8gg: Chinese Art for a Sense of Accomplishment

19 Mar 2007 Category: Film / Animation, Music, Photography, Worldwide

8gg: Chinese Art for a Sense of Accomplishment

Theatre "Ceremony" by Beijing-based 8gg, at London’s ICA in 2003.

Presented in countries around the world, Beijing-based multimedia duo 8gg produce works of quite wide-ranging genres, such as music, installation, photography, video art, audio & visual and graphic, etc. Their art somehow feels both Western and abstract despite them maintaining a Chinese mood. When in Japan for the BankART1929 exhibition in Yokohama, 8gg’s Fu Yu and Jiang Haiking were invited by PingMag to a café in Harajuku and to talk about their recent activities.

Written by Chiemi
Translated by Natsumi Yamane

First of all, you work together as a married couple - but were you both already artists when you first met each other?

Jiang Haiking: Not really. I come from Beijing and he is from Shanxi. We met at university where we both studied geography - not art. It’s been 16 years since we started going out and 12 years since we got married.

You went from geography to multimedia? That sounds like a really bold turnaround!

Jiang Haiking: We have no background in art whatsoever (laughs). After graduating, I taught at a junior high school and during that period my interest gradually moved towards multimedia.

Fu Yu: When I was at the university, I used to use a personal computer for my rock band but I gradually became more interested in multimedia than music. My career as an artist or a designer started at around 1999.

A visual identity designed for the launch of “Windows Vista.”

“Worlds Hailed,” in which radicals move around according to people’s conversations. You can experience the work at the 8gg’s website, net.8gg→Worlds Hailed.

This time, I came to know you through an introduction by a British artist… You seem to present many installations and audio & visual performances in Europe despite being based in Beijing. I presume in Beijing there is one of the world’s most remarkable art scenes today - but what makes you insist on performances overseas?

Fu Yu: The art scene in Beijing is certainly expanding at a tremendous speed and has a great momentum. For example, a lot of galleries and artists have gathered in the Da Shan Zi Art District, which was developed on the old site of a huge factory known as 798. And there are at least 3 areas similar to this in the city.

Jiang Haiking: The reason we started going to Europe frequently is because our agent in Switzerland booked us some shows there. While having severals in Europe, we nowadays have just about one performance a year in Beijing. That’s because we don’t actually like doing shows in Beijing. The reason for that is that the people who come to our shows here always tend to be the same faces. This isn’t as exciting. And moreover because the quality of production in China isn’t so good yet, we can’t help turning our eyes overseas.

An audio & visual live performance, “Hochschule für Gestaltung und Kunst Zurich.”

Is your visit to Japan this time for an exhibition, too?

Jiang Haiking: We are here to present a video installation in an event called “public=un+public,” organized by two members of the Japanese dance company Nibroll. We are planning to exhibit a work called “Refraction,” which was also shown at the Shanghai Biennale. This is an installation of soundscape and video-landscape that creates an environment through sound and vision. The most important thing about this work is the audience, as they are captured using cameras and microphones and therefore become a part of the work.

“Refraction” exhibited at Shanghai Biennale will be presented once again at the exhibition in Yokohama this time.

It seems that many of your works have “people” as their main theme. This goes for your work in this exhibition, too,…

Jiang Haiking: You think so? We don’t mean to focus on people, but the photos of “people” certainly feel attractive to us. In the meantime, we might rather be interested in human anatomy and movements. Also, there are many abstract works and music from us, too.

“peony pavilion,” an interactive visual work for Wangyuanyuan Dance Studio

“Beijing Time”

There are many strong visual presentations in your works. But are there any hidden messages in there as well?

Jiang Haiking: I suppose each person will see it differently, but there aren’t any particular messages in our works. We produce works just for the sake of our pleasure and the sense of accomplishment.

Just for the sake of joy and accomplishment?

Jiang Haiking: Yes. For example, let’s say we held an exhibition and received a high acclaim from the critics. But if we aren’t happy with the works ourselves, we wouldn’t say that the works are brilliant. Of course, it’s best to have the people enjoying our works, but maybe because we are married to each other, it’s just that my main audience is my husband and his most important audience is me.

In today’s China, many people don’t hesitate to intentionally create things for the sake of attention, social status or money. But we’ve met many foreign artists and noticed that their approach to producing works is much freer, and that doing so is by no means difficult. The most important thing for an artist is not winning social status or honour. We believe that the sense of joy in creating works is the paramount.

“front of No.9 hall”

Is there any source of ideas for your works?

Jiang Haiking: We often start making things from music and then visualize them later. We don’t have a particular source of inspiration, meaning we are inspired by everything. Things we come across in the streets, conversations with people… We’re interested in young people’s weird fashion tastes, too.

“in front of the yellow division wall”

“in front of the blue painted wall”

Do you have any favourite artists?

Fu Yu: Painter Zhang Xiao Gang, film director Jia Zhangke, interactive artist Toshio Iwai, musicians Ryoji Ikeda and Nobukazu Takemura, film director Takashi Miike… and we also like a Chinese group of three young figure and sculpture makers called Unmask.

Finally, can you tell us about your future plans?

Jiang Haiking: Around the middle of May we will do an audio & visual performance at an experimental music festival in Cologne, Germany. Also, a U.K. tour will start in October and we are planning to hold an exhibition at the Cornerhouse in Manchester, too. This time, we are going to present an installation entitled “VIP Room”, but this VIP is an acronym for “Visual I Play,” and we are thinking of something where visitors can participate in the installation itself using things such as sensors or microphones. There are lots and lots of ideas we want to try out!

Fu Yu and Jiang Haiking, thank you very much for your time today! We will be looking forward to more of your exciting works! See you again soon! Zaijian!

Jiang Haiking (left) and Fu Yu (right) from 8gg. Hope you enjoyed Tokyo!

Announcement!
8gg will participate in a collaboration event called “public=un+public Vol.02 in ASIA” by the dance team off nibroll and 3 groups of artists from Beijing. If you are around, please check it out!

Venue: BankART1927
Dates: March 21st (Wed, holiday) to 31st (Sat)
Time: 11:30-19:00
Admission Fee: Free

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