It was by accident that I came across Tan Tian's work. To be honest, it's hard not to be interested in such works: bright colors, geometric compositions, strange and simple settings – on a minimalist rooftop with a blue sky, a red hydrogen balloon tied around the neck of a young man in a white shirt.
Curiosity drove me to memorize the title of the work, "The Last Poet of the City". We are so familiar with the city, but we are so new to ourselves.
Tan Tian's work "The Last Poet of the City".
Art is my way of remembering life"
Tan Tian has been committed to artistic creation since graduating from the Academy of Fine Arts, is an out-and-out artist, he continues to refine in life, thinking about how to interpret the essence of life through creation, each work is the expression of the soul, he hopes that some things inside the work can have a new resonance with the ** when it is ** by others.
Art is not something that hangs high, but a crystallization that should be understood by more people and inspired by more people, which is also the most direct motivation for me to engage in creation - to promote art to the public. "
As for the exploration of life, Tan Tian has a different understanding, he believes that material things serve people.
But this era of consumer culture has filled almost every crevice, the kind of so-called that most people aspire to"Success"with"Happiness"The ideology formed is incompatible with the strength of his soul, and what he hopes to express is what the masses are experiencing in this material world, which is a true exploration of worldview and values.
This is exactly what I want to express through art, and I want to express the various experiences of people who have become social products in such an era. "
In the view of the French thinker Idebord, the commodity succeeded in colonizing social life"Materialization"The worldview of the people"Alienation"It's hard to avoid.
We choose our lives, our clothes, our home products, and even our lovers as advertised, in order to pursue the so-called in this ideology"Happiness"with"Success"We are constantly working hard.
Finally, we live the kind of life advertised, we have exquisite dress, elegant conversation, decent car, we strive to be a beautiful consumer, and our youth, years and those ideals that have not yet had time to be spoken, have become"Landscape"。
The artist in front of me, this idealist, this Tan Tian, I think this must be added to prove that he is a maverick, and he has been personally fighting against the overwhelming ideology of success in this society.
Sartre said"Others are hell", that is, the criteria by which others judge you affect your choices in life. This kind of influence is a kind of subtle infiltration, a slow process that engulfs you like a swamp, and it is a gentle, no cold light and even a little pleasure knife, in the material desire, in the anesthesia of consumption, without a trace, to kill you.
My work is a memorial to my life, art is my way of remembering life, and it should be everyone's way of remembering life. "
Art confronts you with the emptiness of the spirit"
Symmetrical house, symmetrical door, and half a door on the wall at the end of the criss-crossing road being depicted by a painter. In the sunlight, the doors behind the painter were cast.
Tan Tian's work "Door".
I don't think this painting will be able to touch me as directly and for a long time as "The Last Poet of the City", maybe the sadness in that painting is gently canceled by him in "The Door", or evaporated by the strong sunlight in the picture, at this moment, I want to give him a **.
The male voice seemed to be deliberately controlling the speed of his speech, and I think he was a little excited at that moment, and he said that he wanted to pay homage to Robergrier with this painting.
Then I watched the movie he said called "Last Year in Marienbad" and gradually began to feel a little bit about what he was saying.
When I tried to continue the discussion with him about the narrative game in The Door, he said that it was just a means, and that the painting was his understanding of himself – about the responsibility of the artist.
Art can't change your life, but art can change your attitude towards life. "He said seriously.
When Hua passed away, everyone was in his prime and high-spirited, and he became a brick and tile of the commercial society. Finally, you fill your life with the numbers of the digital society.
He said that the artist is like the person who paints the door in "The Door", when you come to the end of your life in the city, the artist will open a door for you, and the seemingly undoubted authenticity will be subverted.
Perhaps in his narrative games, the real and the virtual are just a dual narrative of his play, like the dialogue in "Last Year in Marienbad".
No way, I've never been to Marienbad. "
That could be somewhere else. "
Compared to the reality we live in, art is fake; Compared to our lives, art is real.
It's like the stacking of materials from less to more, so much that people can't breathe, but they can feel the emptiness of the heart more. Only the abundance of the spirit can make the heart no longer drift and fragile.
Those cruel youths in the throes of labor.
Compared with the dual narrative of "The Door", "Romeo's Plan" is a work that I think is relatively easy to understand, and in order to verify my feelings, I still sent him a WeChat message in the middle of the night.
Soon he replied: You're right.
In such a consumer society, Tan Tian's work "Romeo's Plan" is undoubtedly fatal to adhere to ideals. In my eyes, the person who had been hung from his neck with a hydrogen balloon and painted for us on the wall at the end of the road was a weirdo.
He said that it was like in a mental hospital, there were 100 crazy people and one normal person, and the 100 crazy people all said that they were normal, and in their eyes, the normal person became a mental patient.
Shakespeare's Romeo stands under the balcony of Juliet's house, and Juliet's mother does not let Juliet see him because of the family's hatred.
And this modern-day version of Romeo flies over the madhouse built by Success, and arrives under the balcony of Juliet's house, which is still empty.
He tells his story in paintings, a tiny individual with a dark sense of humor"Brave New World"The story of youth, ideals, and love in the real world.
I flew over the garden wall with the light wings of love, for the wall of masonry cannot keep love in its way; Whatever the power of love can do, it will take a risk to try, so I am not afraid of the interference of your family. "(Romeo and Juliet).
Every cheer is followed by a sigh, and behind every smiling face is a broken heart. In each of his stories, people will always inadvertently think of themselves, and also reflect their own hearts.
On the way back from the interview, the images from his paintings were still flashing back in front of my eyes and mind.
Tan Tian uses his brush to analyze our loneliness and pain, confusion and loss in the age of consumption, he expresses and shouts in his way, and his voice is gradually drowned out in the traffic and the long whistle.
When I got home and turned on the TV, the power of his paintings once again permeated my mind and eyes, detaching me from the surface of life.
This kind of narrative from the image itself is like a mirror, reflecting the lost romance in our lives, the cruel youth in the throes of our lives.
Text: Kojima. This article was originally published in Investment & Wealth Management, Issue 17, 2015.
Tan Tian's work "Tomorrow's Wind".