Feng Jin

Artist statement: Most of my work is in stainless steel, but I also work in steel, brass, and copper. I love stainless steel, it has tendency to "fight back" before yielding to form. This special characteristic enables a sculptor like me to work without being bound to a specific design. I try to allow the metal itself to tell me what to do so that I can let it be what it wishes to be. Using my so called "Open-minded Sculpting" technique, I often start with sheet metal, mostly without any drafts or sketches, and begin free-hand cutting, rolling, bending, hammering, heating, grinding, and welding. The final finish may be natural, textural, highly-polished, or given a patina.

My work includes both non-representational and representational sculptures. Figures, curved lines and shapes, and abstract forms are common themes. I was influenced by David Smith at a very early age when I was still an art student in China. While little work from Western metal sculptors was allowed into China during the early 80's, Smith's strong compositions from steel and "found" scrap material made significant impressions on me.

The language of art is just like Zen, it is in fact unspeakable. Many of my sculptures are accessible and straight forward. Using simple forms, less materials, and clean compositions to present an idea is a general summation of my style. In a way, I believe that a good sculpture must have its own soul. My sculpture represents an intimate dialogue between a human and the boundless strength of metal, an expression of all the thoughts, emotions, dreams, passions, destinies, and desires that are constantly bouncing around my mind.

Bio: Feng Jin was born in Harbin, China. In 1992, he received his BA in Sculpture from the Central Institute of Fine Art, Beijing. He started working with stainless steel and various metals with abstract curves during his art school years, even though abstract metal sculpture had not been widely introduced to China's art institutions at that time. In 1989, Jin participated in designing and co-producing the "Goddess of Democracy" statue for the student movement in Tiananmen Square. In 1995, Jin came to the U.S. to pursue his artistic career as a metal sculptor in the San Francisco Bay Area. Jin has since concentrated on becoming a professional sculptor without making any political statements through his art. His favorite subjects are life and women.

After thirteen years of living in the Bay Area, Jin has exhibited his work widely. In 2007, Jin mounted his retrospective solo "Ten Years In America" at Alameda Museum. In 2008, Jin's sculpture went to a Chinese auction house for the first time at the Guardian Auction of Beijing, China. His two-man exhibition "Picto-Calligraphy & Sculpt-Script" at the Alameda Museum, later that year, was a great success. Jin began a group exhibition this past October at Stanford Art Space, Stanford University. Upcoming major solo exhibitions include: Wildwood Farm Nursery & Sculpture Garden, San Leandro Museum & Art Gallery, City of Milpitas Phantom Art Gallery, Alameda Museum, 1870 Art Center, and Art Museum of Los Gatos.

Interview

The pieces in this issue are from your “Sculpt-Script” series, a collection of work inspired by Chinese characters. How did you approach giving these characters a third dimension? Did you sketch them first or did you rely on your “open-minded sculpting” technique?

I always wanted to do something related to Chinese calligraphy. In 1997, I made a sculpture called "Climax" which looks like a shape of a Chinese character [shen] "Life" or "New Born". This piece really inspired me to develop "Sculpt-Script" ten years later.

Transforming a flat character into three dimensions involves many technical difficulties: finding the balance point of the whole piece is one; catching the form and spirit of a character is another. Although I found myself a calligraphy teacher and have practiced under his direction for quite some time, I found that holding brushes to write actually has nothing to do with welding a sculpture piece.

I freehand cut stainless steel sheet metal into strips of many different lengths. Then I bent those strips either by hand or with hand tools or by using a plate roller to achieve different curvy, waved pieces. After having 15 to 20 different pieces of bent material ready, I started to find the best combination and assemble them together. This part of the process involves a lot of playing and experimenting. I also have to find the best angle of the pieces to present. Every curved piece tends to naturally direct me into the finished piece.

Could you elaborate on this technique?

About my "open-minded sculpting technique", I would say that I am the type of sculptor who prefers working directly with materials rather than following blueprints. In many cases I still sketch my idea but I always end up making a totally different finished work. While preparing the materials there is always new (and much better) ideas that come up and replace my previous plan. Therefore, my "design" often changes during the process of development, sometimes I even abandon the original idea and start all over.

I believe that sculpture is an art form that involves more spontaneity than foresight. I would say that my work is mostly created, either by accident or through some kind of mental expression, not just designed.

Let’s talk about materials. Could you explain some of the reasons why you work with the metals that you do? What are some of the advantages and disadvantages of working with brass, steel, stainless steel, and cast iron? Do they have unique personalities?

My father used to work at a government-owned machine shop in China. His work place was my playground. I've loved metal ever since I was a child. My father's shop worked on brass, steel, stainless steel, and cast iron most of the time so I am familiar with those materials. To characterize each material, I would say that brass is "tender," steel is "stubborn," stainless steel is "tricky but fun to be with," and cast iron is a "combination of toughness and weakness." I personally like stainless steel the best because it's rust free and durable for both indoor and outdoor display. You can have various choices for the surface -- you can do standard-polishing, high-polishing, texturing, and even applying patina to create marble-like texture without dealing with the weight of marble. All of my stainless steel sculptures are hollow.

Judging from your bio and artist statement, it seems as though you’ve developed as an artist in relative isolation. While you attended the Central Academy of Fine Art in Beijing, metal sculpture wasn’t part of the curriculum. The Chinese government was also preventing works from many significant Western artists from reaching the public. This seems to imply a huge amount of self-direction. Am I correct in assuming you are largely self-taught? If so, how has this affected your art both positively and negatively?

During the mid 80's to early 90's in China, metal sculpture was not in the curriculum in most art academies. Although my school was the number one art academy in China, we did not have a metal workshop nor any introductory classes for abstract metal sculpture. Also, there were very few professional artists in China at that time who became nationally and internationally well-known for working with industrial metal. The few artists actually working with metal at the time were either self-taught or relied on welders and fabricators to finish their work.

One of my art instructors supported my interests of abstract metal sculptures. He even introduced several well-known Western sculptors, such as Henry Moore, David Smith, and Bruce Beasley to me. I personally like David Smith a lot. And one day I asked this art instructor his opinion about what he saw in the development and future of abstract metal sculpture vs. traditional sculpture in China. He told me: "I do not see any future for this type of work in China. I support your creativity but I don't think most people in this country will accept this type of art form now. You will have a hard time finding an audience as well as galleries to show your work. And this might take a very long time to change..." My teacher was actually right that time. I found that my work didn't fit into any catalogry for art competitions or student group exhibitions.

My graduation work, "Sunflowers," was a seven-piece metal sculpture made of brass and bronze on rock bases. I spent my whole summer vacation back in Harbin working at my father's shop. All of the workers in my father's shop assisted me for this project, from collecting the materials to fabricating the pieces together. I learned my basic welding skills from the professional welders throughout this project.

My graduation piece was supposed to show in a "National Artists Exhibition" but was taken down at the last minute because there was an artist couple, Renee Yunne-nikel and Lin Yi Wang (both around eighty years old and former instructors of the Central Academy of Fine Arts), who wanted to participate as honorable guests that year. They desperately wanted to have their names in the exhibit and chose to exhibit two pieces of old work (one was a soldier monument and the other was a dog-like Jaguar). The judge committee respected this couple so they had to take down two pieces from the final selection. My "Sunflowers" was one of the "lucky MOEs" (my wife once told me that American kids play "eeny meeny miny moe"). "Your work is too different and too weird. Our judges have decided that the majority of audiences wouldn't understand your work. Besides, these two artists are really old and they won't have many more chances like you will in the future to exhibit their work, especially in such a nationwide exhibition." That's what my instructor told me, he was one of the judges.

I have realized that I just don't really fit in that system. The media I chose to work with and my refusal to follow the rules of the game in the art industry in China made me an outsider. So I desperately wanted to get out of my country at that time. Ironically, five years after I immigrated to the U.S., the public art trend in China suddenly flipped to abstract metal sculptures. Artists adopted, combined, created, and experimented with Western metal sculpture concepts, using various industrial metals in their work. Abstract metal sculptures are now everywhere in China. Government and cities are very supportive of this type of sculpture so that they can show the world that China is up to date with contemporary art. Now many of the well-known public art installations you can find in the major Chinese cities are done by my classmates.

However, even now, there is a huge difference between Chinese sculptors and American sculptors who work with industrial metals. In China, most artists work from an idea and a draft (or small prototype), then turn in their draft to a machine shop to have welders fabricate the work. They do not need to have skills in welding or machine work. Many metal artists in China don't actually fabricate the pieces themselves. American artists, on the other hand, put an emphasis on DIY. Being an artist here you have to be very skillful, not only in the artistic part but other miscellaneous skills (for example, knowledge of computers, self-promotion,etc.). I earned my welder certificate four years after I came to America. I can proudly say that my welding skills are good, not only good enough for complicated sculpture fabrication but I'm also qualified to do industrial work that requires a license.

I wanted to become a sculptor because sculpture is an art form that requires an artist to actually put his hands on the surface of the artwork he creates. Unlike paintings which are touched by paint brushes or photography which is captured by a camera lens, I enjoy the actual touches when creating each piece. It's like a woman going through labor to deliver a child. I enjoy being the "Mother" of all my sculpture pieces. Working with metal is an extreme experience when compared with all the other different art media, this media could cause an artist to get cut and burned and even sent to the emergency room.

If I were to go back to China to work, I would be one of the few artists who actually create metal sculptures from the beginning to the end by hand.

You cite David Smith as a significant influence. Which one of his works first grabbed your attention? Did you see it in person, in a magazine, or somewhere else? Could you describe how that experience affected you?

My teacher at the time owned several foreign art magazines that he allowed students to borrow. Seeing David Smith's work reminds me of my childhood. I've mentioned that my father's machine shop was my favorite playground. All the tools, gears, and found metals in my father's shop were beautiful toys to me. When I was a little kid I happened to collect and lay all the metals I could find from the shop on the ground and make a large ground mural. I think Smith's work somehow contains a child's purity of mind, really simple, straight-forward, and eventually powerful. This quality is something that I really admired. I like Smith's concept (or should I say spirit?) and have always adopted this approach to most of my creations. However, most people have told me that my work doesn't actually seen to have anything to do with Smith's...

During the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, you were one of the students who created the historic “Goddess of Democracy.” Could you explain your role in the design and erection of that statue?

I designed the prototype with two other classmates, based on one male model (yes, it was from a male model because that day our lab only had one model available) in front of a student leader. I then collected the money, purchased materials, and found artists who wanted to participate in the project from the sculpture department of my school.

Here in the United States, a country that, in recent years, has generally responded to internal protests with non-lethal force, it may be difficult for some of our readers to truly appreciate the risks you and the other artists were taking. Do you believe it is possible to remain an artist first and foremost under those circumstances? Or does the gravity of the event demand something else from you?

I've just mentioned that many of my classmates in China now are very well-known public art sculptors. Most of them actually were involved with the "Goddess of Democracy." I must admit that "Goddess of Democracy" was a "rush order" with a very limited budget and the original purpose was unlike any other general public art that was meant to be staged on the ground forever. For safety concerns, this sculpture was not supposed to be kept in place for long. If the government's tank didn't crush the piece, it would have been recycled in the end.

I always consider this piece as my artistic experience of public art, an experience that demonstrates my artistic skills on my resume, rather than putting myself forward as a political activist or hero. I would say that we were just a bunch of art students who were happy to have a chance to build something large--a challenge. When I say challenge, I mean the project tested our physical strength and presented many technical difficulties.

How did it affect you to help create something so political? Your bio states that you now avoid political statements in your art. Is that a direct result of this experience?

I believe that art is meant to serve people. Artists have a mission to create and exhibit and make statements through their chosen art forms. However, I think artists should still have their own choices about the audiences they mean to serve. After I came to the U.S. I just targeted audiences who were interested in abstract and figurative forms. This is purely my personal choice.

In China, there are already many artists who exercise and challenge political themes to make their work more controversial and to receive more attention. China happens to be in a major transition so the society itself provides artists with the environment to create such an impact. America on the other hand is a free country, it seems to be very normal to see anything controversial. I am just not interested in coming to fame out of doing something purposefully controversial.

In 2007, I had my ten-year retrospective solo "Ten Years In America" in Alameda Museum. This solo featured various styles of my metal sculpture done in the U.S. During my opening and keynote speech I found that a (small) group of guests were not there for my art. One was a Chinese reporter from Free China Radio, who even told me that: "Actually, I don't understand sculpture and I am not interested in any of your art that you are showing now. I was expecting to see you come out with another new "Goddess of Democracy" in your exhibition but you did not. I just want to hear you talk about what you think of the Chinese government then and now.... Do you think we should build another "Goddess of Democracy"?...." That REALLY SUCKS! I think I don't want my artwork involved in any political activities because I find that most political activities are simply not artistic. Art is just a tool for those people to use as propaganda.

I came to the U.S. purely to be a sculptor. Ever since I found that there were no exhibiting venues or opportunities for metal sculpture in China during the mid-80's to early 90's, I was thinking about immigrating to another country to start my art career. Singapore was actually my first choice because at that time my girlfriend wanted to go there.

Having taught sculpture for three years at the Xuan Wu Hong Qi Vocational University in Beijing, what about the medium seemed to challenge students the most? Do you have any advice for those who are relatively new to sculpture?

Xuan Wu Hong Qi University was an adult school. Most students were working class adults and they came to learn secondary skills, or they wanted to prepare themselves to go to an art college or academy. I taught basic painting, drawing, art history, and three-dimensional anatomy. The students in China were mostly obedient and they would work harder to get good grades on their report cards (this was their first priority) than they would to actually learn some useful skills.

I did have one hard working student, Lei Lin, who ended up going to the sculpture department at Central Academy of Fine Art. I am very proud of being a teacher who was able to help someone go to China's number one art academy, where the student acceptance rate is 10,000:1.

What were some of the reasons behind your decision to relocate to the United States?

Having no exhibition opportunities at the time was the major reason; that I couldn't find a decent machine shop to create sculpture in was another...Why America? One of my friends who got frustrated with his job wanted to come to the U.S. to pursue his business career. He invited me to accompany him because he only had one friend in the U.S. at the time. I was having conflicts with my school's director and wanted some changes in my life so I suddenly decided to come to the U.S.

Now that you’ve lived in the U.S. for over a decade, what are your thoughts on the state of sculpture in this country? Who are some of the sculptors producing now who inspire you? What would you like to see change?

From my experience of participating in the jury process with various public art projects in the U.S. and being one of the artist pool members (2002-2003) for San Francisco Art Commission, I would say that many of the state public arts are under a system that doesn't easily reach out to the most qualified artists. At least I feel that some great artists I've known were not able to be considered through such a system and were not allowed a chance to submit their work to the jury, let alone having that work be selected to be built.

I've actually been more inspired by artists who are deceased, such as Keith Haring, who has turned graffiti images into sculpture. I also wouldn't mind seeing more Henry Moore duplicates in public venues rather than seeing some so-called rising artist's immature creation occupying another public space. I actually don't see many stunning changes (if compare with China) in American public art over the last decade. Perhaps we need to have more real, established artists who are willing to serve the city or state's art commissions, artists who will challenge the system and make some revolutionary changes.

Could you talk about your relationship with your studio? Do you adhere to a routine, or do you prefer to wait for inspiration? Do you have assistants? Do you listen to music while you work?

I share a huge machine shop called Nimby with many metal artists and blacksmiths in Oakland, about a twenty-minute drive from my home. Many artists there do Burning Man projects each year (I am not a Burning Man artist but would like to get involved some day). My studio where I have worked for more than four years recently had a small fire and is being forced to close by the City's fire department.

Normally I work five days a week, either at my studio for welding or at home for some clay work or design. Weekends and Sundays are mostly committed to doing outdoor exhibitions to show and sell my work. Ten years ago I had a serious work injury that forced me to quit my machine shop job. I then gradually transitioned my part-time art work selling into full-time. I've been able to support myself and my family ever since then.

I have not had an assistant since I began working in the U.S. There have been a few occasions when a art academy students inquired to work for me for school credit or simply wanted to learn some welding and fabrication techniques. It is too complicated hiring workers here, especially doing work that involves safety issues. However, when I move back to China I can always find some machinists to help.

About my "work music" -- Before I became a full-time sculptor, I used to work at an Italian Family-owned machine shop for a few years. We listened to U2, Dire Straights, and opera while at work. I am also a fan and a good friend of Cui Jian, a well-known Chinese rock 'n roll star; I listened to his Chinese Rock at work for quite a few years.

I now only listen to Chinese Gu-Qin (a type of ancient Chinese instrument with 7 strings) while working, usually when I don't have any grinding to do. This music calms me down very well. I guess it's pretty suitable to my age.

On your website, you mention that you’d like to work on larger projects. How large are you talking about? What obstacles come along with works of this size?

I am at the stage of approaching sculpture projects that are more structural in nature. Not just a piece of individual metal work but rather works that engage in certain relationships with the surrounding environment, time, and function. I would like to create something in between architecture and fine art, something that will blend into a room-size space or even incorporate the inside with the outside of a building.

Many of my pedestal size sculptures are truly designed for large-scale enlargement. So far the largest one I've made in the U.S. is a 16-foot tall "New Born" now displayed in a sculpture garden in Napa County. As a sculptor I think I have the ego to see my work in a larger scale. Size does matter.

What has sculpture taught you about yourself? What do you hope to learn as you continue your career?

My first ten years in America were pretty much concentrated on creating art work, enhancing techniques, defining my art language, and learning how to sell and promote my sculpture. I think my right brain is much stronger than my left brain and I must admit that I am not good at doing business. In the future I'll continue enhancing my art promotion because I've found that it is important for most artists who want to be known in this country. Having good work isn't always good enough; knowing how to promote your good work is the trickiest part. And I've learned that most of the qualified artists who win in the art industry understand the rules of the game.

I think there will be very few artists in this country who are "good and lucky enough" to find themselves a decent agent to successfully represent their work. Most of the artists, whether emerging or established, who want to continue relying on art to support their dreams or even to make a living need to spend an almost equal amount of their creative time on promotion. Knowing how to promote yourself, or having someone who knows how to promote art to assist you, really makes a big difference.

My wife Lauren has helped me a lot during the past ten years so that my work hours don't become too occupied with doing PR myself. Believe me, it is a lot of work being an artist in America. I've seen a lot of immigrant artists (well-established and professional in their countries) end up giving up their profession to become teachers, realtors, IT managers, etc. in this country, a place called the land of dreams. I do not try to encourage anyone to become an artist. However, it is always sad to see or learn that our surroundings have again lost another artist for one reason or another.