A Conversation with Qiu Anxiong
Qiu Anxiong is a video, animation and installation artist who lives and works in Shanghai. He was born in Sichuan, China in 1972 and studied initially at the Sichuan Academy of Art in Chongqing from where he graduated in 1994. Qiu later studied at the Kunsthochschule of the University of Kassel in Germany, graduating in 2003. In this conversation, which was recorded at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Shanghai, Qiu talks among other things about the significance of his video work Jiang Nan Poem (2005), his commitment to Buddhism and his eschewal of oppositional forms of criticism.
Paul Gladston: I would like to begin by asking you some questions about your video Jiang Nan Poem, which is made up of a series of more or less static ‘establishing shots’ of trees silhouetted against the sky, without any discernible narrative or music soundtrack. Now and again branches and leaves can be seen to move slightly in the breeze, and birds fly in and out of shot … but that’s the extent of the action. I have to say that it reminds me of certain films by Andy Warhol, such as Empire (1964), which make use of the same formal device. What was your intention in making Jiang Nan Poem?
Qiu Anxiong: Although the formal technique of using single static shots is quite similar to that used by Andy Warhol in films such as Empire, ultimately what interests me is not just the technical process of video making but also the idea of change. So, although it looks like a fixed scenario … there are actually very small changes that are quite difficult to notice... The rest of this article is available to subscribers of Eyeline
Jiang Nan Poem, 2005. Video still. Courtesy the artist.
Minguo Landscape, 2007. Courtesy the artist.
