Interview｜On Behalf Of: Ge Yulu

A: In fact, from my subjective point of view, I don’t know if it’s considered plagiarism, but it’s a kind of copying. I think many of the artists I admired this time are also the lights that showed me the way forward and accompanied me in my growth. I really like many of these works. So when we sketch or other creative works, there is a learning stage to copy, right? All the pre-test classes will look for standard classical works, such as copying, so why is there no copying in this concept of contemporary art, or even in this performance, or in these other fields, since it still belongs to the category of art? Therefore, I would like to use this so-called masterpiece to copy a classic work to see. I thought what remnants of this kind of technically removed works are still there in the level of copying, which may be close to art, or some other threshold things in it. In fact, when I was doing it, I found that it was quite difficult to restore.

This work is another way for me to experience Liliao’s work again. In the past, I just went to see it, but this time I’m going to do it. I want to ask him why he did it that way, and there are a lot of feelings when you do it. This work by Liliao is a reminder of Wuhan. He received a slap in the face in Wuhan’s Guanggu Square. It just so happens that I am from Wuhan, and at that time I went back to Wuhan for the New Year, so I went back to that location. Then I found out that the work had already started at the stage of asking people out, and I had to ask Liliao how to ask them out. Then I found out that I didn’t have the same reliability as Liliao, and that you have to communicate with people when you ask them. I said slap me, many people smacked and then touched me on the face. I don’t know what kind of communication Liliao used, but people slapped me especially hard. So this is essentially the same as the artist mastering the material. It’s like I don’t know how to paint, but Liliao is very good at mastering paint, so he can paint very well. But my mastery of the object is very low, so the object is just a touch on my face without a trace. So in this process I had to communicate repeatedly, emphasize repeatedly, and still have to train this object. I said no, buddy you have to be a little more ruthless, you beat me to death and so on. Even I have to be a little nonchalant way to strengthen his emotions ah and so on and so forth. In fact, all these technical details are very interesting. There are even some subjective feelings, because before I just watched XX with his eyes closed, and then he always described a work as a kind of, or we would also say a sudden hunger. Of course, I understand his narrative level, but when I really close my eyes, I do not know when the slap will come to my face, that kind of anticipation and fear and uncertainty of waiting, is to close my eyes and do not know when the pain will come at once, that is still a kind of wonderful feeling.

This is what you can’t feel if you don’t copy, and it really restores a feeling of having copied the classics in the exam prep class. The clothes are very good, but you just look at it and don’t paint it little by little, you don’t know how interesting and subtle the work is in some parts, and it needs some wisdom. So from these perspectives, I am also very rewarding, and the other thing is that I am actually emptying myself when I do this thinking. Because I am not present in it, although I am doing it, but from the concept to the idea is Liliao’s. So I am not present in the scene. So I’m on the scene and I don’t exist. So it is also a response to the masterpiece, and we should always expect the masterpiece, not limited to a certain coordinate point in the past.

Q: The way this exhibition was made is also rather special, it was finally chosen to be hung on a very high scaffolding, so that people must look up to see it.

A: In fact, it is also because the height of the Qiao Space is very high. If the basic work is low in a space with a high floor, it always seems to be a bit unbalanced inside the space, and the top will press the bottom. When I entered the space, especially when it was blank, I felt that I didn’t know how to balance the work with the space visually. So I thought it was good to have a higher space at that time. The second one is that it is good to be higher, because a classic work is hanging on the altar of God, which also shows my sublime tribute to Liliao’s work. Master Li guided my way forward, so hanging so high also feels like such a feeling, vaguely want to express a kind of flirtatious meaning. Of course, after hanging it out, I think it’s good, it’s quite therapeutic for cervical spine, and I feel that there is a different way to watch this video with my head tilted. The work is still the same work, but the whole thing is still interesting, an experiment.

Q: When you chose who to copy, did you have a particular artist in mind that you wanted to copy and exhibit with?

A: I actually wanted to copy the works of several artists at the earliest, and I liked the works of many of them. For example, Hu xx’s Art Museum and Li xx’s Free Farming. In fact, I would like to experience all of them. When you see good works, you will be jealous, and you will say why I didn’t make such good things, I think any artist will have similar impulses. So I wish I had made it, but I know they did, but I can still experience it again in a way that’s justified by the tribute of copying, and I think that’s fine. It’s obviously not the same as the kind of copying that hides, and the people involved don’t feel angry, they don’t feel offended, they feel happy. I actually wanted to copy a lot, but in the end, one of the considerations is time: the whole time is not that long, and if the copy is not sufficient, it takes time to copy the work. And then there are some material limitations: for example, the free cultivation of Li xx, I think the relationship between that piece of land and him is very difficult to restore. Because it was left behind by his father, the material itself is unique. First of all, it was very difficult for me to get this material, because I thought I could roll around in any pond. But then I felt that it is not a materialized thing, and there is something spiritual and inherited in it that makes you feel different about the land. So I think it became very difficult to copy, and I couldn’t get such a material. I couldn’t find the classic version of Huxx’s work. And the details of his movements I think need a lot of time to rehearse his performance style. As for the venue, I think it is secondary in his work, just find a piece of wall, I would think that even if I find Hu xx’s original work and rehearse a lot in the mirror, it may not be realistic for a certain angle. Finally, after thinking about it, I felt that Li X was the closest, and I am also in Wuhan, I am also from Wuhan, and my feelings for Wuhan Guanggu Square and Liliao are also quite similar. And for this sudden slap, I think it is largely reproducible, because he does not limit the specific person and Liliao is what the story is, slapping him a slap. He just stressed that it was a stranger, so these aspects I think are, including the Internet can find Liliao’s film, so it is also very convenient to be able to study the original, so these factors led to the final choice of Liliao this piece.

Q: Do you think that because you just said there are a lot of people who want to copy, you would like to develop the copy into a series?

A: In fact, many people have done it, the impression seems xxxxx have done it. Let’s say there is learning xx of jd rabbit, not remember correctly. So this thing itself as a work to pour may have happened, but he as a personal to me, is to experience a work, to enter a work, to meet their curiosity, I think it is still quite meaningful a thing. I don’t know what will happen afterwards. It’s possible that Liliao’s work will bring me an experience that I don’t know what kind of chemical effect it will have in the future.