Confession of “Id”

In Jiang Yong’s former works, no matter the characters or the scenery are all gentle and easy, in which there flows out naturally a kind of tender emotion, as the soft wind in March, slightly got drunk but not noisy, can’t help whistling to match it. However, his new series <<Someone>>, have changed his paint brush suddenly, giving up all the concrete object and color. The big difference seemed like a neighborhood young boy turned to be a sophistic middle aged man in one second. There are no complicated structure and levels, no plenty of colors to make eyes dazzled, but it should have something unclearly that beyond the canvas, through the eyes, strikes straightly to our heart.

With the passing of time, it could be seen that the artist has turned the simply describing of the external things to the internal pursuit, which is an extremely self experience and expressing, out of the limitation of form, creating in a more introspective point of view and spreading out more personal thought and feeling. We might analyse Jiang Yong’s works from the point of psychology. In mentality process “knowledge-emotion-will”, emotion is the subjective experience, consciousness of spirit and the internal power to know the world and action of subjective will, which has occupied the essential place in the mental structure, being the “power system” affecting human’s mentality and also the senior lever of it. Tolstoy has said: “art is to recall what feeling artist has experienced and use it to inspire the reader’s similar emotion.” Thus, emotion presents the humanness and the whole reaction to the all aspects of human’s desire, being the motivation and ultimate theme of art. The post modernism, moreover, eliminates the subject, depth, feeling of history and distance, out of the holy theme and responsibility of history, concentrating in the delight of sensations stimulated. In the works, covering by those unclear faces in tune of gray, there are the struggling horns, which should be the id want to get out of there, or the moans of the wound of the flatted pointedness in this impetuous and noisy world.

Jiang Yong mentioned in his essay: “Zhuang Tse said in <<essence of nature>> that simplicity is most lofty as the essential power of spirit, that’s to say we should expose our original faces.” And “ancient said: If the jade is not polished, it can’t become a thing of use; if a man doesn’t learn, he can’t know his duty towards his neighbor.” Someone regard themselves as a piece of jade and wish to be polished, but someone refuses all of social norm and prefers to be a piece of stone.”  To be an artist in the modern China with individual spirit, the traditional thought of Lao Tse and Zhuang Tse, also the western humanism in pursuit of personal freedom, all deeply influenced him.

Of course, to Jiang Yong, who is living in Sichuan gaining the reputation of “the land of abundance”, Chengdu is easy and relaxed, providing enough time and space to feel his heart, caring the external world and listening to the internal saying. Being influenced by “flowers fill all the Jingguang city”, maybe his “id” is seeking for the Daoism like “letting things take their own course”, or the similar Buddhism “nothing to have, no dust to infected with”, instead of western radicalism and ultraism. In Zhuang Tse’s view, rank of nobility, fame and gain are all of short duration can’t be kept for long, so don’t be self-indulgent for the high post with matched salary, or curry favor with common customs, thus, there will be no trouble. This kind of philosophy of life, natural and inactive, has built a paradise for people to release the crisis of spirit. The intentional unclear faces in Jiang Yong’s works should be the leaving blank especially in Chinese traditional art paintings. “Empty”, “namelessness” and “useless” are the self-reflection and contemplating to the “intention of differing” and regulations after experienced too many “concept” and “prejudice” in human’s civilization.
From <<Questioning the God>> by Qu Yuan to tragedy poet Hai Zi’s “I’m asking loudly in the sky/Who’s there/I/Standing up for asking again/Who’s there too?”, human always ask their heart: Who am I? Where did I come from? Where will I going to? Unlike neither extreme western pioneers nor the negative part of Daoism, Jiang Yong’s id is still struggling actively, in order to express the “reality” to him and the world; however, he doesn’t look tired normally happened after shouting oneself hoarse. He controls himself by Chinese own intelligence and wisdom, showing his solid spirit easily without difficulties. Our interpretation to the artist’s id is the interpretation to the life, in the same way, searching for the meaning of life is the ultimate question to the life. When human is puzzled by the life, perhaps, the only way is to calm down and go back to the heart, listening to the confession of his “id” carefully.

Hypnotism is one of the clinic therapy methods in psychology, which can awaken the memory in the patient’s subconsciousness. As the interpretation of Jiang Yong to the “id”, his works can arouse us to check our heart. When looking at Jiang Yong’s works, even we are wandering like a lonely ghost in the lost city; we still could be like German “scholar” Walter Benjamin: getting out of the indifferent crowd and looking on, will obtain the ability of “introspection”, “astoundment” and “halo of spirit”.
Guan Yuda