GOT YOUR NOSE: GATA MEETS ARTIST WANMEIBAOBIRENJIAN
Known on Instagram as @wanmeibaobirenjian, artist Tian Tian embodies a unique perspective that transcends conventional artistic norms. Their captivating paintings, sculptures, and self-made masks serve as a medium through which they express their innermost emotions. Through their art, they strive to communicate the profound nature of their being, a journey fueled by the inexorable forces of love and death. This extraordinary amalgamation manifests in their creations, leaving a mark on the hearts and minds of those who encounter them.
From haunting masks adorned with deformities to surrealistic paintings exuding fear and anxiety, their creations encompass a vast array of emotions. Within these evocative pieces, one can uncover compositions featuring enigmatic trilobites or striking masks. Each brushstroke and sculpted form invites viewers to embark on an introspective journey, confronting their own fears and uncertainties.
Tian Tian’s art breaks free from the confines of conventional expression, immersing viewers in a world where love, death, and discomfort intertwine. Through their extraordinary talent, they have created a body of work that elicits intense emotions and challenges preconceived notions of art.
In this GATA exclusive, Tian Tian invites us to explore the depths of our own consciousness and embrace the unfamiliar.
Scroll below for the full interview.
Thank you for talking to us Today! Can you please introduce yourself to the GATA audience?
Hello, GATA readers! my name is Tian Tian and I’m a 23-year-old artist from China. I like painting, sculpture, making masks, and all kinds of fun things. I also like skateboarding, although I’m not very skilled. In university, I actually majored in picture book design, because I like to draw illustrations, and I like to express my inner feelings and record some of these things in my work.
How did you begin your career as an artist?
I’ve been fond of drawing since I was young, around that time my parents sent me to participate in art classes and, I’ve been drawing since then. In junior high school, I became interested in modern art and was I really liked artists like Dali, Van Gogh and Picasso. This gave me the inspiration to create paintings that expressed my inner feelings. I don't know if that time counts, but I think I was already a little artist at that time.
What inspired your art style?
When I was in kindergarten, I liked to watch Japanese Tokusatsu films. I remember my favourites were Ultraman Ace, Ultraman 80, and the Space Ironmen. I liked the images of monsters and supermen here, so then I began painting monsters. I think this was probably my earliest inspiration. From the artists the modern art i was exposed to in junior high school my work began to take on a different style. I really liked Dali and Picasso's works—I liked the feeling of strange shapes and some of their atmospheric classical oil paintings had an impact on me, I like a mysterious atmosphere. I’m really inspired by scary and supernatural events, and also by everyday encounters.
You work with various mediums, such as painting, and sculpting, is there any specific medium you enjoy working with the most? Why?
My favourite thing at present is painting. In most cases, I use watercolour for creation, because I feel that I can easily control it. Watercolour is also suitable for expressing romantic and hazy feelings, and it lets me express the concrete things in my heart— so I like watercolour very much. Moreover, I feel that watercolour is similar to my personality, which is gentle, a little shy, and lazy
Your masks often exhibit many elements of body horror, is there any symbolism behind these haunting creations and the impact you intend them to have on those who encounter them?
With my masks I often like to work on the nose. I do many nose faces, split faces with two noses, and people who turn into worms. I think the nose represents silence because I am very introverted, the nose person's face has no mouth so you can only breathe to feel the world. A person with a split-mouth has become like that because he lied, so technically he’s splitting due to the lie. A person who becomes a bug becomes so because he is very closed, wanting to shrink into a bug. These are some themes that are of my most representative masks. I want to convey to the audience a feeling of dreaming; which is absurd, strange, and has a feeling of beauty and depression.
Love and death are recurring themes in your artwork. Could you take us through the creative process of translating these emotions into visual forms?
Love and death are really attractive propositions to me. I have been in love, and there are times when I really like someone. The time with that person, the mood I feel and my memories, I want to record them. Because maybe one day we will not be together but we can prove that time existed. Those emotions people feel are true, the ones that are not for others to see, but for myself to record. I’m a very formalistic person, love is like this: There can not be a you and I, but there, love once existed.
Death in my heart, is a desire to destroy, dissatisfaction, and revenge on the world. Sometimes I can be very rebellious and evil. I hate dogma and unnecessary rules, I have been deeply involved in it since childhood, so I express that death is sometimes a desire to destroy. There is a kind of self-destructive despair but maybe I’m just a giant baby, who hasn’t grown up.
How do you view the relationship between art and mortality, and how does your work invite viewers to contemplate their own mortality?
When I think of artistic death, I think of artists like Hiller, Van Gogh, Modigliani, Bacon, Munch, Queen frontman Freddy, Andy Warhol, Bechinski... I smell death in their work, it's either what they're trying to convey, it's a sense of doom, it's been ordained by fate to accept death, (of course Andy Warhol survived being shot) This death was not of their own choosing, it was about their lifestyle, habits, character, and heart, which I felt was like a very lucky gem, a wonderful piece of their art, indispensable. So I feel that death is a kind of natural precious taste that is chosen by fate and self on the works, that is, the feeling that he is doomed to destroy, he is destined to create so many paintings in his life, and he will die after painting, it is this feeling, it is a little abstract, but I understand. I feel that my own works do not deliberately invite the audience to think about death. He feels it, and I can't help it if he doesn't feel it.
Trilobites also seem to be a recurring motif in your paintings and sculptures, adding an extra enigmatic element to your work. What inspired their inclusion?
I’ve liked insects since childhood, I had a lot of fun observing them. I also like crustaceans. I found trilobites from looking through a biology book and I thought that they looked so beautiful, I also thought that they might feel kind of fun in your hand. I include them in my work because someone how they feel like me, they have that character of self-closure.
What do you personally hope viewers take away from your creations, and how do you want your art to resonate with viewers?
I hope the audience can see something that they haven’t seen before in my works. I want them to feel a feeling they have not felt before, and that is, a feeling of a sense of strangeness. Through this, I hope that people will be able to see the other side of the world, and thus feel freedom. I hope the audience can take away a special sense of belonging and freedom from my works. In my opinion, the resonance is that the audience can feel themselves in my works, and another kind of resonance is that the audience can see something beyond their inner heart in my works. These two aspects are the ways that I hope to bring resonance to others.
What’s your favourite piece that you’ve made thus far?
The nose man mask.
How do you make them?
The process of making the mask is basically, that I press stone powder clay into a thin crust, and then I cover it with plastic wrap, and then I put the plastic wrap side over my face to give the clay a base shape, and then I take it off, and when it dries, I create details and shapes on it, and then I sand it, and then I colour it with acrylic, I then spray it with protective paint and then it is done.
How does your identity influence the way you express yourself through your art, and what message do you hope to convey to your audience?
My current identity is an otaku who graduated and has not found a job. I consider myself an artist. Every day, I think about how to create something interesting. What I want to convey to people is different at each stage, but let me just say what I want to convey to people now. Recently, I have been trying to express a sense of absurdity, a bit like comedy, and a sense of daydreaming, a sense of dream coming true.
Can you tell us about the use of genitalial references in your work?
The idea of genitals, maybe because I am a lecherous person, I often feel that my desire cannot be released, sometimes it makes me very painful, I feel that it is not something I can control, so this feeling makes me very sick, I immerse myself in it, I observe those pornographic images and my desire, I want to know a beauty from it, I want to control this beauty, I want to harness it, I want to be on top of it. Out of this psychology and feeling, I sometimes bring in some sexual elements, more pain, I want to restrain my sexual desires as a human being, so I express them in my work with vengeance, I want to be sober, so that I can be better.
Gata loves cinema. Can you share with us your favourite films or some that may have inspired your work?
My favourite movie is Love Exposure by Sono. It's both funny and touching. Some movies that have e inspired me are Perfume, Achilles and the Turtle, and Farewell My Concubine.
Interview by Jasmina Mitrovic