付：你再解释下你足球那批作品，我理解为它是你比较喜欢的游戏，你和外界发生关系的一种方法，是人和陌生的巨大的城市产生的碰撞，是和周围环境产生联系的一个连接词。
郑：跟肖像有点像，不一样的地方就是符号变了。人被抽掉了，拿了个其他的东西放在里面。足球本来的意义比较欢乐，是比较刺激的一项运动。但在不同的环境出现后，它的附加概念如果一直追加下去都是在变化的。比如说在商场里，它就是一个商品;在静物台上放着，它就是个静物等等。把人换成这个东西，它的身份变化了。但它又不是随便拿来的一个东西。一步一步证实后，追加出来的结果就是实际上是一个演员，变成了一个道具，和演员在一起从而证明了足球的身份。
付：我有一种新现实主义的提法，不是老的那种实打实的现实主义，是借助写实的手法，利用现实生活里的物品和场景，但表达的是心里的真实，是感情化的东西，是一个重建的精神世界，或者说是一个虚拟的现场，一个线索。貌似现实主义，而实际上并不是那种真正意义上的现实主义。是调侃一种错位的关系，荒谬的表达，或者说是一种假象的东西，一个再现的东西。可能你在所有人里是符号化最强的一个，或者说是记号，像字符啊，在画面上写字。某种角度上你受玛格里特的影响比较大。他也有文字的逻辑关系在里面，也有好几层关系，图像物体概念等。
郑：是有一定联系。但这种联系如果用绘画用图像去阐释的话，可能就不是那个概念了。任何一个东西它都会有一个现在的含义。当场景切换，或者说环境改变以后，它的意义、附加值在增大，外延被一个图像激发出来。我是想建立这种联系，这个东西出来的时候就不再是你一眼看上去的东西了。我现在画了两张足球，一个就是底子肌理做的非常厚，用调和油把颜色调的非常稀，然后勾一个足球的形象。我觉得这即是在绘画里的关系，更物质化了，跟现实里的东西是两回事。这个和绘画的关系就是一个笔触、一个肌理承载出一个形象，包括把这两种东西分离开。其实随便画什么都是这样，但用在绘画里应该是有理由，是形象和绘画的一种联系。另外一个也是足球，画成四个圆。第一个圆是石膏球球体，第二个圆套在后面，是平面的，上面只有肌理，第三个是足球的轮廓，整个是一个颜色，第四个是黑白相间的圆。没有立体感，像平面图案一样的东西。如果套在一起它就是个足球，我现在是把它打开了，我要拿绘画去把它表现出来。
付：这个有一点像名家公孙龙的“坚白石”的理论。你怎么会接触当代艺术的，在西安美院就开始了吗?
郑：在美院时接触过一点。那时喜欢看梵·高，现代主义那些画家基本上我都喜欢。都是天才画家。绘画手感很好，放到现在这个特定的时代显得不那么重要了。画家手好，画的东西好看，人们愿意看这个东西，尽管他想要传达的东西会被表层的东西取代。
Handle and Concept - Zheng Qiang
18th April, 2006
Place: Xinla Garden, Lloymall, Yellow River Cloverleaf Junction, Shenyang
Dialogist:Fu Xiaodong
Fu Xiaodong(hereafter refers to ‘Fu'): Your early works of portraits are more imagelike, then you regarded painting as a installation work, later on it blends concept and image. For example, heart is a symbol, so is the character, to blend the two symbols together and place it in an image scene, such as snowy ground. That is to say blend the symbol, scene and personal feel and experience together, including what you covered underneath the snowy ground, a feeling of emotion, a memory of there is no more youth.
Zheng Qiang(hereafter refers to ‘Zheng'): It would be a little incite emotions If youth or sentimental feelings was getting involved. As a matter of fact, I didn't think much about anything, it was an incident of expressing in such way. It is possible drawing selectively, something biting me inside or, a touch of my feeling.
Fu: Now you are apt to blend the personal feeling and the concept together.
Zheng: I think so. Because sometimes it is either abstract or idealistic painting, I think to it must be piled up a lot of items so as to create a new one. My previous works are too weak to shock apart from the technique.
Fu: How to incarnate the concept of the portraits you drew?
Zheng: In that time, I didn't think much about it. It arose accidentally during the process of painting, that is to say there is a person or an item in a given scene, its expression or other action, convey an unearthly scene. I think it is too romantic and incompact both in logic or structure, for I couldn't consider much more in that time.
Fu: I think those things' expression isn't obvious, so the space for expatiating is very small.
Zheng: Maybe everyone thinks differently in every different period of time, so the respect to solve problems is different. In that time, I just graduated and eager to learn the artistry technique. Now, looking back, the form of art isn't important, but I cared it too much at that time. Therefore, I tried to figure out a new way for replacement, and made a new change in vision. During painting, the unsureness and the artistry technique often block the expression and possibly, becoming an impediment.
Fu: The painting of a policeman who grovels on the ground was a turning point of yours. do you super induce the social attribute on him?
Zheng: I think it was a turning point because his status was changed, at the beginning, I wanted to make it a little similar with the living theatre: while you were seeing it, you were seen too by others, it was reciprocal event. I had considered how to spread this reciprocal out on static image or painting. So, I replace it with a policeman, put him in a narrow space. This status can also restrict the audiences, making you have a contractive feeling. I thought status played a certain role in it. That is when you are tasting you are actually seen by others.
Fu: I found you have paid particular attention to the concept art. There are character string appeared in your painting. In some point of view, do you tend to be a little more national to others?
Zheng: Maybe a little bit. I think the painting should go back to its original. In my opinion, there is a problem with the concept or idealistic art. The problem is that it is easy to cause concept in advance once the concept or notion gets into your system of painting. I think it is a basic hindrance to drawing.
Fu: I think when pursuing the concept art to a certain extent, it is possible becoming vacuous in the end.
Zheng: I think painting needs to be expressed on its own. And now it is absolutely different from the previous works. But what is it? It's hard to say, for everyone is going ahead, and it isn't a byproduct of concept art or a blueprint of something. The advantage of painting cannot be expressed fully when painting is to engage in concept art. The concept can exist, but it should be limited to an extent.
Fu: Your Sight Table , including Squeezer, there is a possible relation between the fact and the false. The more realistic your painting get, the more abstract the item will be. But it is a painting after all, just reducing the function of the item, a transformation. Like the sculpture of Hansen that has a little reciprocal relation between the audiences and him, of whom becoming the moving performer of art and also participating in one's work.
