He Pei Pei / 何佩佩

For Silent Dialogue / 沉默的对话, artist 何佩佩 / He Pei Pei presents Intersection 2020, a new series of scroll drawings, depicting people and the movement of people at the intersection of Melbourne's iconic Flinders, Swanston and Collins Streets. Alongside this is Street Melody 2020, another new series comprising two large-format oil paintings and drawings on paper. Both series continue the artist's search into the spirit of city life at the centre of Melbourne. The precision of He's depictions is such that it may surprise the viewer to find that her works are not painted or drawn in situ.

A self-taught photographer, she spends her days capturing the rhythm and movement of city life in her camera - becoming what she refers to as an 'actor' in an evolving stage-set of everyday life. However, the final work is not simply a painting or drawing of any given photograph taken. It results from days of painstaking digital manipulation of thousands of photographs to create the desired scenography.

In the end, He's drawing, or painting is rendered in black and white, harmonising the scene; as He explains, "it makes all of the actors equal and connected as a group of humans" —no one thing or person is more important than another. In the interaction between the positive and negative spaces, one feels this sense of connection, which she describes as the silence and "sense of calm". At the same time, her calligraphic brushstrokes are pulsing with energy, reminiscent of the lively movement of the body in everyday urban spaces.

Speaking of her artwork, He said:

Standing at the intersections, my sense of excitement flows with the surroundings: cars, trams, vans, buses, and trucks line the streets mixed with bikes. Slow-moving traffic interweaving, crossing or turning at the intersection from different directions. Tempting advertisements featured on the old fashion and new style trams. People are rushing down from trams and waiting for the changing of traffic lights. Various eye-catching signs and lights above my eye-sight. The tram’s tracks and bold vertical and horizontal pedestrian stripes on the ground. Street musicians are playing their instruments here or there with an opened case in front of them, gold and silver coins scattered inside. Historic and modern architecture provides a setting, like a stage for witnessing human’s activities. Sounds and energy flow in the air - people are carrying their belongings, passing each other, talking on their mobile, rushing and crossing the pedestrian walkways with quick, countless steps from south to north, north to south, east to west, west to east. To get a panoramic view, I rush into any tram and keep returning to the sections, looking and catching the moments when the moving tram crosses the busiest streets of Melbourne. What I receive there is a dense and diverse complex order, where all aspects of change and movement occur, where the spirituality of human beings seems present and where a magnificent picture of life in the urban environment takes place. Day by day, month by month and year by year, the activities repeat again and again and will never end, yet the repetitions will never be the same by the passing of time.

He has long been preoccupied with city life. Her fascination can be traced back to her early life in China during the Cultural Revolution.

I was born in Shanghai. When I turned 12 years old, the Chinese Cultural Revolution swept through China. I was one of the millions forced to leave Shanghai when I was 16 and work in a little village surrounded by mountains in Jiangxi Province, thousands of kilometres away from my family. In those years, there were no schools, no studies, no books, the living and working conditions were very poor; the only thing I was allowed to do was physical work in the field day after day. All the while, I was dreaming of being back in the city with my family. This experience is why the city means so much to me as a symbol of family, lifestyle, communication, education, opportunities and the future.

Since she arrived in Australia in 1987, He has returned to her practice and education. She has exhibited widely and been awarded and short-listed for an array of prestigious art prizes, including; the Archibald Prize (2018), the Sulman Prize (2013), the Dobell Prize (2011), the Wynne Prize (2009), the Paul Guest Prize (2018, 2016, 2014, 2012) and the Geelong Contemporary Art Prize (2021) to name a small few.

From 13-16 January 2022, He’s works will be displayed at Missing Persons art space alongside those of fellow artists Kuang Zai / 匡再 and Jenny Zhe Chang / 珍妮喆张. Press the button below to check out our Exhibition Program for details.

ET—1) Pei Pei, it is fascinating to spend time with your early paintings in your studio; these beautiful depictions of rural scenes, many of which you made during your time in Jiangxi during the Cultural Revolution. Would you tell us a little about these early paintings?

ET—2) They are extraordinary paintings of a particular moment in time. It was fascinating to observe the marked shift in your subject matter and visual language, from these early colour-filled, realist paintings of rural scenes to your present-day, monochromatic works depicting city life. Would you tell us a little about how this progression came about?

HP—2) This evolution in my visual language started during my return to formal education in Australia. At the end of the Chinese Cultural Revolution in the late 70s, which brought the reopening of schools and universities, I had an opportunity for three years of fine art training at the Gannan Teacher’s College in Jiangxi Province. Afterwards, I worked as a photographic journalist for Shenzhen Legal Weekly in Shenzhen before immigrating to Melbourne in the late 1980s. When I arrived in Melbourne, I worked as a portrait artist and then found more stable work. After my husband passed away in 2004, I decided to return formally to my art practice. So, I completed my visual arts diploma at Swinburne TAFE and then a Bachelor of Fine Art (Honours) at the Melbourne University, Victorian College of the Arts (VCA).

It was at the VCA that I was able to explore various ideas, interests and influences with the support of the teaching staff. It was here that I reconnected with my cultural heritage through the re-discovery of traditional Chinese scroll painting, which is considered one of the aesthetic highpoints during the cultural history of Chinese civilisation. I became fascinated by the form and length of the long scroll. It is very distinctive in that it can be rolled and unrolled from right to left, from left to right, carrying multiple perspectives. Equally, in typical installations, the composition can only ever be seen as one fragment at a time; one never sees the whole composition at once. This concealment conveys a sense of the unknown and complexity which I feel is very connective with my desire to depict the endlessness of city life.

ET—3) Pei Pei, when you were at VCA, you cultivated your passion for film, sound and moving image art, expressions of city life from across a variety of mediums. In particular, the black and white films of city life by German filmmaker Walter Ruttmann and Soviet filmmaker Dziga Vertov; the symphony of City Life by American composer Steve Reich; and the impression of time, space and speed in contemporary life by German artist Christiane Baumgartner and New Zealand artist, Daniel Crooks. Would you reflect a little on these influences; how it has also informed the evolution of your practice, especially the movement to your monochromatic scheme?

ET—4) Pei Pei, I know from our conversations that you’re very interested in conveying the sense of movement and connection which underpins the spiritual dimension of city life. However, I think you’re also equally interested in saying something about the disconnection we are faced with in twenty-first-century life. The more connected we are through technology and modern travel, the more disconnected and isolated we seem to become. This condition is particularly evident in public spaces. Would you comment a little on this?

ET—5) To me, in this new series of works, this dualistic narrative is something that I see unfold in the transition from the scroll drawings to the paintings. Although the calligraphic brushstrokes of the paintings possess a sense of movement, compared with the scroll drawings made in pencil and charcoal, there is a sense of each painting being frozen in time. However, when one looks at Street Melody 2020 collectively, the paintings and works on paper, there is a sense of interconnection and movement once more. Something I will return to later... (see Question 10). Perhaps this is why you have titled each of the works Street Melody #1, 2, 3 (pictured above) and 4. Would you comment a little on this?

ET—6) Yes, I am very fascinated by this! I think your process of working across formats – bringing together your painting and drawing practice but also personal narratives specific to your experience of a particular place – is enormously interesting. I wonder if the marked shift in your visual language from realist depictions to the depiction of blurred images that engage more with a sense of uncertainty also owes something to this working mode. In your works, we confront an intersection, a space between what we see and what we know, which is capable of complex reworking. I understand the work’s title draws from the site of the work’s making, i.e. the intersection of Flinders, Swanston and Collins. However, I wonder if the title also alludes to this cognitive space for thinking / re-thinking about city life and our place within it? At an intersection, there is a feeling of confrontation but not necessarily a connection. In this way, the series title also embodies the sense of uncertainty or seeking of the inexpressible present in the human experience of place?

ET—7) Whilst spirituality is at the very centre of your search, your works engage with various themes that can be understood as subsets of this experience. Would you elaborate a little on your examination of spirituality and related ideas in everyday city life?

ET—8) Pei Pei, would you say that sometimes your themes also evolve towards the end of the making process for a scroll (pictured above); when you’re deciding on the presentation – i.e. which pieces to reveal to the audience? Rather than being simply about the presentation, could we think of this as an extension of the making process that reveals particular emphases?

ET—9) Yes, very exciting! I would like to turn now to the works on paper; the scrolls in Intersection 2020, and also the two large-format works that form part of Street Melody 2020 (pictured above). I know you love the sensuality of the rice paper/paper medium and also working in pencil and charcoal; the sense of ease and immediacy it brings to your art-making process. Would you reflect a little on this?

ET—10) It is hard to describe, but for me, there is a sense of silence and calm that stems from contemplating the negative spaces in your works. They convey a sense of three-dimensionality, of course. However, they also seem to make space for noticing small details that convey the many-sided emotional experience of everyday city life.

For instance, in Street Melody #1, your large-format charcoal work on paper, one immediately notices the white shadows on the ground reflected in the puddles of water on a rainy day. This 'noticing', in turn, draws the eye to the people at the centre of the composition. We recognise the buildings, cars and street lights, but the flatness of the composition means that they recede into the background. It is the people that are at front and centre, like actors moving in front of a stage set - somewhere between realism and abstraction. Young and old dashing left and right, umbrellas in hand, the mood is light and full of movement and anticipation. 

In contrast, in the oil painting Street Melody #2, one is immediately struck by the stillness; people, traffic lights, cars and trams frozen in time. And, yet in recognising these features, the viewer anticipates a sense of movement; as sure as day follows night, those traffic lights will change. Like Street Melody #1, there is a softness to the presence of the buildings; they seep into the background allowing us to focus on the people in the foreground once more. However, unlike Street Melody #1, where the people move, for the most part in this work, people are still waiting at the street light, which conveys a different mood. 

Slightly slumped, huddled together in the rain on a cold day as they wait impatiently for the light to change. At the traffic light, a passing car plays into this sense of time passing. Each person seems to be very much in their thoughts. Turned away from one another or looking straight ahead, there is a sense of disconnection, isolation even despondence at the time lost. At the same time, in the upper half of the canvas, there is a hint of blue sky popping through, the coming of blue skies. This rare hint of colour conveys a sense of hope and once more underlines the passing of time with changes in the weather.  

Street Melody #3 depicts a thronging crowd of commuters flooding in and out of the iconic Flinders Station. Like Street Melody #2, this painterly work shares the same sense of stillness; a slice of time capturing the movement of people during peak hour. Unlike the first two works, in Street Melody #3 the building seems to dwarf the people, underscoring their insignificance in the wake of the developments and demands of industrial life - the monotonous repetition of the worker's commute. Like the other works, the building is reminiscent of a background stage set. Through this association, the viewer is reminded of the centrality of the human presence. Head down, staring ahead; there is a sense of industriousness as people dart across the road to work or home in search of meaning in their day.  

The final work Street Melody #4 feels like a shift from being less concerned with people – the players at the centre of city life – to being more concerned with the symbols of city life. Traffic lights, cars and trams moving in all directions and people in the background; one can almost imagine the sounds and patterns of movement. The ringing bell of the trams as a car does a hook turn (a decidedly Melbournesque image), the rhythmical beeping of the pedestrian walk sign, people chattering as they walk, perhaps bird chippering in the trees. As a scenography, in comparison to Street Melody #3, it feels more like a hopeful resonance on the patterns of city life (in image and sound), where people are present and part of a broader narrative.

In the end, we can appreciate each canvas individually. Still, it seems to me that the most rewarding meanings come from evaluating the works in tandem as a series. Would you comment a little on this Pei Pei?

ET—11) Pei Pei, I know early on you didn’t focus too much on buildings and architecture in public spaces as the work is more about the movement of the body through these spaces. However, more and more, you have started to see architectures as part of the conversation, e.g. how they have informed cultural development or the way that human interaction with them or around them might say something about a particular time and place. Would you comment a little on this with respect to the new body of work?

ET—12) Pei Pei, in closing I want to return to the subject of loneliness which we touched on briefly above. I know loneliness is something that underpins your work from your early days in the countryside during the Cultural Revolution. Indeed, it is something that all of us have experienced at one time or another, and yet it still feels like a rather stigmatised condition. In this day and age, when we live in an urban environment, and we are more connected than ever via technology, the assumption is that we shouldn’t feel lonely. And yet, the research shows that as an Australian society, we are lonelier than ever.  It seems to me in the wake of COVID-19, this exploration of the two sides of the human experience - connection and disconnection – in your works is vitally important for us to think about. Would you comment a little on this for us? What role, if any, do you think art-making and viewing should play in helping humanity to navigate?