INTERVIEW
Interview with Qiming Liu
99 Art: Hello, Mr. Liu. I am Yue Ru from 99 Art. This interview is part of our project Contemporary Art in Progress. What we are doing now will become part of history. Recording the present can provide a useful reference for future scholarship and the writing of art history. First, when did you begin making art?
Qiming Liu: I would say around 1995, when I graduated from university. After graduating, though, I did not work as a professional artist. I taught at universities until 2006, when I resigned and came to Beijing to make work as an independent artist. As you say, everyone lives within history and creates history through their life, like the butterfly effect. Some people express it, and some do not.
99 Art: Where did you teach?
Qiming Liu: At two institutions. After graduation, I went to Aba Teachers College in Wenchuan County, the epicenter of the May 12 earthquake. In 2001, I moved to Southwest University of Science and Technology in my hometown, Mianyang, and taught there until 2006.
99 Art: What changed when you moved from teaching to being a professional artist?
Qiming Liu: The change probably had most to do with how I organized my time, because I had always been painting and doing work I enjoyed. When you are employed by an institution, however, your primary profession is teaching. Your central responsibility is to your students, so you devote considerable energy to teaching and learning and to communicating with them. Repeating basic teaching tasks both takes up time and can alienate you. The rigid discipline of when classes begin and end is like clocking in and out. As a professional artist, those restrictions on time disappear. You can make work whenever you want; no one imposes a schedule on you. That is the difference. I have more freedom now, relatively speaking.
99 Art: You came to Beijing in 2006?
Qiming Liu: Yes, in 2006.
99 Art: Did you come straight to the 318 art district?
Qiming Liu: I went from 798 to Suojiacun. 798 was becoming more and more like a zoo. Suojiacun was continually threatened with forced demolition, which made people anxious. I also wanted a larger space, so I came to 318 in 2008.
99 Art: How did you find the environment in Beijing?
Qiming Liu: Beijing is very good. People have different dispositions; as the saying goes, like attracts like. Back home, in a particular place in Sichuan, you might be the only person whose interests, personality, and intensity of commitment do not fit with those around you. You cannot settle into that environment, and life is not very enjoyable. In Beijing, there are more people who share your interests. They gather from everywhere, and life becomes interesting.
99 Art: So a circle formed.
Qiming Liu: You could call it a circle. [Laughs.] Though I generally do not like that term.
99 Art: The first half of 2009 has already passed. Have your works this year changed in style or quantity compared with those you made before 2008?
Qiming Liu: Yes. In the past few years, the market was good, but most artists could hardly be described as wealthy and still faced the question of making a living. When more people like the work you are making, you may continue working in that vein to meet collectors’ demand and your own financial needs. That can be unavoidable and frustrating, because exploring new artistic forms costs money. For me, the interesting thing is that I have felt particularly good over the past six months. I was already at a point of consciously adjusting my practice, and the financial crisis happened to coincide with it, giving me the opportunity to undertake many experimental art projects.
I had planned several years ago to make performances, experimental videos, documentaries, and installations, but I had not had much time to carry out those plans. Now the timing is right. I have made relatively fewer paintings this past half-year and devoted more time to new materials and forms of expression that I had long wanted to try. I have edited two films so far, which I find very interesting. Two years ago I could never have found the time. Editing these two films independently took more than four months, often working through the night. I feel very good about it.
99 Art: So the financial crisis has actually created an opportunity for your work, giving you more time to try new forms?
Qiming Liu: I think so. I have more time to study what I was already doing in depth and to explore new things. That is an objective fact.
99 Art: What exhibitions are you planning for the second half of this year?
Qiming Liu: Last year, two solo exhibitions were planned for this year, but both have been postponed or put on hold because of the financial crisis. Their dates still have not been confirmed. One was to be in France, the other in 798.
99 Art: Are your group exhibitions generally in China or abroad?
Qiming Liu: More often abroad, less often in China.
99 Art: So the solo exhibitions are postponed for now.
Qiming Liu: Yes, postponed.
99 Art: If you could sum up your current creative state in a word or sentence, what would it be?
Qiming Liu: Excited! It feels very similar to when I first came to Beijing. I feel excited all the time.
99 Art: Is that because of the work you are making now?
Qiming Liu: Yes. It is like the release I felt when I moved suddenly from a repressive, regulated institutional life to a freer life in Beijing. That is how I feel now.
99 Art: Another period of release?
Qiming Liu: Yes, with more time to do things independently.
99 Art: Thank you very much for speaking with us.