张洪波：“星星”之前我记得你做过一些作品，好象是在泡沫板上挖了许多象房间一样的孔。在里面放了一些玩具娃娃、乒乓球、动物、军队之类的东西，还有充满画面的海洋波浪与城市，给我的印象还比较深。那是哪一年做的？叫什么？

　　李新辉:：是九四年，就叫泡沫。

　　张： 为什么没继续做?好象挺短的时间就放弃了。

　　李： 刚开始，也就是那个时候我有两方面的兴趣，一方面是利用现成品和垃圾，另一方面是就是绘画。以后我认为绘画更纯粹是另一维空间，更接近我内心深处的某种东西。比如说空灵呵、类似于禅的那种东西。我当初选择废品和垃圾，比如泡沫、玩具，是希望我的生活尽量少地制造垃圾。 简单说爱护地球。

　　张： 听起来不象是艺术，是环保。

　　李： 是，是有一些关联。 之前我也尝试过别的材料，如麻系列。实际上每种东西都可以变成艺术或变得艺术些。

　　张： 你不会是想用艺术的形式倡导环保吧？

　　李： 这完全是我个人每个阶段生活态度和感受。倡导谈不上，就是跟着感觉走。

　　张： 后来就画星星啦？

　　李： 我还做了一年的报纸、杂志拼贴。画了一组现代欢喜佛。

　　张： 我很好奇为什么你选择了“星星”，而不是一滴水、一丝烟雾或是一片树叶？

　　李： 这个问题我还真是认真考虑过，最初我有几个选择其中就有一滴水和树叶，另一个当然就是星星了。因为之前的作品要么是很情绪化，要么是个人的思绪和感受。之所以选择简单的符号就是想区别以前，走出自我。对我来说，尤其是星星蕴涵一种希望在里面。

　　张： 十多年了一直默默地画星星不感觉无聊吗?是什么样的力量支持你这么长的时间？

　　李： 因为画星星对我来说是视觉艺术的探索也是每天生活的一部分，它是希望也是游戏。我用画“星星”这种对我而言暗示某种模糊希望的方式来运用我的时间，让画面更有意思。我用不同的方法来做它，并在其中发现了无限的可能性。

　　张： 在这个过程中有没有产生过怀疑？

　　李： 刚开始时有，但随着作品的不断深入，到后来，越来越感到它的空间无限，我的信心也就越来越来越强了。

　　张： 通常艺术要表达什么的，你的“星星”系列想表达什么呢？希望!或者什么都不表达。有时侯什么都不表达也很好玩的。

　　李： 希望是一部份，每个人看“星星“都会有不同的感受， 对于我它有着许许多多的含义，比如说： 自由呵、希望、空间、时间、死亡、新生、规律和偶然甚至生命。这些东西都可以在”星星“里给我启示并有所感悟。而我绘画的方向是搞出一些视觉的享受平面。

　　张： 听起来挺玄的，可能是因为它简单，才搞出这么多东西来。好象怎么搞，怎么说都可以。

　　2007年9月

　　Zhang Hongbo asks: Before ‘Stars,’ I remember some of your earlier works involved holes dugout of big pieces of Styrofoam that resembled little rooms. Inside the rooms you put things like some toys, dolls, ping pong balls, animals, army soldiers, and filled the surface with ocean waves and cities. These had a big impression on me. What year was that? What were they called?

　　Li Xinhui: That was 1994, called ‘foam.’

　　Zhang: Why didn’t you continue making those? It seems like you abandoned them after only a short time.

　　Li: At the time I had two areas of interest. One was to use real objects and rubbish, and the other was painting. Afterwards I felt that painting was a different, purer dimension, and was closer to something deep in my heart. Like spirit, in the Zen sense of the word. At the time I worked with second hand things and rubbish like Styrofoam and toys, because I was hoping that I would create less rubbish in my life. It came down to caring about the planet.

　　Zhang: Sounds more like concern for the environment than art.

　　Li: Yes, it was related to that. Beforehand, I experimented with other materials, like in my ‘hemp’ series. Actually any object can become art, or become more artistic.

　　Zhang: You weren’t actually thinking of using art as a medium of inspiring others to care for the environment?

　　Li: This was only the product of my attitudes and experiences during one stage in my life. I wasn’t thinking of inspiring others; I was just following my feelings.

　　Zhang: And then you started painting stars?

　　Li: I also worked for a year with collages of newspaper and magazine tearings, followed by a year in which I painted a series of happy Buddhas.

　　Zhang: I’m really curious why you chose “stars,” rather than a drop of water, a puff of mist, or a leaf?

　　Li: I have really thought carefully about this question. At first, in addition to stars, I gave myself a few choices, such as drops of water or leaves. My previous works were either impressionistic or were the result of a particular train of thought and experience. The reason for selecting a simple sign was to break from the past, to depart from self. To me, stars are particularly pregnant with potential, with hope.

　　Zhang: For ten years you have been silently painting stars; don’t you find it boring? What kind of strength has sustained you for so long?

　　Li: For me, painting stars is an exploration in visual art, and is also part of life; it is hope, and it is also a game. I’m using painting ‘stars’ as a kind of symbolic, abstractly hopeful way of spending time, in order to make the canvass more interesting. I make them in different ways, and in them I have discovered limitless potential.

　　Zhang: In this process, have you ever experienced doubt?

　　Li: At first I did, but along with the development of the theme in the paintings, I slowly came to feel its limitlessness, and my confidence grew.

　　Zhang: Often art expresses something; what do your ‘stars’ express? Hope? Or nothing? Sometimes expressing nothing is also fun.

　　Li: Hope is part of it; everyone looking at ‘stars’ will have a different experience. For me, they symbolize many many things, like freedom, hope, space, time, death, birth, rules and spontaneity, and even life itself. ‘Stars’ can inspire all of these things in me, and give me certain realizations. Also, a direction of my painting is to create some planes for visual enjoyment.

　　Zhang: Sounds pretty esoteric. Maybe it’s because they are so simple that they inspire so many ideas. It seems like no matter how you paint them, you can say whatever you want about them.

　　Zhang Hongbo

　　9/2007