MAO XUHUI

Like many of his contemporaries, Mao Xuhui has developed a kind of branding identity for his work through the repeated use of figurative daily objects. After evolvement of 3 decades from the motives of ‘Scissors’, ‘Paternalism’ to ‘Daily Epic’, the meaning of scissors and chairs have grown from home and country, feudalism and authority to the metaphor of life, death and family bonding. His ‘Daily Epic’ series since 1980s is a tribute to humanity and homeland.

I love them, and will has the greatest meaning

Dai Zhuoqun

I. Will

Before passion turns to ashes, it dissipates, and your soul dies before your body does.

You don’t want literature, narrative, lyricism, expression, or superficial formalism; it is only meaninglessness that generates meaning–will has the greatest meaning.

Seek truth, seek truth, seek truth, even if it is brutal, tearing, and destructive.

What makes for truly great art? The interrogation and close examination of the soul, far from everyday ordinariness, absolutes, loftiness, and essence. Only immense loneliness can produce eternal works of art.

For the vast majority of people on earth, life exists in a superficial world. Only the extremely special children of art can reach or touch the world of will. The world of will is the contemplation of existence, the questioning of the ultimate end, and the gate to the mysteries.

Will is persistence, and it is spiritual pride and suffering. Will is an adventure full of twists and turns, and it is dying nine times without regret; it is endless depletion, and it is interminable delay. It is passion, resistance, solemnity, pain, piety, waiting, hesitation, grief, and decline.

Will is following your heart; it is not mixed with any impurities. True freedom is the massacre of the self. Will is humanity’s absolute truth.

II. Love

I love them. I am faithful to the earth, and I push art to the precipice.

The desire to create is the desire to reproduce. Reproduction is an endless love for life. A life of creativity rejects the mediocre and the dull, and will lingers in a metaphysical haze. Worry is creative desire, and life is only meaningful in an invisible, internal world. A restless, fragmented creative life is not a happy one; ‘happiness’ is an absurd word. The world of creation is endless pain, and pain is spiritual succor. Pain and meaning are two sides of the same coin. Pain produces pain, but pain also cures pain.

I love them. I am faithful to life and nature. I am not restricted to a particular form; I simply maintain a spirit.

The highest art is neither artificial decoration nor the accumulation of ideas; it is not a tool of superficial reality. When you meet her, you dive into that deep secret with your pure heart and you reach the essence of truth.

I love them, a knife, a chair, and a report on the soul.

Absolute will can be given lofty form. Shape and colour are the codes for heart and emotion. Works of art are tombs of the soul, and they are the silence that remains after your struggles and desires end. Silence is the epitaph carved by fate.

Only truth and love are eternal.

December 25, 2019

Beijing