Artist statement for Reconstructing Michelangelo:

'Sketch I: 24'45'', Sketch II: 43'17'', Sketch III:56'24'', Threshold: 11'19'', Open Up: 33'58'', Perfect Editing: 24'10''' 

'This is a plan for a master-apprentice relationship.

 A while back, I had for the first time in my artistic career an assistant (apprentice). And so I began to ponder a question: what exactly can a performance artist’s assistant (apprentice) do? (Because this assistant had plans to become an artist in the future.) A sculptor can teach his assistant to sculpt, a painter can teach his assistant to paint. Can a performance artist teach his assistant to perform?

 Over the course of art history, the role of the assistant (apprentice) slowly vanished after the advent of art schools, yet here I was in the modern day actually given the opportunity to grapple with this age-old topic. This, I thought, would be a very interesting experience.

 I’ve now already begun the first stage of my plan. I’ve started to do performances in my studio, where every morning, we perform gymnastic routines of our own invention.

 At the same time, I’ve tried to convey to my assistant my understanding of art through a period spent living together and long stretches of dialogue and discussion, even though I can’t guarantee that my views are all accurate. I know that I was influencing him, but hoped that the influence was a positive one.

 For the plan’s second stage, I began in February of 2015 taking my assistant (apprentice) to art museums or galleries to perform. The plan was to do at least two to three live performances.

 From this plan that’s now already in-progress, I’ve discovered a very strong answer to this question of assistantship: art is change, including that experienced by myself as an artist and by my assistant (apprentice). I feel that through these various performances, my assistant (apprentice) gained a measure of greater confidence.

 At the point where we’d been continuously performing and had accumulated a large amount of video material, a new problem arose. It was very clearly a problem of performance as a form (a problem of the artist him or herself), which was that I already couldn’t separate live performances done before an audience from performances done in the studio without an audience. More importantly, I already couldn’t separate performances done in physical space from those within in the space of the video editing software. So for the work’s final iteration, I tried to blur these two kinds of space into each other, eliminating the feeling of a live performance. As I see it now, a live performance only exists within a fixed time and space, because a live performance existing in time and space will have a beginning and an end, and will therefore disappear.

 This is how I have changed and what I’ve gained.'

作品〈再造米開朗基羅〉藝術家自述：

「草圖I：24’45’’，草圖II：43’17’’，草圖III：56’24’’，門檻：11’19’’，打開：33’58’’，完美剪輯：24’10’’」

「這是一個關於師徒關係的計劃。

  之前一段時間，我有了藝術生涯的第一給助手（學徒）。於是我開始了思考一個問題，就是一個行為藝術家的助手（學徒）究竟能做什麼？還有就是一個行為藝術家能給助手（學徒）什麼？（因為這個助手有計劃將來當藝術家）。一個雕塑家可以教他助手做雕塑，一個畫家可以教他的助手畫畫。一個行為藝術家是否可以教他的助手做行為？

  在藝術的歷史上，自從有了藝術學校之後，助手（學徒）這個身份就慢慢消失了。可是現在的我竟然有機會面對這麼古老的話題，我想，這是非常有趣的一段經歷。

  現在已經開始了第一段計劃，在我的工作室開始表演，每天早上的表演，表演我們自創的體操。

  同時，通過一段時間的共同生活，通過長時間的聊天對話，我嘗試著把我理解的藝術告訴他，雖然我也不能保證我認識都是對的。我也知道我在影響他，可是我希望這個影響是好的。

  第二部分計劃2015年2月份開始帶著助手（學徒）去美術館或畫廊表演。計劃最少有2到3場現場表演。在現在已經進行中的計劃里得到一個很強的答案，藝術就是改變，包括我藝術家本人和助手（學徒）。我覺得助手（學徒）通過各種表演收穫更多的自信。

  經過不斷的表演，積累了大量的視頻素材，這時另一個問題出現了，很顯然是一個表演形式的問題（藝術家本人的問題），就是我已經不能分開有觀眾的現場或是沒有觀眾的工作室表演，更重要的是我已經分不開在有實體空間的表演或是在剪輯軟件里的空間，所以在作品的最後，我試圖把這兩者的空間混淆在一起，取消了現場的感覺，現在在我看來，只有靜止的時間和空間才是現場。因為有時間和空間的現場就會有開始和結束，就會有消失。

  這就是我的變化和收穫。」