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Art Releases Pressure

Jiayi CHEN 陈佳艺

During the pandemic, Jiayi CHEN began to focus on subjects surrounding her immediate life. Rather than imitating paintings and artists she admired, she was able to develop her own personal style which expressed her thoughts and emotions at a given time.

疫情期间,陈佳艺开始关注周围事物的主观变化,创作了一组持续性的作品。她的创作主题从之前以模仿和拓展他人的作品主题为主,转变为以其个人风格及心情表达为主,即时地去表达她个人的情感和思考。

Jiayi Chen 陈佳艺

Jiayi Chen 陈佳艺

Jiayi Chen 陈佳艺

Biography

Jiayi CHEN: Student at the Renmin University of China majoring in Landscape Architecture

陈佳艺:中国人民大学景观建筑专业在读

Text Version of Video

Hi, I’m Jiayi CHEN. I’d like to talk about my work during the pandemic, and the changes I’ve made during this period.

Since the outbreak of the pandemic in China, the lockdown was implemented on the second day of Chinese New Year in 2020 and, as a result, I stayed at home in Beijing for 46 days.

At that time, my schedule of work and rest was always chaotic. I stayed up late and the beginning of my day was transient. Once I got up, I started painting immediately until one or two in the morning. After that, I probably didn’t get up until the middle of the next day. This was so different to my life before the pandemic.

The most extensive Pivot for me is that it was my mood.  It was easier for me to be happy and relaxed again after the pandemic because I suffered hard during it. So, when my life got back to normal., I found that I could cope with difficulties much easier than before. What is more, my agitated moods subsided.  Therefore, gradually, I have found that these things were indeed not that difficult to manage. I think my life now is like an old Chinese saying: “Not pleased by the external gains, not saddened by personal losses”.

The artwork from this time has a kind of continuity to it. I worked on creating these works from February 2020 to February 2021, so a whole year. At the time of the pandemic, I was so bored of being isolated at home. I watched some movies or did some cooking and I thought it was interesting to look at the bottles of ingredients at home, and I drew randomly at that time as well.

For me, these artworks document the first half of the pandemic. Each of my paintings was inscribed with its date of being completion and I also noted things like what I’ve eaten, what I did, what my mood was like, etc too.

It’s just a record of my work then because now, I consider painting as something that is totally dependent on my own state of mind.  It can be created however I want it. In the past, sometimes, I was influenced by other stuff, such as, if I saw a nice painting, I would like to imitate that style which could never let my paintings realise the most natural things from my own artistic imagination.  However, after the pandemic, I feel that now that I am not taking painting as my major or skill anymore, the key point of my painting is to express my thoughts. As a sort of inner resource, it’s enough for me to paint in a way that expresses or transmits my feelings.

大家好,我叫陈佳艺,想要和大家聊一聊我在疫情期间的创作,和创作带给我的一些转变,或者说是转变带来的一些创作。

因为疫情需要隔离,我是从2020年的大年初二就开始隔离,然后在北京一直隔离了46天没有出家门,46天之后才第一次出家门。我疫情期间作息非常不好,会熬夜,可能每天晚上一两点,或者两三点才会睡,感觉一天的开始是晚上九十点钟。九十点钟我就开始画画了,画到一两点才会睡觉,第二天可能中午十一点、十二点才起。与疫情发生前的不同,是作息(时间)上有整体的后移,没有疫情之前,(我)是应该11点就睡的,但是有疫情之后,就变到了2点钟。

我认为我自己在疫情下最大的转折点,就是幸福感有很大的提升,因为我经过疫情后觉得幸福的生活来之不易,所以转折点就是觉得自己的幸福感有更大的提升,觉得自己面对一些比较棘手、比较困难的事情时,也不会有那种烦躁的情绪,会积极得着手去做,觉得这些事情都不算太困难了,可以说是慢慢地变得“不以物喜,不以己悲”。

我这组作品是一个持续性的作品,它从2020年的2月份开始,一直到2021年的2月份,几乎持续了一年。我疫情期间在家隔离太无聊了,就看了一些电影,包括有的时候做做饭,看看灶台上的瓶瓶罐罐挺有意思,偶尔就画一画。这组作品对于我来说,其实就是我在(疫情)前半部分比较特殊的时期的记录。因为我的每张画后面都会写当时那天的日期,包括那天吃了什么、干了什么,内心戏怎么样,其实就是一个记录。现在我对于绘画的感受,就是自己随心所欲就好。以前可能经常会受他人所左右,比如在其他地方看到很好看的画,就觉得自己想要模仿这种风格。但是经过疫情之后,觉得自己本身也不是学绘画专业的,好像技法不是很重要,重要的还是自己情感的表达,你画出来之后,自己快乐了,绘画作为一种形式的依托,带给你情感表达或者情感转移的需求,我觉得就足够了。

Staff

Contact Person: Ifance FAN, Christy YANG
Planner: Christy YANG
Text: Christy YANG
Translator: Jiaqi GAO
Proofreading: Calum BAIRD