VISUREAL · International Image Art Festival (VIIAF): More about our residency.
Bian Lian context.
Changing face is not a distinct art form; rather, it is one of the most iconic special effects techniques used by Sichuan opera’s Jingju (flower face) performers. Occasionally, martial artists may also employ this technique.
Clean Face (Flower Face). The vast majority of characters who undergo transformations are depicted with flower faces. Their characteristic features include intricate facial masks, bold, fierce, and eccentric personalities, and clear distinctions between good and evil. Ghosts, gods, demons, and powerful figures all belong to the category of flower faces.
The art of transformation was originally used to depict sudden changes in character emotions, transformations of mythical beings, and intense inner turmoil.
Wu-sheng: Certain heroic and divine characters are portrayed by Wu-sheng actors, focusing on their martial skills and movements. Their facial masks tend to be simple.
The original characters used in the art of changing facial expressions.
“Guizheng Lou”: The earliest production featuring a transformation scene.
The character is Bei Rong, a notorious outlaw from the underworld (a martial face-changer). He uses his ability to transform his appearance to escape danger.
“The Story of the White Snake and the Golden Mountain Temple”: The characters’ protective deities, including Wei Tao, the toad spirit, and various gods and demons, perform clean roles, repeatedly changing their faces during combat to showcase the transformations in their magical battles;
“Capturing Zi Du”: Gong Sun Zi Du, a general from the State of Zheng (a martial artist), is filled with guilt and madness. His face-changing performance depicts his transformation from red to black and his shattered emotions;
“The Farewell of the Conqueror”: Xiang Yu (a character with a framework makeup), defeated and filled with grief, uses face-changing to convey his despair.
In traditional opera, face-changing is a special technique used to externalize characters’ psychological states and to create magical effects. The current form of face-changing performed on stage involves isolating it from the context of a complete play, leaving it solely as a display of skill. The categories become blurred, but its roots still trace back to the Sichuan opera clean role.
Face-changing is not a distinct character or role but rather a performance technique, akin to techniques like fire-breathing, using feathers, or rolling lanterns in opera.
Following a meeting with Lei Wei, director of the Shu Opera Hall, we arranged for two performers to work with us at the department of Art and Science at Chengdu UESTC. They were 子薛 Zi Xue (red costume) and 华贵伟 Huagui Wei (green costume).
Liu Tao and I are indebted to Naiyi Chen (Assistant Dean) and the students from her department for their considerable help. At our suggestion, the students created a video of an interview of each of the performers at the “blue room” where we did the performance recording. The students involved were: 伍定成 Dingcheng Wu, 刘昱萱 Yuxuan Liu, 杜晶 Jing Du, ⻩森煌 Senhuang Huang, 王福兴 Fuxin Wang, 刘雨桐 Yutong Liu, 崔文彦 Wenyan Cui, 刘渝 Yu Liu, 罗欣 Xin Luo.
Although Liu Tao and I worked collaboratively on the project The Yellow Brick Road, our outcomes were separate. My work is the video The Yellow Brick Road, meanwhile Liu had captured our journey via black and white photography, a selection of which were shown in the exhibition.
