Guan Xiao: Breaking Free | Art21 "Extended Play"

We have all developed this bad habit

that as long as we have a phone
or computer next to us,

we will be fully occupied by it.

Once you have the option to use
your phone or computer, that's it.

You will definitely choose to
use your phone or computer.

Every day, a large part of my works
have something to do with the computer.

But to finish my works,
it has to be done in a studio.

In our studio, we don't
have an Internet connection.

We use phones to play some music,
and that's it.

You can't always hold your phone because
our hands are dirty from working.

For me it's a really good feeling,
kind of like meditation.

Even if your body feels tired,
your spirit is totally relaxed.

No one can escape the era they live in.

Especially in China, people are interested
in social and politics-related works.

They love discussing politics.

And people enjoy looking at works
that have a social meaning.

They feel those works are more profound.

But they forget that political artwork
is just one category of many.

I'm not talking about
Western galleries or Western artists,

but local artists and
galleries and collectors in China.

It's hard for artists from the last generation

to create something without
the discussion of politics and social issues.

They can't say, "I just want to be
a quiet artist and make what I want."

It's really difficult for that
generation of artists

to make this kind of work
and to make a living from it.

I think artists like me,
who were born in the 1980s,

we start to have the possibility to say:

"Ok, you can be a visual artist"

"and you can make a living this way."

I think this is great.

--Hang on. Lift.

--Slowly, take your hand out, good.

I hope that in China

there could be more art that's different.

Everything an artist does is to
express their sense of freedom,

to break our ideas free of the
frames that are holding them in.

That is actually what is political.