Xuan Chenhao 宣琛昊
Artwork’s Title: Moby Dick
Materials Used: Oil on canvas
Studio Based: Shanghai, China
Can you tell us about the process of making your work? 你可以给我们讲讲创作的过程吗？
I research plants and collect relevant images as references. I also have an archive of screenshots from simulation games. Usually, I start with a watercolour drawing as a sketch, then move on to oil on canvas.
搜集植物科系素材和养成类游戏截屏，勾勒水彩小稿，完成油画。
How would you define your work in a few words (ideally in 3 words)? 你可以用几个词语来形容你的作品吗？最好用3个词语。
Hormone, mutualism, wrestle. 荷尔蒙，共生，角力。
How did you come up with this new painting idea? Is there any story behind this work? 你作品的灵感来自哪里？作品背后有什么故事吗？
The painting you selected(Moby Dick) was the first one of the series. My inspiration came from the mutual relation of the flora and fauna in tropical rainforests. The towering rhizomes of figs (ficus carica) attract insects and birds to pollinate. I attempt to convey such energies of wildlife in my paintings. When I made Moby Dick, I was passionately in love with my girlfriend at the time, and I played a real-time map mobile game accompanying her. In the game, the creation and upgrade of different roles were visualized as a process of constructing and morphing. The design of these mythical creatures was inspired by various shapes and forms of natural creatures. And in my paintings, such shapes and forms are composed effectively and grown freely. In a time when we are increasingly addicted to screens, our minds are immersed in the moist internet which is slowly replacing our physical senses. Maybe one day the virtual world will become the reality. Those desires, leagues, fierce competitions, boundaries and fortunes in internet games are what compose the real world too. For me, love never is a disposable gasoline can. In real life, I am not able to tell apart the tense bond between stubborn body and sublime virtue. So I took my shelter with art by wrestling with the canvas, thus I won a short period of peace.
这个系列的起始正是你选的这件作品，作品的灵感来自热带雨林地区动物和植物的关系。隐花果不停的突破，总有一棵硕果累累的根茎向上吸引昆虫繁衍。我的艺术试图提供这些生命力。完成第一件作品的那段时间正巧陪热恋中的女友一起玩一款实时地图手游。手游中的角色建立和进阶需要玩家去构建一个生成物的走向。这些被生成的神兽其灵感来自于大自然中的各种形态。他们在我的画面里被有效的组合并且肆意生长。人类社会越发屏幕化，大脑霸权链接着湿网络正逐渐取代身体的感受，有一天假将成真。在游戏逻辑里充斥着欲望，结盟，角力，疆界和财富，这同样符合自然法则。事实上爱从来就不是用完就扔的汽油桶，现实世界里我无法去区分固执的生理属性和崇高的道德属性之间剑拔弩张的关系，这种身体力行的绘画方式让我喘息，获得短暂的平静。
Do specific artworks have been created by random experiments in your studio or do you always come up with a particular concept or narrative in the very beginning? 有没有哪些作品是你在工作室的随意的实验产品，还是在你创作的开始你总是有些特别的想法和思路？
They all came from the idea of mutualism whichdescribes the ecological interaction between two or more species where each species has a net benefit. Animals, minerals and plants from nature visited my canvas repetitively. A conch, a fern, and a lizard’s tail, all curve in the same fashion.My paintings sew up the reality together with the imagined world. They mix the real world and the dreams. I’m like a symbolic writer. This reminds me of how Robert Bresson talked about his movies. He said, a movie is a journey: the actors’ performance activated its life from the screenplay, and then the films would be cut as if they were dead, and finally its screening would symbolize its revival. Art is like the romance and the weather — it can easily go wrong, though truly fascinating.
起初会有一个概念，自然界中的动物、矿物和植物在这个王国中反复出现。海螺壳的曲线类似于蕨类植物，或蜥蜴尾巴的螺旋形状，缝合现实与想象，混淆真实与梦幻两种情境。这更像一场象征性写作。正如罗伯特·布列松描述他的电影，电影从剧本到演员的表演经历了一次生死，再经由剪辑和大荧幕上映又是一次死而复生。艺术如同一次又一次出错的感情或者天气，但着实迷人。
Is there any particular theme that utterly triggers you to engage your art with?有没有哪个主题让你特别想要加入到你的作品中，或者说触发你围绕这个主题创作作品？
I try to merge the flora and fauna and the whole life ecology in my memory. I’m inspired by the very moment of pollination, and by its power relation between the dominator and the dominated. To propagate, some of the wildlife became wrestlers, and some others evolved to be unisexual or hermaphrodite after billions of years. I am wrestling with the existing shapes and patterns in nature. I try to break through the walls of shapes. Again and again, I create ever-growing, richly nourished and self-replicating life forms. They are complicated, ever-expanding and endless.
我试图在记忆里汇总归纳那些动植物生命症候群态。从这些授粉瞬间的定格，以及支配和被支配权利关系之间找到灵感。为获得配偶权利，他们中间有剑拔弩张的拳击手，也有通过亿万年的衍化经验所生成的单性繁殖雌雄同体。我在这些限定的图示中一次次试图冲破形的壁垒，一个不断滋养、生长、复制的生命，以及一个复杂而持续的外推形式。
Large or small scale canvases dilemma; are there any kind of standards that drive you to decide which surface length is better fitted for your final painting visualisations? 大尺度或小尺度画布的两难选择；有没有什么标准驱使你决定哪种表面长度更适合你最终的绘画形象？
I prefer larger canvases with a vertical layout. The shapes interwind and expand in my paintings. I try to avoid being too decorative. My brush praises strength and energy with their pure spirit and majestic will. Usually, there are one or two figures in my paintings, confronting or standing with subtle facial expressions.
我喜欢更大的画布以及竖构图，形态之间勾连蔓延和伸展，撇去脂粉气和矫饰，我愿意歌颂和显扬力学中的绝对精神和雄伟意志。通常描绘一到两个对象，他们或对峙或表情丰富的矗立在那儿。
Do you ever wonder if additional work was needed, when an artwork’s making process is finished?你有没有这样的经历：当作品完成后，还觉得作品需要改进或者更改？
It depends. Some were done very fast, and they were perfect. Some others needed lengthy work to find their critical point, even though the canvases were already full. They cried for that mysterious only way.
因作品而异，有些一气呵成一笔不能动，有些即使填满却未必给到，需要寻找下一场临界点，这时候完成变的特别玄妙，类似不二法门。
What would be the best way to exhibit your work? 展示你作品的最佳方式是什么？
The ideal exhibition space should be both spacious and high enough. The installation of the paintings and the lighting should be just right. My images are not those easy-to-consume ones that please the viewers. They are painted to elongate our gazes with approaches about the fractals and the figure-ground relation.
最佳方式需要足够大的空间，挑高，以及适度的展陈和灯光，我的工作并非用快捷的消费图像来取悦观众，而是研究如何延长观看视觉的长度，这里涉及到作品分形图谱和图底关系。
Can you mention any artists you, lately or generally, take inspiration from?哪些艺术家影响或启发过你？
Paul Cézanne. 塞尚。
What does your mum think about your art? 你妈妈怎么看你的艺术？
She saw my works occasionally, and she would always look for the part which was comprehendible for her. And this part was always related to cuisine. She would recognize broccoli, pea shoots and sprouted potatoes, and got excitedly happy upon my confirmation. But in fact, they are inspired by poisonous creatures that originated from the Amazon. One time, she told me to help taking care of her domestic plants since she would be away for a while. And I only remembered this task one day before her return. I put her Devil’s Ivy (Epipremnum aureum) in the bathtub. Its vine stretched up like an arm along with the dripping tap. Next to the bathtub was a package of Superman laundry detergent. So I painted Bunting Superman (2019).
有一些偶然的机会她看到我的作品，试图寻找她能理解的那一部分，那些总是和烹饪有关。她觉得画面里有西兰花，豆苗和发芽的土豆，确认完她们后欣喜若狂。事实上那些素材大都是亚马逊地域的有毒植物。有一年她出远门旅行前嘱咐我去家里帮植物浇水，直到她回来的前一天我才想起这件事，被放在浴缸里的绿萝藤蔓像一条手臂沿着滴着水的笼头扶摇直上，边上有一袋超人洗衣粉，于是我画了一件作品，《绿萝超人》（2019）。
Which exhibition did you visit last? 你上一次参观的展览是谁的？
I rarely visit contemporary art exhibitions. It’s not because that I fear being disturbed, but they are like gums, tasteless to chew. I visit Shanghai Museum and Shanghai Natural History Museum regularly. From there I can find the nutrition I need. As Cézanne claimed, if there is only one artist in the world, it would be me.
现在很少去看当代艺术的展览了，并不是担心被干扰，而是它们大多像口香糖一样，是一种可有可无的咀嚼。定期会去上海博物馆和自然博物馆，那里有我需要的养份。诚如塞尚所言，如果这个世界上只有一个画家，那么这个人就是我。
Additional Paintings
All images courtesy of the artist
翻译、校对：顾灵 Translated and proofread by: Gu Ling