Du Xia 杜峡
1. Why have you chosen art as a career? Is there any motive for your being an artist?
I did not choose. Nor did I have motive, noble or vulgar.
From a very young age I grew fond of drawing on floors, walls, scrap papers and anywhere that I could draw on. I received a lot of scolding and even insults from teachers, parents and neighbours. Over the years, there were times when I lost my passion for art. I had doubts, and so I stopped. There were also times when I attempted other careers, but none of them could make me happy. One day, all of a sudden, I stood up from the sofa in front of the TV, and said: Paint! Go and bring your dream back! And I became happy again. What’s more, this sort of happiness made me unable to stop. I’m not a man who is good at planning things. If there was anything that led me to make the choice, it would have been God.
1. 您为什么选择艺术行业？您从事艺术创造有任何动机吗？
我没有进行选择，也没有什么高尚的或庸俗的动机。
我很小的时候就喜欢在地上、墙上、废纸上或其它任何可以画的地方画画，为此没有少挨老师、家长和邻居的呵斥甚至辱骂。这么多年我也对艺术失去过热情，我怀疑，就停下了。我也从事过其它行业，但都不能让我快乐。有一天，我突然从电视机前的沙发里站起来，说：画画吧，去找回你的梦！于是我又快乐了，并且这种快乐让我不能停下来。我不是一个善于计划人生的人，如果真有什么让我进行了选择，那就是上帝。
2. Has any significant event in your life impacted upon your work?
No particular event has had any significant impact on my creative work. Although I was ardently and actively involved in the political incident of June 1989, for which my life has been seriously affected, my artistic styles in fact had begun to take shape prior to that – when I was still a student at the Sichuan Fine Arts Institute. “Du Xia could be called the ‘foreman’ of our class, constantly painting huge iron hammers and workers who looked like they were carrying out a revolution.” (Zhang Xiaogang).
As a child, I lived in a community built around a large state-owned munition factory. That environment and those experiences probably had a decisive impact on my world view, which directly determines my artistic thinking. On one occasion my father was almost arrested, the reason being his comments on certain political issues which he should never have made. Because of this incident, our whole family lived in fear for months.
2. 在您的人生经历中，有没有什么重要的事件影响了您的艺术创作？
没有什么重要的事件影响了我的创作。虽然我非常热情地投身过1989年6月的政治事件，为此我的人生也受到过一些比较重要的影响，但我的艺术风格在这之前就已经发轫了，那时我还是四川美院的一个学生。“杜峡可以说是班上的‘工头’式的人物，不停地画一些大铁锤和仿佛在进行革命的工人们。”（张晓刚语）。
我从小在一家大型的兵工企业生活的环境和经历的一些事件可能对我的世界观产生了决定性的影响，这直接决定我的艺术思维。有一次我父亲就差点被抓起来了，原因是他不该对一些政治问题发表看法。我们家为此提心吊胆的过了好几个月。
3. Please list the materials you use and the mediums in which you work, and explain the reasons for your choices.
I only work with oil paintings. I’ve never tried any other medium, not even acrylics. I’m a very conservative man. I don’t like fiddling with new tricks. Painting enables me to express myself very well, and that is sufficient.
3. 请您列出所使用的创作体裁，并解释您使用这些体裁的原因。
我就画油画，我没有试过其它的方式，甚至丙稀都没试过。我是一个非常保守的人，不喜欢去尝试新鲜玩意儿，绘画能让我很好的表达，这就够了。
4. Would you cater for any particular audience through your work, for example, Chinese audience or the Western world?
Yes, I would. I don’t care about the nationality of my audience. I’m happy as long as they enjoy my works. But I only create using my methods and in ways that I see fit.
4. 您的作品会为特定的观众群体创作吗，比如为某些中国观众或外国观众创作？
会的。我不在乎我的观众的国籍，只要他们喜欢我就高兴。但必须按我的方式创作！
5. Do you feel that your art needs any explanation?
I used to feel that it does, but no longer think so now. On quite a few occasions, some friends of mine – they were not well educated, even less have they been informed about contemporary art – came to my home and saw some paintings. Surprisingly they all gave the “correct” interpretations about these works, that is, they were the exact feelings I had wanted to convey through the works!
5. 您觉得您的作品需要解释才能被观众理解吗？
我曾经这样觉得过，但现在不这样认为了。有好几次，我的一些朋友——他们没多少文化，更没有接受过当代艺术的熏陶——到我家里来看到一些画，居然都能说出正确的感受来——那正是我要表达的！
6. Has Western art influenced your style?
Its impact is enormous! Western art is so important and magnificent! Few Chinese people would blatantly admit their worship of Western civilisation they way I do!
6. 西方艺术对您的艺术风格是否有影响？
有很大的影响！西方艺术太伟大了！很少有中国人象我这样承认自己赤裸裸的崇拜西方文明！
7. How has China’s changing political and economic situation affected your work?
This would not have any effect on my artistic creation. I don’t like to pay attention to “China’s problems”.
Indeed, China’s political and economic situation is changing continuously. I would encourage Chinese government to keep developing. Improvements in the political situation may end artists’ status as “underground workers”. Improvements in the economic situation may give artists more opportunities to create and not having to worry about survival.
7. 当今中国的经济和政治形势在不停的变化之中，您可否谈谈，这对您的艺术创作会有什么样的影响？
这不会对我的艺术创作产生任何影响。我好象并不太喜欢关注“中国的”问题。
中国的经济和政治形势的确在不停的变化之中，我愿意鼓励中国政府照此发展下去。政治形势的好转可以让艺术家结束地下工作的状态，经济形势的好转可以让艺术家有更多的机会不为生活发愁。
8. Has political censorship restricted your artistic creation?
They have, but did not succeed!
In October 1993, a work of mine was selected for the Chinese Oil Painting Biennale (the National Art Museum of China, Beijing). An official from the Ministry of Culture found my painting and demanded the curator to disqualify it from the show. In the end, the curator took a huge risk and stealthily put up my work. They had no choice but to disqualify me from being awarded the “Academy Award” which I was supposed to win. That painting was the same as my present works in that it had no explicit political tendentiousness. But that official who had never learned about contemporary art still understood the painting’s implications, which once again proved that my works can be understood by the audience without any explanation, whether or not they are artistically trained.
I thank both the curator and the official from the Ministry of Culture. They both understood my work and each reacted in a way that was appropriate for him: One loved it; the other hated it.
8. 政治监督有没有约束了您的艺术创作？
他们约束过，但并没有成功！
1993年10月，我的作品被选中参加“中国油画双年展”（北京，中国美术馆），在布展的最后一天，文化部的有关官员发现了我的画，并要求策展人取消我的作品，后来策展人还是冒着风险偷偷摸摸的把我的画挂上去了，只是被迫取消了我应得的“学院奖”。那幅画跟我现在的画一样，并没有直白的政治倾向，但那个没有接受过当代艺术熏陶的文化部官员还是看懂了，这再次证实了我的作品不需要解释就能被观众理解——不管他有没有艺术修养。
我感谢那个策展人和那个文化部官员，他们都看懂了我的作品并作出了自己应有的反应：一个爱，一个恨。
9. What is the importance of communication and interaction with other Chinese artists to you?
Discovery, affirmation, correction, and to keep my place in the artistic circle.
9. 对您来说，同中国其他艺术家进行交流与互动的重要性是什么？
发现、证实、修正并保持我在这个艺术环境里的位置。
10. Do you feel that traditional artistic mediums such as painting, are losing their appeal as technology-based mediums flood the contemporary art scene?
Oil painting will never lose its appeal! It’s like how some people love the taste of coffee. To them, coffee will not be any less appealing just because there are other beverages available to choose from. In fact, it’s quite the opposite. There are as many brands and types in today’s beverages market as there are hairs on an ox. But sales figures of coffee have reached an unprecedented height! Similarly, the number of paintings sold globally today is also unprecedented.
10. 您认为在当今的艺术环境里，由于科技技术材料在当代艺术创作中的广泛使用，传统的艺术体裁创作，比如油画，是否会缺乏吸引力？
油画永远不会缺乏吸引力！这正如有人喜欢咖啡的味道，他并不会因为还有其它饮料可以选择，咖啡的魅力就降低了。而事实恰恰相反，现在饮料市场上的品牌和种类多如牛毛，而咖啡的销量却达到了历史上前所未有的高度！同样，今天全球的油画销售量也是前所未有的。
11. Are there differences between Chinese contemporary art and contemporary art of other regions in the world?
There are differences. This is a pretty complex topic and I’m not good at giving panorama-like descriptions. China is a country experiencing exceedingly rapid changes, which cause huge generation gaps, making it difficult for people of different generations to understand one another. I will confine my answer to those of my generation only. Chinese contemporary artists are more willing to undertake a certain sort of historical mission – at least they fantasize about such a mission. It is their glory and dream. On the other hand, contemporary artists from the rest of the world tend to spend a lot of their energy on experimenting with new mediums, new technologies or some other weird concepts. Chinese art is heavy and serious. Western art is too light-hearted. I’ve seen a little of contemporary art from other regions but was not interested in getting a deeper understanding about them. The difference is of course a result of the differences in socio-political backgrounds and the environment in which one is brought up in.
11. 您认为，中国当代艺术和世界其它地区的当代艺术有没有什么不同？是什么造成了这种不同？
有不同。这个话题有点复杂，我不善于做全景式的描述，中国是一个变化太快的国家，造成一代人和另一代人之间的鸿沟非常大，很难相互理解，我就把话题放在我们这一代人的范围里。中国的当代艺术家更愿意肩负某种历史的使命——至少他们幻想肩负这一使命，这是他们的光荣与梦想。而世界其它地区的当代艺术家更愿意在新材料、新技术或者一些奇怪的观念上做文章。中国的艺术很沉重，西方的艺术太矫情，其它地区的看过一些，但没兴趣深入了解。当然是不同的社会政治背景和成长环境造就了这种不同。
12. There is a general misconception by those who are not familiar with Chinese contemporary art, that Chinese artworks appear distinctly “Chinese”. Is there an element of truth or rationality to this, i.e. is Chinese contemporary art indeed easily recognised?
I don’t like the concept of “Chinese-ness”. It does indeed exist. The majority of Chinese artists want to put up the mask of “Chinese-ness” in order to make their works easier for Westerners to recognise and easier to sell. I prefer to believe that art has no geographic boundaries. Art is about human beings. It is not about any particular country or any particular political system. It could be that a country’s socio-political problems just happen to be more easily utilised to reflect the problem of mankind’s living conditions. But at the end of the day art is still about humanity. Social issues are only subject matters. They are superficial phenomena, and not substance. I’d rather pay attention to the question of whether my art is able to touch the audience’s heart and soul, than worrying about whether it is distinctly “Chinese”.
If an American artist did some work, could you complain about his art being too Chinese or too Japanese? No, you couldn’t. This is not the standard for assessing the quality of an artwork!
If a Chinese artist did some work, could you complain about his art being too American or too Western? Yes, you could. That is the standard for determining whether this work is good or bad!
Chinese art is the one most likely to rouse such complaints. Chinese artists, critics and the art market are also doing all they can in a conspiracy to maintain this so-called “Chinese-ness”, because it is easily recognisable to Westerners, and the capital for the art market just so happens to be in the West.
12. 对中国当代艺术知之甚少的人对它有一个误解：认为这些作品看上去非常的“中国化”。您觉得这种理解是否真实，是否有一定合理性，例如中国当代艺术是否很容易被辨认？
我不喜欢“中国化”这个概念，它的确存在，绝大多数中国艺术家都愿意有“中国化”这个面具，容易被西方人辨认，好卖。我更相信艺术是超越地域界限的，艺术是关于人的，而不是关于某个国家或某种政治制度的，也许刚好有某个国家的社会政治问题更容易被拿来反映人的生存状况的问题，但艺术始终是关于人性的，社会问题只是题材，是表象，不是本质。我更愿意去关心我的艺术是否能打动我和我的观众的心灵，而不去关心它是否拥有“中国化”特征。
如果有个美国艺术家搞了一些作品，你能抱怨他的艺术太中国或者太日本了？不能，这不是这个作品好坏的标准！
如果有个中国艺术家搞了一些作品，你能抱怨他的艺术太美国或者太西方了？可以，这就是这个作品好坏的标准！
中国的艺术界最容易产生这种抱怨，中国的艺术家、批评家和艺术市场也正在不遗余力的合谋保持这个“中国化”特色，因为容易被西方人辨认，而艺术市场资金的源泉恰恰就在西方。
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