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November 2009 issue of Hi Art, ‘Cover Story’ Column
The Studio Room with a CBD View
Article: An Xixiang Photograph: Zhen Hongge
You could immediately realize that it’s Zhu Wei’s territory on seeing the painting on the wall of the studio. Being distinct from most artists’ studio, it’s nearly spotlessly clean here.
Zhu Wei’s studio looks fairly empty, ‘This place is not for living, but only for working.’ Once he stayed here half a night — Slept alone after everybody left, no matter how thick the quilted covers were , you still felt empty all around the body. Zhu Wei bought this studio in 2007. There was hardly a LOFT in Beijing at that time, moreover, the two large French windows to the north side of the door which provide good lightening in the daytime and the panoramic view of the lighted CBD in the evening amazed everybody. Zhu Wei emphasized, ‘This studio was bought by myself, now it’s already worth double of the price I paid due to an appreciation. At least there is no chance of dismantlement against a bought studio, and the fortune could be weakened because of move on move against the demolition.’
Although there is Zhu Wei’s large work ‘New Pictures of the Strikingly Bizarre, No.5’ hung on the wall, empty is still the immediate sensation for the studio room which is 5.6 meters high, it may be related to Zhu Wei’s long-period moving of his belongings from previous studio which has lasted for two years but not yet moved all his belongings here. A flag with flowers painted on it was hanging on the top of the mid-wall, I could not understand and asked, ‘What’s that for?’ ‘Painted by my wife, totally two, one is hung in the studio, the other at home.’ Zhu Wei answered. Zhu Wei’s worktable is well worthy of a careful observation— skeeler, radio, tape measure, dumbbell, basketball, pastel…take you into an illusion that this may be some amusement park.
The studio was designed all by Zhu Wei himself. Along the original girders in the house, the south room was divided into two floors. His paintings ‘Strikingly Bizarre, No.2’ and ‘China China’ are hung on the wall downstairs. A long wooden table is placed in the reception room, and the lines of kitchen are rigid and brief. There were three places attracted us all through the visit, the large refrigerator with double doors, the aluminous garbage can down beside the stairs, and the multi-colored porcelain jars in human shape on the wooden table. We paid attention to the fridge because Zhu Wei opened it frequently to invite us for ice-cream; and for the garbage can it was its size which is almost the same with the public waste bin in the residential quarter that attracted us, handsome! As for the multi-colored porcelain jars, ‘It’s a pity that there is a small crack on it, otherwise we will see it at the auction, also thanks to the crack, it was taken home with only 100 yuan.’
We were chatting during the whole afternoon in his studio; our topic was all the way from potted banana in the studio to female artists. Zhu Wei was still remarking when we were about to leave, ‘Artist is artist, don’t act like a party girl. Artist ought to turn up with the appearance of artist; anyway, you are a worker.’
《Hi 艺术》 2009年11月刊 “封面故事”栏目
看得见CBD风景的房间
文：安息香 摄影：甄宏戈
一看工作室墙上挂着的作品，就知道这是朱伟的领地。有别于大多数艺术家工作室，这里几乎干净得一尘不染。
朱伟工作室很空，“这种地方只能工作，不是住人的地儿”。他曾经在工作室里住过半夜，当人去楼空自己睡在里面，盖再厚的被子都感到身下空空的。这个工作室朱伟07年就买了，那会儿满北京没有LOFT，而这房子进门北侧的两个超大型落地玻璃窗不知令多少人惊叹——白天采光好，晚上还可以立在窗边俯瞰一下CBD的亮灯全景。朱伟特地强调说，“工作室是自己买的。现在不是升值么，已经DOUBLE了。买个工作室，起码不用担心会拆。工作室搬来搬去，把那点儿气都搬没了。”
挑高5.6米的工作室部分，即使面墙上挂着他的巨幅作品《新二刻拍案惊奇5号》，给人最直接的感受还是空，可能跟朱伟搬了两年还未将原来工作室里的东西全部挪进这里有关。中间墙立面顶端插着一面画着花的旗帜，不明来历——问：挂这干嘛？朱伟答：老婆画的，一面挂在家里，一面挂在工作室。朱伟的工作台很值得细细观察一番，滑轮鞋、收音机、卷尺、哑铃、篮球、蜡笔画……让人恍惚觉得是个游乐场。
工作室是朱伟自己设计的。就着原来房间里的钢梁，房间南侧被分隔为上下两层。楼下的墙上挂着他的作品《拍案惊奇之二》和《China China》，会客室放着长木桌，厨房的线条刚硬简洁。一直吸引我们的有三处，超大的双开门冰箱，楼梯下的铝皮垃圾桶，木桌上的五彩人物瓷罐。关注冰箱是因为朱伟不时拉开冰箱邀请我们吃冰棒；关注垃圾桶是因为它的大小与小区里的公用垃圾桶大小有得一拼，着实霸气；至于五彩人物瓷罐——“可惜裂了一条缝儿，不然就得在拍卖场上见了。因为一道缝儿，我只用一百块就拿回了家。”
整个下午都在他的工作室里聊天，一路从工作室的盆栽香蕉到女艺术家。临走时朱伟还在评论：“艺术家就是艺术家，别弄得跟交际花似的。艺术家就要以艺术家的面貌出现，你是一个工人嘛。” |
