“Lucky, let’s go”
My name is Vincent Qi, and I’m a French artist living in Chongqing
I came to Chongqing in 2007 for the mysterious Chinese lacquer
Lacquer is an attractive material with vitality
You can see the change of color in it
It can also trigger allergic reaction, which is really dangerous
I used to smear my hair with the lacquer while I was making a tool
And on the second day my whole body got swollen
And it hurt badly
My old skin peeled and the new skin as tender as that of a baby grew
The ache lasted for like 7 or 8 days
But I’m obsessed with such danger
I create with natural materials such as bamboo
I went into the mountains
To learn making basket barriers from an old man
I found a heap of old and totally broken rice bags
They had been patched for dozens of times
And person who patched it was actually fighting against time
I imagined the natural beauty, the past and the history of a rice bag and I was touched
I wanted to transform it with gold and different lacquering skills
To turn it from a rough and raw material
To a really delicate item
I wanted it to be immortal through time, like fossils
You need to love creating with lacquer from the bottom of your heart to be able to do this job, because it’s really lengthy
I get up at 4 am
I’m more creative in the morning
All our neighbors and the framers in the countryside
They all get up at 5 or 6 am, just like roosters and other animals
Gradually I become more and more like a farmer
There’re too many steps, countless
Sometimes the lacquer takes a month to dry
And I need to polish the first layer before painting the second layer
I polish with such a stone for a whole day
So it usually takes several months to make a complete work
While I’m doing repetitive work, like polishing
I listen to the radio
And my mind is in another place
It’s like meditating
I describe the state as “empty”
Once the work is finished, it’s not mine anymore
I would move it out of my studio immediately
Because I find the finished works reduce my creativity
I prefer to let it to communicate with others
It leaves me and goes into the world to live its own life
I wish each series starts from scratch
Xiao Rong(his wife) often brings me cakes and bread when I’m really busy
We met in the old campus of Sichuan Fine Arts Institute
She was a student then
She learned making clothes, weaving and embroidery
Without her, my research would be much harder
When I just began studying Chinese lacquer
I found that Chengkou lacquer was one of the best lacquer types
So I went there for a lacquer farmer
The first visit was 10 years ago
By accident I met Yang Laosi there
Later I often visited him and we’ve become really close
‘I need 25 kilos’
When I create with lacquer, I often think of them
I know where my works come from. Their root is in Chengkou
‘I trust you’
‘I heard you would come, I butchered a chicken yesterday’
‘The Jizong mushroom from the wood is really delicious’
Steel and stones can’t inspire me
They are cold
‘Local lacquer smells different’
‘What I worry the most is that no young people are willing to collect lacquer anymore’
Lacquer is hot
When you touch it, it feels like touching skin
I think it’s under the influence of my family history, my past and the place where I grew up
I had been living in old buildings with old objects
My hometown is Toulouse
It’s located in the southwestern part of France
In Toulouse, time seems to stop
My mother is a painter, and my grandmother is a collector
Our family live in a small castle
It has a history of a hundred years
When I was three and a half or four
I was hit by a car while I was running across the road
I almost died
And it took me a long time to recover
When I couldn’t go to school like my peers
I had my own small world
I created at my own corner
‘Touch’ is really important to me
Actually I’m lonely and I like being alone
I can work alone for a week
I play instruments in the studio
And when I can’t stand it, I take a walk in the mountains
Or I go fishing at the back of the house
I’d been searching for the right material to express myself
When I saw the Chinese lacquer art, I realized that it belonged to me
I could finally become a real artist
‘Have you finished?’
‘Not yet’
Now when I go back to France, I can’t get used to the life there
I feel like being at home after I return to Chongqing