A Fool for Art: Ma Tianlin, aka Shaozi

He’s a rising star who has designed for Plastered T-Shirts and recently held his first solo exhibition in Germany.

Explain your pseudonym: Shaozi.
In my hometown, 勺子 shaozi (“spoon”) sounds like “fool” – it was a bad word. Once, a guy from the south called me “Master Ma” as soon as he entered the room and that really scared me.

Where do you get your ideas?
From my dreams. Last night, I dreamed that someone was keeping very detailed diaries for me. Weird, right? He said he’d done two already and there are five more to go. At first I thought that meant I still have a long time to live, but then, a gigantic moth was flapping its wings on my hand. I wanted to make it go away. It went to the other hand instead, and then it felt like a lot of them were all over my body. I also like to watch the Discovery Channel. The way that animals grow and mate is very surprising.

Biggest influences on your art?
Murakami Takashi, Andy Warhol and every single piece that KAWS has ever done. I also really like ukiyo-e [Japanese woodblock prints]; that kind of traditional art is an unlimited resource. I like mythology, ghosts and gods – these elements can be used to tell modern stories on another level.

If you could only paint in one color for the rest of your life, which would it be?
Different shades of blue. Painting in one color would be no different from painting in black and white.

Your recent work is less 3-D than it used to be. Why is that?
In general, flat is popular in Asia, like the traditional Chinese watercolors and ukiyo-e. Working in two dimensions gives you more freedom – you can put anything next to each other.

A lot of your images involve the sky and atmosphere: clouds, raindrops, the sun.
I like lightning, stars, anything related to the universe. My parents thought I was really strange when I said that I thought tornadoes are the most beautiful disaster on Earth.

If someone held a gun to your head and forced you to design for a brand, which one would you choose?
This question could not have come from a Chinese person – guns are not allowed in China. The brand would have to be apparel or toys, because I’m interested in those fields. I couldn’t die for nothing, under high pressure like that. I’d need to make something happen.

See more of Shaozi's art here, here and here.

Photo and illustration courtesy of Ma Tianlin

This article originally appeared on p7 in the March issue of the Beijinger.