An interview with a visual artist, David Yunze Xie

David Yunze Xie is an emerging Chinese artist who grew up in China and is doing his visual art degree at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, Canada. Most of his works are based on the cultural aspect of his hometown and the reflections on his view of life. David is also exploring unique and creative approaches to sculpture, oil painting, and installation art. His works usually contain a variety of art forms.

Q: Have you thought of giving up your current career? If so, what made you continue to pursue this career?

A: Yes, I have thought about giving up art and studying a different subject. The main reason is that I was insecure about my future - I don’t know if I will succeed in the world of art and be able to make a living from it.  However, as I started to gain a deeper understanding of art, I realized there are more questions await me in my inner self - How do I improve? Can I be just like the artist I look up to? What should I add to my work? 

Unexpectedly, the fear I had when I began to learn art has gone. The only thought that I had was to go deeper into the world of art and ultimately, to explore myself. Through doing more research on a myriad of amazing artists, I believe not only have I gained the ability to create more artwork, but also the passion, imagination, and curiosity that are growing within me start to shape my interpretation of art. 

Q: What does your art mean to you? How do you interpret the meaning of your work?

A: I feel like art is about how a person views and experiences the world. As I create artwork, I am heavily influenced by the experiences I have gone through. And this causes me to make a habit of holding on to my thoughts and passion because I realized that presenting your work is similar to showing your inner self and revealing how you respond to your surroundings. Casual thoughts can be arts. Perhaps the randomness, in reality, is what sets the seeds in your thoughts and lights up your passion. Inspiration, on the other hand, comes from the condensation of experiences and emotions. My own artwork is based on thoughts that randomly pop up in my mind when I'm daydreaming. If these thoughts are interesting to me, I would proceed to think if these would be just as compelling for other people; this, leads to a question that I always have for myself - can these thoughts resonate with others?

Q: When you are to create a piece of art, do you look up ideas or just go with whatever is in your mind?

A: As I mentioned before, my ideas usually come from thoughts that randomly pop up in my brain. In fact, I think the basis of such ideas is that you have enough insight - you have to absorb a decent amount of knowledge, create more art, and explore yourself enough so that these will turn into ideas that lead you in your creation; this is also why I choose to travel around places and purchase books that provoke my curiosity. When I was in my first year at SFU, a professor in one of my visual art classes asked his class two questions and hoped we would keep these in mind - What is the real material of your art, and what is the value of your art? Since then, every time before and after I create artworks, I try to ask myself these two questions even if I don't always have an answer. Nevertheless, I believe these questions are part of what makes me a true artist and ultimately, they keep me being an artist.

Works by David Yunze Xie

Q: What do you like and dislike about your work?

A: Some of the works contain ideas that I have had before but could not execute, so I felt extremely satisfied after I turned it into something that really exists. But there were times when I panicked because I did not know if the materials of my work would be too personal to the extent that other people may not understand. In my opinion, when an artwork is too personal, others will not be able to perceive the messages conveyed in the art. This is why I often ask myself, what kind of art resonates and why?

Q: What memorable responses have you had to your work? 

A: I remember one time when I was doing a sharing in class, one of the female students cried. The theme of my work at that time was the difficulties that international students must overcome - cultural displacement and homesickness. The girl happened to have a similar experience, so I thought this work might be meaningful to her; this became a memorable moment for me because it was the first time that I feel, maybe a piece of artwork cannot resonate with everyone, but it definitely has the ability to resonate with someone.

Work by David