Li: In which year did you begin to draw people foolishly laughing, without any personality, lying around? They make me feel dizzy
Yue: In1993,in in Yuanmingyuan(a small village near the old Summer Palace, which became home to an artist’s colony.Ed) Looking back, I think it must have been connected with the cultural environment of my childhood when the education I received was without variation across China. I lived in a compound where all the families belonged to the same work unit. I had little access to the outside world. I knew little about what was happening externally. All I knew was what others told me, such as what ideals I should uphold and whom I should follow. I had a fixed model for my conduct.
At that time, I thought that life was normal and
Hopeful. After graduating from middle school I got a job. The work unit was small and somewhat isolated but there were still many people “plotting” against each ather. For example, the relationships between the directors themselves, between the directors and the workers, and even between the directors and th workers, and even between the directors and the workers were delicate and highly complicated. It occurred to me thate relations between people were far different from what I had experienced at school, and it infused me with skepticism.
In 1985, I went to college hoping th make a contribution to my country after graduation. I had a great passion for learning. However as society changed, all these bubbles were gradually burst. In 1989, a number of artists had started creating works about this sense of loss, which inspired me in some way. I began to work on images of people that simultaneously aroused feelings of strength and self- mockery, which fit with my mood then and helped to relieve the unhappiness in my heart. Before I produced these people, I felt my art lacked power.
Art should be an expression of one’s particular feelings and should be direct and deep. So I drew one person, and then added another and another until there were crowds of them.
Then I felt my emotions to be fully expressed.