Curatorial Thinking and Writing, offered by ICCI, is designed to develop students’ critical writing skills in the professional context of art curation and animate contemporary art discourse through the medium of writing. The course is taught by Professor Travis Jeppesen. This is the second interview in a series of artist interviews conducted by ICCI MFA students of Class 2021.

In Conversation with Ru Ruping:

The Aesthetics of Nature

Ru Ruping, formerly known as (Chen Ruping), graduated from the Central Academy of Fine Arts. She is the founder of seed creation, a writer and practitioner of rural life. She founded seed creation / seeds creation (formerly known as a plant masterpiece) in 2014. In 2016, she returned to rural Fujian to explore various possibilities of the combination of plant and life. She has been committed to the practice and dissemination of plant life aesthetics for many years. She regularly launches original design products related to plants (many of which have won national patents), and writes publications such as "better to be a plant", "breathe in the forest · dry plant", "breathe in the forest · immortal plant" and "breathe in the forest · indoor green plant".

Shuhan: Can you briefly introduce what you are doing now?

Ruping: What we do, in a word, is spread plant aesthetics through original design, exploring the establishment of a beautiful relationship between man and nature.

Shuhan: What kind of coincidence made you start to make plant aesthetic products? Why do you want to create with plants?

Ruping: Because of the discovery of immortalized plants, I think the relationship between plants and human beings can have more possibilities – not only potted flower art, but also through the art of painting.

Shuhan: Then why choose plants? Why do you want to create with plants?

Ruping: A big reason is that I hope to use a medium that can be accepted by everyone. I find that I like plants very much. In daily life, most people generally don't hate plants unless they are physiologically allergic to pollen. Therefore, I hope to use plants as a medium to convey the artistic ideas I want to express.

Because I studied the history of art during my undergraduate time, I am more clearly aware that in this era, art is pulled down from the altar. It cannot stay in the spiritual consumption or spiritual recreation of the elite as before. Art should step down from the altar and enter the spiritual consumption of the middle class, so I choose plants as a medium because I think plants are closer to the public and people themselves. I think that human beings have a higher acceptance of plants than art forms such as oil painting and traditional Chinese painting, and there is no threshold.

Shuhan: What is your current creative idea?

Ruping: At present, there are quite a lot of creative ideas, because we have two directions. One is the development planning of brand seed creation, and the other is mine. Now I have been focusing on the embossing process, which is actually a kind of intangible cultural heritage, but we all know very little about it. Then we may further study the large ware next year, the combination of embossing and lacquer. Because lacquer is actually a characteristic intangible cultural heritage process in Fujian, but many Fujian people don't understand it or have even heard of it. It's a pity. I hope to say that we first establish a certain popularity with users, and then, on this basis, we combine the atmospheric technology through the existing products and works, and then let more people know big paint. This is also a small starting point.

Of course, we always hope that through the medium of plants, more people can feel some natural and comfortable natural growth or healing like plants in the fast-paced urban life. In fact, this is our essence. Many users regard us as creative gift brands. It is because our things are not only beautiful, but also contain many cultural and creative things, seed creations. Then this thing will become what a lot of people want. When they buy it to give it away, they have a feeling of light ceremony but heavy affection. On the contrary, this thing is more attractive than many valuable gifts.

Shuhan: Which artist has had the most influence on you? Can you tell me why?

Ruping: Xu Bing. I think a big reason is not only because he is our vice president, but also because we have listened to his classes. More importantly, I think he is an approachable person, and his artistic concept directly affects my choice. In fact, the Academy of Fine Arts has two schools. One school thinks that art is something many people can't understand. They interpret art as a kind of social currency. A group of people can understand it. A group of people auction there and a group of people buy and sell it there. Therefore, many people say they can't understand art exhibitions. Then another faction, they think that art that cannot be understood is not good art, that is, it needs to come from life and be higher than life.

Then, I personally think that if you are doing artistic creation, you yourself mean painting at home. How you want to draw is a development. Then it doesn't matter how you want to draw when you study your own ambition. It doesn't matter if others don't understand it because you're just happy. However, if you have the opportunity to make an exhibition for the public, I hope he should play the role of enlightening the public's wisdom, one development and one enlightenment. I think both of them are equally important.

I think Xu Bing's works reflect the problem of this system. He has been reminding all mankind of some problems in this era. I think this thing has also been reminding me. Although I am a seed, now I put my identity as a personal artist first, because after all, I am not a rich second generation. I can't say that I can be so idealistic and always do art. Then I will think that I will first do a good job with my husband to make this brand profitable. Now it has been slowly rising. Then, we can go to the next step to realize our personal life ideals. So, in fact, we will not only be others in this brand. At the beginning, we have a beautiful impression of us, but later we find it very interesting. Then after we buy it back, we find that wow, super warm, because they are all handicrafts, so in fact, on the premise of ensuring beauty, we should have more cognitive commonalities and emotions with human beings and produce more resonance. Similarly, when I create my own works later, I will certainly take on more responsibilities and obligations like teacher Xu Bing. I think artists should do this in our era.