Volume VIII – Andrew Gilbert & Zhuang Ruizhe

We spoke properly for the first time together with artist Lin Jiayi in the studio of Sheng Yuanjun and Yang Gang. It was quite an epic night, mixed with the smells of goulash and Russian borscht.

Yes, I was instantly struck by your knowledge of history (most Europeans know nothing of history, especially artists) and fascinated by the story you told about the Picasso painting and how it led to your work in Serbia.

Yes! It was a spontaneous international project by The Delta INST. In Serbia, we were shocked by the strange history of the mutual influence of art, politics, and modernism. It is said that Picasso once carefully sent an oil painting to Chairman Mao.

Fascinating!

But this work, which could have changed the development of Chinese art, was destroyed in a plane crash just before it was delivered! I drew all of this and made a short film to play in an abandoned Yugoslavian cinema.

It reminds me of my painting of Shaka Zulu in his studio painting Emil Nolde’s Trophies of the Savages.

Haha, this is great. Let me see what’s written in the corner:
“Will you come to bed, darling?” says Andrew. Shaka Zulu replies, “No! I MUST finish this painting for the Basel Art Fair.”

You once told me that your Zulu-related works also stemmed from an exploration of Zulu battlefield relics. Perhaps you’d like to tell me more about this?

Of course. I first visited the Zulu area of South Africa in 2014, and since then I’ve returned four times to continue my research on the subject of the British colonial atrocities of 1879 against the Zulu Kingdom. As you can see, I visited the Isandlwana and Rorke’s Drift battlefields. These journeys led me to explore much more history, such as the Xhosa Wars, which are rarely spoken about in Britain today. Everyone knows about the Zulu War because of the 1964 film with Michael Caine called ZULU, but few know about the Frontier Wars or the Xhosa 100-Year Wars — a tragic history of land theft, starvation, and massacre. Before the British reached the Zulus, they had to “pacify” the Xhosa peoples. In the Delta INST LOUNGE exhibition, we hung a small drawing of this forgotten history on the pillar next to the installation of the Emperor Andrew Instant Coffee Plantation business table, so this unknown history is given a central place.

That reminds me of the Chinese film “Lin Zexu” from 1959, which was hugely influential in the newly founded People’s Republic of China. It tells the story of the beginning of the Opium War and how the Chinese fought against the British. You should see it!

Holy Toast! It’s amazing to see the British played by Russians in historically inaccurate uniforms, always staring at a portrait of Queen Victoria. Did you know Michael Caine, the actor in Zulu, was a soldier in the Korean War?

Wow, it is fascinating to see the connecting lines of history and culture, and how you bring this together in your work.

By coincidence, I began researching the Opium War in more detail two years ago and created this drawing of the Battle of Ningbo, 1842. We were taught nothing about this in Britain.

That’s why you’re smoking “the wrong end of cigars”! Interestingly, you had already learned a lot about China before your residency and your first trip to China. When we, the Delta INST, visited your studio at the BY ART MATTERS residency, we were so impressed by your drawings and research, and we were glad to invite you to our group exhibition A Beautiful Land.

You told me the Chinese word for America is: “a beautiful land”. That’s an ironic name, considering the atrocities they commit and fund around the world. I was very interested, Zhuang, in your work in this exhibition titled This Machine Kills Fascist. It seemed to question the Anglo-American version of history. I recognized the title from Woody Guthrie’s guitar. I also already knew that the executioner at Nuremberg was a diagnosed sadist.

Yes, just like your Beatle Serial Killers – God Bless America drawing in your current exhibtion at the Delta LOUNGE, with Charles Manson, Ed Gein etc. Those people were sentenced to death, but justice is always absent for war criminals. Andrew, because we know you’re so interested in history and military museums, we took you to the “The Memorial Hall of the Victims in Nanjing Massacre by Japanese Invaders” and the Nanjing Museum.

Yes, this was very interesting for me, as I am fascinated by national narratives. I had previously visited the Tokyo military museum in 2012 to research the narrative displayed there on this same subject. I experienced very effective curating at the Nanjing Memorial, where we walked from dark rooms filled with information to, suddenly, an elevated outside view of vast mass graves. After a break at the Peace Cafe, it was very interesting to visit the Military Museum at the site about the defeat of fascism. After exploring this dark history, it was refreshing and beautiful to walk the streets of Nanjing with Lin Jiayi and you. The local cuisine was exceedingly good.

Yeah, I really like Nanjing — it’s also my hometown, the former capital and the most tragic city in modern China. Sadly, we could only stay there for two days, as we needed to get back to focus on preparing for your dual solo exhibition in Hangzhou, including the renovation of the Delta’s new LOUNGE space. We’re so happy to present and display your intense works in depth – your very first solo exhibition in China. But this isn’t your first exhibition in Asia, right?

Correct, I previously exhibited my work at the National Gallery of Singapore and at Nanzuka Gallery in Tokyo. In fact, in the LOUNGE gallery, there’s General Gordon, the figure in the white dress, serving me Ernst Ludwig Flavor Instant Noodles. He was also known as “Chinese Gordon” because he served in the military in China before being ordered to the Sudan, where he was beheaded in Khartoum.

Oh yes, I know him! Do you remember that in Nanjing, I told you this was once the capital of a Christian “Heavenly Kingdom”? There was a great revolution after the Opium War, and General Gordon came to China as a mercenary to help exterminate them!

This is very interesting. I’ve read about many cases where extreme religious beliefs and cults arise in response to colonialism. So, Gordon worked for the Emperor? What year was this?

Yes, initially, all the colonial officials thought the revolutionaries could become their new agents, “one of us”, but this illusion was quickly shattered. They then joined forces with the Emperor to destroy them. This was around the 1850s and 1860s.

Thanks for explaining. This reminds me of contemporary situations as well.

Also one of the drawings shown in Tokyo is now exhibited again here in Hangzhou. It’s titled Colonial Exhibition - Savage and Cruel Asia from 2013. It depicts a poster for a colonial exhibition, or “human zoo”, which was a form of European entertainment. So-called exotic and primitive people were displayed in fake exotic settings for Europeans to gaze at, like animals on display.

I really like this work; it retrospects a historical period when Westerners treated other nationalities as subhuman, categorizing them as yellow, brown, black, and white. Interestingly, in China, white is often associated with evil, while black represents loyalty and justice.

That’s very interesting. She says it much better than me:

Most Europeans don’t even know who Henry Kissinger was and what he did.

Similarly, whenever we’re in a taxi, the driver plays the most famous Chinese rock song, Glorious Years, which is a tribute to Nelson Mandela!

Also on the matter of the meaning of colours, Judas almost always wears yellow in Western art and therefore cannot be trusted, just as Asians were often depicted as cunning, deceptive, and intent on destroying Western civilization – an idea rooted in 19th-century propaganda that is still echoed today in American and European media. This perpetuates a sense of fear towards China among Europeans. However, I prefer Steve Biko’s perspective, where he says that white people are not actually white; they are pinkish-yellow. He died for his anti-apartheid actions.

That’s why we saw Giotto’s painting in Padova showing Judas in bold yellow robes!

Yes, there is a long Christian tradition of using depictions of Judas to negatively portray Jewish people, often through anti-Semitic features and his association with money and the devil. Europeans tend to forget or choose to ignore that anti-Semitism has existed for centuries in Christian Europe. Even today, the anti-Semitic sculptures at the tourist attraction of Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris are still displayed.

That’s why your exhibitions are so relevant today! You show how these old racist systems of propaganda continue to function. How do you feel about doing an exhibition in China compared to Europe?

It has been a lot of fun, but what I find unusual is that I work a lot with found materials and chance encounters with objects. However, in China, we order so much material online and drive so much car that this spontaneous creative factor is reduced in the process. There are advantages to the speed, but this spontaneity was also lacking. On the other hand, the “binlang” dish provided a great deal of energy! This was very important energy for the many studio visits we made – intense and beautiful experiences.

The “Leek Phone” dominates much of life here in China. When we walked around, I found wonderful materials such as chicken feather dusters and dried plants to represent the feathers of British colonial officers’ helmets. I also collected sweeping brushes, which I use as beautiful ritual objects for my parody of Western civilized rituals, which are actually primitive. Then there’s the bamboo staff that holds up the British flag.

That’s why I heard some art critics at the exhibition opening refer to your work as “Real Internationalism.” In your pieces, you’re trying to set up installations with objects from around the world, such as ostrich feathers from South Africa, tea bags from Germany, pineapple earrings from Singapore, a fake Scottish kilt made in England, and large white beans and carrots from China! I just hope that people around the world can break through the dividing systems, come together, and then we can fly like a butterfly!

Like this quote from a Chinese Coffee advertisement: “I Butter You!”