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Xu Bing and the Graphic Regime Author(S): Hajime Nakatani Source: Art Journal, Vol Imperious Griffonage: Xu Bing and the Graphic Regime Author(s): Hajime Nakatani Source: Art Journal, Vol. 68, No. 3 (FALL 2009), pp. 6-29 Published by: College Art Association Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25676489 . Accessed: 16/06/2013 19:09 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. College Art Association is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Art Journal. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 132.162.229.107 on Sun, 16 Jun 2013 19:09:12 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions . H^^^H^HIHHHH^&^^vv ^>jbhVAbbbbbbbbbbbbb1 ^^^^^^^^^ hm^;r:h':. 1*iim??*..-?^?"i ;I . t^lsj^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^H i * ? . ? ?i-.?.-? < ?-???*?? ? ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ ^fflm^PlI^ / .-a1* ? T^fig^aM^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^B ^^^^^^^^^ HjlKt^^*' * gmwKis 3;??.?- / ... i? ? J d^^H^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^H ^^^^^^^^ ^ K Smmmsc*-m-*-r **? > ? ?.f 1 f ?? -nvwuMiwutei! f: ?r:t( . M*3#kBbBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBB1 * ? VaYaYaYaYaYaYaYaHS^^ BSEm^***-* ?? 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Jf- ?j i > f.-..or^p^N@^aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa BavavavavavJBai^wi^%?i is5si5i?>Mw>aB*w>^ -v^-.i^>^-.=_-, J3jmw;inr^*?"*?o???iMw f^^^^j^^HHaaavavavavavfl aaaaaaaaaaaaaafflHPSfTi' S!^Sw^i?>s-,"^s*u?-. i |?i??^.ws?^****?m?um??*??/ f:Apw;'i^^^^^Baaaaaaaaaaaa ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^HhB9Bh^P^^%'v I^Siss^SK^^m^ i^cU^i^--^''"^^H*:5?"j::M teil?:^i5^?i^SiSS?i/ 4^^1^^^HBB aHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHava1 aaaaaaaaaaaaaHHnvK^ - i^fef^aKsss^sri^??an????s???'?*?->'c?3'n~i-s*t'i-> ..^;*? :?* ".- j ^ 1 m.*?w.h?.h--i*?'i-i',*?'<*,??'"!','wi aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaas?raK%%&'^?% \s?MB?a?e??3<ti?>ntB?siuii>??'r-ta. ..ji.L.iiav(^K5r,n^5s^;ssd?ij L.a.?????;???^w*?w??i?? ?i;w:u^^;&^^^^aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaB'#>^?%4^wi^ss^Baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaai aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaam?ps?^&^ \UMiwiaib.?mui>m>;^?a?v)aaji^<ii ?.,,?.<iai..?" ,4i>^>3m-/. /. i^...j5.j???j?^o*?*^''na^??*c*3?if .'>:>-. aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaKssii^^v ^ i*ss?iiStt????*?=*",?5i,i-'',*^-?*,pr .. .,,,ttt.,..1....;,P?>.??-i>-':p??<i..-/.> *??rf^?vsi^srttfzu'is^i -^:^vr?$^?jaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.^MiMsaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaai ^ ^^^^^^^^^^^^^.^ VAbbbbbbbbbbbbbK^^^^^4.1 lilllftlifi' mMS&lwB 1 This content downloaded from 132.162.229.107 on Sun, 16 Jun 2013 19:09:12 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Xu A Book the a Bing, from Sky, 1987-91, You know,I don'tbelieve there's such thingas theJapanese language. Imean, theydon't even know books, and wall scrolls hand-printed ceiling how towrite. draw of theselittle characters. printed fromwood letterpress type using false Theyjust pictures Chinese characters, installationview, Three ?Laurie Anderson, USA Live Installationsby Xu Bing, Elvehjem Museum of Art, University ofWisconsin-Madison, 1991-92 ? Xu (artwork Bing) Chiasmus I'd like to broach my discussion with a scene ofwriting. The setting is a primary school classroom late in the tumultuous decade of theCultural Revolution (i966-circai97c/). A young teacher is copying from a textbook onto a black board. The textbeing copied is of course studdedwith Nakatani Hajime obligatory tributes to the Party and shone through by the rising sun ofMaoism. Several dozen heads nod up as s Imperious Griffonage: Xu and down students earnestly copy the teacher copy of the printed text.As strikingas themute intensity Bing and the Graphic Regime of this graphic litany is the low but persistent noise of chalk and pencils, whose incessant hitting of the board and scratching of the pages, set against the speechless background of the collec an tive endeavor, achieves almost claustrophobic intensity. This is one of the recurrent scenes ofwriting in Chen Kaige's Kingof the Children(1987), a memorable film about a young teacher sent down, likemany of his generation, to themarginal southern province of Yunnan during the Cultural Revolution.1 Awaiting the idealistic young man there is theharsh real ityof the poverty-stricken local school, where textbooks are in critical shortage. Compounding the situation is the pedagogical directive of the local party,which The epigraphs on pages 7 and 9 are from Laurie to Anderson, United States Live,Warner Brothers confines teaching the verbatim transmission of Party-sanctioned textbooks. 4-CD set, 1984,CD 2. The titleof the song Baffled, but with no alternative, the young teacher at firstreluctantly conforms '"Language Isa Virus fromOuter Space'?William to the status But the force of the scene these local circum S. Burroughs," also on CD 2, isparaphrased from quo. goes beyond William S. Nova York: stances to comment on a more Burroughs, Express (New general condition of cultural transmission. The Grove Press, 1964). pedagogical model here is ultimately thatof writing thatwrites itself,teachers Una directive that appeared inthe December and students alike inserted in a tautological circuit as itsmere linkages.With a edition of the Mao 22, 1968, People's Daily, that overrides even the content texts sensory tangibility ideological of the being Zedong called on urban youths to "re-educate" summons themselves through labor inthe countryside, copied, writing repeatedly and subjugates bodies to the scene of its thereby inauguratingwhat came to be known as self-perpetuation. The profound complicity between the operation of power the rusticationmovement, inwhich millions were and the act of is a I relocated?willingly or under coercion?to such physical writing crucial component ofwhat call the graphic as Yunnan or Guizhou to peripheral provinces regime. Perhaps elsewhere as well, but especially in China, the sheer physicality spend years embedded in remote rural communi of has defined the ofwhat culture is. ties.While couched inthe ideological language writing continuously ground parameters of socialist the movement was era was no Bildung, primar The revolutionary exception.2 aimed at the chaos of the Cultural ily quelling But there is another to The of theChildren's scene of For Revolution by displacing the youth away from layer King writing. urban centers. thenoise permeating the room comes not only from the scratching and scrib 2. See Francois Jullien,L'Encre de chine (Lausanne: bling ofwriting but also from the tramping of theherd of cows in the Alfred Eibel, 1978); and David E. Apter and Tony strolling Saich, RevolutionaryDiscourse inMao's Republic vicinity of the school yard, long shots ofwhich repeatedly cut into the scene to (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, profoundly inflect itsmeaning. One day,while routinely copying the textbook, 1994), 86, 244, 273ff. the teacher inadvertentlymixes in a nonexistent character consisting of the "cow" above the "water." In a later account Structure of "cow-water" pseudocharacter graph graph to the children, the teacher tries to explain his miswriting a cows are by evoking piece of folk knowledge: stubborn, nonsubmissive ani one can subdue them with one's because mals, yet urine, they love salt madly. Rey Chow interprets this event ofmiswriting as a subversive intrusion of 7 artjournal This content downloaded from 132.162.229.107 on Sun, 16 Jun 2013 19:09:12 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions nature into the hegemonic textof culture, an intrusion that threatens the closure of the teacher's national subjectivityby exposing?via scatological insight? the dirty truthof culture as senseless subjugation.3 Chow is certainly correct to stress thatmiswriting here conjures up the threatof nature 'sdisruption of the textof
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