If the lyrics are separated from the music, what kind of face will it exist? This question lingered in the mind of Fang Wenshan for several years. At the beginning of last year, the sudden epidemic caused him to press the pause button in his work, and finally gave him time to put all his ideas into practice.
On November 25, the first stop of Fang Wenshan's first art creation tour exhibition "Fang Dao Wen Shan Liu" will be opened at Soka Art Beijing Space. The exhibition is centered on the creation of 25 lyrics, presenting more than 100 works in three series. Explore the three-dimensional textual "lyric installation art", the original trend figure "Punker Cat Sting" in "azure", the mechanical landscape that presents the lyrics world with "steampunk style"... these works with a strong Chinese style, Condensed with Fang Wenshan's unique aesthetic taste, it also allows the audience to see Fang Wenshan outside of popular songs.
It can be seen that Fang Wenshan attaches great importance to this touring exhibition. Even if the travel is required to be isolated for 21 days, he deliberately rushed to Beijing from Taiwan to prepare the exhibition in person, explaining his creative ideas to the media over and over again. " 东风破", " chrysanthemum stand", "A Thousand Miles Away"...These lyrics that were once popular in the music scene are displayed in the exhibition hall with bronze, ceramics, enamel characters, printed wood carvings, installation art, sculptures, prints , Works on paper and other forms of presentation, as if freezing time, but also carrying new meanings. He said frankly: "These lyrics have indeed become the common memory of a certain age group. After many years, when everyone enters the workplace and enters middle age, as long as the music clips that have been liked are played, they can return to youth. This is The charm of pop music."
In this interview, the reporter did not forget to help fans inquire about Jay Chou's new song news. "I have written three songs, and there is one Chinese style I haven't written yet, so I think the probability of him releasing an album next year is close to 90%."
The original trendy doll "Punker Cat Sting"
The work "Chrysanthemum Terrace"
loves calligraphy and loves "steampunk style"
Reporter: The creation of ordinary artists will focus on a certain category,For example, sculpture and painting, but your first solo exhibition involved many different art categories and materials. How did you think about it?
Fang Wenshan: Because the category and direction of my creation are not one tone, there are three categories, so this solo exhibition was named "Fang Dao Wen Shan Liu", which is "Fang Wenshan's creative way and style genre". "Punk Cat Sting" is a trendy doll with a mixture of Chinese and Western. It is in the color of Ru Kiln in the Northern Song Dynasty, but its mechanical components are a bit like the steampunk style of Victorian England. Another category is "Lyrics Installation Art", which turns the lyrics into a "minus-character spectrum", enamel, wood carving and even 3D printing. The last category is "steampunk style." I really like the mechanical beauty of structure and order, especially the more old and rusty machinery, which has a rough texture and a bit of human civilization in it. So the so-called "Fang Dao Wen Shan Liu" means that all things within Fang Wen Shan's preferences are in it.
Reporter: In this exhibition, which work best expresses your creative ideas?
Fang Wenshan: "East Wind Broken" is a three-dimensional landscape that turns "A Thousand Miles of Rivers and Mountains" into a mechanical structure, and "A Thousand Miles Away" turns the lyrics into ceramic slabs. What is more special is that the font of "A Thousand Miles Away" is italicized with some cursive . Although they are all Chinese characters, they have different writing styles and different visual rhythms. Cursive script is more like abstractionism , which has been separated from the function of text bearing, and is purely the beauty of lines, dynamics, and pens. It is matched with KaiTi, and the whole text is not easy to read at the first time, just like a poem, it has a space for imagination.
Reporter: There are many elements of calligraphy in many exhibits this time. When did you start to like calligraphy?
Fang Wenshan: I am a fan of calligraphy, but I write very poorly. In fact, I wrote the lyrics of "Orchid Pavilion Preface" a long time ago, but it is just the name of the song, which has nothing to do with Wang Xizhi 's " Orchid Pavilion Preface ". I think calligraphy is a very national artistic creation in the traditional field. Chinese people can understand Dadaism , pop art , Ukiyo-e,But how do foreigners learn calligraphy? Unless you understand Chinese first, you can truly understand the beauty of calligraphy, and appreciate its rich and dry ink color, and the beauty of layout, structure, and white space written on rice paper. Calligraphy attracts me because of its high purity of national aesthetics. Many artists have tried to express calligraphy in different forms, like I did many attempts this time, if it can subvert its original writing style and writing material, it can be in line with contemporary art.
It is important for young people to have a sense of identity with Chinese culture
Reporter: Whether it is lyrics or artwork, Chinese style is your most distinctive label. How did you think of the concept of Chinese style when you first wrote the lyrics? Did you see that there was such a market potential at the time, or did you take the risk?
Fang Wenshan: I never saw the market at the beginning. When we wrote "Dongfeng Po", how did we know that "Dongfeng Po" would become popular? It should be that we ourselves like this style. However, once we find that the audience likes this genre, we will consciously put one or two Chinese-style creations in each album and continue to create.
Reporter: In the beginning, who first proposed the direction of going to the Chinese style to try?
Fang Wenshan: First of all, we must understand what Chinese style is. It’s not that Zhengyu from Gongshangjiao is called Chinese style, but its arrangement uses traditional instruments such as erhu, pipa, guzheng, or its lyrics use "arch bridge", "moon under" and "embroidered shoes". These images. Chinese style is not a genre, so you can hear the Chinese style of rap, the Chinese style of rock , and the Chinese style of rhythm and blues . When I first tried it, I didn’t realize that this is the Chinese style, but felt that such a combination of lyrics and music is very special. For example, the early " maiden" is very Western music, with fast rhythm and even a rap in it. But I use the vocabulary of ancient poems such as "Niangzi", "Outside the Great Wall" and "Yangliu" to combine with the Western music structure.So it should be said that the initial Chinese style text was created by me, but Jaylen also likes this kind of music. It gradually became that both of them started to work hard in the direction of Chinese style.
Reporter: Your lyrics are particularly graphic. Where did the inspiration come from?
Fang Wenshan: The picture feel should come from my liking for movies. I even went to screenwriting classes and film classes before. So basically, a considerable part of my lyrics is contemplated on the screen, and the visual elements are expressed in words.
Reporter: In recent years, "Chinese style" and "national tide" have become more and more popular. What do you think of this phenomenon?
Fang Wenshan: I think this is a good thing. It represents that young people of this era have a sense of identity and a sense of belonging to Chinese culture. This is very important. There are many ancient singers on station b. I think the direction is right and I like the cultural nutrients of my own nation.
Reporter: Did you like writing and ancient poems since you were young?
Fang Wenshan: Probably from junior high school, I started to like Song Ci. At that time, it was impossible to think of entering society in the future, my job would be a lyricist, and I didn’t even know that writing lyricists could become a career. But these will virtually become the nourishment for future creation.
Jay Chou will tell the story first when writing songs
Reporter: When did you start to aspire to the direction of creation?
Fang Wenshan: It should be after being discharged from the army, about twenty-four or five years old. It's not determined, but hope to express my ideas through works. At that time, the video was very attractive to me, but I couldn't get into the movie circle. I wasn't a college student or an academic. Since I can't tell stories with images, can I tell stories with words and music? Just like that, I got to the record company.
Reporter: You worked as a delivery driver and maintenance worker before a record company. Does that stage have any influence on your subsequent creation?
Fang Wenshan: Yes, because the observation of society is relatively rich and diverse. And I will cherish my good fortune, because the material conditions and living conditions in the past are far from the present, so I will cherish what I have now.
Reporter: When I first joined the company,What is your impression of Jay Chou?
Fang Wenshan: He is a young man with creative talent. He joined the company at the age of eighteen, very young. There is a lot of room for imagination in composition, and it is not very routine. Some people know what the chorus is going to sing as soon as they listen to it, but he doesn't.
Reporter: Does your collaboration usually come first with music or words? Who will design the style concept of a song?
Fang Wenshan: Most of the songs are precedents, and only one of the ten songs is precedent. For lyrical slow songs like " fireworks easy to cold" and " blue and white porcelain", I will dominate the theme; for faster-paced songs, he will first tell me the story and how to shoot the MV, such as "William Ancient" "Fort", he would say it feels like a vampire. He is a visual thinking. When composing music, he has a sense of picture. The story is flowing, and so am I. When writing lyrics, he is like writing a script.
started an online class to teach you how to write lyrics
Reporter: In the past few years, you have been making movies, promoting Hanfu culture, making art... Going in many directions, is writing lyrics no longer your main business? ?
Fang Wenshan: It can be understood this way, but song writing is still the most fundamental. I spend half of my time writing lyrics, and the other half of my time doing drama and installation art. I am now conceiving a TV series with calligraphy as the theme. I originally wanted to be a director, but because of the epidemic situation, I couldn't run on both sides frequently, so I could only be a screenwriter.
Reporter: Some time ago, you opened an online class to teach everyone to write lyrics. Can ordinary people really learn to write lyrics through a 30-day course?
Fang Wenshan: Yes. This course has data and cases, which is quite solid. It explains the concepts, steps, forms, and storytelling methods of my lyrics creation from beginning to end. But the master leads the door and the practice is personal. I can only teach you the skills of creation. Whether you can write your own style or excel depends on your hard work or talent.
Reporter: Can you give me an example? What are the techniques for writing lyrics?
Fang Wenshan: For example, someone must call the pronoun "you me him" in the lyrics.Only those who sing and listen to songs can feel the same way. Another point is the "greatest common divisor of emotion". The emotional state encountered by the most people is most suitable for writing popular music. Therefore, most popular music is about love, family, and friendship. The other is the use of rhyming. Lyrics are auditory text. You must make the lyrics have a sense of rhythm and musicality, and you must rhyme. These can all be taught.
(Original title: The lyricist who wrote countless classic songs came to Beijing this time to hold an original art exhibition, Fang Wenshan made the lyrics into handicrafts)
Source: Beijing Evening News | Photographed by reporter Li Li Yan Tong
Process Editor ：U025
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