Artist Statement

Eva Xie is originally from China. Lives and works in Rochester, NY, Xie has been experimenting with elements of visual art and theatre. Xie sees herself as an "Idea-based" artist who always starts her work with inspiration of a concept, which is usually from personal experience, stories she heard, and the environment surround her, then chooses the media and material based on this concept. The process of developing the concept and making art (both physically making the piece and mentally processing the idea) is incredible important to her. Xie's work consists of a variety of media including of printmaking, photography, video art and recently focusing on installation and narrative environment design. She also likes to work with found objects. Through constructed structures, she lets the symbolic and the imaginary perform a decisive role conveying new meanings to familiar objects and notion. Most of Eva Xie's art address issues of culture, identity and gender. She believes that art task is to encourage the mind, to create sensuousness, to conjure up positive energies, to research possibilities and to destroy clichés and prejudices.



As Nature Formed? Linocut Prints. 2009

Pipilotti Rist

Pipilotti Rist is one of the most recognizable names in contemporary video art. For me, she is a very important inspiration for my experiment with video art and multimedia installation.

Installation view, Hauser & Wirth Zürich, 2009

Pipilotti Rist is renowned for bridging the gulf between popular culture and art and for merging various mediums. From her earliest tapes through her recent multi-media installations, Pipilotti has crafted a body of work in which she appropriates this spirit for her own ends, exploring the intersection of sexuality, technology, and pop culture.

Homo sapiens sapiens, 2005Audio-video installationInstallation view, San Stae Church, Venice

Tyngdkraft, var min vän (Gravity be my friend), 2007Installation view, FACT, Liverpool, 2008

A Liberty Statue for Löndön (monolith version), 2005/2008Audio-video installationInstallation view, Art Unlimited, Basel, 2008

Fantasy is at the heart of Pipilotti's work: her dream-like scenes often seem so loaded with suggestive images and scenarios that they threaten to collapse under their own meaning, saved, in the end, by her light touch and ironic humor. I'm always frustrating yet amazed by the saturated colors, sensual images, and an unconventional use of space and scale in her piece. Pipilotti Rist's video installations are at once tangible and boundless — witnessed in the here-and-now, but full of interpretive possibility.

One of my favourite piece from her:

Ever Is Over All, 1997Audio-video installation Installation view, National Museum for Foreign Art, Sofia

Pipilotti Rist Official Website: http://www.pipilottirist.net/

Pipilotti Rist "Pour Your Body Out" at MOMA

Experimental with Art

People always ask me what I do for my art - what is my specialty and what's media or material I'm using. Most of time I'll answer: "I'm still at the time experimental with different media and working with everything possible."

"Idea-based" artist.
There are two major ways of working with found objects: Getting the object first then coming up with concept based on the object and working out the way to present it; or having the concept in mind then collecting objects and working out way to present the concept. I start my professional art training in college with working with found objects – the time when I found myself really comfortable and inspired under "Concept first, material support" structure. This experience basically structure my way of doing art and technique I choose later on. I see myself more as an "Idea-based" artist rather than "Material-based" artist. I always get inspired by personal experience, by stories people telling me, by environment around me – those are all important elements of my art which help me come up with an idea or concept; based on this idea or concept, I'll start to think what's media and material I should choose to present this idea or concept. I had experience on photo, sculpture, video and printmaking, it is really hard to say I concentrate more on one or two of them, or working with one of them more often. Usually I will choose the technique which will be really interesting to work with under the certain concept or idea I have in mind; or the technique / material has some kinds of connection with the idea which will help well present the concept and help develop the idea further. This way of doing art encourages me to continually search possibilities for my art as well as constantly learning and doing art.

Complexity - Simplification
For a very long time, my experience on collage art in middle school and high school played a very important role in my art making. You can see layered colors in my print pieces, Multi screens in my video art, complex structure in my sculpture. I always wanted my art to include enough information for the audience, expressing all my thoughts and feelings. I'll say I wont realize the necessary of leaving "empty" space on the art piece and the idea of "less is more" if I didn't go through this stage of making "complex art". There is definitely transition happening in my art making recently. I'm more focusing on the idea itself rather than paying too much attention on showcasing the complex technique and everything I can do within one piece. At the same time I want to leave even create more "space" for audience to read and interact with the art piece.