2011 MEMORY BLOSSOMS FAN XUEYI ART EXHIBITION
PARIS, FRANCE
INTRODUCTORY ARTICLE OF THE EXHIBITION
My Story, My Art
I was born in a place called Season Pier, in Heilongjiang Province of China, very close to the Russian border.
My father was an ordinary worker and my mother became seriously mentally ill soon after I was born. There are five brothers and sisters in my family, and our life of poverty was not easy. Due to our challenging living conditions, I neither received any formal education nor was able to go to college for study. I wa sent to school at eleven years old only because my father wanted me to be able to write my name properly if I married later.
The memory of my childhood is that I was always searching for my mother. No matter which season it is, spring, summer, autumn or winter, she always kept running outside in the wilderness, and I had to look for her. While searching for her, I could count down the footstep of each season, or watch the clouds to walk away. Therefore, I am more familiar with the taste of grass and woods than the language of humans.
I enjoy the elegance of dragonflies dripping water more than the human dance. Either the wild lily in the valley, or the winter snow in the forest, could hear my voice calling for my mother. Nature never confuses or frustrates me. I wrote down those simple comforts by recording them in a natural way. As a result, I understand that the melancholy joy is unforgettable, and inner happiness is the true happiness. By treasuring the language of nature, as well as transcending the realistic hardship, my writing started in a natural way. Thanks to my mother, her suffering led me to a better comprehension of the world. On the path to seeking my mother, under the embrace of the mother-nature, I am able to finish the most important education of my life and find the enlightenment of thoughts.
With the courage and enthusiasm accumulated in my childhood, in 1997 I decided to explore Beijing by myself from my remote hometown. In order to survive, I worked as a sales person in a furniture shop, a waitress in a restaurant, as well as a clerk in an advertisement in a company. No matter what the situation was, I never stopped writing poems and enjoying art.
I happened to read Tagor’s poem from a poetry book collected from the trash, “Bird flies above, leaving no trace in the sky.” I believe that what he writes about is the truth of nature.
The first time when I listened to the music of Blue Danube by Johann Strauss from the radio on a cold winter day in my hometown, I felt that the classical music is sacred, the music of God.
I learned the poetic emotion of Chinese painting from a book given to me by a friend, which is about Xu Wei, an ancient painting master in China.
Life is my teacher, and nature is the way of my behavior.
The first destination of my European trip will be in Paris, France, the capital of dreams, where there is my favorite writer-poet Marguerite Duras, whose transparency and mystery gives me another dimension of thought.
From the painting of Crows Above the Wheat Field by Vincent Van Gogh, I could see the persistence and despair of my mother; I read about the dawn and dusk of my hometown through the paintings by Renoir and Monet.
I wanted to be that Esmeralda to deliver water for the poor Quasimodo, just like the story of Notre Dame de Paris.
I feel that every second the world around me gives me my energy and spirit.
Today, I would like to present you through different media, in a way of an oriental expressionism, to share with you my story. I also want to send a message to you that no matter how hard life is for me,, I can always enjoy the beauty of a blossom, and the joy of breeze.
Xueyi in Beijing
June 14th, 2011
BIO of Xueyi Fan
1969 born in Heilongjiang Province, China
1997 started to live and work in Beijing from hometown
2001 published poetry book《Childhood River》
2002 founded the XYZ Art Studio
2006 art director and lyric writer for the music album <Singing in the wind>
2006 wrote the song for the TV opera <Dream River>, <Local Police>, <Never Surrendered Sunflower>, <Family Affairs>.
2007 lyric writer of the theme song of movie <Banquet>, director by Feng Xiaogang and composer by Tan Dun with the name of the song entitled <Reward your love>
2007 published the poetry book 《Letter from Secret Garden》with illustration by Dr. Erqiao Wei
2007 Started painting career
2008 First Solo Exhibition <Who Took Away My Blue Sky> Painting Exhibition at XYZ Gallery Beijing
2009 <Farewell My Flower> Poem Show in Sunshine Art Space
2010 Publish the poetry painting of <Season Pier>
2010 Attended the South Korea Biennale
2010 Poetry Painting Exhibition in Huaxia Art Museum in Zhengzhou
2010 artwork collected by Museum of Thousands Stone Carving Museum of Henan Province
Paintings Collected by private collectors from both home and abroad
Now resides in Beijing as a poet, painter and the art director of XYZ Gallery Beijing and Season Pier Space in 798 art center of Beijing
SELECTED SHORT POEMS
It is getting cold
Stick says to the leaf
Go back to your hometown
I will hold the green dream for you –
The broken leaf falls down
Telling itself
It is only a paragraphy –
When sunlight streaks in
Dust finds its new direction –
There is no heaven ahead of us
Heaven is in those places that we have passed through –
Fish swimming in the water
Does not need shore –
Flower has gone
In fruit’s honeymoon –
In the colorful air
You can find imagination everywhere –
My fervent love
Is for farewell –
Love has gone away
Dragonfly flies over –
Leaf does not catch up with the autumn
Because it does not meet the appropriate breeze –
Come with the wind
There is no sadness –
Longing is like a lamp
Always flicking in the dark –
Do not search for me
I have been here –
Only the wind is crying
It seems to interprete a predict –
In the place where to bury hardship
The rock could blossom –
I am not your saint disciple
But dedicate myself -
