In early August, photography artist Feng Yan's exhibition "Stones in the Mountain"
opened at the modern garden exhibition venue of the Suzhou Museum.
Feng Yan is 57 years old this year and was born in Xi'an. After graduating from the Beijing Film Academy in 1989,
has filmed movies and documentaries for Zhang Yimou and John Woo. After
, he chose to leave the film and television industry and traveled to New York and Beijing.
Since I picked up the camera in 2003, the lens of the
Fengyan is mostly aimed at the scene around me that seems "too ordinary":
Daily ornaments on the desktop at home,
rockery rocks in the zoo,
and the natural details of my hometown Zhongnan Mountain in Xi'an and the eighteen tombs of the Tang Dynasty.
Xi'an, an ancient capital with a rich history, is the source of his creation over the past decade.
Feng Yan is a typical Capricorn.
maintains absolute control over the presentation of his works.
does not "customized works" for exhibitions and collectors.
is unwilling to work for pressure.
often cannot make three works in a year.
But the collection price of a work is close to the seven-digit number of RMB.
Now, he lives in Taipei with his wife and two daughters. Just like when he was young, he lived a simple and comfortable life with extremely low material desires.
Written by Cheng Qing
Suzhou Museum "Stones in Another Mountain" exhibition site
Although he is a native of the northwest man, Feng Yan has a special emotion for the ancient city of Suzhou.
In 2001, he returned to Beijing to settle down after living in New York for four years. He once took a train for one night and arrived in Suzhou in the early morning. "It was misty and it was raining. The Humble Administrator's Garden and the Lion Forest had just opened. There were no people. Everyone was there. What I remembered was the scene in Borges' novel "The Garden of the Trail". "
Two years ago, Feng Yan received an invitation to exhibit his photography works in the Suzhou Museum separated from the Humble Administrator's Garden. "In the modern garden designed by Master I.M. Pei, I want to be an exhibition for a contemporary photographer for the first time." While excited, he continued to prepare for the exhibition himself as always. Take two well-known sentences in "The Book of Songs: Xiaoya": "The stones of another mountain can be wrong" and "The stones of another mountain can be polished with jade", and set the theme of the exhibition "The Stones of another mountain".
Feng Yan selected nearly 40 works for this exhibition, most of which are the rock series that have been continuously created in 2006 to the present: stones on desk art, pine trees and stones in the corners of the city, rockery and waterfalls in the zoo, and cliffs and rocks in the Zhongnan Mountains.
is a statue of a mountain stone. Feng Yan laughed and said that this was destined. The "rock" in his name is "rock is rock". He is also a tiger, "a fierce tiger comes out of the mountain".
"Stones of the Mountain" exhibition site
Walking through the rockery stacked rockery with the charm of traditional landscape painting in the museum, the exhibition hall, Feng Yan's photography works are distributed in three halls: in the small halls on both sides of the corridor, there are 6 nearly 2 meters high "Zhongnan Mountain Stone" and "Deep Grass of Tangling Mausoleum" that are nearly 2 meters high, with a very abstract picture. The hall at the end is an early shot of rocks and still life.
During the entire exhibition process, Feng Yan was observing the shadow of the exhibition hall corridor, and the sunlight fell on the ground through the grille of the roof. "The building needs light, and photography also needs it. Without light, there is no photography."
In the crew of the movie "Jupou"
After working with Zhang Yimou and John Woo,
The literary youth who went to the streets of New York to sell paintings
No matter what era it was, Feng Yan was a standard literary youth.
Before he started photography at the age of 40, he learned to draw, shoot MTVs, advertisements and documentaries. In 1985, he was admitted to the Department of Feature Film Photography of the Beijing Film Academy, relying on his painting skills he learned when he was a child.
Feng Yan's father is the leader of Xi'an Arts and Crafts Company. He has a casual personality and has made many friends with musicians and painters. In Feng Yan's impression, under the persimmon tree in the old yard of his home, his father and friends always gathered to play the flute, the guqin, and improvise painting. He also learned fine painting with Mr. Kang Shiyao, a representative figure of the Chang'an School of Painting in his father's circle of friends.
When I was young, I was under the persimmon tree in the yard with my sister
After graduating from Beijing Film Academy, although I was working in the Travel Audio-Video Press, Feng Yan had not been to the class for a day. He advanced to the crew of his senior brother Zhang Yimou's "Jupou" and worked as an associate photographer for half a year. Later, he helped people shoot MTVs and advertisements. However, Feng Yan was not particularly nostalgic about this experience:
"Movies are something that needs to be completed in collective creation. It may be related to my personality. I want to create completely independently."
with Zhang Yimou and Li Wei on the crew of "Jupou"
1998, he went to Los Angeles, USA to shoot a documentary for John Woo. After filming the film, he moved to New York and stayed there. Living in the East Village where "underground artists" gather on Manhattan Island, the room is so small that it can only be placed on a bed and a table.
English is not very good, and there are not many friends. Every Friday to Sunday, Feng Yan sells replicas of his friends' paintings on the street. He goes to the library to find Chinese books to read and write short stories at the same time. A life that looks undecent is very common in New York: "When selling works, I have artist friends around me, and good musicians also play on the street; when I catch up with Christmas, I have the best business, and I sell it every day."
Visiting second-hand bookstores is a hobby that has been preserved until now. The money earned is used to rent video tapes and watch movies. The day after he flew to New York, he was dragged to the movie archive by his friend to watch art movies; he often went to visit the audio and video store where Quentin Tarantino had worked for seven years. Interestingly, when he returned to New York to visit the audio and video store many years later, he met Quentin who drove an old Honda car and rented a belt.
stayed in New York for four years, and Feng Yan also formed his own lifestyle of "no social circle and low material desire".
Father passed away in 2001, and Feng Yan and his wife returned to China. After the millennium, everything flourished, but Feng Yan rented an old apartment behind the Beijing Agricultural Exhibition Hall and began to write novels. I don’t have much income, all depends on my savings when I was in New York. "I live like a college student (it’s very tight), and people around me don’t understand why I live like this."
But the pace of life every day is like a timer. "When is the time to get up, eat, and start writing. The body must be healthy and there is almost no social activities."
Change career photography, like an old hunter
Capture the "trivial" in life
In the summer of 2003, Feng Yan finished writing the 500,000-word novel "Big Wild Goose Pagoda". "The weather is very hot, and I feel like I am relieved. Writing is like experiencing a war, which is very painful."
He felt that he needed to create a different way, so he picked up the Canon AE-1 his father gave him when he was in college.
"Green Door Yellow Bag"
"Drawer Inside"
00"Drawer Inside"
0 The first group of works were used. The lens was aimed at things that were very daily at home: ceramic tiles and towels in the reflection of the bathroom mirror, half of the yellow backpack exposed behind the green wooden door, porcelain cups, porcelain bowls and rubber gloves seen when you opened the drawer, etc.
In Feng Yan's words, the same is true for his novels. Many details are described, and even specifically describe "trivial" matters, making them the focus.
"Zoo Pond"
"Crane Waterfall"
2006, Feng Yan began to create a tree and stone series. Chinese people are good at landscaping, and artificial rockery has their own aesthetic meaning.
He spent a lot of time wandering around the Beijing Zoo and screening scenes. The rockery in the pond in the Lion and Tiger Pavilion was shaped by him using the lightning method of making movies, and the lion and Tiger in the cage next to him could hardly see clearly.
"Black Car Stone"
Borrowing the images of pine, bamboo and stone in ancient paintings, Feng Yan specially found cars, combined them with rockery and trees to set the scenery together, and combined them with products of nature and modern industry to form a harmonious picture.
Feng Yan's works rarely directly show human images, and two images are displayed in the exhibition.
"Xi'an Ring City Park"
Ring City Park is the ruins park of Sifangcheng in Xi'an. There are always some idle people who are talking about it. In the pronunciation of Xi'an, they are called Xian (hán) people. Feng Yan became interested in their expressions and expressions. After locking in the scene, he gave these "non-professional actors" a hint, gestured in a direction for everyone to see, and pressed the shutter in an instant.
Feng Yan doesn't believe in random captures, and does not believe that creation depends on momentary inspiration. Before shooting a scene, he has to go to that place repeatedly and observe every corner.
"Lion Tiger Mountain"
In "Lion Tiger Mountain", he hid behind rockery and pine trees, taking pictures of the moment when a tourist took pictures of the other two tourists. This artistic conception of "mantis stalks the cicada and the oriole is behind" was obtained by him for many days.
artist friend Lao Ai said that he was "as clear and accurate as an old hunter", capturing things that were "so ordinary that no one pays attention to and no one takes care of". Zhang Li, a curator who has known each other for many years, compared his gaze to "numerous probes".
In Beijing, he transformed the grain warehouse into a photography studio
accurately composition before shooting. When shooting, he only used a 50mm fixed-focus lens. The films that were shot are not cut or clamped, which is Feng Yan's way of working. He has a second-hand projector that has followed him for many years. He scans the photos and projects them on the wall of the studio. He enlarges all the details, adjusts the length, width, and proportions, and finally determines the size of the work.
He also personally selected the outer frame for the work, the material, color, length, and thickness of the wood. All the degree must be controlled by himself.
For this exhibition of Subo, Feng Yan planned his itinerary from Taipei to Shanghai nearly two months in advance and reserved sufficient exhibition time. For him, the feelings the audience got when watching the works on the spot were also part of his creation.
Feng Yan smiled and said that this is a feature brought by Capricorn, and that things must go all the way to black. He also traced this personality to his mother. His mother always kept her home neatly, and the clothes in the wardrobe must not be messed up. Even when he was 90 years old, he would not bother others if he could do it himself.
Walking through Beijing, New York, Taipei,
Back to Xi'an to take pictures of the secret corner of the ancient city
Before being admitted to Beijing Film Academy, Feng Yan worked in the library of the Xi'an Institute of Arts and Crafts for 3 years. Although he only did some printing chores, he was very happy to have many ancient picture albums donated by Japan.
The old courtyard where he lived with his parents was in the old city of Xi'an, more than 20 kilometers away from Zhongnan Mountain. On his free days, Feng Yan brought dry food and water with his young men and rode his bike to climb Zhongnan Mountain. He met from the old city at 4 a.m. and rode on his ride. After three or four hours, when you arrive at Cuihua Mountain in the morning, you will jump into the Tianchi Lake, which is dozens of meters deep, and you will be young and fearlessly jumping into the Tianchi Lake, which is several tens of miles deep. The place is called "Yukou". Feng Yan introduced that "the rocks and scenery in each valley are different, and the mysterious atmosphere of Zhongnan Mountain is unique. "
The mystery of Zhongnan Mountain is closely related to the hermit culture that has been around for thousands of years. Legend has it that Lao Tzu, Jiang Ziya, Sun Simiao, and Wang Wei all lived in seclusion here. The American sinologist Bill Porter's "Empty Valley Orchid" written by the hermit around Zhongnan Mountain has deepened Feng Yan's interest in Zhongnan Mountain.
"Zhongnan Mountain Stone" series
"Zhongnan Mountain Stone" series
"2006, he began to shoot the "Zhongnan Mountain Stone" series. He abandoned the description of the surrounding environment and directly pointed the camera at the rocks, recording the magnificent texture of the stones that were vortexed and more like waves. He said that such an extreme way is because "no matter how big the picture is or how the lens captures it, it cannot describe the continuity of Zhongnan Mountain. ”
After that, whether he lives in Beijing or Taipei, Feng Yan repeatedly returned to Zhongnan Mountain, climbed from the bottom of the mountain to the top of the mountain, and experienced the changes of rain, fog, and sunny weather. He praised the works of Hong Kong director Hu Jinquan, and felt that he had found the feeling of the vast atmosphere in Hu Jinquan's martial arts film "Empty Mountain Spirit Rain" in Zhongnan Mountain.
"Zhongnan Mountain Stone" series In the 14 years before and after
, "Zhongnan Mountain Stone" has only been filmed 7 photos.
Most of the time, Feng Yan just walked around the Zhongnan Mountains, carrying the Fuji 120 machine, but without creative pressure. There are typical rice stones in Zhongnan Mountains, and there are also the words "mountain and water repetition" left by predecessors on the rock wall. A work is published in an average of two years. Although the speed is slow, the energy consumed is not easier than that of painters and sculptors.
"Zhongnan Mountain Stone 06"
The final photos of "Zhongnan Mountain Stone" are magnified to 1.8m×1.2m, or even larger in size. Standing in front of the picture, the three-dimensional and heavy rocks will give the audience a rushing and overwhelming experience.
In contrast, the weeds in the Eighteen Tombs of the Tang Dynasty, which began shooting in 2015, have a mysterious power to attract people.
The Eighteen Tombs of the Tang Dynasty
As a native of Xi'an, it seems to be very common to go to the ruins of Han and Tang dynasties: "My father always gathers many archaeological friends. When the Terracotta Warriors were first discovered, I was still in elementary school. The next day I followed the adults to see it."
" When I got older, I rode a bicycle with three good friends with three good friends. When I went to various ruins, there was no concept of field surveys at that time. Many villages and fields were filled with unearthed cultural relics. The figurines, ancient jade and tiles from the Han Dynasty could be seen everywhere. I took a notebook to paint and sketched. "
In 2017, Feng Yan's studio in Beijing was facing relocation and did not want to spend any effort to renovate a "similar" studio. He simply put the things in the original studio into the warehouse and returned to the villages and fields in Xi'an to start the "post-work era".
"Tangling Grass" series is in Suzhou Museum
"Tangling Grass 12"
In the eighteen tombs of the Tang Dynasty, Feng Yan deliberately avoided the magnificent stone figures standing in the fields like monuments, and specifically took photos of the weeds beside them. In the long river of time, he believed that these weeds were the most vital.
When the "Deep Grass of Tangling Mausoleum" series was also enlarged to nearly 2 meters high and hung on the museum wall, there was "the vitality that lasted for two thousand years of history in the Han and Tang dynasties to the present day". Under the almost withered thorns, sporadic flowers were blooming.
In 2015, Feng Yan and his wife moved to their hometown Taipei with their two daughters. Writing, running, visiting second-hand bookstores, and taking Ricoh’s little camera to take photos, almost all of life.
In recent years, the collection price of Feng Yan's works has risen to nearly seven figures, entering the collection of many well-known art galleries, museums and foundations at home and abroad. But the family lives in Taipei, just like in Beijing more than ten years ago, maintaining a low material desire. Even on shooting equipment that seems to be spending a lot of money, Feng Yan said that he never "has a fever".
He joined a professional marathon running group and enjoyed the feeling of minute and second experience during the running. "It's not about getting a ranking, but about being determined to run for the rest of your life, which is the same as writing and photography."
Every time he shoots or returns to Xi'an, whether he goes to Zhongnan Mountain or Tangling, he has no assistant. He goes with his friends who have known each other for more than ten years and has been in the police criminal investigation.
He has seen the madness of the Chinese contemporary art market capital and has always reminded himself: whether we can avoid repetition in our continuous creation and continue to generate new things. Living in Taipei also keeps Feng Yan at an appropriate distance from the lively art circle and popular culture.
is just like the distance he chooses to get from the subject, just right.
Part of the picture provided by Feng Yan
