Artist weaves his own ‘Silk Road’ in Suzhou
Print Edition
TODAY, Suzhou is a city best known for its garden, but it is also renowned as the cradle of Chinese silk.
A contemporary art exhibition featuring installations, videos and paintings created by seven young Chinese artists at “Yi Ou Lai” Suzhou Village, near Yangcheng Lake in Suzhou, now highlights silk as a medium.
One of the seven artists, Nie Kaiwei, who was born in Suzhou, uses silk, perhaps one of the most striking symbols of China and Suzhou as a city, as the main material in his work.
In the digital era, modern technology is widely used in contemporary art, yet Nie picked an old, traditional medium for his installations. Nie says that emotionally, he feels a strong connection to silk, as it is tender and delicate.
Silk is a familiar fabric material, but it’s rarely used in art. Sometimes, Nie believes, the true meaning of a medium is obscured by the stereotypes attached to it.
With his art, Nie is trying to give this centuries-old material a new meaning.
The whole exhibition space is a chaotic network made of white silk, dotted with different colored cocoons. Here, silk is just treated as a raw material, leaving some space to the viewers to ponder about the connection between the past and the present.
Q: What’s your major at the university and was there any link to silk?
I majored in art and design as a post-graduate. Later, I focused on how to inherit and protect Chinese ancient silk via a chemical analysis and physical structure for my doctor’s degree. These two majors, on the surface, seem to be unrelated, yet they are all about silk. When I studied modern design history and the history of Chinese silk, I was quite curious about the physical structure of the silk fiber and its colors at that time. I wanted to reflect the ancient silk craftsmanship through a different contemporary angle.
Q: You have been engaged in the experimental pieces of silk fiber for years. How did you come up with the idea of combining the ancient craft with experimental art?
Despite the vicissitudes of different political rulers, the development of silk never stopped. The craft of silk making is a perfect combination of art and science. Through countless binary interweaving an extraordinary silk pattern is finally created. Today, the computer programs we use every day also consist of binary codes, and I was inspired to use the experimental art to reflect the ancient silk craftsmanship.
Q: When mentioning contemporary art works that incorporate silk, artist Liang Shaoji is probably the most famous one. But he also used silk worms directly in his work. Do you like his work?
Liang Shaoji is a pioneer in using silk in contemporary art. I admire him greatly. Contemporary art involves only a small community, let alone using silk to create a piece of contemporary art. Liang’s work is filled with a zen touch that expresses his understanding of life.
Q: Even though Liang Shaoji’s artworks were widely acclaimed in the art circle, they still remained quite unknown to the public and seldom appeared on the art market. If you were him, would you be able to enjoy such solitude?
In my eyes, doing art is merely a living status. One doesn’t have to please other people or other things through art. For me, experimental art is a kind of self-nurturing, and I don’t think it is linked with any solitude.
Q: What’s the special part about your work displayed at “Yi Ou Lai” Suzhou Village?
The “Silk Road” spanned from the Orient to the West about 2,200 years ago. My work titled “Worm” is a salute for the endeavors and the efforts from our pioneers who embarked on this Silk Road, an encounter with Oriental and Western cultures at the same time. There is a popular Chinese saying — “The road is under your feet.” Different from the past era, today we have to find our own “Silk Road” in this complicated world of networks of cables and codes.
Q: “Yi Ou Lai” Suzhou Village is not the typical art venue. What kind of response do you expect to receive from viewers?
It is interesting to see the reaction from the viewers in this public space. For example, they come to buy some costumes or bags, and they are not prepared to bump into some artworks displayed here. Art might slow down their steps and make them think for a while.
Q: In ordinary life, silk is more used as a fabric material. When it is used as a media in art, what’s the difference?
In fact, silk as an art piece already existed in Song Dynasty (960-1279). “Ge Silk” is an example, known for its complicated technique and brilliant texture and hues. There was a saying “One inch of Ge Silk equals one inch of gold.” Of course, silk itself is a precious fabric material. But when silk is used in art, it can neither be replicated nor reproduced, as sometimes it could bring an unexpected beauty. Here they also placed a hand-made silk studio, each comer could weave their own silk with different patterns according to their own design.
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