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Meihua Village, Beiquan Street, Beibei District, Chongqing, was once a lively place. In recent years, with the rapid development of urban construction, surrounding high-rise buildings have been built one after another, old residents have gradually moved out, and everything in Meihua Village seems to be gradually quiet.
We heard that three years ago, a special visitor came to Meihua Village, and over the years, he has recorded the changes here in his own way. On July 7th, we decided to take a look.
From Gate 2 of Southwest University, walk deep along the opposite path, and after about 20 minutes of walking, a series of old houses appear in view. It is a place of greenery, quiet and secluded, as if to isolate the hustle and bustle.
“You’re here to find Xiao Jiang, right?” Suddenly, a passing woman asked casually.
“Little Jiang? Uh-huh, yes. We agreed with a guess.
“Go down, look to the left, and notice the red letters on the brick wall.” The women did not forget to tell that as long as the red number “2-46” appeared, Xiao Jiang could be found.
Xiao Jiang, could it be that special visitor?
▲ Jiang Bo at the door of his studio in Meihua Village
▲ Jiang Bo’s studio in Meihua Village
Integrate in a fragmented way
The day we went, it was the weekend, and even so, people going in and out of Meihua Village were still rare.
Most of the old houses here are in a state of disrepair, and some of them are dilapidated and empty. Flat floor, single room, upper and lower multi-storey, intuitively visible, each old house has different shapes.
The brick house with “2-46” written on it is not difficult to find, just ask for the exit and the locals will guide you there. This red number, it turned out to be a mark recently marked on the wall,
there
, is actually No. 23 Meihua Village.
“Welcome in.” Seeing a stranger pass by, a big boy in beach pants came out of the house.
“Little Jiang?” We asked tentatively.
“It’s me, polite.” He smiled coyly.
Xiao Jiang Guo was really the visitor, it turned out that he was a graduate student majoring in Chinese painting at the Academy of Fine Arts of Southwest University, and he had just graduated this year.
Before entering the house, we were first attracted by the green lacquered door, which was painted by Xiao Jiang himself, and the photo attached to the lacquered door was somewhat special – he was in the picture, with his right hand in plaster and bandage, with his back to the flowing Jialing River.
“My connection to the environment here started with this picture.” He said.
According to our later inquiry, at the 2016 annual exhibition of the Academy of Fine Arts of Southwest University, this photo won the second prize in the photography category. To understand the origin of this photo, you must first understand the reason why Xiao Jiang came here.
Jiang’s full name
Jiang Bo
, entered Southwest University for graduate school in 2016, and broke into Meihua Village purely unintentionally. He said that in the dark, a kind of fate is pulling.
That year, he was a graduate student, and through the introduction of the locals, he met the landlord of this old house, and during the conversation, Jiang Bo decided to open his own studio here.
As for why you chose Meihua Village,
Three reasons have been sorted out. First of all, during his graduate studies, he needed a relatively quiet creative space, which was like an “urban village” tightly wrapped by high-rise buildings, and the people, things, and scenery around him reminded him of his fathers’ various things and gave him emotional touches; Second, he only needs to pay 200 yuan a month in rent, which meets his current economic conditions; In addition, the surrounding creative materials are extremely rich, providing him with many possibilities for material collection.
“During the renovation, I simply brushed the wall and spent almost a month’s living expenses. One day, while painting the wall, I accidentally fell from a height. Jiang Bo said,
That
The sour taste is too profound. After diagnosis, the right hand was crushed fracture, and it took more than two months to get better.
Jiang Bo believes that the meaning of the word fragmentation is in line with the current development status of Meihua Village, and he just happened to integrate into this place in a fragmented way.
▲The environment of Meihua Village painted by Jiang Bo
▲ Jiang Bo posted a photo of his broken hand on the door of the studio
Picking up rags, a source of inspiration
After the studio was opened, Jiang Bo’s first gift here was a thousand withering camellias and a ton of plaster poured installation. The camellia in the bottle, withered on the campus of Southwest University, has long been dim, and its withering posture is thousands of kinds, forever fixed here.
“During the creative process, I thought of two more words, smashing and impermanence. The withering of camellia flowers has a characteristic that the whole flower falls, and the process is thrilling. Jiang Bo said that artistic creation requires a steady stream of thinking and summarizing, and this forgotten corner by many people, especially in the dead of night, gives him a steady stream of inspiration.
During his graduate studies at Southwest University, Jiang Bo created more than 200 oil paintings on the theme of Meihua Village, stacked in large and small houses in the old house, and the scene was very spectacular.
The material of his paintings depends on the old objects that can be found everywhere in the room. The old sofa was placed in the center, and Jiang Bo often sat on it, quietly admiring his works. Dozens of old wine bottles were piled up in the corners, some still containing wine, others cracked. The old-fashioned telephone landline, enamel bowls with phoenix and swastika patterns, old-fashioned lace mirrors, old-fashioned spittoons, a dozen beds of old-fashioned handmade brown mats, etc., all maintain their original flavor, but in the stormy time, they gradually fade from the past. They were all picked up by Jiang Bo in garbage cans and dumps throughout Meihua Village. Because of this, Jiang Bo’s friends gave him the nickname “Rag Jiang”.
“If you don’t read a good book, you actually go to pick up the rags.” Mr. Jiang said that people had commented on him this way, but he didn’t care.
He pointed to the pile of discarded paint buckets and told us: “You see, they are colorful, red, yellow, black, white, just like those old discarded objects, after being used again and again, they cannot escape the fate of being discarded.” It’s not so much about picking up rags, but about reclaiming the memories of the old city and awakening my original intention of creation. ”
Jiang Bo believes that with the development of the city, people living in the back streets and alleys gradually moved away, people left, but the items they used remained. This kind of nostalgia, unspeakable and unclear, he painted these old objects, can also be regarded as seeing things and thinking about people.
According to his observations, only about 30% of the current indigenous people in Meihua Village are present, and the remaining long-term tenants and short-term tenants are composed of migrant workers and migrant workers who have moved to the city to work. In Meihua Village, you can see laborers wearing liberation shoes everywhere, their blood and efforts for urban construction, for this reason, Jiang Bo specially painted a deformed liberation shoes to express his admiration.
▲Deformed liberation shoes
▲Waste paint bucket
▲The “garbage” that Jiang Bo picked up on weekdays was piled up on the balcony of the studio
Old rattan chair and old carpenter
Jiang Bo’s painting style is mainly realistic, which is a figurative art from a professional term.
His studio is mainly divided into two rooms, and on the wall of the entrance door, there are more than twenty dark color works, which at first glance look a bit chaotic and disorganized.
He said that there are contradictions and conflicts everywhere in Meihua Village, and it is this chaotic sense of conflict that he wants to highlight. In the picture, there are both modern baby strollers and traditional tattered old back baskets; There are forgotten suitcases and computer desks that cannot be moved.
“I draw them through realistic techniques to show the psychological process embodied in the process of social development, including entanglement, abandonment, and struggle.” Jiang Bo said that when some old residents come to admire his paintings, they often can’t understand them at first glance, but after tasting them, they will resonate with them. That’s what he paints for.
The theme of the work stacked in another room is mainly divided into two lines, on the one hand, recording the current situation of Meihua Village, and on the other hand, depicting the old furniture style of Meihua Village.
Jiang Bo painted everything, old door panels, old cupboards, red wardrobes, old teapots, pots and pans… He believes that a painting records a kind of homesickness, and the mood of each family is different.
“The red wardrobe in the painting, although it is stained, is still red. It instantly brings my memories back to my youth. Jiang Bo said that he was born in the countryside, and in his memory, whenever he got married in the village, the bride and groom’s house would be decorated with a festive color. The purpose of painting the red wardrobe is to record the marriage tradition; Second, at the same time, I am reminding myself that when I go out, I can’t forget my roots.
His favorite one, prominently displayed, is a close-up of an old rattan chair. The backrest of the rattan chair was broken, and its owner sewed several pieces of old cloth on the backrest, and mended them for another three years, and could not bear to abandon them.
We found Wang Zhigui, the owner of the old rattan chair, an old carpenter who is 66 years old this year. After retiring, Master Wang, who worked everywhere, returned to his hometown in Meihua Village and opened a mahjong restaurant, which was a snack shop business by the way.
The old rattan chair is still in front of his house. Master Wang told us that this rattan chair was purchased in the late 80s of last century and was taken from the local old rattan chair factory in Beibei. At that time, a rattan chair was sold for 60 yuan, which was out of reach for most residents of Meihua Village.
Craftsmen who eat by technology, in those years, the income was considerable. Master Wang said that back then, this rattan chair was often placed on the balcony of his house, especially on summer nights, sitting on it while drinking tea and sipping melon seeds, “That pleasant feeling can no longer be found now.” ”
“The old rattan chair and the old carpenter can be compared to the epitome of the spirit of the people of Meihua Village. They go out to work hard when they are young, and return to their roots in their later years. With the development of the city, they do not want to move out with their children. They miss the old and prefer to stick to the end. Jiang Bo said that it is an opportunity to have the privilege of recording the changes here and becoming a witness.
▲Old rattan chair
▲ Jiang Bo’s studio
Not the end, but the beginning
Jiang Bo is a man who plays cards out of the ordinary, and during the conversation, we were surprised by his experience. After graduating from Southwest University with a bachelor’s degree, he did not choose to pursue an art career, but went to Aba Prefecture, Sichuan, where his parents worked, and opened a speculation shop. After losing 10,000 yuan in two years of entrepreneurship, he found that he still had a pursuit of art, so he worked hard to enter graduate school.
In fact, at the age of 30 this year, he is once again facing the trouble of choosing a career.
“What’s next?”
“In recent years, I have been engaged in creation around Meihua Village, focusing on objects that are full of emotions and ignored, and the creation has not yet been completed. Next, I will turn the direction to the character expression of Meihua Village. For the spiritual extension of the Plum Blossom Village series, I only stopped in this direction until it was time to stop. I will start looking for a job, and if there is a stable working environment, it is ideal to combine it with enough creative time. ”
“Think you’re doing crazy?”
“Crazy. But it records my youth, the explosiveness and creativity that I should have at this age. ”
Jiang Bo said that although he graduated and was a little sad, this is not the end, but a new beginning.
For Jiang Bo, a special student, his graduate supervisor Liu Yuan made this assessment: “When most students are concerned about whether the painting style and painting skills are beautiful, Jiang Bo breaks through the traditional aesthetics, pays attention to social phenomena and social development dynamics, integrates the social status quo into his personal works, and returns the artistic techniques he has learned to life itself.” This pioneering spirit and artistic pursuit are worthy of recognition. ”
“As teachers of the School of Art, we not only hope to cultivate students’ ability to solve problems, but also hope that students can go beyond textbooks and traditional education to understand how to have the attitude and position of artists, adhere to the original intention of artistic creation, and inherit the concept of ‘cultural power’.” Everything Jiang Bo tried made Liu Yuan feel gratified.
“Although I am from Sichuan, I love Chongqing.” Jiang Bo is full of hope that he can find the value of existence in Chongqing.
As far as we know, Jiang Bo’s paintings are not currently sold, purely interest and love support him. Regardless of his future development and reality, at least for now, he is committed to his hobbies. I believe that many years later, looking back, this experience will also become one of the highlights of his life.
▲ When not painting, Jiang Bo wears a straw hat in the village looking for the treasure in his eyes.
▲ Jiang Bo’s future life is full of many choices
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Upstream News Chongqing Evening News Slow News Reporter Li Lang/Wen Qian Bo/Photo
Jiang Bo