Now, the exhibition comes to an end. As the curator, everything I want to convey is basically inside the exhibition, but I would like to express my personal opinion on the theme of the exhibition, “Souls in the Clay”, a long and involved phrase in the language unique to the Loess that Liu Shiming loves. I would like to remark on what the theme reveals and stresses in an academic sense as an afterthought to the exhibition.

Liu said that he is a person who plays with clay. A lot of people can play with clay, but only a few can do it well, and those who can produce clay statues that touch your heart are rarely seen, among which Liu is one, who has been neglected for a long time. One reason why Liu’s pottery sculptures can touch people’s hearts is that you can tell “a sense of life” in his works, which is recognized by many. However, as the generation of artists like Liu’s generally pay close attention to life experiences and know the realistic creation method, why could Liu’s seemingly humble clay objects, gadgets, men, and women have a stronger, lingering charm? I think the key to this is that Liu lives a more underprivileged life, with a lower posture, and knows more about equality, mutual respect, and love between people and life in nature, as well as the need to love and be loved. In Liu’s life and works, there is always a simple, sincere, people-oriented, and humanitarian spiritual quality that distinguishes his works from those of others, which cannot be completely replaced or explained by the realistic ideas and methods of creation that we are used to.

The souls in his works surely contribute to the spiritual quality unique to Liu’s art, but what constitutes art is not only the emotions but also the language that “narrates” the emotions well. Obviously, Liu’s sculptures fluently speak the “mother tongue” and “dialect” that he has acquired through his life, resulting in a localized experience that integrates life and language, which makes his works unique among the translated and localized academic sculptures. Being “sculpture outside sculpture” and “mainstream outside the mainstream”—such an evaluation of Liu perhaps states the fact and reason that he encounters an awkward situation in creation in the past and the value of his works begin to be re-examined today.

Lastly, I’d like to express my gratitude for the inspiration and thoughts brought by Liu’s sculptures. My thanks also go to all the staff members contributing to the exhibition and all the visitors!

Cao Qinghui
November 28th, 2019, at the night of Thanksgiving