I was introduced to his work through a solo exhibition at the Smithsonian Institution's Arthur M. Sackler Gallery in Washington, DC in 2001. I perceive him as a book artist, with a key interest in the book form and its alterations; text, language, and its deconstruction; and words and characters as entities in themselves. In China perhaps more than elsewhere, books are the embodiment of culture, and he has said that his work challenges cultural assumptions. We spoke in a cafe near CAFA in April 2014. I was ably assisted during and after the interview by Adam Dehmosehni, Claire Cuccio, and Zhang Qian Qian, whom I thank for their help. MICHAEL DURGIN (MD): In this conversation, I would like to focus on your interest in and use of handmade paper in your work. In the 1987 text in Meishu 美术 that describes your MFA thesis work, you mention "internationally popular paper pulp printing" in describing one way to achieve intense texture in prints. Do you remember when you first became aware of paper pulp as an artistic medium? Which artists were you aware of then who were using paper pulp? XU BING (XB): There were few artists working with paper pulp as a medium at the time. China has long observed a clear separation between the papermaker as artisan and the artist who uses paper in their work, whether painting, calligraphy, or printmaking. I had no encounter with papermaking when I studied in art school. Robert Rauschenberg came to China in the early 1980s and worked with xuan 宣 paper in Anhui province. He embedded contemporary, commercial New Year's prints (nianhua 年画) within the xuan paper. This work was exhibited in 1986 at the Chinese National Gallery, and that was my first exposure to artists using paper pulp. MD: Two years after going to the United States, you studied papermaking and Western bookbinding at the University of South Dakota. Who did you work with there and what inspired you to study papermaking? XB: This was my first direct experience making paper. I studied with Professor Lloyd Menard, a scholar researching handmade paper. He was influenced by both Rauschenberg and Native American art, and was making very colorful pulp paintings and then printing on them. My own work, in contrast, used very neutral colors. I found his to be too bright. \[laughs\] MD: Have you ever visited the Chinese papermaking villages or hand paper mills where the papers used in your works were made? XB: Yes, I have visited quite a few papermaking sites over the years. In fact, I have just returned from visiting a friend who runs a mill near Hangzhou. His village, Fuyang, is the origin of yuanshu 元书 paper, which is very thin and was traditionally used by literati painters and to print classic texts, dating back to the Northern Song Dynasty \[988–1022 ce\]. It is sometimes described as being "as thin as the wing of a cicada." My friend's workshop is the only one in his village still making this paper using the traditional methods. It's sad that his is the only facility, but making yuanshu paper is hard work and not cost-effective for most papermakers. He uses bamboo that is harvested at a very specific time: after the stalk begins to branch but before it leafs out. He has a fermentation lake, which is very smelly and has mosquitoes and frogs, but it's completely organic. His whole process harnesses natural conditions, with a sensitivity to and awareness of the terroir and climate. Yuanshu paper naturally has the characteristics of half-sized xuan paper, but is not treated with alum as xuan would be. MD: Have you had paper handmade to your own requirements for a project or do you always use paper that has already been made for some other purpose? XB: I always seek papers that have qualities very specific to my needs. I am demanding in this regard. For Ghosts Pounding on the Wall, I used a Korean paper that is extremely durable. Korea, being in northeast Asia, has a similar climate to the region of the Great Wall, so this paper was geographically appropriate. I believe this paper is commonly used for window coverings. Also, it had the texture and natural variations that I was seeking for the rubbings made of the Great Wall. For Book from the Sky, I wanted a natural color paper. I found a paper with a beautiful yellow tone called yukou 玉扣 paper. The stock I used turned out to have been used for the foreign publication in English of Mao Zedong's poetry. It had been made as an export product and I used the leftover stock. (Years later, a friend at Cornell University, Brad Erickson, gave me a gift of the Mao anthology, not knowing the connection. I compared the paper later and, indeed, it was the same MD: From your perspective as a professor and administrator at CAFA, do you see paper as a medium entering the academy? Are more Chinese artists using it? XB: Yes, this has been growing for quite some time, largely due to Western influence. It enters into mixed media and integrated media, although paper is only one of the new media being used. We see it being used in the printmaking, experimental art, and sculpture departments, but not as an end in itself. However, interest piqued by Western artistic influences has led to a renewed interest in Chinese handmade papers as a tradition. More research is now being done into the use of paper in Chinese culture, including such areas as paper being used for weapons and armor. The old split between the artisan and the artist is beginning to be bridged through this research. MD: Do you have other observations on handmade paper that you would like to share with us? XB: In China, most paper until recently was made by hand. So paper and handmade paper are basically the same here. Paper is inherently a yin 阴 material: delicate and soft. I see paper as a touchstone for future research into traditions, including the balance of art and nature, and of nature and the artist. Paper is a manifestation of the Chinese ethos and the success of a work of Chinese painting is fundamentally dependent on paper. The papermaking artisan acts in synergy with natural processes and both manifests and relies on existing conditions. It recalls the Chinese phrase, tian ren he yi 天人合一, nature and man are one. In traditional painting, the artist works in synergy with paper, which is fundamental to the painting. The artist uses the nature of the paper to bring out its potential. Through cooperation and synergy, not the artist but the paper completes the painting, as it continues to react with the ink after the artist has lifted the brush. Future exploration of paper by artists is important. Through research of the paper tradition, a larger discourse will emerge about Chinese artists and Chinese culture. Paper is a crystallization of Chinese culture, embodying both civilization and nature. As the relationship between man and the environment grows tense and precarious—in China the air we breathe, the water we drink, the food we eat are all in critical condition—traditional papermaking reminds us of our role within an ecosystem and encourages us to work with nature, not against it.
