Xie Molin: Xie Molin

2012. 09. 01-10. 13

The Beijing Commune will open a new exhibition Xie Molin on September 1, 2012. This is the first solo exhibition of young artist Xie Molin in Beijing Commune. The exhibition will last until October 13.


Xie Molin's abstract painting with computers and machines as creative tools has gradually attracted more and more attention in the past few years. The 11 works of different sizes on display in this exhibition are a concentrated presentation of the artist's latest work achievements. From the white double work "gradually No.3" stretching for more than 4 meters to the small work "Rainbow" with rich colors, Xie Molin uses the three-axis linkage painting machine he invented and combines it with his laborer's detailed manual operation process to try to make a more in-depth experiment on the expressiveness of pigments on the canvas.


Xie Molin was born in 1979 and graduated from the mural Department of the Central Academy of Fine Arts in 2003. In 2004, he began to try to make works with a lettering machine. From 2005 to 2007, Xie Molin studied for a master's degree in painting at the Edinburgh Academy of Fine Arts in the UK. During this period, artists more clearly released their fun in machine painting and developing painting machines. After years of education in the academic painting tradition in China, Xie Molin did not lose interest in this ancient art. For him, the significance of "painting machine" as an extension of his painter's hands is obviously more important. His embrace of "machine" is not so much conceptual, Rather, it comes from his demand for more accurate expression of the sense of painting form. At present, Xie Molin's machine painting presents abstract and meaningless patterns. The artist deliberately put aside the consideration of the image content of the picture for the time being, and let the strong sense of order of the pattern itself bring the purity of form.


A piece of such a machine drawing can only be started after several weeks of preparation by the computer, and the process of starting the machine drawing is full of all kinds of contingency. Xie Molin did not shy away from the fact that his painting machine was "fake" - it was the result of the cooperation between the young artist and a folk Technician (otherwise he might not be able to pay the cost of a machine at all). This machine is completely based on the three-axis linkage principle of the engraving machine. The machine is ambitious, but it is also very simple. The artist's manual work is essential in the process of drawing. From spreading the paint on the machine tool to the scraping and carving of the paint by the machine, Xie Molin often needs to wait at the side of the machine tool for more than ten hours. Any mistake in operation or untimely adjustment may ruin the previous achievements of a painting. These exquisite, calm and industrial paintings hanging on the white wall were born in this situation.


The participation of labor makes Xie Molin truly feel the irreplaceable personal experience belonging to a "painter". At the same time, this sense of "Shanzhai" also connects the artist's personal experience with a more general Chinese present. It can be said that Xie Molin's machine painting began during his study in Edinburgh, but this way of working in the humble studio of Heiqiao found a spiritual orientation for his art. The "bright and dazzling" meaning of Xie's works in this exhibition may be an attempt to convey to the audience the "bright and dazzling" meaning of Huang's works. At the same time, this is also becoming the spiritual clue of the next stage of his planning.

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