Methods of Art – Archive of Artists Interviews

I do art because that’s the most enjoyable thing that I have ever done in my life. I think I have a lot of
intentions in my artworks, I have so many things that I would like to say about my artworks and to
the audiences but I would somehow restrict my desire to tell them what I think and also what is my
message behind it because I think this would somehow make my work more or less propaganda.
And I think that is the worst role of art because I think an artwork should be perceived naturally by
the audience themselves and without the intention being forced on them. Although I started with a
very concrete idea or a lot of things that I would like to say. But in the end, when it is presented, I
would like it to be as simple as it can and not so strongly intended in communicating messages as I
would like it to.
If they would like to know more about what’s my thinking behind this work they would probably read
it from my writings or the booklets or other information of the exhibition. But if they think, “ok, that is
interesting”, and that’s all, they could very much leave at that point.
I think it would be called a success if the people said, “it’s interesting, ok, it’s funny”.
But I would consider it a complete failure if the people said, “oh, I don’t understand anything,”
because I think most of the people who are not so educated in art or contemporary art would
always say, “ok, contemporary art is something that I don’t understand”. So, I don’t want to go into
that category of very complicated artwork that rejects the audience once and for all. I think it would
be nice if it’s visually very appealing, very interesting, and then the people would get to know, they
would like to know more about the artwork and somehow they would get something from it.

Shiyu Gao / Intention

Bio

* 1988, lives and works in Hong Kong and Shanghai, China. She studied Fine Arts at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, at the University of Leeds, UK, and Humanities at the Hong Kong Baptist University of Hong Kong. Shiyu Gao is an artist engaged with media such as photography and video installation.

www.shiyugao.com

Transcript

PDF

Credits

The interview was conducted on December 20, 2014 at Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK).

Interviewed by: Johannes M. Hedinger

Filmed and recorded by: Piet Esch

Edited by: Paul Barsch

Transcript by: Yvonne Mattern

Produced by: Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK), Connecting Spaces Documents #5

Special thanks to: Master Transdisciplinary Studies, Katja Gläss