Yun-Fei Ji
My works are meditations on the mountains and waters as the image of our own moral failures. - Yun-Fei Ji
When he was 10 years old, Yun-Fei Ji's mother sent him to study with an officer who drew illustrations for the People's Liberation Army. In 1982, he received a B.F.A. from the China Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing, P.R. China. During that time, the instructors at the Central Academy of Fine Arts still painted in a Socialist-realist propaganda style. In 1989, he received a M.F.A. from the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville in the Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences. Ji lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.
Yun-Fei Ji took a trip to the ancient Silk Road area of northwest China. On this trip, he viewed Buddhist frescoes in the Mogao caves in Dunhuang, China. The narrative of the frescoes greatly influenced him and inspired him to create multiple works based on that expedition. Ji also visited Louisiana after Hurricane Katrina, and made drawings of this experience. He says this about the experience: "I saw this natural disaster as an example of government failure. And after the financial collapse, I saw similarities- how the government failed to do its job as a watchdog. It's very disproportionate in both cases how the people who put in all the work paid the price, and the people who benefited from all the work paid no price.".
Yun-Fei paints traditionally, using the media ink and watercolor on rice paper and mulberry paper. In his painting process, he starts with multiple pencil drawings. When he wants to see something in color, he will paint it with ink or watercolor. His paintings generally include eerie looking characters. Ji grew up with ghost stories, and he uses these as inspiration. He said: "I use ghost stories as metaphors because it's an easy way to satirize human problems and issues.".
His inspiration also includes historical, cultural, and political messages, such as memories from the time of Maoist rule. Ji has an interest in including household items in his works, such as machines, fabrics, and musical instruments. He is also interested in the literary aspect of art: "I try to mimic the method that underlies the formation of early Chinese characters: I invent forms that are like words to describe the world.".
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Works by Yun-Fei Ji
