KS: You were born in Wuhan. You moved to Beijing where you spent several years, before spending long periods of time in Shanghai. How did that affect your view of art?
HA: Shanghai was really buzzing at that time. I first went in 2004. From 2004 to now, I spent time there every year. With that gang [of artists around Xu Zhen], they don’t mess around. No karaoke, no girls, no drinking; just everyday drinking tea and talking art almost 24 hours a day. They get up early, and then start with philosophy and art. Their attitude makes you feel art is active, not an outcome, a result. It’s a very idealistic way of living and producing art, especially now we are all approaching middle age. We need something meaningful, something alive, not just the appearance of liveliness. It becomes a way of mutual support. Back then Beijing was not that way. In Beijing, everyone thinks themselves so smart, making smart art with a big price tag. They eat together but never talk art. It’s getting better now and people are gradually returning to normal. There are so many more opportunities to go abroad these days, which is easier too. It’s also easier to talk about art because people are more confident. At least, it seems like we are still quite passionate about art. We talk about it a lot. Like Shanghai, Beijing is now becoming increasingly layered, enriched, as Chinese art becomes more mature. We are not so blindly enamored of Western art these days either. I feel we are much more equal. I think all of this is reflected in the work.
KS: As you explained, you tailor the concept of your work to the space. So how do you choose where you show? Or do you wait to be invited and then develop a project?
HA: In truth, if there is no pressure on you to do something, by the age of 40 it’s
really easy to become disillusioned or to give up. None of us can act as we did when we were young. There are so many more things we have to deal with in life, which can’t be avoided. Your relatives are aging and you have to take time to take care of them. Your duties increase. So what do you do? You have to step up to the task. I think that men are different. They need to have some kind of spiritual drive or mission to deal with all of this. Something that tells you every day I have to get up at what time, then what it is that I do, and then what it is that I do after that, when to rest. That’s partly why I became vegetarian. I needed to give up completely given up my old way of life. I don’t intend to return to that way of living, so I am vegetarian. But it’s also about attitude. I am preparing to give up my evening meal too. In the evening I have only water and fruit. I want to have this control for myself. It is about demanding something of yourself.
Last year I was very thin because I was doing martial arts every day. I was living in Tongzhou, but chose a martial arts school that was far from my home, so every day I had to take the bus. There was only one bus every 20 minutes. The practice room had no heating, so if I was cold then I had to work harder. I really needed it to be that way, or I would easily give up. It is the same for my art. I always say to Xu Zhen, if we don’t constantly keep each other on our toes, with honest opinions, then we are finished. That’s what’s great about art. If you take away fame, take away the accolades you receive, the platitudes from others, if you take that all away there is no real hierarchy in contemporary art, nothing that endures through the ages except the work. I increasingly feel that art is like sport: you need to be very fit to do it, to have stamina. Especially for installation art. You also have to work alongside the workers, and you need stamina to keep up with them, as you do for thinking clearly. If you don’t have these things then you’re finished. Even if your works are great, they will not endure. They will only be of this time, this decade.
Take Huang Yong Ping. Such a great artist, but when I look at his works, I feel disappointed. It’s not that I am disappointed with him, but that the moment has passed. His grasp of art, his ability to think, all are perfect, but it feels so dated. We will also become outdated, passé. That is an issue of contemporary art. Why? Well it’s the same in sports. No one can continue in any sport forever. When you get to 40, you are all facing this problem. If we don’t keep each other on our toes, if we have no fixed routine in life, we are finished. I think my way is fine. It’s already been a year. I have ironed out my issues, and set my wake up time as 8:30, so every day I get up at 8:30. Although I was late today because I was drinking last night.
KS: I thought you had given up drinking!
HA: No, in fact I drink rather a lot. More than before even; but no liquor [baijiu]. Drink that and you can’t get anything done the next day. Right now I’m hooked on whiskey. You don’t need to mix it with anything, just sip. I had a skinful last night, which is why I didn’t get up till ten this morning. This is something we all have to deal with. From next year, I intend to step up this discipline. I have to think about my work plans. As long as nothing needs taking care of at home, then I want each year to do a solo show, each year to reveal a new development.
