Last year, I found a photography book named BAUHAUS GIRLS in a bookshop
It depicts how women looked like 100 years ago
They were pioneering, brave and lively
Some even wore men’s clothes
I liked the book so much that I had an impulse to paint the photos
I was born in Tongjiang, a small county in Sichuan
I went to the affiliated high school of Sichuan Fine Arts Institute in 1994 and got enrolled by the institute in 1998
The days were unrestrained
I first knew modern art
By seeing photos taken by Cindy Sherman and Nan Goldin
I felt their definitions of identity were so cool
And it was really cool to be an artist
After I graduated, I went to Beijing, and the first thing to do was to find a job
The gallery paid me monthly
So I became a full-time artist
I painted all day and returned home very late
I felt lonely
Then when I saw Takashi Murakami’s and Yoshitomo Nara’s works
I felt they were not too high to reach
And they expressed ideas directly
So I adopted such a style
It’s an imaginary little girl
Kinda like another me
It was also inspired by my observation of the young people around me
Having problems socializing with other people
Or feeling like dreaming
“The generation of cartoon”
My style was soon be noticed
I kept painting from 2004 or 2005 until 2011
I felt somewhat exhausted
So I took a rest
I was pregnant
So I had more complicated feelings about the gender of women
And I began to paint female portraits
To depict the figures in my own way
I used to express my ideas and feeling through the imaginary little girl
Now I paint the real people who resonate with me
To give concern over humans’ destiny
Or humans in the society or the nature
I didn’t know there were so many girls having studied in Bauhaus
I bought lots of books about Bauhaus to learn about the history
One picture really impressed me
The outbreak of the epidemic was horrible
I had my kid and parents with me and I was really worried
In such a condition, I began to paint the first one of the Bauhaus series
It was as small as a piece of A4 paper
I used traditional and classic skills
Suddenly I calmed down
There’re 14 paintings on canvas
The women are like sculptures, and they look powerful
They have angular faces
The biggest one is 2m×2.5m, with four Bauhaus girls together
They are even a little bigger than real people
So I found them more authentic during painting
More overwhelming
Some of them are androgynous and some are girlish
They have the features of their times
This is the last work of the series
It looks like two people looking at each other
But it’s actually a girl looking into the mirror
I used traditional skills to paint the red lips
The color of her chin is bright
It’s like there’s a light source below
When I paint, I feel like arranging the colors and shapes
When an ideal lineup is formed
I can suddenly hear the melody and rhythm
I’m a perfectionist
I would revise a painting repeatedly
I would keeping revising it until it’s moved away
When I only knew the art circle
I might feel arrogant or complacent
Since I became a mother
I need to make contact with schools, other parents and the society
So I can see myself more as an ordinary woman
People are doing their own business
Some artists are exciting, like Frida
But some are quite, just like me
Most of the time we need to be tough and persistent