The true meaning behind the paintings of Qiu Xiaofei can be seen manifested in the way in which he paints. He paints by carrying out a sensory re-examination of the process by which rationality triumphs. The essence of his work is realised through his hand drawn reproductions, adaptations and presentations of mechanical imagery. It is through the rejection of the truth held by matter that the artist hopes to attain a sensory, emotional and recollective reality. In the search for this truth, Qiu makes use of three main methods to execute his work- intellect, texture and imagery.

In his work, the depiction of memory is realised in paintings of old photos, with news photographs serving as a recollective reminder and a means of recording memory. Within our collective memory, the past was a time of desolation, and by urban standards today, it was a time of decline. However, in the works of Qiu Xiaofei we see a time of warmth, romanticism and brightness. Of course, in the process of portraying memory, the artist uses his own personal memories to modify the memory of the collective, working by hand to create “a copy of a copy” of memory. His primary concern in this is not memory in its original form, rather it is how the process of reduplication can rescue the withered and in doing so, revive oneself.

Pi Li，Salvation from the Imprisonment of “Truth” ，2006（Extract）