JI WEN YU

 I want my works to be unique. Coming straight from the heart, they have abandoned all affectation and so are necessarily natural. They come from my individual and unique experience of life and so they must be unique. I want my works to be interesting and possess a feeling of the times. Everyone is limited by the times in which one lives and it is impossible consider things disengaged from the environment in which you exist, just like Michaelangelo, Rembrant, Wharhol, and Beuys we too are unable to resolve some of the problems we face. "Pen and ink follow the times!" Therefore only people who break free from conventions are able to have interesting experiences and seize the times and culture of the times to produce new art. It is my desire that my works possess a certain integrality. I want to be able to coordinate the creation from concept to production so that any contradictions and sentiments as well as conceptual changes in the work can achieve a kind of integrality. To achieve this requires an understanding of art and true emotion. I want my works to be everyday and easy to understand. I don't like to feign profundity. I like the way in which Mao Zedong spoke. Every sentence he used was easily understandable and yet he was a great leader. The first goal for my works is that they be easy to understand. But naturally, I can't force people to like them. Ji Wenyu August, 2000