The works from 1989 to 1996, because of the materials I used, they have a lot of symbolic meaning. Because I’ve lent these materials symbolic meaning, they can convey my inner feelings.

But why did I use this rubber conveyor belt to make work? Because it was 1996, the year my mother died. My mother’s death touched me. When the people from the previous generation started to die, I realized I would be the next. It would soon be me. So I thought there were some things I’d like to record; some emotions I’d like to put down. Of course, it was around June. After 1989, every June everyone thinks of one incident that happened in Beijing, [the Tiananmen incident]. This incident can’t be openly discussed, but I had to think of a way to record this memory. I was afraid that generations would pass, and this memory would be gone. Of course, there’s a pained feeling in your heart when you think about this incident in 1989, and I just thought maybe I could use a nail to pierce different materials to get to that feeling.

The first thing I used was wood, and later furniture, but it didn’t work. Why? Because the wood’s endurance is limited. At a certain point the wood would break, explode, splinter. Later, I randomly picked up pieces of car tire at the roadside. When I hammered nails through it, I found it completely withstood the nails. Nails have a head and a tip, and I filled one side with nailheads, nailing them in one by one. The rubber, it flipped for a moment because there were too many nails, but it was very good; no cracks, nothing was broken. I think the rubber was able to withstand the nail punctures. So I started looking for rubber. I thought I would use bicycle tires or car tires, but at the time, my friend Mr. Li paid me a visit, and I thought, he has a lot of conveyor belts for moving coal, so I went to get the conveyor belt and began nailing it.

Because these nails are very small, in one day, working one by one by hand to drive them in, you can probably nail more than two thousand, three thousand or so nails, but then your head would be spinning and eyes hurting, because it requires special focus, or you will hammer your hand or break a nail.

When I exhibited [Kill], I first thought of the relationship between the nail and the rubber, its penetration, puncture, and endurance. I then thought that might not be enough, so I incorporated one of my previous works, which used wooden railroad sleeper ties and I made it into an installation. Because I think the first time I used the railroad sleeper ties it represented the extended memory of history and time.

Later, starting in 2006 when I exhibited the work, I rolled it up, because I found that kind of optimism was actually slowly dissipating. I thought, with the efforts of China’s Reform and Opening, that this society would continue to be open, that this society would develop better and better, but at that time I already felt that it had ideologically started to regress. At first I thought that as long as you can preserve your memory, you have nothing to worry about, but I found that when ideology begins to regress, your memories might also disappear. So since that exhibition I’ve continued to roll up the work, and I hope to keep the force in it, keep the tips of the nails facing inward. This way it can continue to preserve its excitement.