanlin-ye | @yexuanlin

ARTIST STATEMENT

“Artistically, I task myself with finding a new genre of visual expression that is representative of the contemporary Asian geopolitical psyche without the influence of Western stereotypes. The two main strands of my work include taking the imagery of traditional Asian tropes and questioning it on the canvas in a humorous or insouciant way through the physical manipulation of paint. The second strand involves extensive research comparing contemporary popular images relating to classical Asian culture and classical Chinese paintings. I believe classical Chinese culture and art are formed with a particular state of consciousness that brings us a unique aesthetic experience that, in its essence, is also a philosophical state of being. I attempt to use the re-presentations of the classical sensibility to create images that generate a moment of absorption in which we can reflect on our shared state of being. This image is dualistic and reciprocal in nature, the lineage and the state of the image are constant and eternal, but as the receiver of the image, the audience is constantly changing and reflective. Within these dualistic relationships, we reflect upon our state of being.

As a painter, I have been trying to use my painting process as a way to interrogate and introspect the complex relationship between transnational relationships. In my Money God series, the Money God travels through the history of art. Sometimes he dressed as a Guanyin traveling in an 18th chinoiserie Netherland glazed porcelain; sometimes, the Money God became a model standing in Gustav Klimt's Asian print-inspired oil painting background. And sometimes, the Money god is standing in a Chinese ink painting. In today's world, nationalism is on the rise, and hate crimes have become a common scene every day. By composing the Money God into different art historical references, I wonder about the past, present, and future relationships between different cultures and how I, as an Asian artist, should position myself in the social-political and art historical structure.

In my painting "Back", the canvas is divided into three parts - the left depicts a green jungle, the right depicts plants with a blue wash, and the middle section shows two genderless figures sitting back to back against a red backdrop. A sense of space is created by framing the middle and right sections of the painting. This framing makes the viewer aware this painting is a depiction of a painting on a traditional Chinese screen. The loose, causal and gestural painting style and the spatial arrangement forces the viewer to recognize that the painting is a commentary on and interrogation of Asian tropes such as "the Chinese screen" and" Zen". This representing and reflecting on images that are part of my aesthetic lineage, instead of merely repeating imagery that lacks specificity, is one of my strategies to escape the trap of zen-like abstract expressionism and Orientialislism.

My painting, Trinity of the Nowness, is an oil painting composed of two figures turning their back on us. In front of them is a common plastic fence blocking the viewer from entering their space, and the background of the painting is intentionally washed, creating an invisible third person, as if he/she is holding her arm up, taking two figures into their arm. This painting is inspired by classical Christianity-themed paintings, and the triangular shape represents the holy trinity. Although the painting has a rich cultural context, however to an untrained eye, what is most striking about this painting is the humility and vulnerability of the figure, this painting functions as a portal and a mirror. It does not only travel to the inner states of the viewer but also reflects the viewer's most tender and vulnerable states of themselves. And during this process of reciprocal viewing, one reflects on their state of being.” - Xuanlin Ye

INTERVIEW

First of all, introduce yourself to our readers. How did you start experimenting with images? And what inspired you to pursue a career as an artist? 

I am a painter and researcher based in Chicago, USA. I was born in a small town in China. When I first began high school, my parents sent me to a boarding school in Ohio, USA. This enormous cultural shift became my primary source of artistic inspiration. In my work, I frequently explore images that have a rich cultural context. By editing and experimenting with these images, I question and analyze their meaning. In the painting Vase and Flowers, for instance, I photo-transferred multiple digitally made pictures of a peony, a flower with huge cultural significance, onto the base layer. In traditional Chinese contexts, blossoms signify wealth, fortune, and prosperity. On the right side of the canvas, I digitally produced a pixelated look of a Qing dynasty painting of a peony bloom. By manipulating the image, a sense of tension is created inside the image; the artwork no longer depicts a classic Qing dynasty peony painting. Instead, the image abruptly alludes to the connection between hyper-modernity and Chineseness. 
I partially covered the photo transfer with oil paint, establishing material continuity but also compromising the photo's integrity. By physically painting on top of a culturally loaded iconographic image, I am announcing my artistic intervention in this nearly clichéd understanding of Chinese symbols and their context.

You are still very young but have already had significant international experiences. How do these experiences influence your work? 

I believe that traveling worldwide and having my work presented internationally have had a significant impact on my artistic output. The contemporary world has gotten more polarized and politicized, and people are continually looking for someone to blame. In the process of transmitting information about Otherness, visual culture plays a significant role. I intend to explore and interrogate these images using my artistic tools in order to uncover their meaning. In a sense, my artwork has become a means of reflection; I use the images to consider the complexities of transnational connections. 

And what is your favorite experience as an artist so far?

Life as an artist is really gratifying; paintings I created many years ago frequently foreshadow my future as an artist. Frequently, when completing a painting, I am unable to articulate its meaning or function. As I studied more about art and grew as an artist, I was eventually able to articulate what the painting was trying to convey to the audience and its relationship to me as an artist.
When I put my abstract ideas onto the painting, the resulting forms represent a transformational and temporal mediation between my current body and my past thoughts. When I observe the completed images, my painting transforms into a new force of thoughts that invigorates me in an ever-changing manner. There is no painting that is static and finite; they constantly change with my perception. I wish my audience could feel the same way, that the relationship they form with a painting is individual and intimate, and there is not a moment of absolute answer.
The same degree of unveiling is applied to other admired paintings. Bather by the River is one of my favorite works by Matisse at the Art Institute of Chicago. It depicts four significant abstract figures. Over the years, I've evolved from merely appreciating the image and color to comprehending the composition's origins and the painting's profound meaning in its original context.
All of these are the most fulfilling experiences an artist can have; the reciprocal relationship between the non-animated surface and the intellectual articulation is incredibly rewarding!

Do you think that relocating to the U.S. helped you develop your style and concept? And if so, how? 

To answer this topic, I must tell you about Minato, a pan-Asian restaurant located in downtown Baltimore. Minato, like thousands of other pan-Asian or Japanese restaurants in the United States, was created using a similar recipe: eccentric lighting, a few Asian-looking wall decorations —"oh~!", and a Chinese screen. A Chinese screen shouts "mediocre Asian cuisine" like nothing else. Also available on the menu are two pre-frozen slices of raw salmon and a $15 bento box with two side options. It was this seemingly ordinary, even dull restaurant that forced me into a revelation about myself as an artist, my art, and my positionality in America and global society at large. Although Minato may have appeared to be an ordinary restaurant, it had a profound impact on my career as an artist. Similar to what Anne Cheng wrote in her book Ornamentalism, Minato symbolized both the expensive and the cheap, the foreign/exotic and the comforting, the classy and the approachable. At the time, I was captivated by the works of such renowned artists as Zhang Daqian and Zhou Wou-ki. I gained a great deal of praise from my friends and teachers for creating paintings that resembled one another. Minato made me realize that I was creating paintings that oscillated between exotic and familiar, ancient and mystical but approachable, much like the sushi I purchased for five dollars. I was making a comforting Americanized "sushi" painting for my viewers and peers. 
This realization altered my studio practice and knowledge of my own work irrevocably and compelled me to seek a deeper understanding of my lineage. Therefore, I continued my study at the University of Chicago and studied Chinese art history with prominent academics such as Wu Hung. Without relocating to the U.S., I would lack this global perspective on my profession.

Your work is strongly linked with the traditional Chinese culture and imagery, although it is brought out in a much more contemporary way. How did you come up with this idea?

It took me a considerable amount of time to establish this awareness of my work and studio practices. I feel that this "concept" is neither static nor inorganic; rather, it changes and grows based on what I feed it. I believe that, similar to plants, everything I read, hear, and experience as an individual all contribute to my studio practice. Although my painting contains numerous images associated with Chinese or Eastern elements, I frequently utilize them with skepticism; the canvas is my magnifying glass. When an image is displayed on my canvas, I question and analyze it, as well as the image's meaning.

How do you choose the subjects to represent? And how do you translate them into the contemporary language?

Subject matters come from a variety of places. Some come from books, while others are simply hunches. In a recent painting, I used an image of a photo-transferred bodhisattva head now on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. The bodhisattva's head was forcefully separated from the bodhisattva's body in the early 19th century and circulated on the New York art market. When I view the bodhisattva head in its original context, I realize that the act of chopping off the head of a deity, transporting it, and selling it as a commodity, which is now shown as a work of art in a museum, is a product of the historical condition of China's national crisis in the early twentieth century. When I visited the museum, I observed that the head of the bodhisattva is still tranquil and full of grace, despite the historical trauma and pain associated with its dislocation. Its grace and the Buddhist philosophical values it embodies, such as forgiveness and the concept of emptiness, inspired me; hence, I made a painting to convey this complicated sensation of viewing and comprehending the dislocated Buddhist icons. This act of image composition is my way of conveying these images and subjects to a contemporary audience.

What is your personal aim as an artist? And what messages do you want to convey with your art?

Despite the fact that in the previous conversation, I discussed my realization of my former work as a yellow-faced artist creating works that yellow-faced artists anticipate. On the contrary, individuals may conclude that I am trying to create something "authentic." To be clear, though, my work does not concern authenticity. In my work, I am attempting to examine the relationship between the viewer and the image, using the images as informational building blocks to create a new visual form.
As an artist, I strive to find a new approach to expressing Asian identity that is aware of the influence of Western stereotypes while remaining representative of the contemporary Asian mentality.

Is there anything else you would like to experiment with in the future? 

I believe I will continue to paint the Money God series, a collection of works in which I photo-transferred an image of a traditional Chinese deity of good fortune and wealth. By painting a picture over the photo-transferred image, I am able to alter the image's narrative for the deity. I will continue to investigate and experiment with culturally loaded images and painting as a means of probing the underlying significance of these images.
I would also like to pursue sculpture, preferably small sculpting. This collection of miniature interiors of houses at the Art Institute of Chicago has long interested me. These rooms are exquisitely crafted and have a transcendent capacity to convey texture, light, and atmosphere (the feeling and the aura of the room). Also of importance to me are digital projections. I believe that computer-generated graphics are not too distant from paintings; they are all forms of art, and it may serve as a useful instrument for me to communicate my ideas, although I have much to learn about both.

Do you find that the shift to digital exhibitions and art fairs has helped you promote your work?

I have only recently begun participating in art fairs and digital shows; thus yet, I am unsure of their effectiveness in promoting my work, but it is always gratifying when someone compliments your work online.
However, platforms such as Instagram have been quite useful for me. I am quite shy in person, but in cyberspace, I am able to reach out to people and share information about my new work.

Finally, what are you working on now, and what are your plans for the future? Anything exciting you can tell us about?             

I've been working on a series of paintings inspired by Buddhist caves in Central Asia and attempting to incorporate numerous murals and visual aspects into my studio. I also endeavor to visualize more paintings that present me with greater artistic challenges. These works are frequently more abstract; by abstract, I mean that they frequently begin from a place of inquiry and spontaneity, without a preliminary drawing; yet, these paintings are frequently more engaging and intuitive to create.
I've also been considering a miniature sculpture inspired by art history studies on the debate/controversy about buddha's real image and derivative writings on the original image of buddha, such as Professor Wang's article The Shadow Image in the Cave. However, I am still in the creative process and cannot wait to begin sculpting!

Interview authors: Mohamed Benhadj and Carlotta Mazzoli