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

In Conversation with Pin San:

Dust thou art, to dust returnest

Introduction: Pin San was born in Yugan, Jiangxi Province an important Taoist Town in 1982. Free artist Pin San is full of longing for living in seclusion in the mountains and forests far away from the disturbance of the city through his personal visit to the local fairyland. This has always been one of his artistic inspiration sources. In November 2021, Mr. Pin San was invited to participate in the activities of ICCI cultural and creative valley UNKNOWN REALITY.

JC: First of all, it’s a great honor for me to interview you. Last year, you held an art workshop in the ICCI, which was highly praised by the students. The charm of art highly affected the students in our ICCI, as they enjoyed the UNKNOWN REALITY curated by Dean Zhang and Mr. Pei. How did the cooperation between you and ICCI begin?

PINSAN: This cooperation began because I was invited by Mr. Sun of ICCI. At that time, I held a solo exhibition in Baolong Art Center, and left a great impression for them. Then crews in ICCI successively went to see this solo exhibition. They felt it was ok, so they talked about it with me and I was invited. I also think that especially in your school, I was in good condition and made some works at that time, some new ideas come out.

JC: What were those new ideas?

PINSAN: My previous works and my current works mainly come from those contents of Chinese traditional folk art, but I have made some new breakthroughs in the materials used, which is different from my previous works. In my previous works, I used the traditional method similar to Fujian bodiless lacquerware, which is, molding the embryo with clay or gypsum, using Chinese Lacquer as adhesive, and then inlaying colors and decorations after molding. Then this time when I did it in your school, I used a lighter material, that is, I made two works with resin and fiberglass. I think this material is very good. So I said at that time that the development of science and technology has brought convenience to creation. I found the wonderful use of this material in the video on Douyin. There is a kind of thing that uses this kind of fiberglass to make a car model on Douyin. The finished product is very light but still very strong, so I also used this material in two works I made in ICCI. In my opinion, the characteristics of this material are its small weight, strong hardness and transparency. The design of my work needs lights to pass through, so it just caters to some things I want to express.

JC: I noticed that you did some large-scale works from 2015 to 2016, such as Fairyland Homeland. But since 2018, your creation is more inclined to oil painting or small sculpture. What is the reason for your change?

PINSAN: In fact, my works are not fixed on large works or small works, but they are carried out at the same time. From 2020 to 2021, I have done large-scale installation works. I think when making large works, I should also be interspersed with some small works, such as the creation of small sculptures and oil paintings. For me, it can form a kind of complementarity. For example, I may choose some two-dimensional oil paintings or small works that can be placed on the desktop. This kind of works is easier to control than large devices. The creation of big works requires more physical strength and some coincidental inspirations. For example, I have the inspiration of the work Fairyland Homeland, because I found a dead tree by coincidence. And made a work based on the dead tree.

Taigu Observation 55x95x82cm Comprehensive materials 2020

JC: I found that in many of your works, you put the characters in a natural environment far larger than the size of the characters themselves. For example, in the oil paintings of landscape series, although there are characters in some paintings, the characters often occupy only a small part of the picture. For another example, in the work of Taigu observation, people are placed in a small mountain cave. Is the source of this creativity Buddha cave? For you, what kind of relationship do you want to express between man and nature?

PINSAN: I think the visual expression of Chinese style is different from that of the West. In our traditional Chinese ink painting and landscape painting, characters are only an element of the landscape. This is different from western art. Characters in western art occupy the main position, because for them, people are the main body. But in traditional Chinese painting, the whole scenery or the whole nature is the main body. Therefore, in my series of landscape paintings, the character is only a small element of nature.

At the same time, I was also influenced by the grottoes. Before these works were born, I went to Gansu province. There is a landform over there called Yadan landform, which touched me very much. There is a desolate, strange and continuous terrain. The environment there is full of raised stones. It is very different from the green mountains and green waters in our South. I felt the great creativity of nature as a creator there. Just like those strange stones, although they stand abruptly and alone on the land, they are integrated with the environment, and they are not alone.

JC: In your works, there are both the simplicity and purity of folk art, such as the ceramic sculpture series of figures and animals, and even some elements of primitive art. At the same time, your works also contain the interest of landscape in Taoist such as Fairyland Homeland. How do you integrate the two?

PINSAN: I live in a place with a strong flavor of Taoist culture. I have been influenced since I was a child. I feel very much about this folk content element, but there was no channel for me to express. But since I came into contact with art, especially the time when I studied with my teacher, Mr. Xia Yang, gave me the opportunity to combine thought and expression.

JC: In other words, your life experience has brought you such a feeling of both? In your works, there are often elements of gods, ghosts or magical creatures. Especially in the work Travel in Zhongshan, you even directly use Yanhui’s painting with the same name. Also, in the work of Living Beings, there is also a mythical image similar to Nuwa, the goddess with snake tail and human body. Why did you choose these ghost elements? What role do these elements play in the expression of the work?

PINSAN: These elements come from all kinds of fairy tales told by my elders when I was a child. I like this kind of things since I was a child. At the same time, I am less influenced by western academic art style and more influenced by folk art. So when I was creating, these familiar elements appeared in my mind.

Divinity Will Disappear 160x56x120cm Comprehensive materials 2020

JC: You just mentioned that you don’t have so many feelings about western ideas, but as far as I know, one of your sculpture works has a very unique topic. In 2020, your Divinity Will Disappear contains the element of cross. What prompted you to choose this element?

PINSAN: In my family, my mother and my sister all believe in Christianity. This is an impact of foreign culture, especially in recent decades, on Chinese culture.

I am not a Christian myself, nor do I believe in any religion. This difference in faith between me and my family gave me some inspiration. In this family atmosphere, I will think about why people believe in God. In my opinion, the vast majority of beliefs are mixed with some exchange of interests, especially the Chinese who seem to believe in Western religions. Their beliefs are not as pure as those of Westerners. In other words, the Chinese people have no real religious beliefs. Therefore, through this work, I want to express people’s real noble belief is very rare, and even basically disappeared. And now the so-called belief is actually the performance of interest exchange. This is how my family makes me feel.

I don’t want to compare Eastern culture with western culture, but that pure belief seems to have no soil in China. This may be influenced by the Confucian doctrine of the mean. There is no absolute, only relative. There is no pure, only mixed with all kinds of thinking and feelings. There is no good or bad, this is culture.

JC: Your description of gods and ghosts reminds me of the description of monsters and ghosts in the cultures of other countries, such as the monster culture of Japan. For you, did you absorb similar ideas from abroad in the process of creation?

PINSAN: Recently, I was locked up at home because of the epidemic, and I also created some works based on novels in Japan. I think their story is different from that of China，like the tree monster. But their stories are still not as profound as China, nor as ancient and primitive as China. So I just selectively absorb some. I have also read ancient Chinese monster novels, such as Shanhaijing, Liaozhaizhiyi and Jinghuayuan. But my reading is not for research, but for generating a sense of art.