This is an interview of Chile’s art magazine Arte al Limite with Tamen+. (translated as THEY).
As of 2017, Chinese contemporary artist duo Tamen will be officially known as ‘Tamen+’.
AAL: Where does the name THEY come?
THEY: The majority of people, including artists, always like to use the terms “I” and “we.” In fact, most of the people today do not care for others, and treat this kind of selfishness as personal value and stylish individualism. But this is not true, “we” and “they” are the same. They also have their personalities and values. As artists, we need to show objective value and reveal others’ inner world. When our artworks express others, ours are shown at the same time. If we were fascinated by expressing ourselves, we will never find our true selves.
AAL: Art-making is very individualistically disciplined. How do you two work together?
THEY: Painting is usually very individualistic and personalized. But we like to challenge, and play with the contradiction. We employ, combine, and transfer different characteristics and interests into our works, and therefore, our canvas is the convergence of conflicts and unity, the mergence of subjectivity and objectivity. During our artistic production, we will discuss and decide a basic platform, such as a room or an island, and then, we will be free to draw our own interested content on the canvas. We do not interfere and change each other’s paintings, and therefore the final piece would radiate a bizarre sense of freedom and controversy. The painting process allows us to use third-person perspective to look at our subjective ideas. This is one of the reasons we name ourselves THEY.
AAL: How are the characteristics of your generation are present in your paintings?
THEY: People of our generation are very anxious and vulnerable, we are very realistic, yet we are deficient in broad vision and poetic spirit. In addition to money and sex, we do not have true inner freedom. For the future, we do not expect, we could only sink into present reality. We do not have true love and friendship, we are only familiar strangers. We look at each other and expecting others to help us, but we do not intend to pay back and give with love—we only want to take freely without paying. We do not have faith, we only believe in ourselves, but this kind of self-confidence is very fragile. Love and trust is luxury for us, beautiful yet fragile. These feelings are all inside our paintings.
AAL: In your paintings, the line between reality and fiction is very thin. Exactly what is real and what is fictional?
THEY: We believe that reality itself is unreal, the reality is that we are living in fiction. Our world is full of lies and harsh reality, so we often can not distinguish reality and fiction. Cruelty is real, and beauty is fictional. Compare to the absurdity and hypocrisy of the real world, perhaps only the dream is real. Our generation is being deceived and fooled, our value systems are confusional, we can not distinguish between beauty and ugliness of human nature. We often even do not believe the most simple love. So we can only rely on one horizon to distinguish between reality and fiction.
AAL:Many of your paintings show islands that would be very difficult to reach. Would you define your work as surrealism?
THEY: Our paintings are not surrealism. Sometimes they may be very realistic, and sometimes dreamy, and perhaps narrating a fictional story, but they are not surrealism. Because what we draw are true reality and our inner world. We often like to use islands to imply “our” and “others” hearts. every lonely island is remote, isolated, and difficult to access. Our hearts exactly like those lonely islands remaining the same distance, looking at each other, seemly close yet unreachable. We spoke in our own words, but never really communicate. The “co-painting“ mode of two artists is similar to the dialogue between two lonely islands.
AAL: Your paintings convey very senses of calmness and loneliness. Do you believe that loneliness is a problem in our society today?
THEY: Loneliness is a social problem today, and it is even a problem of all human race. It exists between people and people; between man and machine; between religion and science; between races; between countries; between classes; between men and women. The world is full of doubt and distrust, and therefore attitudes of hostility and exclusion became a self-protection mechanism. Sometimes we even do not believe in ourselves. In order to distract from fears and loneliness, we need a lot of love and substance. But when we found these substances are ephemeral and love is cheap, we soon fell into a deeper sense of loneliness.
AAL: Contrast plays an important role in your paintings, such as the contrast between reality and fiction, harmony and solitude, beauty and distress. Could you explain why?
THEY: The contrast is very natural. First of all, the world is full of contrasts and sense of absurdity. The subjective and objective world can never form unity. Human beings and nature can not always be harmonious. Civilization and history are sometimes vague and contradictory. As artists, the reality and the truth we conveyed are based on our subjective perceptions, sometimes the ideologies are extreme and expressional styles are individualized. We carry out contradiction and unification through two men’s “co-painting.” At the same time, we reinforce, transform, and integrate such contrast. This is a difficult and challenging task, and it also becomes our feature and artistic concept.
AAL: What does island symbolize in your paintings?
THEY: We use an island as a base platform, just like the common room with a window we have used in the past series. We are interested in creating a container or a platform, and being the director of the theatric stage to perform drama and dream.
AAL: How do your lives and experiences be manifested in your paintings?
THEY: Lives and experiences are naturally the basis and nutrition of art. It is said that “art comes from life and goes beyond life.” However, we feel that art is also less than life. We always want to find the escapement of life through art. Because life is empty and meaningless, we must rely on the salvation from art to rescue our souls. Living experiences are the raw material for art. Art affects lives. When you believe art could fill the hollowness of the soul, you could only keep on creating. Because once you stop, the greater sense of emptiness and nihility will immediately engulf you. This is a bit like sex, we could never be truly satisfied, but we can enjoy a short course of excitement.
THEY: Sex is the raw power of life, art is also the raw power of life and creativity. Although our lives are full of trivial and frivolous things, and our personal experiences are always full of fallacies and limitations, these are exactly the true components of life. Our art is to display the spectacles either better than the life or worse than life. Beautiful or ugly, happy or lonely, empty or content, these are all the essence of life. Life is ultimately a tragedy, because everyone is dying, and no one can get everything he or she wanted. The world is not fair: rich and poor, beautiful and ugly, healthy and unhealthy. We can not choose our birth and destiny, but there is one thing that the world treat us fair, that is everyone will eventually die. Only in front of God, Allah, Buddha, everyone is equal.
THEY+
Lai Shengyu, born in 1978 got his Bachelor Degree of Fine Art (Print-making Department) in Central Academy of Fine Arts in 2001, and his Master Degree in 2004.
Yang Xiaogang, born in 1979, got his Bachelor Degree of Fine Art (Print-making Department) in Central Academy of Fine Arts in 2001, and his Master Degree in 2005.
Exhibition:
Since 2002, THEY has held 16 solo exhibitions in places such as Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Guangzhou, HongKong, Seoul, Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Singapore, New York, and Brussels.
Public Collection:
Art Museum of Central Academy of Fine Arts (Beijing)
White Rabbit Collection (Sydney)
Essl Museum (Vienna)
Samsung Group (Seoul)
Nokia
Ministry of Culture (France)
University of the Arts Helsinki
Fukuoka Asian Art Museum
Krannert Art Museum (University of Illinois)
Chakri Kingdom (Thai)
JPMorgan Chase & Co
Private Collection Region:
China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Germany, France, USA, UK, Finland, Belgium, The Netherlands, South Korea, Australia, Austria, Switzerland, Monaco, Columbia, Spain, Indonesia, Thai, Japan, Singapore