Xie Ai Ge

Taiji ---Close to Sculpture --- Xie Aige’s tremendous transformation

By Chu Hao

It was in the spring of 2004 that I first came to know Xie Aige.

I was then working at the organizing committee of Shanghai Spring Art Saloon when a large- scale art exhibition entitled “spring” was organized by the Fashion Saloon of Shanghai CITIC Square. With hundreds of participating artists, the art show covered a multitude of art works employing an entirely different variety of materials and works, among which I was most deeply impressed by the pottery works created by an artist named Xie Aige. I did not meet her when making arrangements for the art show. Her pottery was on display at an eye-catching place in the center of exhibition hall portraying a detailed-oriented yet proportionately exaggerated and slightly transformed realism figure.

Ms. Xie arrived at the art exhibition on the date of the opening ceremony. To my surprise, with a long-stemmed Chinese pipe in her hand, she stepped into the exhibition hall hurriedly and put that pipe on the hand of her art works. It turned out that the long-stemmed Chinese pipe was an indispensable part of her works, which has left an unforgettable impression on my mind. Ms. Xie played an active role in almost all group exhibitions planned by me from 2004 to 2005. Her distinctive art works and remarkable style definitely enriched art materials and enhanced artistic appreciation of art shows. Her works on display include such works as a touching moment in early spring, spring tropic and waking up time, etc.

The art exhibition entitled I have a date with spring has been known as a benchmark in my career as an art show planner. The term “Contemporary art in China” was not invented or even clearly defined in 2005. Chinese art planners, who were not content with the status quo of the Chinese art at that time, took the lead in organizing a great many of influential pioneering artists in Shanghai by taking bold and drastic steps and coming up with relatively clearly-defined definition. Despite their relatively immature art works and imperfect materials and artistic languages, they still came up with their own versions and interpretation of early contemporary Chinese art free from dominance and influence of western art planners and organizers. These artists created art works showcasing their unique understanding and knowledge of art by insisting on taking a road of their own instead of copying and imitating art of western counterparts. The art planning team included more than 10 artists such as Xiao Xiaolan, Ji Wenyu, Chen Qiang, Chen Guanghui and Kangqing. I recommended art works and sculptures made by Xie Aige, Han Zijian and Yuan Kan. With her dedication and passion, Ms. Xie was the only artist participating in the art show named “spring trilogy” planned by me in 2005.  

The years from 2006 to 2008 witnessed tremendous and turbulent changes in terms of artists and development of artistic community in China. Because of gradual changes of my art show planning orientation, there were some gaps between Ms. Xie and me and thus she was not actively involved in my exhibitions and was moving away from my eyesight. However, she has thus embarked on a road leading to brilliant and fruitful artistic creation by setting up her studio in M50, which is equipped with electric kiln making pottery art works. Although I planned very few group art exhibitions at that time, yet I still paid visits to Ms. Xie’s studio whenever I traveled to M50. Moreover, Ms. Xie set up her very first art gallery on the second floor of a building in M50, where I have seen art sculptures made of glass steel and cast copper, characteristic of her impressive creativeness and vivid imagination in her pursuit of artistic development and improvement. 

I am not aware when Ms. Xie started to create sculpture. But I am sure the works named “Taiji” are of significant importance in her works. I am of the view that there is much extensive knowledge and profound understanding behind her “Taiji” works. Known as a complicated, mysterious and everlasting subject evolving from the time immemorial, Taiji might represent the most essential and profound concept of ancient oriental culture, which interprets the eternal cycle of birth of all creatures and lives on the earth and has a direct bearing on the knowledge from  the Book of Changes. According to YiJing Etymology, Yi consists of Taiji, which gives birth to the two appearances, and the two appearances give birth to the four images which in turn lead to development of the BaGua. What do two appearances mean? In a word, they are composed of Yin and Yang, two types of vital energy, which are used to explain the unfolding implications of the universe and all phenomena within, and they can hardly be changed by any human beings in the world.

How could we explain and interpret such in-depth and profound knowledge and principles? Profound as the knowledge sounds, we still have to impart and pass it on to future generations in a relatively simple and easy manner. Therefore, Taij