2023.4.29-6.28

Mojie Art Museum, Taiyuan

Producer: Gao Xinxi

Curator: Liu Chun

Foreword

Ding Yi and his “Appearance of Crosses”

In 1988, at the age of twenty-six, Ding Yi resolutely gave up figurative painting to embark upon a one-way journey into abstraction. From then on, the “cross” began to appear in his works. He has repeatedly stressed that it has no meaning and is a pure visual symbol. Later, he superimposed an “X” on top of the cross, turning the original into something more akin to “米” (mi) and, thus, making the symbol more rich, full, and crisp. Ding Yi called them “Appearance of Crosses” and tried to eliminate any association they might have with art. Hence, one after another, the “米” continuously expand with Ding Yi’s arrangements, from an initial two-dimensional space to three-dimensional extensions. Hundreds upon thousands, thousands upon tens of thousands – the orderly arrangements of Ding Yi’s paintings, especially given their precise production, present new visual forms that break through all the constraints of traditional painting, adding life and vitality to Chinese modern and contemporary art.

As the symbols entered one square after another, Ding Yi’s paintings have graduated towards an extreme. “Appearance of Crosses” was no longer a noun but a verb and became an elusive “present tense” and “active form”, from raw to sophisticated, from superficial to profound, from constraint to freedom, from simple to complex…

Essentially, “Appearance of Crosses” is a plain symbol, a term without any meaning. Yet gradually, from its interior, a warmth was released — turbulent, full, jubilant, enthusiastic, like the blazing sun, like a spring breeze, like a rolling song. The “米” stand next to each other, one enticing the other. They are governed by rules. The highest level of imagination comes from constraints. It requires a strong ability of logic, but ultimately one can see the world through the artist’s self-restraint — magic and straight. Like thousands of sails racing across the sea.

Therefore, in today’s world of contemporary art, Ding Yi’s endeavor, which resembles religious belief, is an extremely rare spiritual quality.

In the past thirty-five years, the “Appearance of Crosses” has come represent progressive points within linear temporality, rather than an aesthetic break. They multiply in different images. They shift in changing mediums, but their essence never changes. Over the past thirty-five years, Ding Yi has always adhered to the austerity and practice of his “Appearance of Crosses”, approaching painting through an exploratory and rational process similar to drawing — an elusive essence and truth nearly impossible to ascertain, like the wind of the valley.

Ding Yi aims to use his creative practice to renew art, to rebel and transcend figurative painting so that we can deeply feel a reality beyond the real. In fact, the “Appearance of Crosses” does not have to be concrete or abstract. It is a symbol created by Ding Yi, and when many are assembled together, the meaningless signs have meaning. This meaning depends on the life and aesthetic experiences of each viewer. Thus, they generate a new way understanding of the world – even awaken our hope and faith in life.

In the past thirty-five years, Ding Yi has single-mindedly repeated the research and exploration of his signs. He has not been confused by various myths, and this persistence has become an active choice and a way of life for the artist. The continuous repetitions reaffirm the direction and meaning of his life, yielding inner liberation and freedom. Many years ago, Ding Yi’s “Appearance of Crosses” entered the commercial field, with collaborations with international commercial brands such as “LV”, “Hermes” and “Hennessy”. These projects brought new life to painting and provided unprecedented visual texts. More importantly, Ding Yi’s works have been collected by many institutions all over the world, among which, The British Museum in the UK, Centre Pompidou in France, Daimler Art Centre in Germany, Fukuoka Asian Art Museum in Japan, and National Art Museum of China, etc.

The “Appearance of Crosses” created by Ding Yi is a continuous naming of the world. Like all other human knowledge, it maintains a certain hypothesis and explanation particular to the world and remains its most vivid reflection. In the past thirty-five years, he has constantly pursued the unknowable and fluid. In the seemingly rigid, conceptual and symbolic images, all traditional knowledge and modern ideas fall away. He not only covers the new and changing aspects of modern and contemporary art, but also directs these new and changing aspects to the ancient and eternal spiritual things related to the deep experience of existence. Even if we share things in common, in this spiritual light our inner experiences are completely different. Ding Yi has spent his entire life in pursuit of this difference to make others believe in it.

Each piece of Ding Yi’s work contributes to a hypothesis of the immense mysteries and unknowns distributed across the universe that constitute a cosmology. Ding Yi’s world spans all scales, from the tiny seed that sparked the big bang, to the fully expanded universe, enveloping eons of time. The speed of his thought and the breadth of “Appearance of Crosses” are beyond the traditional realm and inspire human imagination and exploration of various possibilities of the universe. Ding Yi’s extraordinary imagination once again proves his creative ability, and the feeling, thinking and visual shock brought by the “Appearance of Crosses” rises to a new dimension here.

Thirty-five years before, the “Appearance of Crosses” was cold and meaningless. Thirty-five years later, the “Appearance of Crosses” began to radiate great heat, especially in the context of social change. It has become a long song in the history of Chinese contemporary art.

Today, Ding Yi is invited by Mojie Art Museum to enliven Taiyuan with his works, bring a visual feast to Shanxi audiences. I believe that the “Appearance of Crosses”, like the stars and galaxies in the vast universe, will illuminate the yellow earth, change people’s traditional aesthetic appreciation, and inject vitality and hope into modern life.

“Appearance of Crosses” is Ding Yi’s worldview; it will continue to march forward.

Liu Chun

15 March 2023, early morning in Taiyuan

Dimension of “Crosses”

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