Li Linlin 李琳琳 - Dreams, Subconscious and Mythology

Artist

Interview via email with Deva Eveland translated by Jacques Qu

DE: What role does theatricality play in your work?

LL: In my work, the role of theatricality is to escape from reality. The social problems in China’s reality are everywhere and there is no way to avoid them. But I think excessive concern about social problems would harm the freedom and diversity of art. Nowadays many Chinese artists are hijacked by social problems. I hope to find in my art an approach of mythology and prophecy, which is linked to reality, too, but not without a proper distance.

DE: 戏剧性在你的作品扮演着什么样的角色？

LL: 戏剧性在我的作品中起到的作用是离开现实。在中国社会现实中的问题比比皆是，让人无法回避。但对社会问题过度关注我认为会损害艺术的自由和丰富性。当下中国的很多艺术家都被社会问题绑架了。我希望在自己的艺术中重新找到一种神话和预言的手法，这种预言同样与现实相关，但又有一层距离感。

DE: What about the grotesque?

LL: I don’t think my works are grotesque. All my works are from personal experiences in my real life. There experiences altogether form my creation. So there is no intention to be create something grotesque.

DE: 怪诞呢？又是什么样的角色？

LL: 我觉得我的作品并不怪诞，我的所有作品都来自于真实生活中的个人体验，这些体验混杂在一起形成了我的创作，所以并没有去刻意追求怪诞。

DE: Are the different parts of Savage Garden linked by a common theme or narrative? Or is each rabbit hole its own little world?

LL: Actually the eight boxes belong to the same theme, but it’s not obvious due to the loose arrangement in the expression. The theme is about the birth of a life and the confinement of the life by the social system, as well as the rebirth of a new life once the system collapses.

DE:《野人花园》的各个部分是通过一个共同的主题或者故事相联系吗？还是说每个兔子洞都通向它自己的小小世界？

LL: 其实这八个箱子是有一个共同主题的，但因为表达的方式比较松散所以不容易看出来。这个主题是关于一个生命的诞生和社会体制对生命的禁锢，以及整个体制崩溃后新生命的重生。

DE: Both Savage Garden and the piece with the school desks have an Alice in Wonderland-like quality. There's a rich interior world hidden behind a mundane façade. Can you discuss this?

LL: Many friends also say that this work looks like Alice In Wonderland. But when I first had the idea, it was like Decameron, expressing the same theme with various styles. I like giving people surprises. The appearance and the meaning of the work are in two completely different styles. Each box differs from all others in its style, but they are telling the same story. The peep from under the bed is the beginning of the story and the birth of a life. Mushrooms growing on the electric appliances are the end of a story, but also represent the rebirth of new lives.

DE:《野人花园》和30个课桌的作品都有《爱丽丝梦游仙境》的质感。在平淡无奇的外表下蕴藏着丰富的内在世界。你可以具体讲解一下吗？

LL: 许多朋友也说这个作品像《爱丽丝梦游奇境》。其实这个作品在开始构思的时候是延续了《十日谈》的手法，用不同的风格来表达一个意思，我喜欢给人惊喜的感觉，作品的外表和内在完全是两种风格，每一个箱子的手法都是有区别的，但它们讲的都是同一个故事，床下的偷窥是故事的开始及生命的诞生。电器里长蘑菇是故事的结束，是代表新生命的重生。

DE: Your work has a lot of mushrooms growing out of it. What do they mean to you?

LL: Different from other plants, mushrooms contain a unique meaning. Normal plants get energy from the sunshine, but mushrooms get energy from the dark, so it is most suitable for the theme of death and rebirth.

DE: 你的作品里冒出了很多的蘑菇。它们对于你有什么意义？

LL: 蘑菇与其它植物相比是有特殊含义的。一般植物吸收的能量来自阳光，而蘑菇的能量来自黑暗，所以它最适合表达死亡与重生这个主题。

DE: When I visited your studio, it was hard not to notice the shelves of neatly organized animal skulls and the plastic containers stuffed with little bones. When you work with them, do you have a sense of holding in your hand something that was once a living creature? Or does it become just like any kind of material a sculptor might use?

LL: In my eyes, they’re a material representing life and death. I don’t think too much about the lives that once inhabited in them.

DE: 在造访你的工作室时，我很难不去观察架子上整齐摆放的动物头骨和塞满细小骨头的塑料容器。当你摆弄它们的时候，你会感觉到手心里是一个曾经拥有生命的活物吗？还是说它们之于你仅仅好比某种材料之于雕塑家？

LL: 在我看来它们就是一种代表生命和死亡的材料，我不太会去想它们是生命本身。

DE: Is it awkward to purchase large numbers of cat and dog skulls? Do you have to explain what you’re doing with them?

LL: Actually I’m more passive in choosing animal bones. I use whatever I can find for my work, and I hope these bones are from dead animals.

DE: 购买大量的猫和狗的骨头——这让你感到尴尬吗？你买的时候需要解释吗？

LL: 我在选择动物骨骼上其实是被动的。我把自己能找到的材料做成作品，我更希望这些骨骼的来源是已经死去的动物。

DE: I think you mentioned you have done some of your own taxidermy, though we were communicating half in gestures due to the language difference. Is that right? If so, I want to know more!

LL: Probably it’s due to the language difference. I bought the bones from specialists of taxidermy. I don’t make them myself. But I did make the mushroom by myself.

DE: 我记得你提过有些标本是你亲手制作的（不过因为语言的障碍，我们有一半时间都在用手势交流）。事实情况是否真的如我所想？要是果真如此，我很想知道更多细节！

LL: 可能是语言的问题，这些骨骼是我从制作标本的专业人员那里买来的。我自己不会做动物骨骼标本。蘑菇的部分是我自己做的。

DE: Your artist statement mentions that your work is more connected to concepts like dreams, the subconscious and mythology rather than social reality. What draws you to these fantastic themes?

LL: What I meant was I didn’t show social reality directly, but rather established the linkage between myself and reality through dreams, subconscious and mythology. The themes of my work originated from some very private experiences, and also some inspiration from movie scenes.

DE: 你的艺术家自述中提到，你的作品与梦境、潜意识和神话有深层次的联系，而非社会现实。是什么吸引你选择这些奇妙的主题？

LL: 我的意思是我没有直接表达社会现实，而是通过梦和潜意识、神话等手法来实现自我与现实之间的联系。作品的主题来源于一些很个人的私密体验，也有一些灵感源于电影的场景。

DE: I’d love to have dreams that take place in Savage Garden. Do you ever dream about your art?

LL: I guess I never did. To me, creation is a conscious process. Every scene is constructed through a lot of design work and experimentation.

DE: 我很想做一个在《野人花园》里发生的梦。你梦到过自己的艺术作品吗？

LL: 没有梦见过吧。对我来说创作是一个有意识的过程。每一个场景都是通过大量设计和实验来完成的。

李琳琳可以将自己的领悟深入到微观世界，例如一只蘑菇。但是她没有将世界理解为孤立的大小，而是相互关联和不断结构的存在，这就是为什么她希望通过一件作品的制作讲述“不同的故事”的原因。艺术家说她喜欢安排戏剧，可是发生的一切都是真实的，一出戏就是一个事件，你不能假设那是虚幻的艺术，而另外的事件是具体的现实，换句话说，世间的一切都是真实的或虚幻的。生活经历的复杂性影响着人的理解，组织戏剧和引导观看成为李琳琳的兴趣中心，只是，一旦演出开始，演出就不属于你，作品开始干扰或者引导观众的心理，即便艺术家自己也深入到作品中，成为其中的角色。——吕彭

Li Linlin can look deep into the microscopic world, such as mushrooms, to comprehend it. She does not look at the world only by the size of a single piece, but also by how they interrelate and how the shifting structures present continuously. That is the reason why she hopes to make a work about "different stories". The artists said, she likes to arrange a drama stage. However, everything that happened are all true. A play is an event, and you cannot assume one of them is illusory while another is concrete reality. In other words, everything in the world is a mixture of reality and illusion. The complexity of life experiences affects people's understanding. To organize a drama scene and guide people to look into it, that becomes the focal center of Li Linlin. Although, once the show began, the show does not belong to you. The audience’s psychological reaction begins to be manipulated and guided by the artwork, even the artist herself goes deep into the works and becomes one of the character.