Xie Qi: Bad Girls Go To Heaven Too

                                                                                                                                                                             Gu Zhenqing

    Good girls go to heaven, bad girls go everywhere. This sentence is originally a quote from famous American entertainer Mae West, and is now a catch phrase. Xie Qi lives alone and paints in an apartment near the North Fourth Ring Road in Beijing. She is an independent artist, both in the sense of her ideology and in the sense of her lifestyle. She supports and entertains herself. She has a crystal clear character. Sometimes she has too much confidence in herself; sometimes she grows love for no reason, or hatred with an absolute certainty. Her painting starts from her feelings, and her brush creates magic. Xie Qi should be categorized as a talented painter. Painting excites her rich imagination and lets her imagination nerve grow like weeds. At the same time, by painting she indulges herself in her exuberant world of the self. Xie Qi never hides nor makes a taboo of  sex or sexual organs in her creation. She speaks out what is in her mind and creates many rebellious figures and images. In her paintings, she employs unique expression and strokes to emphasize spasm, excitement, struggle of muscles and misty soul. She is not a realistic painter; neither does she possess an absolute expressionism spirit. The abstract strokes and details that fill her paintings reveal the possibility of her multiple pursuits of logic. Therefore, Xie Qi’s work often covers most of the human body parts with a mystical mist and illusion atmosphere. As an unique artist, Xie Qi loves to leave all the people and places behind and start from her own experiences, then clear her thoughts and put them into her pictures. She uses her “grey” brush and grim colors to create screeching frozen pictures mixed with screaming limbs and faces. Her concrete thinking and abstract brushstrokes make the body and the spirit of her paintings become like moths that nobody can catch. However, it actually creates a unique tension. The visible and the invisible world cross in Xie Qi’s work, enhancing the idea of the conflict and fusion between the body and soul. It brings a great thrill and a strong emotional turbulence. Every single one of Xie Qi’s works enhances the atmosphere of her painting languages. Therefore, not only her works releasing a great amount of energies, but also brings out the audience’s subconscious emotions. Xie Qi enjoys creating a new style and then, to overpass it. By doing this, she experiences the pleasure of self revolution and inspiration. Inside of Xie Qi is a strong and relentless world. Her wild happiness and tranquility can be found similar to others’ painting by eyes, but not by heart. Right until now, the techniques that Xie Qi utilizes on her paintings are getting more and more mature and delicate. They are the beginning and the end of her emotions and of all her enthusiasm, which makes it hard for the audience to find the clue.   

   Good girls always have a misleading area in their thoughts because good girls are the results of Emile education. Bad girls prefer to grow by themselves because bad girls cherish themselves. Therefore they try to realize their own values successfully. Xie Qi is a bad girl in this sense, but she owns one treasure. She holds fast by self revolution in her art and by doing this, she is filled with talents. Xie Qi connected to each of her works and her works follow her witty steps, advance gradually. With years of growth and accumulation, Xie Qi’s character can be finally seen through her paintings.

    Xie Qi indulges her daily life to her paintings, tries and practices her journey from here to there. Bad girls don’t go to heaven? Bad girls go everywhere, they go to heaven too.