DOCSLIB.ORG

Zhang Huan and the Relationship with Contemporary Society

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Zhang Huan and the Relationship with Contemporary Society Master’s Degree in Lingue, economie e istituzioni dell’Asia e dell’Africa Mediterranea Final Thesis Buddhist influences in Chinese art: Zhang Huan and the relationship with contemporary society Supervisor Ch. Prof. Francesca Tarocco Assistant supervisor Ch. Prof. Jacopo Scarin Graduand Alessia Daisy Lai Matricolation number 846459 Academic Year 2019 / 2020 Summary ABSTRACT ............................................................................................................................................... 2 INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................................................................... 4 佛教对中国艺术的影响：张洹与当代社会的关系 ............................................................................... 7 ZHANG HUAN: AN ARTIST’S BIOGRAPHY THROUGH HIS WORKS .............................................. 10 1.1 Historical and artistic context .......................................................................................................... 10 1.2 Zhang Huan’s childhood and his “Country boy at heart” feeling ...................................................... 14 1.3 Zhang Huan’s studies and his first approach to art ........................................................................... 15 1.4 The performance approach: Angel (1993) ....................................................................................... 16 1.5 Beijing East Village: the development of an experimental artist community ..................................... 19 1.6 The second public performance: 12m2 (1994) ................................................................................. 21 1.7 The link between ‘art for art’s sake’ and performance ...................................................................... 25 1.8 Self-torture and the experiment of 65 Kilos (1994) ............................................................................ 26 1.9 To add one meter to an unknown mountain and To raise the water level in a fishpond: the last performance pieces in China ..................................................................................................................................... 28 1.10 New York and the ‘hard to acclimatize’ feeling ............................................................................. 32 1.11 My performance series: switching from ‘Local’ to ‘Glocal’ in the artist’s mind .............................. 39 1.12 The artist’s return to China and the establishment of the Shanghai atelier ....................................... 42 1.13 The use of ash as a new material: the expression of Buddhism in Zhang Huan’s works .................. 45 BUDDHISM AND ZHANG HUAN’S ARTWORKS ............................................................................... 48 2.1 Buddhism and contemporary China ................................................................................................. 48 2.2 Zhang Huan’s Buddhism................................................................................................................. 48 2.3 The importance of Tibet .................................................................................................................. 50 2.4 The use of materials: the importance of incense ash ......................................................................... 58 2.5 Work analysis: Pagoda ................................................................................................................... 66 2.6 Work analysis: Zhu Gangqiang ....................................................................................................... 69 2.7 Work analysis: the Poppy flowers series .......................................................................................... 72 2.8 Work analysis: Semele .................................................................................................................... 78 CONCLUSION ....................................................................................................................................... 84 BIBLIOGRAPHY .................................................................................................................................... 86 SITOGRAPHY ........................................................................................................................................ 88 1 ABSTRACT The purpose of this dissertation is to analyse the work of contemporary artist Zhang Huan, focusing on the close relationship between his artworks and Buddhism. The analysis will start from the first steps taken by the artist in the Beijing East Side Village and will highlight all the developments of his art until today, focusing, in particular, on his trips to Tibet and his life in the USA, and to the artist’s life in connection with the Chinese avant-garde movement and its Buddhist implications. Below is the list of the books that I used as a reference for the development of this dissertation: - Dziewior Y., Goldberg, R., Huan, Z., Storr, R., Zhang Huan, London, Phaidon, 2009. This is the artist’s leading monograph. The book describes the life of the artist since the very beginning until today, explaining the path he followed, starting with his body performance art until the most recent Buddhist implications and his future works. It includes the period the artist spent abroad, in the USA, and then his return to China. - Jacob, Mary Jane, In the Space of Art: in Buddha Mind in Contemporary Art, Berkeley, University of California Press, 2004. This book helped to build a link between the Buddhist religion and its latest developments in Chinese society, also involving the art industry, and how Chinese society is influenced by the religion itself. - Genua, Elena, Reflections on Ash: A Collective Soul, in “Ashman”,n. 23, 2010. In Ashman, we can find an analysis of the material used by Zhang Huan for his works concerning Buddha figures. The use of ash is essential to analyze both the decline of statues, the meaning Zhang Huan gave it and also the artist’s collection. - Mariani, Amelia, Zhang Huan’s Big Buddha: Ten Years Later, in “Yishu: Journal of Contemporary Chinese Art”, Volume 11, April 2012, p. 56–61. - Kwan Chan, Shing, Public Displays of Affliction: On Zhang Huan’s 12m2, in “Yishu: Journal of Contemporary Chinese Art”, Volume 17, January 2018, p. 97–107. 2 - Barlett Voon, Pow, Zhang Huan: Zhu Gangqiang, in “Yishu: Journal of Contemporary Chinese Art”, Volume 9, January 2010, p. 72–79. All the essays published on Yishu: Journal of Contemporary Chinese Art during these years are a fundamental tool to examine the perception of the figure of the artist from an objective point of view. Moreover, they offer a detailed study of Zhang Huan’s works, from the first performance pieces to the changeling years after his return to China, where Zhang approached religion, as expressed with his art. 3 INTRODUCTION Due to changing geopolitical dynamics in recent years and to globalization, the contemporary Chinese art world is highly fragmented. In the final decade of the last century, Chinese artists began to experiment, as well as revive, traditional art practices. At the same time, Buddhism also experienced a revival. This was the context in which Zhang Huan, one of the most representative artists of the contemporary Chinese art world, developed his art. The first section describes the art scene in today's Chinese society. For both art and China, the year 1989 closed an era and opened a new one. The Tiananmen massacre marked the end of a decade of relatively open political, intellectual, and artistic exploration. At the same time, the implementation of the reforms led to a new era of development, globalization, and personal power. Artists used all the forms they could to express their understanding of conceptual art, with performance pieces, paintings, photography, installations and, video art. This was aimed at getting a reaction from the audience, engaging directly with society. Avant-garde artists saw themselves as modern cultural pioneers, developing their works to fight for social reform, and rebelling, in a visual way, against the past. Avant-garde artists felt just as pioneers while approaching to new art techniques. Their works were the perfect representation of the social reforms fights, rebellion and contrast with the previous ideology. They criticized ideology, which was based on a state-dominant theory, striving to express their concerns. A milestone event in the development of experimental avant-garde was the formation of Beijing East Village (北京东村). The Village, in the early 1990s, was the essential expression of an avant-garde artistic community. It was located in the eastern part of the Capital, far from the historical and cultural center in the city. It was formed by a group of people, especially artists who decided to move together in a village in the outskirts of Beijing. The name was chosen to take as inspiration the East Village in Manhattan, which was, since the 1950s, a popular destination for migrant workers and a class of emergent artists, attracted by the cheap rent prices. During the following years, the Manhattan East Village began to attract a class of artists for the same reason. Zhang Huan was an active member of the Beijing East Village community. The artist had earned a B.A., in 1988, at Henan University, and then an M.A., in 1993, at the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing. Zhang was attracted to the avant-garde, and, thanks to it, he became closer to the East Village, where he started his career
Load more

Recommended publications
  • A Conversation with Hou Hanru
    Michael Zheng Objectivity, Absurdity, and Social Critique: A Conversation with Hou Hanru January 12, 2009, on the occasion of the exhibition imPOSSIBLE! Eight Chinese Artists Engage Absurdity, San Francisco Arts Commission Gallery and MISSION 17 Left: Zhang Peili, WATER— I. Chinese Video Art in the 1980s Standard Version from the Dictionary Ci Hai, 1991, single- channel colour video, 9 mins. Michael Zheng: Shall we start with how video art began in China? There are 35 secs. Courtesy of the artist. quite a few video works in the exhibition imPOSSIBLE! In the West, video Middle: Zhang Peili, 30 x 30, 1988, single-channel was first used by artists to record performances and events. In that way, at colour video, 9 mins. 32 secs. Courtesy of the artist. least in the West, video art developed hand in hand with performance art. Is Right: Zhang Peili, Document the same true in China? on “Hygiene No. 3,” 1991, single-channel colour video, 24 mins. 45 secs. Courtesy of the artist. Hou Hanru: Yes, the case in China is really similar. In the 980s, when video was introduced to China as an artistic medium, it began to be used by lots of performance artists. They didn’t really have video—they had documentary, like photography, video documentaries, and very, very brief videotapes, because at that time such technology was not so popular. Only professionals had video cameras—mainly people working in television or with advertising companies. The equipment was very expensive, so few artists had access to it. One of the first artists to really use video both to document his performances and to make independent work was Zhang Peili.
    [Show full text]
  • Performance Art
    (hard cover) PERFORMANCE ART: MOTIVATIONS AND DIRECTIONS by Lee Wen Master of Arts Fine Arts 2006 LASALLE-SIA COLLEGE OF THE ARTS (blank page) PERFORMANCE ART: MOTIVATIONS AND DIRECTIONS by Lee Wen Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Degree Master of Arts (Fine Arts) LASALLE-SIA College of the Arts Faculty of Fine Arts Singapore May, 2006 ii Accepted by the Faculty of Fine Arts, LASALLE-SIA College of the Arts, In partial fulfillment of the requirements For the degree Master of Arts (Fine Arts). Vincent Leow Studio Supervisor Adeline Kueh Thesis Supervisor I certify that the thesis being submitted for examination is my own account of my own research, which has been conducted ethically. The data and the results presented are the genuine data and results actually obtained by me during the conduct of the research. Where I have drawn on the work, ideas and results of others this has been appropriately acknowledged in the thesis. The greater portion of the work described in the thesis has been undertaken subsequently to my registration for the degree for which I am submitting this document. Lee Wen In submitting this thesis to LASALLE-SIA College of the Arts, I understand that I am giving permission for it to be made available for use in accordance with the regulations and policies of the college. I also understand that the title and abstract will be published, and that a copy of the work may be made available and supplied to any bona fide library or research worker. This work is also subject to the college policy on intellectual property.
    [Show full text]
  • September/October 2016 Volume 15, Number 5 Inside
    SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2016 VOLUME 15, NUMBER 5 INSI DE Chengdu Performance Art, 2012–2016 Interview with Raqs Media Collective on the 2016 Shanghai Biennale Artist Features: Cui Xiuwen, Qu Fengguo, Ying Yefu, Zhou Yilun Buried Alive: Chapter 1 US$12.00 NT$350.00 PRINTED IN TAIWAN 6 VOLUME 15, NUMBER 5, SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2016 C ONT ENT S 23 2 Editor’s Note 4 Contributors 6 Chengdu Performance Art, 2012–2016 Sophia Kidd 23 Qu Fengguo: Temporal Configurations Julie Chun 36 36 Cui Xiuwen Patricia Eichenbaum Karetzky 48 Propositioning the World: Raqs Media Collective and the Shanghai Biennale Maya Kóvskaya 59 The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly Danielle Shang 48 67 Art Labor and Ying Yefu: Between the Amateur and the Professional Jacob August Dreyer 72 Buried Alive: Chapter 1 (to be continued) Lu Huanzhi 91 Chinese Name Index 59 Cover: Zhang Yu, One Man's Walden Pond with Tire, 2014, 67 performance, one day, Lijiang. Courtesy of the artist. We thank JNBY Art Projects, Chen Ping, David Chau, Kevin Daniels, Qiqi Hong, Sabrina Xu, David Yue, Andy Sylvester, Farid Rohani, Ernest Lang, D3E Art Limited, Stephanie Holmquist, and Mark Allison for their generous contribution to the publication and distribution of Yishu. 1 Editor’s Note YISHU: Journal of Contemporary Chinese Art PRESIDENT Katy Hsiu-chih Chien LEGAL COUNSEL Infoshare Tech Law Office, Mann C. C. Liu Performance art has a strong legacy in FOUNDING EDITOR Ken Lum southwest China, particularly in the city EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Keith Wallace MANAGING EDITOR Zheng Shengtian of Chengdu. Sophia Kidd, who previously EDITORS Julie Grundvig contributed two texts on performance art in this Kate Steinmann Chunyee Li region (Yishu 44, Yishu 55), updates us on an EDITORS (CHINESE VERSION) Yu Hsiao Hwei Chen Ping art medium that has shifted emphasis over the Guo Yanlong years but continues to maintain its presence CIRCULATION MANAGER Larisa Broyde WEB SITE EDITOR Chunyee Li and has been welcomed by a new generation ADVERTISING Sen Wong of artists.
    [Show full text]
  • Downloaded from Brill.Com09/28/2021 03:24:39AM Via Free Access ,    
    Blood, Sweat and Tears. The Martyred Body in Chinese Performance Art Tania Becker When we speak of offending images in the context of contemporary Chinese art, some of us may remember articles that were published in , voices of outrage in reaction to Zhu Yu’s performance Eating People: Is it art when a man eats a dead baby? london — My God, what kind of society do we live in? A Chinese man eats a dead baby on TV and actually claims it’s art! The announcement alone unleashed one of Great Britain’s hottest debates on the freedom of the media, the press, and art: the British tv Channel wanted to broad- cast the documentary Beijing Swings, which includes photographs of Chinese artist Zhu Yu apparently eating a dead baby. According to Zhu, the corpse is from a miscarriage. In one of the photographs, he’s washing the body in a sink. Another photo shows him biting into a dismembered body part. Zhu has said that the pictures were taken during a perfor- mance titled »Eating Humans« in his house in Beijing. Yesterday, Zhu Yu claimed that as an artist, it’s his job to initiate debates over morality and art. His work involves exploring whether boundaries still exist. It does not, however, seem to bother anyone when this »artist« transgress- es these boundaries. Not even the guardians of the law — because de- spite the fact that artists using human body parts for their art can be sentenced to ten years in prison, nothing happened [...]. Tania Becker - 9783846763452 Downloaded from Brill.com09/28/2021 03:24:39AM via free access , After the images made the rounds in the Internet, the shocking act of consum- ing a fetus met with reactions worldwide.
    [Show full text]
  • Press Release 2009,12,03
    Press Release 2009,12,03 AICHI TRIENNALE OFFICE Aichi Arts Center 6F, 1-13-2 Higashi-sakura, Higashi-ku, Nagoya, Aichi, 461-8525 JAPAN TEL:81-52-971-6111 FAX:81-52-971-6115 E-mail:[email protected] http://aichitriennale.jp/ New International Art Festival Aichi Triennale is opening in August and will run until October 2010! The “Aichi Triennale”, a new large-scale international art festival, opens its doors in August 2010. Inspired by the idea to transmit new art and culture from the heart of Aichi, the festival’s “Arts and Cities” themed first installment will focus on the latest trends in the international art circus by way of various shows of contemporary art and performing arts. One predominant feature of the “Aichi Triennale 2010”, in addition to a core of contemporary art exhibitions, will be the event’s additional focus on cutting-edge performing arts. An international lineup of artists that keep crossing the boundaries between dance, theater, music and art, present their works at the Aichi Arts Center, a cultural-arts complex that houses a museum and event halls, while making best use of the venue’s characteristics. In order to attract a large number of local citizens and visiting tourists next to dedicated art fans, various places in the city, including a number of symbolic spots representative for the Aichi region will function as backdrops for a fascinating art spectacle that will make this Triennale an absolutely unique experience. Contemporary art exhibitions and performances in Choja-machi, one of the three biggest textile wholesale districts in Japan, and other locations in central Nagoya are sure to charge the atmosphere with a “city festival” kind of mood.
    [Show full text]
  • Huber, Jörg / Zhao Chuan (Eds.): The Body at Stake
    DOI 10.1515/asia-2014-0011 ASIA 2014; 68(1): 407 – 412 Huber, Jörg / Zhao Chuan (eds.): The Body at Stake. Experiments in Chinese Contemporary Art and Theatre. Bielefeld: Transcript Verlag, 2013, 278 pp., ISBN 978-3-8376-2309-3. In the manifesto which was included in the opening issue of the short-lived un- official poetry journal, “The Lower Body”, poet and editor Shen Haobo made the following statement: [. .] the time of language has come to an end, and the time of the awakened body has begun.1 This declaration, combined with the controversial naming of Shen’s poetic enter- prise, offers but two glimpses into a broad variety of literary and artistic phenom- ena that have emerged on the horizon of Chinese culture in course of the political and economic transition that has taken place since the late 1970s. The second collection of essays by the editorial duo, Jörg Huber and Zhao Chuan2, aims at shedding light on the corporeal turn in the artistic production of contemporary China and Taiwan. Nineteen contemporary artists, theatre practi- tioners and theorists contributed to this volume. They delivered fresh and riveting insights into the vigorous art scene in the so-called region of “Greater China”. The two editors, besides the meticulous translation, the accuracy of which is highly praiseworthy, made an effort to offer a platform for the unmediated voices of protagonists whose artistic personalities were shaped mainly in Chinese educa- tional institutions and by their own regional life experience. This aspect, which has resulted in the introduction of broadly unknown names and discussions to a Western audience, may be regarded as the primary contribution of this publi- cation.
    [Show full text]
  • Zhang Huan Spring Poppy Fields
    PRESS RELEASE ZhangPRESS RELEASE Huan SpringRobert IrwinPoppy Fields 6 Burlington Gardens, London, W1S 3ET 256 Burlington April – 31 Gardens, May 2014 London, W1S 3ET 21 June - 24 August 2013 Opening: Thursday 24 April 2014, 6.30 – 8.30 p.m. Pace London is pleased to present an exhibition of new work by the American artist Robert Irwin at 6 Burlington Gardens from 21 June to 17 August 2013. This is the first exhibition by the artist at Pace London. In the early 1960s, while much of America and Eu- rope was fascinated with the new wave of Pop Art- ists, Southern California quietly gave rise to a very different aesthetic revolution known as the Light and Space movement. Spearheading this movement, Robert Irwin began to take ideas from philosoph- ical inquiries into the nature of human experience and radical advances in perceptual psychology and combine them with the immersive abstraction that had been pioneered by artists such as Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, and Barnett Newman. The result was an original approach to art that replaced the object with a phenomenon. Finding traditional painting and sculpture too restrictive and self-con- tained, Irwin was the first to make objects and installations that were purely designed to manipulate the light in front of or around the viewer. The exhibition features two new site-specific installations displayed on the gallery’s ground and first floors. Who’s Afraid of Red, Yellow & Blue³ III, occupies the entire space of the ground floor of the gal- lery and features three aluminium black and coloured panels suspended from the ceiling that mirror three identical panels hovering over the floor, suspending the viewer in a real time-space experience.
    [Show full text]
  • Invisible Body and the Predicaments of Existence in an Urbanizing China, In: Journal of Current Chinese Affairs, 44, 1, 163–197
    Journal of Current Chinese Affairs China aktuell Wang, Meiqin (2015) Invisible Body and the Predicaments of Existence in an Urbanizing China, in: Journal of Current Chinese Affairs, 44, 1, 163–197. URN: http://nbn-resolving.org/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:gbv:18-4-8198 ISSN: 1868-4874 (online), ISSN: 1868-1026 (print) The online version of this article and the other articles can be found at: <www.CurrentChineseAffairs.org> Published by GIGA German Institute of Global and Area Studies, Institute of Asian Studies and Hamburg University Press. The Journal of Current Chinese Affairs is an Open Access publication. It may be read, copied and distributed free of charge according to the conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 License. To subscribe to the print edition: <[email protected]> For an e-mail alert please register at: <www.CurrentChineseAffairs.org> The Journal of Current Chinese Affairs is part of the GIGA Journal Family, which also includes Africa Spectrum, Journal of Current Southeast Asian Affairs and Journal of Politics in Latin America: <www.giga-journal-family.org>. Journal of Current Chinese Affairs 1/2015: 163–197 Invisible Body and the Predicaments of Existence in an Urbanizing China Meiqin WANG Abstract: This article contextualises the art practice of Beijing-based artist Liu Bolin and examines ways in which his artworks illuminate the sociopolitical conditions that regulate the everyday reality of under- privileged social groups amid China’s spectacular urban transfor- mation in the 2000s. The tension between individual existence and the force of urbanization underlays Liu’s most important work, entitl- ed Hiding in the City.
    [Show full text]
  • A SMALL MAP PIECE of PERFORMANCE ART in CHINA a Study Room Guide by Adele Tan June 2008
    A SMALL MAP PIECE OF PERFORMANCE ART IN CHINA A study room guide by Adele Tan June 2008 Let me begin with a fruit. The fruit in this instance is Grapefruit, Yoko Ono´s visionary 1964 book of art- making instructions for everyone. The Chinese word for fruit is guo （果）and like the English word it too means the result or reward of work or activity such as in the word jie guo ( 结果 ). So how does one begin to look at performance art in China in the selection of material available in the Live Art Development Agency library and make it a productive (fruitful) endeavour without taking the exploratory fun out of it? The history of performance art in China is still in the making and so we might do well not to make it too conclusive. With this in mind, we could perhaps play a version of Yoko Ono’s Map Piece from the summer of 1962… Draw an imaginary map. ●Carla Kirkwood, Chinese Performance Artists - Redrawing the Map of Chinese Culture, 2004, A0119 / P0519 ●Li Wei, Li Wei, 2005, P0191 ●Li Wei, Performance Video Works 2001–2004, D0113 ● Zhu Ming, 1994-2006 Art Works, 2007, P089 ●Zhu Ming, Performance Art Works, 1994-2004, 2004, D0265 ●Zhu Ming, Resume, Articles and Major Works – pictures, D0103 ●Zhu Ming, Unknown Area, July 2003, D0104 Kirkwood’s essay in TheatreForum provides an easy entry point into the performance art scene in China since its initial flourish in the late 1980s. She gives a concise history of its development over the past two decades but makes clear to us that from the get-go, performance art is to be taken in China as socio- politically engaged, critically antagonistic and at the forefront of experimental contemporary Chinese art by virtue of a habitual mode of operating in the margins.
    [Show full text]
  • ZHANG HUAN Present Lives and Works in Shanghai, China and New
    ZHANG HUAN Present Lives and Works in Shanghai, China and New York, NY 1993 MA, Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing, China 1988 BA, He Nan University, Kai Feng, China 1965 Born An Yang City, He Nan Province, China Solo Exhibitions 2014 – 2013 Ink Art: Past as Present in Contemporary China, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY 2013 Looking East, Facing West: The World of Zhang Huan, Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park, Michigan, USA Zhang Huan: Soul and Matter, Palazzo Vecchio and Forte di Belvedere, Florence, Italy 2012 Zhang Huan: Ash Paintings and Memory Doors, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, Canada As Director and Set Designer, Semele, Opera, Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts, Toronto, Canada Zhang Huan: The Mountain is Still a Mountain, White Cube, London, UK Zhang Huan: Jin Hui Dui, Gallery 100, Taipei, Taiwan 2011 East Wind, West Wind. Louis Vuitton Space, Macao Zhang Huan: Q Confucius, Rockbund Art Museum, Shanghai, China Zhang Huan: 49 Days, Blum & Poe, Los Angeles, USA Zhang Huan: East Wind, West Wind, Espace Louis Vuittion Macao, Macao Zhang Huan: Aura of Disappearance, Edouard Malinque Gallery, in Cooperation with The Pace Gallery, Hong Kong Zhang Huan: Ash Banquet, ProjectB Gallery, Milan, Italy 2010 Zhang Huan: Dawn of Time. Shanghai Art Museum, China Zhang Huan: Amituofo. Museum of Contemporary Art Taipei, Taiwan Zhang Huan: Ashman. Padiglione d’Arte Contemporanea, Milan, Italy Zhang Huan: Free Tiger Returns to Mountains. Pace Beijing, Beijing, China Zhang Huan: Hope Tunnel. Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing, China 2009 Semele. Opera director and set designer, Theatre Royal de la Monnaie, de Munt, Brussels, Belgium Zhang Huan, Zhu Gangqiang.
    [Show full text]
  • British Journal of Chinese Studies, Vol. 9 (2), July 2019 ISSN 2048-0601 © British Association for Chinese Studies
    British Journal of Chinese Studies, Vol. 9 (2), July 2019 ISSN 2048-0601 © British Association for Chinese Studies Bad Citizens and Symbolic Subjects: Wang Jin, Zhou Tiehai, and the Art of (In)Civility Ros Holmes The University of Manchester Abstract This article illuminates the relationship between contemporary art and visual representations of civility in postsocialist China. Focusing on a close visual analysis of two works of art: Wang Jin’s Ice-96 Central Plain (1996) and Zhou Tiehai’s Fake Cover (1996), it examines how artists sought to reject the binary terms with which civility is commonly constructed: between model and shameful forms of deportment, good and bad, spiritual and material, civil and uncivil. Directly challenging the social and political role of civility as it is shaped, imagined and “imaged” in China, it explores how civility plays a pivotal role in making and unmaking citizens and argues that these artists offer a redefinition of civility not as a “discourse of lack” but as a surplus quality, an embodied excess, something which could be performed, parodied or publicly cast off. It therefore stands as an argument for considering the vexed and contested parameters of civility as artists sought to navigate the fraught terrain between ideology and market reforms, consumer citizenship and the exigencies of globalisation. Keywords: China, contemporary art, civility, citizenship, globalisation, public conduct, visibility. On January 28, 1996, a crowd began to gather at the heart of Erqi Square in downtown Zhengzhou. Braving sub-zero temperatures, they arrived cocooned in hats and scarves, down jackets and padded coats. The mood was one of jubilant expectation, heightened by the promise of a commercial spectacle whose much anticipated unveiling had been insistently announced in a flurry of flyers and promotional banners, monopolising the city’s billboards and airwaves, its television screens and newspaper columns in the preceding weeks.
    [Show full text]
  • Featured Artist - Zhang Huan
    Creative Arts Educ Ther (2018) 4(1):58–65 DOI: 10.15212/CAET/2018/4/6 Featured Artist - Zhang Huan 艺术家聚焦：张洹 Stephen K. Levine The European Graduate School, Switzerland Abstract Zhang Huan, 張洹; born 1965, is an internationally known contemporary Chinese artist whose work has been exhibited in numerous galleries and museums both in China and in the West. He is best known as a performance artist in the West, making pieces involving his own body and that of others and often subjecting them to extreme conditions. However, even during this period of his work, Zhang Huan has always tried to show spiritual being manifesting itself through bodily suffering. In recent years his artwork has taken a more obvious spiritual turn, using ash from temple incense and often referring to Buddhist themes and images expressing the transitory character of human life. Keywords: Performance art, the body, spiritual being, life and death, Buddhism, temple ash paintings, Chinese tradition and modern art, expanding the boundaries of art, art and the political, questioning society, art and daily life 摘要 张洹,生于1965年，是一位国际知名的中国当代艺术家，他的作品曾在中国和西方的众多 画廊和博物馆展出。他对于西方最出名的是作为表演艺术家，经常通过让他自己和他人身 体处于极端条件下，来创造作品。 然而，即使在他的这段工作期间，张洹也总是试图通 过身体上的痛苦展示出精神上的主张。近年来，他的艺术作品采用了更加明显的精神转 向，使用了寺庙香火中的灰烬，并经常提到佛教主题和表达人类生活短暂特征的意象。 关键词: 表演艺术, 身体, 精神存在, 生死, 佛教, 寺庙灰画, 中国传统和现代艺术, 拓展艺术边界, 艺术 和政治, 质疑社会, 艺术和日常生活的界限 The following interview was conducted over the Internet in early 2018. 1. Stephen K. Levine: Your work as an artist has gone through many phases. Can you briefly give us an outline of your development? Zhang Huan: I moved from my hometown to Beijing and spent 8 years there as a professional artist.
    [Show full text]