Grammar
A dialogue between Henna Joo and Miao Xiaochun

February 2015

J: What does painting mean to you?
M: I have no idea when humans first started painting, but it is certainly one of the most precious and ancient parts of our artistic heritage. I believe it has endured the course of human existence and will endure even after humans are gone. Each generation, each nationality has different methods of painting; it was like this in the past as it is now and in the future.

J: Your painting refers to Pieter Bruegel’s “The Triumph of Death”, but can you tell how you created it with computer?
M: This work, “The Triumph of Death”, involved two transformations. The first was the transfer of all the figures in Bruegel's painting to my 3D model, and then adding three new characters: a director or camera man, a sound man and a script supervisor—I turned the scene in the painting into a movie set. It’s a metaphor for real life: it's a feeling of "virtual death" which we experience countless times through works of film and television. The second transformation involves transforming all of these characters into various colors to build up a brilliant or vibrant picture which is seemingly unrelated to death, but actually does bear some relationship—it is now not a triumph of death but a triumph of color.

J: A core concept of your video works is to employ or reference historic painting. How exactly do you select these historic works?
M: I haven’t made any deliberate choices of paintings. For a long time. I asked my assistants to transform as many historic works as possible into 3D models for use at a later time, the more the better. Just like the Chinese saying “even a clever housewife cannot cook a meal without rice” I need to create a virtual world before produce something substantial.

J: I can pick out three different styles of painting within your works—how have these styles developed?
M: Ever since 2008, I have been interested in the deformational function of 3D software.
The interesting feature of such deformation is that it can permanently maintain the precise relationship to the original model while at the same time changing its form. No matter how an object is distorted, it still looks like its original model. I’m interested in the following transformations:

There are three deformations which are three output modes actually. The first one is “lattice deformation”. I like to convert the models into lattices and then simplify them a little. This way, the lattices seem a bit more chaotic and more irregular. It is not too dizzying just looking at the lattices of one model, but when several figures overlap, it becomes very complicated, which makes me dizzy. This is because usually we do not observe things in this way. It’s similar to a three-dimensional way of observing things, so I have to stare fixedly without blinking, in order to distinguish the images within a three-dimensional space. My attention is drawn to this kind of thing, and it forces me to see the original objects through the lens of these structural lines. This is what interests me and thus I feel it must, in turn, interest the viewer, so I decided to use it in making animation and creating paintings.

The second thing that attracts me is “color channels.” At the beginning, the purpose of this kind of channel was to give each model a different color in order to differentiate them; all of these multicolored objects together are already something interesting—colorful, abstract and yet concrete—with a slight hint of the Fauves; similar to Matisse’s paper-cuts, yet much more complicated. This kind of complexity does not frighten me; I can use vector lines to separate these colors one by one. When I carve these vector lines on self-adhesive with the cutting plotter and then transfer them onto canvas: I can even paint flat colors one by one in an orderly manner. When I use them to create animations, they become a sea of colors.

The third thing that interests me is the “overlapping effects of rhombuses generated by deformation of lattice points.” They can be very strange, just like genetic mutations. In “Metamorphosis—Supper”, a plane emitting unknown gas flies over the dinner table; the food mutates, then the characters mutate, because in this era, we no longer know what we can and cannot eat.

J: You were talking about your artistic language, how would you explain the artistic language and grammar used in your current artistic practice?
M: It seems that Picasso said every artist has his/her own language, so other people have to study it as they would study a foreign language for better understanding. My method is to first render the materials via computer and software, then reconsider the materials and guide my assistants how to adjust the work. Then we run it through the computer again and look at the result, then adjust it. We do this repeatedly, so that the result is something that is neither solely derived from the computer, nor the human imagination.

J: You have been creating using digital media for the last 20 years, and are considered as one of the most representative and influential new media artists in China, so why have you all of a sudden begun painting again?
M: It is precisely the experience gained in this practice that has brought me to this new possibility, to use a different method to get involved in painting, to find something fresh and stimulating. If there was no irrefutable reason, I wouldn’t just randomly pick up my brush and begin painting.

J: I was surprised to learn that your first solo exhibition in the 80s was a show of abstract oil paintings. After you studied in Germany, you started to focus more on technology, but now you have taken up painting again. Does your painting still rely on technology?
M: In art history, many revolutions have been related to technology. For example, the invention of the brush was a significant technological development, which allowed artists to express what they saw and felt in either accurate or more freewheeling ways; the invention of perspective, shading and the study of anatomy, helped the artists of the Renaissance create realistic and shocking visual experiences; the rapid development of color theory might be the midwife of Impressionism. So, it is not only possible but necessary that we use new technologies of our times to foster the creation of new art styles.

J: Is digital technology becoming an important part of your artistic language?
M: As I see it, digital technology has strong powers of calculation. While I am painting, I need to keep observing and calculating with my mind and my hands together, and then drawing the shapes, lines and colors. Of course this method is different from that of computers. Computers have both speed and calculation abilities which come with a certain set of hardware and software, and I harness these abilities in my painting.

J: Is your “Algorithmic Painting” series a result of your exploration of the possibilities of expression brought about through the fusion of art and digital technology?
M: Unlike the human brain, the computer frequently leaves traces in the artwork as part of the act of processing data. Both its strengths and weaknesses are quite obvious, so that some stylized things gradually appear. “Algorithmic Paintings”, this name, was actually suggested by Wang Chunchen.

J: Actually, nowadays a lot of artists create art with the help of digital technology, using InDesign to create sketches, or using projectors to paint. You have to create your special way to paint with digital technology. In a sense are you sort of challenging contemporary painters with digital technology?
M: Every artist has his/her own special painting method, so in all honesty I don’t think there are many points of comparison. It wasn’t my intention to challenge any other artists. I just wanted to try my best within my own framework. For me the most painful and at the same time the most fun thing is to examine the problems of my past works; of course it’s a bit too late for regrets, but at the same time I feel excited about the new possibilities for future works.

J: Your paintings emphasize both “the manual” and “the technological”, the human brain and computer thinking in tandem. But, which one is more important for you?
M: Without computer’s assistance, I would beno different from other painters, or maybe I would be much worse than them, regardless of painting talent of training, I would have no advantage at all. But if I were to rely only on computer technology, there are thousands of people with better computer skills than I. Perhaps my only advantage is that I am able to catch the spark which occurs when the two fields rub up against each other.

J: Your painting’s compositions come from the scenes created by 3D software—at the same time your video works are derived from your paintings. Are your paintings then related to your 3D video works?
M: They might be related or they might not: both of them originate from one digital file, which would explain the relationship between them. However, the shots from the moving
images (videos) are more instant and detailed, the compositions of the static paintings are more complete and engaging.

J: One core concept of your work is to make reference to historic painting, for example, your video work “Restart” leverages Pieter Bruegel’s “The Triumph of Death”, Raphael’s “The School of Athens” and “The Parnassus”, Gustave Courbet’s “Burial at Ornans” and Theodore Gericault’s “The Raft of the Medusa”. These paintings all have independent narratives, but in you video you connect and relate these narratives together. However, you are now painting “The Triumph of Death”, based on your video work “Restart”, which retains the same title and a resemblance the painting by Bruegel.Does the painting have its own independent narrative or will it still share a narrative with the other painting which it references?
M: Yes, the painting has its independent narrative, but in my video works, the original narratives disappear into fragments.

J: In this case, would you say that your works retain more intimate relationship with the original works?
M: In the transformation process, all characters, scenes and materials change—their meanings also change, although they are still related to the original works. For example, the human beings in “The School of Athens” become sculptures, which are broken into pieces; the people in “Suspect” (painting) are all in lattice figures, but taking a glance we wonder what is to be suspected?

J: Will you further extend your exploration of digital technology and expression of traditional art media? For instance 3D printed sculptures or explore other directions?
M: Yes, I will, but everything takes time. I need to focus on one thing with all my energy—physical, financial and mental. Like a lion battles an elephant, I have to go full force, and not take things lightly, because the elephant can easily slaughter the lion.