By: Sophia Rahman
“Art, I guess, means an escape from reality and also my bonding to reality at the same time.” - Xiaoyue Pu.
Art is a hard concept for many people to define, as it is composed of many elements. In an interview with local artist Xiaoyue Pu, Pu elaborates on her experience as an artist. Xiaoyue, (pronounced Shao-U), is a 22-year-old artist born on November 18, 1997, from Beijing. She practices various mediums of art, including photography and body performance as her main focus, and at times takes on an art director role when working with fashion. She has also begun experimentation with installations and videography. She began her artistic journey in a high school student club where she became an editor and began experimenting with photography.
Photography has since become a form of language for Pu. She describes that her love for photography has enabled her to express deep emotions and thoughts that are normally hard to articulate. Photography functions as the foundation for tapping into her subconscious and allows her to capture colors that she feels represent parts of her and her mind.
Xiaoyue Pu works with various mediums of art.
Though Pu has many interesting pieces, she personally feels she is far from her goal. She explains how her photos attempt to piece together the mind, but actually differ from what she envisions, leaving her unsatisfied. Deep down, she is filled with confusion and worries that her work is easy to read. As an artist, she wants her audience to feel so confused that they can’t understand what they’re experiencing, much like the experience of life.
Pu’s influences include Japanese poet, dramatist, and film director, Shūji Terayama. She believes his work to be “abstract in its form but powerful in evoking particular emotions.” Furthermore, in order to get ready for a project, she listens to music. Musicians she enjoys are Japanese composer Ryuichi Sakamoto and Japanese artist Ryoji Ikeda. In addition, she is inspired by Meng Jinghui, a Chinese theatrical play and film director. She finds herself emotionally connected to his way of storytelling; it confronts his audiences’ perspective and the way of expressing emotion. His work also challenges physical appearances and world existence.
Besides photography, Pu is very passionate about body performance. She explains how she focuses on defining what her body means to her as an individual, as well as how it is viewed in society. What it means in the age of feminism, what it means to her in terms of sexuality and sexualization, and what it means in society’s constructed norms and how she is affected by them. She attempts to escape yet construct her own definition by pushing her body to function as more than its basic function. By doing this, she came to the conclusion that “[her] body is so much more... it’s a platform for language that [she] can express with.” Additionally, she finds that there is much more power in the body itself and that in society. We focus on globalization and capitalism, which causes us to forget the basics of life: our bodies. We then focus on materialism instead. “We live in a normative world and are privileged, so learning how my body works is like being a 3-year-old kid again, making mistakes,” Pu explains. “...Body language is a power society wants to suppress and it discourages us from individuality.”
Most of Pu’s work involves themes of blood, death, love, and romance. These elements together are important to her work, especially in her understanding of love. “You have [love] but it's hard to grasp and have it... [Love] is an idea that is never fully understood,” she quotes. One of her recent products is a video relaying the evolution and termination of her 3-year relationship. The conclusion of her video was then turned into an installation that consists of a white background covered by red strings and what appears to be a heart. After talking with Pu, the heart is discovered to actually be a pomegranate that she smashed in the video and then recreated to look like a heart. The overall piece which includes the video and installation attempts to explain how she understands love and how the psyche is involved. This project can be found on her Instagram, @xiaoyuepu_photography.
An installation by Xiayue Pu
She explains how individuals embrace yet push love away. How, although she ended the relationship, the process is still difficult. “You brought a part of you and [your partner] left with it,” Pu laments. She continues to say that after the end of a relationship, people still save that part or destroy it but can't distinguish between them and their partner. She, her ex-boyfriend, and who their personalities were as a couple are all individual agencies that she can’t differentiate or distinguish through human emotion. The utilization of the pomegranate was intentional to symbolize the heart. A pomegranate is sweet and smells good, but in her work, it is made to look like a bloodied heart, which gives a violent effect. In Xiaoyue Pu’s understanding, “love is fucking ugly, but still has a sweetness that no one can deny.” Similar to how the bloodied pomegranate is destruction, yet its residue is sweet.
As of now, Xiaoyue Pu has a few pieces in production that are sure to captivate the eye. In addition, you can find her at the Overture Center, where she has a solo show that will run until December 1st. To add on, Pu has been recognized as a photographer on Vogue Italia. Some of her work has even been displayed on Vogue Italia’s website, which can be viewed here.
“On The Operation Table” by Xiaoyue Pu
(One of many photos featured on Vogue Italia)