Questions like “How does a man react to this world?” “How to comment on a man’s reaction to this world?” are meaningless except for psychological tests. Who, when, what happens or what kind of reaction? Normally these discussion and judgment are reached through certain rule or commonly shared criteria of goodness. Before we clarify these questions, how can we be so confident to say that the certain rule of criteria of goodness we chose is unshakable?

“We are cheated repeatedly. We’d rather be called as the lost, the ennui, the dangerous, and the bewildered than the cheated. Don’t ever think of using the old way to preach us. Any creed will be stamped with ten thousand of questions, then get denied and thrown to the dustheap.

This is what Fang said after 1989.

At that time, the man was approaching 30, living poorly in the village of Yuanmingyuan. He completed his first series that filled with his own characteristic. According to him, “those isolated or unsmooth things were totally washed away” and he had “an unrestrained feeling.” Literally it seems that the artist obtained his freedom. But without the help of context, it is difficult for us to link “cheated” “lost” “ennui” and “dangerous” with words like “smooth” and “unrestrained.” If we try to understand these unmannerly words through the background of the 80s in China that advocated the liberation of the spiritual, we could hardly make any comment on the artist’s spiritual condition. As Nietsche’s “God is dead” reminded the Chinese contemporary artists that any doubt towards any fixed principal or value were legal. It seems that Fang’s angered emotion was different from those descriptions in his cynical image in the early 90s. He firmly expressed his unbelief towards everything. What was the reason behind?

At the beginning, all man’s heart is akin to a piece of empty paper, even though it is loaded with some inherited factors. If the “empty heart” is put under certain environment, the changing environment will influence the “colors” presented by the heart. Many years later, Fang says “There doesn’t exist the abstract inborn nature in human beings, the inborn nature is only acquired through one’s experience in society.”

Born in the end of 1963, the birth of this clean soul (later appears in his tableau in the form of newborn baby) coincided with the meeting hosted by Chairman Mao in Hangzhou. The result of the meeting brought out a political document that emphasized the critical factor to decide the success of socialism was class struggle. Fang’s grandfather was a landlord, an identity that he could never had the legal right after 1949. Under the severe backdrop of class struggle, the identity of landlord became an attacking target. The Chinese Communist Party strategically made use of different classes in different historical periods.  But under the system that only the top leader could arbitrarily make regulations and policies for his country and his people, different opinions and conflicts in the Communist Party were revealed through different political and social life. The identity of a landlord was not protected, only the politics demanded. As a little kid, Fang was not able to react to this world with a clear view. But he definitely couldn’t escape the “air of politics”. The violence and attack under the name of “revolution” initiated from the “cultural revolution” in 1966 must have left some traces in the tender heart of this child, even though he was unable to see those social issues with a rational view. Now it is hard for us to imagine what the little boy’s feelings when he heard the roar “Flatten the Landlord” by his neighbors. But one thing is for sure, those shouts and the insulting words written on the backyard gave a strong hurt in his heart. He was six years old in 1969. Later the artist recalls that he joined an attack meeting, but when he shouted with the other “Hang up the old guy”, he found that the old guy was just his grandfather. Fang’s experience is not unique in the politic turmoil starting from 1949. But how to judge between the basic instinct of goodness aroused from kinship and the negative feelings given from the surroundings? Revolution or goodness, which one is more needed by the collective? Or we have to accept that the goodness never exists? Fang grows up in an environment filled with revolution and violence. When he was able to write some words, he gradually knew how to use these words to please his teachers. For example, he described the thick smoke hovering over the chimney as colorful clouds in the sky, since a socialistic country demanded acclaim and extol. Fang even has memories “Before the open door policy, I had lived in hatred and struggle. Because of the unfairness of my origin, I had to sometimes tolerate and fake as child. For example, when Chairman Mao and Premier Zhou died in 1976,we all went to the mourning hall. My father hinted me that I should cry, and I knew I should. But at that time, I had no rush for cry, while later I really cried a lot. Everyone came to comfort me and my teacher praised me. Then I knew if I faked sometimes, I would receive praise from the others. This was the result of education when I was still a boy. Usually what you were taught went to the opposite direction for what you thought was right. Now I recall that I became a two-faced character since then. This is not a question whether you are willing or not, as the pressures from the environment weigh a lot on you even when you were little.” At that time, the little heart learnt the trick of switching between the good and the evil without the understanding of how to fix those abstract principles he interpreted in a certain society.

In fact, Fang’s personal experience is not a big deal, and what he has gone through is only a part of the ordinary life that many Chinese ordinary people have gone through. During the bygone days with the theme of class struggle, no one was safe and reliable. There was no moral criteria in protecting oneself, as there existed no moral criteria, or in other words, the moral criteria itself was totally replaced by the standard of class struggle.

In order to avoid any mishap, Fang accepted his father’s suggestion and started to learn painting. The learning at the fine art training classes aroused his love for painting in middle school, giving the boy the confidence in his later artistic path.
In 1980, Fang entered the Hebei Light Industry College where he could learn art under a professional surrounding. Most important of all, there emerged a new context that year. Early in June 1979, “Fine Art of the World” was launched and published the article written by Shao Dazhen on Western modern art style, but previously any Western modern style was severely prohibited in China. The magazine also published the article written by Wu Guanzhong on the beauty of form, while previously such subject was categorized as bourgeois thing that were prohibited and attacked. Later another magazine published a cartoon series featuring the accusation of the political turmoil during the “cultural revolution”, implying that people could freely release their resistance and dissatisfaction or lament their fate in public. Soon “Fine Art of the World” immediately organized a discussion on this cartoon series. People started to thoughtfully question and understand the notion of “truth,” giving their warm concern on the abstract subject of humanity. In September 1979, Yuan Yunsheng’s mural painting titled “Water-splashing Festival” on the capital’s international airport amazed many viewers and received a great controversy. In particular, the parade of the first exhibition titled “Star Movement Exhibition” at the national art museum shocked many people, as sensitive words like “democracy” and “freedom” appeared in the parade. But all these had nothing to do with Fang in the city of Han Dan, even such historical backdrop provided him and his peers a fresh social reality that they would soon experience. After his entrance to the college, he was able to learn about the prevailing Western modern art in China. In March, the awarding of the national art exhibition in celebration with the 30th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China was finished. Some canvas filled with sentimental and blue feelings was recognized in a government-organized exhibition. The fascism in “cultural revolution” was attacked in the public. When absorbing all kind of knowledge, Fang found a new attitude towards history through these “trauma art.” Although these artworks created by Luo Zhongli, He Duolin, Chen Conglin, Zhang Xiaogang, Zhou Chunya didn’t solve the problem of modern language, yet what reflected by these pieces were powerful and genuine. Even as a child, Fang expressed his intellectual sensitivity so that he could experience the charisma of realism through these artworks of “trauma and local art.” Such impression and experience overlapped with those colors and symbols reflected in his heart. Perhaps at the beginning, everything started subconsciously, but gradually his inner world knitted up with his experience from his personal life, from society and art became complicated.

There is an important sketching experience in Fang’s life. In 1982, he went to She County in Tai Hang Mountain with his friends. The landscapes there were reminiscent of those “local art.” They were pure and natural, but not rich in resources. Later his “Nostalgia” and “Untitled” are considered to be connected with the environment and people there. His watercolor series “Nostalgia” undoubtedly was the outcome influenced by the popular style at that time, but the simplicity of the natural environment was actually an important reason to touch the artist’s heart. Perhaps it is not because that local style has certain charisma, but because the actual countryside scene that satisfies those uncontaminated part in one’s heart. In the arrangement of “Nostalgia II”, warm and even sentimental feelings revealed the actual yearning of a graduate student from a technical secondary school who had already learnt how to tell lies. The series were selected for the 6th National Art Exhibition, adding great confidence to Fang, at least he experienced the power of truthfulness. While the connection between the scree and the baldhead image is hidden that needs time to unfold.

A large reading on Western books was a common trait for young people of the 1980s. In Fang’s memory, he didn’t pay attention on those post-modernism ideas, let alone the obscure notion of the pioneers of modernism. What moved him were those masterpieces with enlightenments

“I want to talk about those books that greatly influenced me. Emiley’s “Withering Heights”, Rosseau’s “Confession”, Hugo’s “Year of 93”, Irving Stone’s “The Lust for Life” and Duncan’s autobiography. I encountered them when I needed them the most. The three sisters in “Withering Heights” all lived in the countryside in UK with a fairly isolated life style. Their imagination and overwhelming experience all came directly from their heart, which made me realize that life was to be “savored” through one’s heart. A fool is a fool, even when a series of different overwhelming incidents happens in his life, they leave no trace in heart. This is not life. In “Confession,” Rosseau wrote that he adopted a girl with his friends when they were young. Their aim was to use that girl as a sex toy later. However with the flow of time, they nurtured the real father-and-daughter relationship. Finally Rosseau didn’t treat the girl as he planned. Rosseau didn’t hide himself, but told all these nasty things through a naked heart. Thus he became candid and transparent. That made me thoroughly realize humanity, a man’s respect and a man’s right. Those free artistic ideals in Duncan’s autobiography with a simple expression immediately caught me. Even today when water appears under my brushstrokes, I always doubt if it is related with the description of a child dancing under the azure sky in her book. When I am thinking about each question, all these books would appear and impact my soul with their amazing power.”

If we compare all these inner emotions with Fang’s cynical feelings, we could see that there must be something deeply hurt him. The intellectuality nurtured in the mankind’s civilization is eternal. Such eternity echoes with the inborn moral sense of a man. Most important of all, one unique system could separate such universal moral sense or good will from a man’s own requirement. The separation merely serves for its own purpose or an abstract ideal. But when such ideal is set as all men’s common will, then eternity, moral sense and good are gone. When Fang had the opportunity to read these words calling the freedom from his heart, what he perceived was overwhelming. It not only strengthened his knowledge, but also powerfully confirmed the existing purity in his heart. Because of these gains, there was not need to understand those obscure philosophy and notions for the artist. Naturally there is no evident material recording Fang’s interest towards the abstract philosophical books, even though such interest prevailed among artists who were born in the 1950s at that time.

The extreme fighting character is a common trait for those who cannot protect themselves via power or other social resources. In his childhood, Fang was unable or courageous enough to drive away the shouting “Landlord Fang,” he silently witnessed everything and released all his inner pains through playing. He pretended crying to obtain sympathy and recognition from the others, while ironically such pretence was almost hard to discern. When he entered college, the regulation and rules of the college hindered the freedom in his heart, but he can’t go against these rules. For example, one of the rules stipulated that the sideburns of all boys shouldn’t be longer than their ears. As a result, he and his classmates gave a close shave. What he tried to manifest was that “I could make it more thoroughly and cleanly than you demanded.” This is a form of rebellion, a rebellion that sacrifices one’s freedom or re-gain one’s freedom through self-denying. It is one of the ways to deal or understand the difficulties in one’s life. Such method carved deeply in Fang’s heart with an ineffaceable memory and the potential explosion of emotions. For him, the explosion of emotions and memory are simultaneous. “From then on, the baldhead image has a kind of rebellious or cynical flavor in my sub-consciousness. The sub-consciousness is the resource of memory while rebellion and cynicism are forms of explosion.”

“Nostalgia” was created when he was working in an advertising company in Han Dan. In 1984, he traveled to Nanjing, Shanghai, Guangzhou to see the 6th National Art Exhibition. Soon, he quit his job at the advertising company. In 1985, Fang studied at the print department of the National Central Academy of Fine Art. The strict rules at the university plus the new wave art movement outside the campus gave him the freedom to study and live. He and his classmates were free to choose their reading materials, study method and life style. During his campus days, Fang was able to indulge himself in different resources, pondering, selecting and practicing all the possibilities. It was not until 1988 that Fang painted his earliest baldhead images on sketches. We could see that Fang’s sketches had nothing to do with the Russian style. The round and smooth painting style greatly differs with the blocks, planes and structure emphasized by the academy.

In February 1989, Fang sent his sketches to the Chinese Contemporary Art Exhibition at the National Art Museum, but they hardly received any special attention from the visitors. The gathering of modernism, perhaps a little late, was too chaotic and noisy, the dazzling artworks and the shocking gunshots almost left no time for people to appreciate those paintings on the wall. Most important of all, because of the political campaign of “anti--bourgeois freedom” that started from 1987, the driving power of modernism began to fade. The question of essentialism was exposed, yet the chaotic social aura of 1988 blurred the issue. In fact, post-modernism and the words about abandoning essentialism appeared. Wang Guangyi’s “Mao”, Wu Shanzhuan’s “Selling Shrimps”, Li Shan’s “Footbath”, Zhang Nian’s “Incubation” plus blackmailing letter, condoms, and the purposely-arranged gunshots by Xiao Lu and Tang Song, all together formed the problems that the critics were concerned. Fang’s baldhead images surely had nothing to do with the metaphysical ideas of Ding Fang, Shu Qun and Mao Xuhui. He is not a member of the 85 New Wave Art Movement. But it seemed that he was prepared to joint the parade. Although he showed his baldhead filled with local flavor to those contemporary art critics, yet his artworks were not focused. Seemingly Fang didn’t have confidence for himself. He said, “It was unwitting for me to paint the baldhead images, and the backdrop is imagined. The repetition of these images is a kind of practice and contained something. But I didn’t have alternatives. So I wasn’t confident to exert them.” One thing was for sure, whether baldhead will have a striking influence in Chinese contemporary history or not, Fang at that time didn’t ever think that his baldhead had any impact in art.

The June 4th Event shocked the whole world. How to confront something hard to escape was stretched in front of him. In his subconsciousness, Fang already had his experience of encountering overwhelming violence. Now, he witnessed the failure of direct rivalry. Whether such rivalry was theoretically effective or not at that time, Fang naturally chose to concede or shy away. He felt the feeble power of an individual, and the only way to be rescued was through self-redemption. It was not a time to discuss who was right or wrong. In fact, it was hard to clarify the issue, as the question was so big and beyond the capacity of personal power. He knew by instinct that he should care about himself by himself. At that time, he was busy planning and working for his own surviving, and he had no choice. In July, he moved to a studio between Yuanmingyuan and the Summer Palace. The life there was cheap, and he could fully engage himself in painting. But the next year he was forced to move out when he finished his early sketches and oil paintings. He moved to the courtyard of the peasants. During that year, he and his friends wracked their brains to feed themselves by selling postcards or painting military teaching map. In summer, Fang found a studio in Yuanmingyuan where his “First Series” was completed.

Again Fang chose to “step aside” from the bottom of his heart. The reason for his “unrestrained feelings” after the summer of 1989 was because the ineffective rivalry inspired the power from his heart to head-on. In his early series, Fang was guided by instinct by the subjects that he painted including the simple landscapes and peasants. At that time, he even painted vividly the teeth of the peasants, repeatedly emphasizing the simplicity the honesty blended with obliquity and subtlety. But he still thought that he didn’t make clear of what he was trying to say, even though these traits echoed with his nature. By instinct, he shied away from anger, depression and redemption. Sometimes he put his figures in difference distance, observing the bizarre scene in the bloomy backdrop. But seemingly that was not his purpose. From 1989 to 1990, there appeared a girl in glasses both in his sketches and painting, perhaps this was the recording of his personal life, as we often could clearly see himself in his artworks. In the sketch, the artist increased the volume of the girl, which might be the outcome of a strong exaggerated perspective view, and he quietly sat besides the girl. But we could still find the repeated images of those peasants in Mount Taihang who followed closely after the artist. Surely, we could say that the artist retained his nostalgia in his arrangement. But he emphasized the baldhead image in his sketches, as baldhead often renders a strong impression to the viewers. He also conjured up a bit ambiguous touch that might adjust the viewers’ feelings, driving them away from the oppressed emotion normally prevailed in the modernism artworks. He repeated the portrait of one man, emphasizing the particular personal feeling through such repetition. It was not until “Sketch Five” that Fang put his character under a more broadened backdrop. The spacious Tian’anmen Square and the recent boundless space perhaps suggested that Fang thoroughly broke away from the stone all of Mount Taihang or the concrete environment. The opening of his heart enabled him to obtain the “unrestrained” feelings. He combined with his rebellious experience, the image of Tai Hang Mountain peasant and his distance of modernism. He started to cut those redundant details in his paintings and re-planned a fresh new image. Soon, Fang abstracted his future direction in “Canvas Four.” According to him, the importance of this art piece lies in his selection of the baldhead as a new start. Immediately after the experiment of a series of black-and-white canvas, he solved the technique problem of oil paint. Then he began his representative “Series.”

In march 1991, Critics Li Xianting started to conclude Liu Xiaodong, Fang Lijun, Liu Wei, Wang Jingsong, Song Yonghong and some artists into different categories. Li started to use the word of cynical realism. In 1992, the exhibition curated by Francesca Dal Lago and Hans van Dijk exposed Fang’s representative artworks to the public. Critics began to decipher the new artistic phenomenon. In the album of this exhibition, Li described Fang’s artwork as follows:

“Fang chooses those accidental, mediocre, and boring fragments in life as the first layer in his art. Those baldhead images form the core in his art. Thirdly, he puts these unromantic borings images in a poetic environment such as the azure sky, the snowy cloud and the vast sea, rendering an absurd ambivalence. He graduated from the print department at the National Central Academy of Fine Art in 1988. He has a fairly solid base in sketching. Canvas is not his specialty, yet he finds a technique echoing with his mood and feel, similar to the advertising painting technique focusing on neutrality with no intention to express, which on the contrary permeates an indifferent aura   on his canvas. The hues that he adopts are also not traditional. Big blocks of soft pink colors form a contrast with other hues, rendering something distant away from life while at the same time emphasizing an absurd visual effect.

He started an art journey titled “cynical realism” through “Series” from 1990 to 1991. The tiresome gape and the indifferent gaze of the characters in his paintings are reminiscent of Li’s analyze.

“All sensitive artists are nearly facing one common living dilemma: the realty is often fused with the meaning of different cultures and values. The overwhelming system dominates their surviving surroundings. But when dealing with the dilemma, the representatives of cynical realism greatly differ from the previous two generations. They believe neither the dominating system nor the illusionary efforts in building up a new meaningful system through rivalry. They practically and faithfully face their own helplessness, and only self-redemption could save them. Ennui is the most powerful way to offset the meaningful shackles around them. When reality couldn’t provide them a new spiritual background, meaningless meaning becomes their most helpless method in pursuing a new meaning in life and art, the best method for self-redemption.

What Li Xianting suggested is a real historical scenario. As the witness and recorder of such historical scenario, Fang, through the recording of his own spiritual condition and expression, describes vividly the spiritual condition of the typical Chinese locals, in particular the Beijing locals of this social period. The emotions wafted over Fang’s artworks are reminiscent of Wang Shuo’s novels themed “Don’t treat me as a human being.” When people started to understand and accept Fang’s art, they also started to understand Fang’s saying “I don’t want to be fooled again.”

Confronting this helpless world, Fang adopts his own strategy. He sees the world in an opposite way: he becomes the world. Like artist Qiu Zhijie said in 1993 “Each cage shuts the outside world outside.” Likewise, at the beginning, artists by instinct have to face their own problems. Fang keeps the baldhead image in life while paints baldhead to express non-individuality. Art mirrors life and life becomes part of art. Fang’s later works alter under such way. When he cuts all the details, he thinks that he could further realize his ideas. Many years later, he explained why he repeated the baldhead image.

“For me, the importance of baldhead is that it abolishes idea of certain individual and unveils a whole group. In art history, only a few artists reflect the collective in their paintings, even though the quantity of the collective is stunning.”
Fang immediately received attention. In 1993, he joined the exhibition curated by Li Xianting and Zhang Songren in Hongkong. At the same year, Achill Bonito Oliva visited Fang’s studio and invited him to participate the Venice Biennale. “The Times” published one impressive photo of Fang. “The New York Times” published the photo of his artworks. He began to visit the coveted Europe by most Chinese artists. He had a kind of Western art “baptism” among those museums in Spain, Italy, Germany and France. Anyhow, he experienced the joy of success, even though the styles of those European artists were not his favorite things. He was still nurtured under this “artistic banquet.”

In 1992, Deng Xiaoping’s “The South Tour Speech” confirmed the further development of market economy. He told those people who kept warning the danger of capitalism since 1989 not to debate any issue on capitalism or socialism. “The hard truth only lies in development.” Under a one party system, even one line spoken by the prestigious and powerful leader could change the air or the structure of politics and society. The core of this speech is that it’s meaningless to discuss any ideological thing. The future of this country and nation would be ruined if the country’s economy is not stably and rapidly developed. It was unpleasant for both sides to stop the debate. But for those who thought that it was unnecessary for further debate, it was like an opening or even liberation. Was it meaningful to have the kind of question in essentialism? Fang and his peers asked “We extend our own space, we breathe the air, freely play, daze or gape. Are these behaviors allowed? Will these behaviors be attacked?” These baldhead images filled with ennui could be understood as an irony towards the existing system. But based on the fact that the artist selected himself and his peers as his model, or the analyze of the particular historical context, we could see that self irony is the real meaning in Fang’s artworks. Under the premise of an imagined world as the real world, the artist escapes from the reality that he was incapable to deal, however, this is not an escape without a position. When “Series II” featuring the gape of his baldhead friend was published on the cover of “The Times,” it was added with one ideological slogan “Can this roar rescue China?” The Western world had no confidence in China’s future in 1993, and they doubted that it would explode a severe crisis over the country in the near future. Certainly the Westerners could see the question behind the big gape, thus they used the question mark. But only a few visual images could give an ambivalent aura like Fang’s gape with many possibilities.

Critics Li Xianting later found the historical support for this “ambivalent culture.”

“Cynicism, the cynical humor is a spiritual disengagement. It is not only the icon of the post-89 period but also a traditional method for Chinese intellectuals. We could find many similar examples in Chinese history, in particular during the periods of high political pressures. Those scholars in Wei and Jin dynasties once used unconventional life style to release themselves as a confrontation to political pressures. The ennui and empty feelings expressed through the unconventional and cynical ways was actually an escape for ancient Chinese scholars to deal with the darkness in politics. We find the similar condition in the cynical realism of the 1990s. It is not accidental. We see how cynicism is deeply rooted in the Chinese people, for example, the most popular Laughing Buddha” who laughs at those funny things on this earthy world. It is said that the Buddha’s big belly could tolerate all the unfairness. Seemingly I find some connection between the Laughing Buddha and the cynical baldhead.

The quitting of confrontation enables Fang’s cynical realism and Wang Guangyis’s political pop to form the power of reflection towards reality. Fang emphasized more on the individual’s autarky while Wang collaged historical images with popular symbols. They together finished the deconstruction of essentialism, paving the way for the following gaudy art and a free use in the resources of historical visual images.

In 1993, Fang started to paint water that early appeared in his painting from 1989 to 1990. In the two “Untitled” pieces, we clearly find the vast sea with only a girl in it. The artist purposely conjured up a romantic feeling in his painting while the stretching arms looked more like a recording of his personal feelings. In “Series I”, water inevitably entered into his canvas. Thus his baldheads jumped in the water while the women in the water suggested a seduction.

In 1998 when Fang was introducing his “Canvas Four” to his students, he talked about the relationship of baldhead and water.
“This piece is of critical importance for me. Because I had to decide: one was to choose baldhead and the other was to select water as my subject. I thought if I had chosen water, I might create a very interesting piece, however the visual impact wouldn’t be strong. But as a young artist who wanted to impact the others, obviously water, as a subject, was not that strong. So I decided to paint baldhead, a striking symbol at first. I saved water for future. At that time, my print department didn’t encourage us to paint on canvas. If I had chosen water, the technique would be more difficult.”

As expressed by traditional words, the symbolic trait of water is hard to describe. For him, water was first a puzzle. When he was at the primary school, he played in water and nearly got drowned. I bet that he turned this incident in his subconsciousness. “The pond was quite deep, I immediately got nervous and hurriedly went to the bank. This incident had a strong impact on me. It was not until my third year at the university that I learnt swimming. Since then, I began to understand the multi-meanings of the surfing waves.” The control of water made me feel happy and free. When water was presented through the form of sea, it symbolized the expansion and freedom in heart, like the artist said “unrestrained.” Finally in 1993, Fang was courageous enough to jump into the water, and he felt that he was totally free. Certainly, Fang did have some concerns on technique, because he knew David Hockney had particular understanding and expression on water before. At that time, he was afraid that the image of water was not dynamic enough and his own technique could not deal with the complicatedness of water. So he bet first on the use and expression of baldhead to form his style. Naturally his dealing with water was hesitant before.

“Later I understood. First, Hockney’s water appears too simple for Chinese aesthetics. Secondly, if I was concerned about the repetition, I lacked an developing clue.”

He told his audience that sometimes creating art was akin to take a train. Although passengers for different destinations were on the same train, yet each would get off in different stops to continue their trips. Thus an artist doesn’t need to think whether he could go to his destination. Fang’s understanding of the relation among different style is different from Wang Guangyi’s and other’s expressions. In Ernst Hans Josef Gombrich’s theory, Wang found the impossibility for originality in the late 1980s. But they all accepted the necessity of relation and such relation shouldn’t bother artists whether involved with subject or method. Soon, Fang freely chose water as a subject in his tableau. The year of 1993 was a happy year for him, as he freely “jumped into “ the water with a camera to capture the condition of objects and man beneath the water. He expressed such condition to evoke the sympathy from the others. Water is a simple material, but the meaning of water is ambivalent. According to the politics of ancient Chinese people, water could float but also sink a boat. While in the eyes of Taoist, there is no material like water that gives us power and eternity. Nothing could block the flow of water. Water could wash away or bypass any obstacle. Certainly water could overflow the obstacle and pervade over it without limit. By instinct, this is Fang’s understanding of its trait and he links such understanding in his artworks. So he believed that the others wouldn’t compare his water with Hockney’s water. For those who treat water as dangerous, water becomes a synonym for floating and abyss. Sometimes, Fang has some bewilderment and uneasiness, and then water under his brushstrokes is fused with some ominous omen. In fact, he adds many complicated elements in water, ranging from freedom, danger, openness, uncertainty and even sex. These remind us those feelings of infinity, abyss and endlessness hidden in the dazzling aureole and surfing waves in “Untitled” created in 1984. Later these feelings extend to the vast sky that is formed by abstract aureole with constantly appearing figures and flowers.

Early in “Series Eight,” we find the warmness in the detailed facial expressions. Women are dressed in floral clothes, catering popular taste involved with sex love. The flower patterns on the girl’s clothes are intricately depicted, implying that flower has certain symbolic meanings. Those flowers in different blossoming periods appeared in many paintings created in 1993. They waft a gaudy and evil aura in the tableau. Those born in the 1950s and 1960s are quite familiar with the meaning of flowers. The expression for “Flowers of the Country” was part of their memories. Perhaps initiated by some incidents, Fang started to use flowers in 1993. The huge, blossoming and floating flowers emphasize the wildness and gaudiness of the baldhead images. Through the continuous use of flowers and a combination with red scarves, we could see the complicatedness of the meaning of flowers in Fang’s heart. Similar to the expression of water, the expression and meaning of flowers also come from the unwitting subconsciousness at his early age. In 1998 when he introduced “1993.1”, he said : “This is the outcome of education. We were educated that flowers were related with blessedness when we were still kids. For a long time, I was even uncertain why I always painted flowers and interested in it. This series was created quite earlier, earlier than Li Xianting mentioned the gaudy art. Now I recalled when I was in the college, we were having sketches on flowers. Our teacher told us how to use colors to fully exert the beauty of flowers. But there was a parade of people and cars outside the classroom. Then we heard the gunshots. After the break, we ran out from the classroom, but found nobody there, only some blood on the ground. We usually played or drew sketches near that place. But until then did we realize that it was a place to execute criminal. I think this perhaps was one of the reasons. When the teacher told you how to use the colors to fully exert the beauty of flowers, there was someone outside the window shot to death. The person might deserve it or not, but anyhow a human being was vanished.”

It seems that the meaning of a blossoming flower doesn’t relate to the passing of a person in life.  Particularly in our memory of the early socialism years, flowers were inseparably related with the symbolic meaning of beauty and hope and it had an unquestionable ideological trait. But Fang decided to extend the meaning of flowers into extreme, making them as gaudy as possible. Once people believed that flowers had a perfect touch. Now, the artist thoroughly realized their hope via an artistic way. But as a result, we could hardly believe the truthfulness in flowers, we only find the emptiness and pretense in these flowers echoed with the laughing baldhead and the vast sea.

Fang’s canvas featuring flowers was selected at the 1993 Venice Biennale. He and some of his peers started to become familiar faces at the international art stage. For Chinese contemporary artists, the 1993 Venice Biennale was a milestone, as Chinese artists began to be accepted by the international society and their future was filled with hope. But this biennale was questioned by some of the critics. They warned the artists to mind the issues of post-colonialism and not to be used as a tool for the Western ideological strategy. But it is the 1993 Venice Biennale that promoted Fang to become one of the Chinese representative artists in the Western social and art system, as the arrangement, the colors and aesthetic taste in the paintings were recognized by the Western critics. Apart from one unique symbol in one particular period, another reason for Fang’s acceptance by the Western world is that his art coincided with the confrontation between the Western and Eastern ideology since the post cold-war period. It suits the basic rule of such ideological play, whether name it seriously or randomly, politically or aesthetically, individually or collectively. Since this biennale, Fang frequently attended many international exhibitions later.

Unsatisfied with the working condition at Yuanmingyuan, Fang and some of the artists decided to change their working and living environment. In the winter of 1993, Fang together with Zhang Huiping, Yue Mingjun and Liu Wei moved to the village in Song Zhuang. The result of the moving indicates that Fang’s Bohemian life style was totally ended. Yet the change in the working environment didn’t mean a “harvest” in art. The change only brings a new living surrounding. It is his former experience and confidence that enabled him to fully ponder about his art. Starting from 1995, Fang began to practice the possibility in his experimental print, as his major at the academy was print. But for him, print only offered the possibility in material and technique, and it could not bring a strong visual impact as canvas could. But this didn’t mean it couldn’t give a new visual effect. The artist retained the baldhead and water. In fact, his print renders such an overwhelming power through its overwhelming size. He used an industrial electric saw to create this new effect, while arrangement of black, white and grey hues controlled such experimental practice in a mild aesthetic scope. Because of the open-mindedness towards print and the swift use of the tool, he kept a particular taste in the form of the print. To some extent, the experimental print was only the artist’s hope to have more possibilities and add more funs in his creations.

Until 1997 Fang had always been thinking on how to develop his art under the existing base. He tried many changes. He hid the character under the water or blurred their contours. We all know that we can’t clearly and accurately catch the subject when viewing them beneath the water or outside the water. When the depth of water alters, we can’t fix our subject. When the subjects are cast in different light and shade, we often get dizzy. The visual impression might influence our feelings, because what we could see might relate to what we could imagine. According to the artist, some of his artworks were experiment for the discussion of “memory” and “forgotten” since 1996. The treatment of blurred figures might imply the question of time. At first, the artist thought an air filled with golden hues might suggest the question of time the most, particularly those series filled with colorful aura in 1997, reminiscent of “Untitled” and “Nostalgia”. But the inner warm feelings are no longer reflected through the decorative aureole or the local country environment a decade later. In “1997.4” and “1997.5”, it’s hard for us to judge whether the images floating on the water are adults or child. Fang shuttles between canvas and print, between above and beneath water, between black-and-white and brilliant colors. In this fairly long experimental period, unlike the practice in previous years, Fang was able to directly reflect his subject, hoping to find the starting point through a more abstract issue. Via those golden and blurred images, he tried to tell us today was the memory towards the past, but we can’t present it with certainty. The blurred arrangement is the logistic result. We see not only the fixed factors like baldhead and water, but also the tableau permeated with the golden air, and we could even find the change of the artist’s taste. But can we really link the artist’s starting point with the impact of his artworks?

The context of finding the past memory was revealed in some of his paintings in 1998. The red scarves appeared. Many figures are no longer adults, but the youngsters wearing red scarves. The use of baldhead youngsters with red scarves could be interpreted that the artist is lamenting his memory towards the past. If the scene is accompanied with those blossoming flowers, it is easy for us to fix the context. The “roar” published in the “Times” again appeared in “1998.8.10”. In a backdrop filled with red scarves and flowers, we are more willing to take it as the present memory towards his past. In these artworks, the artist hardly could give a deeper explanation for the relation between today and yesterday or the historical relation between red scarves and flowers. But the reverting of these historical symbols offers some possibilities in deciphering the memory. Most important of all, through red scarves, the hailing scene and the scattered flowers, he concludes the relation between today and yesterday and reflected it in his arrangement. The viewers could have unlimited interpretations without a stop via the blurred the tableau.

Those born in the 1950s or 1960s, often saw colorful balloons flying in the air. In fact, during the national holidays, special celebrations or important political events, those floating and colorful balloons took away our imagination and ideals. Those balloons and the scenes were part of our ideological activities that had been repeated and focused while finally became an eternal memory for several generations. Fang puts the rising flowers to evoke people’s memories towards the past. In order to refresh such memory, he not only dramatically paints his painting through an up-looking angle but also let his “children” fly in the sky. The artist not only enables the viewers to look up into the sky but also brings them on the cloud and the above the mountain. Finally, the memory itself is put aside. The artist changes his plan before “rising.” Up in the sky, he invites people to overlook the world with himself together. We find that the artist proposes again an abstract question. Yet different from his previous works, he provides a new arrangement and worldview. In 2005, the artist rebuilds his joy in a sea of cloud. He takes away the red scarves but retains the images of children who jump and hail in a vast sea of cloud. The perplexed joy conjures up an overwhelming desolation and emptiness through the artist’s depiction. Through emotion and spiritual content, the artist continues the questions of his early “baldhead” and “cynicism” a decade later in his paintings. But at this moment, the artist no longer cares about the ordinary condition of the individual. He proposes the question that faces us: what’s the relationship between people of today and people in history? The artist changes the structure of the space and uses different perspectives to adjust our normal visual angles. He adopts the implication of symbolism as his method and attempts to reflect the idea of time on his canvas.

“The clouds are scattered, forming an illusion to look down through the clouds, all clouds, nothing else behind. The deeper you lost in, the more you find inside. The reserve, change to up to down, with swimmers in the water. Then, no longer the way when I stay in one place to walk or walk through, the background of the work is flat. I made the clouds into a tunnel, a huge hollow hole, then it it real from all point of view. No matter how you hang it, no matter from which side you see it, it has something both in space and time. I turned a plane into a round hole, simply a choaca, it may be near to someone, and far from the others. Then the sense of time formed, not only that of visual space. At that time, people can only ponder and you should change your way, rather than stick to view the cloud in Mount Tai or wait for the sunrise in Beidaihe. The more you see from the partial, the more trueness it shows. Every part is the same as the way you have been used to, in accordance with your normal perspective, but combined together, it became a totally different structure.”

Early in 1996 the artist finished the painting titled “1996.9”. The human figures in the painting were children instead of the baldhead adults. The artist quits the expression towards the living condition and focuses on the infant stage of human beings. In 1997, the young people faintly appeared in the golden hued sea. In 1998, they were cheering in red scarves in the sea of flowers. In 200, they were rising into the sky, as if suggesting the primitive power of ideal.

For Fang, the expression in memory is not originated from literature. Before, he tried to discuss the past through some blurred arrangement. But if the discussion on painting is merely a supposition of knowledge and civilization, then the pursuit for a clear expression might bring new possibility. Gradually he chooses children as the subject. The artist invites us to explore the question of mankind’s life rather than the life of an individual. But could the living condition of different periods share something in common? Doesn’t a newborn baby have hidden problem of his or her own? In “2000.1.5”, a newborn baby appearing between the two fingers to state his surviving condition. In “2004.6”, a newborn baby appearing in the water indicates the relation among water, life and nature. In “2005.8.15”, a newborn baby appearing on the cloud suggests the shadiness of the living environment. Sometimes the artist just wants to eulogize life, then he might put his newborn baby who is clean and pure in the dazzling aureole, and sometimes he just wants to express that even a baby might encounter the mishap in life in his “2005.1”. In fact, it is easy to link baby with the former baldhead image, but the issue that the two involved is different. Those artworks with no cynicism and baldhead just reveal the artist’s new mood of a certain period: freedom, openness and sympathy.

Through the symbolic use of baby, Fang Lijun shares something similar with Zhang Xiaogang. They all agree that the birth of a child is a question. But Fang is more willing to emphasize the trait of life in a general surrounding and the expressions of the character speak for him. Zhang Xiaogang is more enamored in the dramatic aura of the surrounding of a baby. In his eyes, those lights from nowhere form a threat to life itself. At the beginning, the primitive rush might induce one to face his or her real condition, and this is also the reason for the emergence of baldhead. But when one is able to reflect on himself, something more abstract would appear. Flower is not only the outcome of memory but also a true expectation for life. Likewise, a baby is not only the result of blessedness, but also the beginning of question. There is not a singe life that is not the outcome of contradiction even for insects. In his solo exhibition in November 2007, many sundry insects and animals appear in Fang’s paintings. The artist wants to say that this is the real outlook of our world. It is hard for us to state which life is more important. When baby, a symbol for human beings, is riding on a bat in the air, no one could clarify the relationship between them. Another painting featuring a group of crowded children floating on the sea under a “not so brilliantly shined” backdrop, tries to express that it is not important where they are heading, actually the insects and creatures around them from a threat to their fate. It seems that they are anxious and terrified, but all in control. When on closer inspection, we could see some little angles are flying towards them, a lucky omen. But the movement of all kinds of insects and cranes are quite similar, which implies the judgment of the artist towards the value of life doesn’t have exclusive standard. In the history of civilization, there are many stories describing the recognition of life through the sacrifice of another. In other words, any misery or mishap is relative and could be transformed. Through this exhibition, Fang uses sculpture, painting and installation to present his open and free ideas.

From the very beginning, Fang is the kind of the artist who achieves his artistic method through the practice in life. He is totally against the idea that art should be treated as the core in life or some isolated thing. He said “What kind of life you have leads to what kind of art you produce. But I don’t think it is possible that you take the opposite direction life.” Following such logic, Fang doesn’t agree that art has any regulation or art is a concrete form, a pious notion. Art is merely the kind of possibility and expression.

“Art can’t be provisioned. The charisma of art is you have no control on it. Art is not a job. For example, hammer is not a job and it has various functions. Someone earns a living on hammer, someone kills other by hammer and someone protects other via hammer, so it is only a kind of possibility.”

Different from the former understanding of artist, Fang totally eliminates the sacredness and piousness towards artist and art. He puts art and its related questions on a “fair-to-all” level.

“Someone makes art for money. Because he loves money, he becomes artist. But it doesn’t mean that he can’t be a great artist. Someone becomes artist, might because he is a Casanova. But it doesn’t mean that he can’t be a great artist. Take the example of Van Gogh, he just wanted to live an ordinary life if you read his diary. He wanted to marry a hooker and have a child. But no one was willing to marry him. But it didn’t mean that he can’t be a great artist.

This idea comes from certain world view and personal philosophy. If language could function well as a way of communication among people, we could use words like limited and unlimited to state our thought towards art. Fang just tells us these words in a simple way

“All our problem is originated from that we think our living space is too small. We are too terrified to face a world that we have no control. We want to make this world smaller than our own’s. We try different methods. Because once the world is smaller than ours, things will be easier. Then I am relaxed and secured.”

For question like that different artists in the eyes of different observers might lead to different conclusions, Fang emphasizes the importance of the ignored subject with minor importance through another angle.

“The simplest agony of a human being is the limitedness in one’s life and surrounding. You must do something in your limited life and scope. The psycho might be the study focus at asylum or hospital. Likewise, those who are ignored by history are still a focus when chosen for a separate study case. You must know clearly of what you are doing.”

This means that everyone has a starting point, and there is no reason to judge whether such starting point is important or not. This idea goes along well with the artist who deconstructs the metaphysical things when they are about to start their career. The importance is to obtain the freedom through training. Fang’s thought towards freedom is closely linked with his other ideas. Although he is known at first through his focus on individuality, yet now he doesn’t think there exists an absolute self.
“Today we are talking about selfhood, which I think is nonsense. Physically you are not willing to come to this world, because you don’t have the demand. But someone forces you to come to this world. Also you are not inborn with your spirituality. Let us conduct an experiment. We send a child to Israel and let him grow up there. I bet he will hate strongly against the Palestinian when he grows up. Likewise, if we send him to Palestine, he will terribly hate against the Israelis when he grows up. So you don’t have your spirituality. That’s why I said before selfhood is nonsense. But although you don’t have the selfhood, you can’t deny selfhood. We say a man’s desire is unlimited and the world is also unlimited, but one can’t pursue such infinity even one is omnipotent. We were still ignorant when we were in the 1980s, but our desire looped. I had to pursue in all directions yet with no gains, as I didn’t have the capacity. But back in 1989, the luck plus all energy, power and spirituality, the target was fixed and the work started. It is much easier. The so-called freedom doesn’t exist. I think I find more freedom if I find a target. Why? I could “attack” this target from all directions freely. I could smile or be angry at it, or even pretend not to have any connection with it. At that time, I have only one target and I am quite free. Because I am free in choosing my methods. However if I have to face one hundred targets to guard against, I lose my freedom. If I hesitate and consider again and again, then I lose my power. Thus our angle and position decide our judgment.”

Because of the limitedness in freedom, Fang is clear that he could obtain more freedom through training. He calls those freedom without training as “uncontrolled freedom,” as such freedom would not lead to real art, but rather turns someone into maniac. “Once water is splashed out of the utensil, it becomes free yet could never be withdrawn.” But the controlled freedom could be obtained through training. When talking about our historical background, people of the 1980s were free. For those people who have control or could be controlled, they are free. For those who have no control or couldn’t be controlled, they are totally lost. During 1989 and 1990, the controlled freedom also existed. But for the uncontrolled freedom, it was akin to a prison, like the concrete is cast into the bricks, there is no possibility of any kind. So I feel it is impossible to discuss freedom without the base of man. When mentioning about man, there are only two possibilities for freedom, that is training.” We can’t say that we don’t have problems ahead. But we could switch and transform these problems through training. After years of training, Fang expresses his profound understanding towards the individual living condition and the existence of man. He understands the importance of water. He interprets and understands that under what kind of circumstance relativity is reasonable. He understands the limitedness in life and is able to approach the problem of infinity. In his realistic style, there is no method better than the flat painting, homochromous and simple contours. But there are few methods that are complicated like Fang’s: contradictory, inexplicable with no alternative. It is neither good nor evil, neither ugly nor beautiful. Through his talents, Fang confirms the relationship that needs continuous deciphering, In his eyes, once an artist’s work results in a unlimited relation, his art levels up to another grade. Such thought is reminiscent of the ancient Chinese philosophy. The ancient Chinese people use a direct way to understand life and world. Different from other artists, Fang doesn’t treat art as something totally away from his life. In his eyes, everyone could make his life and work into an art piece if he is willing to do that. In his early years, he is a representative of the cynical realism. He freezes those historical questions through his classical visual image so that the viewers could find the historical symbols. Later, he reveals the truth in life: there is no one who is superior to another, but there is no life that could be consumed waywardly. The function of art is just to open the possibility in life.

Although words like democratic and au pair are quite hazy. We still understand its basic meaning in a certain historical period. But this doesn’t mean that the talent and IQ of the people are equal. The virtual existence of human beings is pushed by the result of unbalanced development, and the reason for such imbalance is the capacity hidden deeply inside one’s soul and the power endowed to the artists by the civilized society. Fang again suggests these questions, and he emphasizes that an artist should have sensitivity and other attainment.

Artist has an inborn advantage: artist is the only group of a human society that could arrogantly swear that others could not replace his position. There is no other occupation like artist who can be so arrogant. Thus the success of the artist is filled with inborn advantage. But many who engage in the area don’t discover their inborn advantage, and it’s natural that they are not successful. For those artists who are not successful, he definitely doesn’t find such inborn advantage either. However, there are some artists succeed, even in the eyes of the others, they are stupid and of low IQ. The reason is simple, as he finds the inborn advantage. He could swear, “I am the only one, and I can’t be replaced.” Because human nature is almost the same, no matter how aggressively he hails that he can’t be replaced, it is understandable. Through such combination and relation, even a fool could be successful in the art community. Certainly, there are also some artists who are successful even they don’t realize it in theory, yet by luck they just practice it in life. In fact, the occupation of an artist becomes a job to please others, as you don’t dare to challenge your boss or the system with questions on education, ethic, religion, system. You are not courageous enough to speak out those words in your heart. Or because of such limitation, you can’t act like me who am unique. You are just one of the 600 million people. But all the words or actions spoken or made by artist actually represent the desire of all human beings. On this platform, those who are able to voice such desire more profoundly and sharply, they are doomed to succeed.

The importance of Fang in the contemporary art history could be interpreted through the artist’s statement and logic, or in other words, we are able to experience how he paves his own path through his ideas. 

Fang Lijun’s recent artworks with brilliant hues are huge and extending. When these art pieces gather together, any exhibition hall will be filled with vitality through a fiery aura. Grand backdrop, abundant power and romantic colors appear in his paintings. Apart from paintings, Fang also tries sundry expression modes, in particular those baby sculptures. The babies with rich expressions have different postures. The baby sculptures, installation and his paintings interpret one another mutually, which enhance the vigor of his artworks and shape them into a passionate whole.

What kind of whole is it? Nearly all Fang’s artworks involve with his pondering towards life, as if he is tortured by its enigma. Questions like birth, existence, decrepitude and the re-circle in life are filled in his tableau. Such pondering and the dramatic tension that initiated by it make his artwork full of passionate. The brilliant hues, fast moving and crowded competition conjure up an aura akin to the vigor radiated from a thousand-man army, expressing the spurting and competing of zing. In fact, he is concerned about people and life itself in his early pieces. But in his early pieces, life is formed by consciousness. Viewers can find that life is being put under a special and detailed historical backdrop. In other words, due to the function of a special historical backdrop, life is naturally to be expressed in such way. Rather than focusing on life itself, such expression mode directly criticizes the social and historical backdrop. Today the historical background gradually fades away. Fang becomes more abstract and confronts the abstract aspect of life. He attempts to ponder about common questions of life instead of rendering a historical criticism through the unveiling of life itself. He is not merely thinking about man, he thinks about the entire living thing. He extends the scope of living thing to animals, ranging from bird, insect to fish and beast. In other words, when thinking about people, he is not put them under the historical background. But instead, he puts them into the relation and comparison with animals. At first he asked how a man would look like if he is put under a special historical background, but today he asks how a man would look like if he is put beyond any historical background. What is man in common sense? Why man is man? What is its real meaning?

For a long time, men have repeatedly separated themselves from animals. Man is called man because he shakes off animalism. However, we will still ask what is the difference between man and animal? Is man so different from animals? This is just Fang’s starting point. There are many animals appeared in his artworks. These animals and people mingle together. Sometimes man is surrounded with animal groups or man is wearing a human face and fanning wings; while sometimes man is flying with animals. There even appears centaur in his tableau.

All these flying and running animals in Fang’s paintings are strongly impressive. The animals are flying so hard as if it is their destiny. Crane, swan, fly, insect, all these kinds of animals dominate the canvas. They are desperately flying one after another, as if they are competing with each other. Such flying unwittingly shapes a spire, similar to the spire of the black hole. Seemingly they are flying towards the spire of the black hole, a timeless black hole. Some of Fang’s paintings are so huge as if the artist wants to leave a capacious flying space for his animals, the unaccountable animals and for all the living things. Isn’t such chasing a merely chasing towards an unlimited black hole? Won’t the black hole swallow everything that rushes in? Isn’t such chasing a rush towards the dark and silent world? All kinds of insects, birds and beasts with elegant and glamorous colors in his tableau are congested for a beautiful vision. All these reveal the vanity and the glamour of life. No matter what kind of animal, man or insect, their existence is so shining. No matter how they compete, how brilliant they are, they are doomed to be controlled by one common ending. They contribute their common existing mode such as competing, running and chasing to that final ending. Not a single living thing will leg behind others in this competition; Not a single living thing will not be chased by others and not a single living thing will not chase others. Perhaps chasing, flying and running are the nature of any living thing. If without the final swallowing spire, such chasing and flying are just poetic and free. But life is not a romantic process, as even this romance has its final “black-hole-like” ending.

Obviously man and animal share the same destiny in Fang’s art pieces. Animal and man are chasing and flying together, and basically they have no difference at this point. Likewise, there is no difference between ugly fly and beautiful swan. It is the common existing mode for all the living things. Furthermore, once man and animal are treated the same, or in other words, when man is treated like animal, then sometimes man loses dignity. Man treats man the same way as animal treats animal. Some people treat other people like animals, and this is not rare in the history of mankind, because man can be treated waywardly like a tiny insect. The critical reason for the repeated savage massacres in history is that man was treated like animal, animal ready to be killed. This is the extreme when man is treated like animals, and many people are killed in an instant moment. At the same time, other men are living like animals and their fate is totally controlled by others. They lose their right of protection, the so called human rights. Such animal or man is like a slave in hard labor; and such man or animal never disappears in the history of mankind. No one is responsible for such creature. To kill a creature like this is the same as to tread down an insect. Man is turning into insect, which sounds familiar in Franz Kafka’s novels. Man is akin to animal. Here in Fang’s artworks, besides sharing the chasing existing mode, man is also shared with the same political status as animals, or in other words, man is living in this world without any dignity. The fate of all the living things is controlled by others, the same as animals. Fang creates many sculptures featuring people, and these people are so tiny, so ignored, so lack of smiles, vitality or individuality that they appear like animals without any individual dignity in the world. This is an obvious effect of the assimilation between man and animals: countless people are just akin to those busy and moving ants.

Apparently Fang attempts to re-think about the relation between man and animal. Some of his new artworks profoundly reflect a shared destiny of man and animal: chasing, running and the hardships of a tiny creature. On the other hand, some of his artworks are still pondering the difference between man and animal: is there another aspect, a better one of the animal that has not been shared by man?

Sometimes animal is more free than man. Animal doesn’t have historical and time consciousness like man does. Man is rationally caged from time to time. They are caged in history, death and the limit of time. Such limit of time often makes them desperate, because all the living things are moving towards death. This is the puzzle of existence and time. On the contrary, animal is never tortured by the consciousness of death. It is self-supplying and totally satisfied. Martin Heidegger once said that animals are never “worried.” Many of Fang’s new art pieces express man’s consciousness towards the limit of time. He often puts man in a locked cage, while he puts all kinds of flying insects and animals under the unlimited sky with cloud. This forms a striking contrast in his artworks. The baby sculptures are often caged, or bound up in frames, fettered in a long pipe or a huge rope. Babies and kids are tied while birds are flying; Babies and kids are confined while birds are galloping; Babies and kids are controlled while birds are free. Seemingly, Fang sets them in an opposite way with birds. Man, perhaps from childhood, is doomed for tragedy. These babies are caged and their destiny is the destiny of a cage. We could even say that the fate of man starts from the fate of a cage. Fang acutely captures man’s limit in space. Moreover, he observes man in the time process, thus the fate of man is divided by time scale. Man lives through the time scale. Fang describes man in the dual bondage of time and space. Those people on the cloud or in the water are surrealistic, because that’s the territory of bird and fish. Fang puts man in the condition of the animals, perhaps that’s the ideal condition for man in his eyes. Maybe man should not live here, but in an alien land, the alien land for animals.

There are many babies and kids appear in Fang’s works. Why babies and kids? Because they are more close to animals, they are innocent, simple and pure. They are not “polluted” by the adult’s sense, the historical and political environment. They are more close to the originality of life. But different from animals, when babies and kids grow up and approach to the ending, they always encounter various corrections, including lecturing, punishment and reconstruction. The natural purity in babies and kids is often lost, which is controlled by something beyond. Even culture itself is a domestication of animalism in man. Friedrich Nietzsche once said that man is the kind of animal that is culturally domesticated. The images of babies and kids in Fang’s works are the domesticated ones. They are often caged with an old face. They have a kind of maturity that doesn’t match with their body. Sometimes they have an adult-like face. The mechanical and sapless face suggests the beginning of reconstruction from a pure life. To some extent, it is also the ending of reconstruction and agedness. The face of a baby or a kid is decorated with an aged one, isn’t this a consistently boring destiny of existence?

In the relation between man and animal, Fang reflects his two thinking modes: the unlimited chase in fate and the unfair treatment in destiny are shared the same by man and animal. But with regard to the process of growing, man is different from animal. Man is reconstructed in the growing period, caged in time and space, while the growing of animal is an indulgent process. Man and animal are doomed to die. But death comes into the consciousness of man and burdens man. It is due to such consciousness that adds the heaviness to man’s fate. While animals never realize death, so they are free. While man is doomed to be caged, so man wants to fly, yet what man could do is only to “borrow” wings from animals and live in their territory. Man also needs to “borrow” their cloud, water, and other things that man can never have.