As spring unfolded this year, Shi Yanliang opened his window one evening to find the setting sun's golden rays tracing the silhouette of buildings beyond. Linked by rosy clouds, these structures seemed to connect with the city's many real and imagined symbols. Meanwhile, light refracting through the glass dazzled his eyes, revealing subtle traces of angels in the dust motes dancing in the bright beams. The window became a viewfinder for Shi Yanliang, framing the distant scenery, the plants by the window, and imagined figures in a moment of stillness. He captured this scene in his artwork "Angel of The Setting Sun", as if he had grasped signals that revealed his understanding of self and era through "objects" — signals that were both mundane and sacred, hopeful yet cautionary. However, he was still pondering how to articulate them.
These signals reflect the artist's way of observing the world, encompassing both the vast historical backdrop and intricate details, reminiscent of the 17th century when telescopes and microscopes emerged, offering new perspectives that transformed artistic themes, techniques, and meanings. Although digital embodiment has replaced naturalism as a catalyst, the artistic trends influenced by the latter still hold the key to understanding contemporary artistic styles and Shi Yanliang's works. One such seemingly ordinary subject is "still life.”
The genre of still life painting, which developed later, has never been a mere depiction of specific "objects." Even in the 17th century, when still life painters aimed to narrate and deify their creations, this intention itself endowed the genre with attributes of resistance and reflection. The everyday nature of the subjects constantly dissipated these deeper meanings. This explains the dual tendency of still life paintings— sometimes abundant, sometimes ethereal — and grants still life the potential to alleviate the anxieties of the times or bridge the gaps between epochs. In essence, when an individual or a group finds themselves at the intersection of emotions and mediums, still life serves as a gateway to re-recognizing the world. The intricacies of objects pique curiosity and delight, while the static spatial environment offers a sense of control over the present reality. Of course, traces of people and their activities are also present in this scene. They are creators and users of objects, as well as objects of materialization. They are not mere individuals but carriers of deeper meanings.
In recent years, Shi Yanliang has created a series of works centered around objects. Some feature the urban splendor as a backdrop, interspersed with his contemplations on the enigmas of the era. Others delicately capture corners of rooms, showcasing his aesthetic experiments. Still, others are reconstructions of visual symbols, expressing his confusion about meaning. The protagonists in these paintings are sometimes people, sometimes animals, sometimes food, but for Shi Yanliang, they are unified as "objects frozen in time." This moment represents a transitional phase in his life, from personal growth to assuming familial responsibilities, and it coincides with a new era of rapidly evolving media and constantly shifting meanings. Objects are all the entities drawn into this flux— a white goose greeting the twilight by the window, a petal on a young girl's lips, a rabbit hidden beneath a leaf, a doll left on a chair, repeating wallpaper patterns, and a half-cut steak seemingly plucked from one of Joachim Beuckelaer's 16th-century paintings. These objects may have originated from stories and will undoubtedly acquire new meanings in the future. However, through observation, imagination, and rehearsal in the present moment, they become elements of "still life" in Shi Yanliang's artistic vision. To some extent, it's not that Shi Yanliang intentionally chooses still life as a subject; rather, the contradictions inherent in his creative intentions and visual representations make still life a channel for interpreting his art.
The elements of still life paintings were already evident in Shi Yanliang's early works. In his "WatermelonMountain" series, not only are there conventional still life objects like watermelons, apples, oranges, rabbits, plaster casts, but the layout and atmosphere of the paintings also evoke memories of symbolic still life paintings, such as "Quince, Cabbage, Melon, and Cucumber" by Juan Sánchez Cotán (1602), or "Viva la Vida" by Frida Kahlo (1954). Shi Yanliang metaphorically depicts the life stages from youth to adulthood, from study to worldly involvement, with the memory of his childhood, watermelons symbolizing blood and flesh. The paintings exude a vibrant, flourishing vitality, yet also hide the ineffable self of the youth. Such symbolic still life elements recur in his works across several series, including common motifs like geese, meat, potted flowers, rhizomatous monsteras, cartoon characters, carpets and wallpapers, sunsets, and windows. The repetition of these elements aptly reflects the contradiction within him, aspiring for love and desire yet maintaining innocence and restraint.
Notably, the figures in Shi Yanliang's paintings, even those depicted individually, serve not only as a reflection on the commodification of humans in the consumer era but also as a clue to ponder the creator. Still life creators were not always human. In the past, still life objects were considered inanimate or creations of the gods. With the discussion of the relationship between objects and humans by mechanism and humanism, objects began to be seen as part of the world, and humans became the creators of objects, paving the way for still life painting as a symbolic genre. For Shi Yanliang, both humans and objects are components of this "still object in a moment." He records both complete scenes and partials. This further explains his painting techniques, which consistently pursue a smooth edge for objects, abandoning transitions between color blocks and brushstrokes. Even in his new works, he employs special techniques to enhance the hard-edged effect. This cutting-like effect actually enhances the sense of locality in the works, suggesting that they seem to be excised from a more complete work, embodying Shi Yanliang's aspiration for the recombination of formal languages.
If we envision the entire exhibition as a larger still life painting, the scattered partials serve as "objects" that constitute Shi Yanliang's expression: a modern urban "feast," a fleeting ray of sunset, objects as observers observing and imagining their creator from different angles. To this end, the exhibition features several windows on the entrance wall, allowing the still life painting to be completed in situ through the varied perspectives of the viewers. It must be both relaxed and seemingly meaningful, both realistic and surreal. Simultaneously, it must not be a continuous narrative or a classic still life subject. Returning to the title of the exhibition, it perhaps should be a new still life, a new still life painting that embraces contradictions and comprehends the world.
