RHYTHMS OF ANGER Daoism and Chinese Untrammelled Painting, Toward a Counter-Theorisation of avant-garde M. Yektaparast Thesis Submitted in fulfilment of the degree of the Doctor of Philosophy 2010 University of Western Sydney 2 "But it so happens that when the native hears a speech about western cultures he pulls out his knife, or at least he makes sure it is within reach" [Fanon, 1967, p.33] 3 Statement of Authentication The work presented in this thesis is, to the best of my knowledge and belief, original except as acknowledged in the text. I hereby declare that I have not submitted this material, either in full or part, for a degree at this or any other institution. Please note that everything that is not in inverted commas is the author's. .................................... Signature 4 RHYTHMS OF ANGER Daoism and Chinese Untrammelled Painting, Toward a Counter-Theorisation of avant-garde mahmoud yektaparast (Master of Fine Arts - University of New South Wales) Doctor of Philosophy The University of Western Sydney 2010 5 Acknowledgements A large number of past and present artists, thinkers and people in general have contributed to the ideas, propositions and statements put forward in these essays. The space here however, allows for naming only a few: Angela Davis, bell hooks, Amiri Baraka, Toni Morisson, Zhuang Zi, Aboo Saeed Abol-kheir, Sheikh Attar, Omar Khayam, Karl Marx, Terayama Shuji, Alejandro Jodorovsky and Glauber Rocha. AND Farzin Yekta, Safina Uberoi, Rose Nakad, Rihab Charida from Safsaf in Palestine, Terumi Narushima, Taloi Havini, Fabio Cavadini, Mandy King, Himman Dhamija, Zhang Jianpu, Liu Shan, Li Gang, Mohamad Yekta and Nima Yektaparast who provides the thread with which I cling to life. Juan Francisco Salazar, main supervisor, and Hart Cohen, co-supervisor, School of Communication Arts, University of Western Sydney. 6 LIST OF FIGURES ........................................................................................................................ 8 ABSTRACT.................................................................................................................................... 9 INTENTIONS ............................................................................................................................. 10 Theories of the avant-garde are Eurocentric ...................................................................... 11 What is the importance of the present study? ................................................................... 14 1 REVERSE INTRODUCTION: ART IS NOT A TOOL, IT IS A WEAPON ........................ 19 1/ SLOGUN ................................................................................................................................. 21 1.1/ WEEK ONE: "PERSONAL IS POLITICAL" ................................................................ 21 ./ WEEK TWO THE ‚RT OF NOT ‛EING GOVERNED........................................ 23 ./ WEEK THREE ‛EC‚USE REFLECT DIDNT DO SHIT FOR US .................. 26 ./ WEEK FOUR ‚RTWORK ‚S DE‚TH R‚TTLE OF ‚ ‛EHE‚DED CHICKEN .................................................................................................................................................. 27 1.5/ WEEK FIVE: HOW TO MAKE WHAT WAS NOT SUPPOSED TO BE MADE .... 30 1.6/ WEEK SIX: ART WORK AS SLOGAN ........................................................................ 32 1.7/ SLOGUN: THE SCRIPT ................................................................................................. 35 2 / PL‚YING MUSIC FOR COWS ....................................................................................... 39 2.1/ Un-Orthodox Orthodoxy ............................................................................................... 58 ./ Climbing Trees To Seek Fish ..................................................................................... 66 ./ This is so, not to be explained ................................................................................... 78 2.4/ Flashback ......................................................................................................................... 81 3/NO TIME FOR TIME .............................................................................................................. 82 3.1/ The unconventional and the "abnormal"..................................................................... 82 3.2/ The "method of no method" .......................................................................................... 84 7 3.3/ The idea as "rhythmic vitality" ..................................................................................... 85 3.4/ "Those who have no shame grow rich" ....................................................................... 86 3.5/ "untrammelled" as perpetual amateur ........................................................................ 89 3.6/ non-humanism ................................................................................................................ 91 3.7/ From Water and Smoke ................................................................................................. 94 ./ ‚ll that is Solid melts into ‚ir in ‛eijing ................................................................. 97 4/ WITH A MEGAPHONE IN HAND .................................................................................... 99 5/ READINGS ........................................................................................................................... 105 5.1/ Informational ................................................................................................................ 105 5.2/ Essential ......................................................................................................................... 105 5.3/ Inspirational .................................................................................................................. 112 6/ EPILOGUE: BACK TO WHERE WE STARTED FROM ................................................. 118 NOTES ....................................................................................................................................... 119 1. Methodology of opposition ............................................................................................ 119 2. Daoism and Modernism ................................................................................................. 136 3. I read these books, so you don't! ................................................................................... 151 BIBLIOGRAPHY ...................................................................................................................... 162 Inspirational ......................................................................................................................... 162 Essential ................................................................................................................................ 163 Informational ........................................................................................................................ 165 Un-Bibliography .................................................................................................................. 169 8 LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1: Painting by Ba Da Shan Ren (17th century,) taken from Weidao Risun (为道日损), Peoples Fine ‚rts Publishing House, Figure 2: Painting by Ba Da Shan Ren (17th century,) Ibid. Figure 3: Painting by Ba Da Shan Ren (17th century,) Ibid. Figure 4: Chinese character for water 水 Figure 5: Painting by Pablo Picasso (20th century,) taken from S.P.A.D.E.M, Paris/V.A.G.A, New York, 1986 (rotated at 90 degrees and flipped horizontally) 9 ABSTRACT Philosophy, arts and politics share a passion for dissent. Avant-garde art, as that which mines the territories of the conventions and undermines the what is, has always existed as a social and highly political phenomenon. Rhythms of ‚nger is, theoretically, an anti-colonial research that highlights the existence of Daoist texts, aesthetic theories and artistic styles in the Chinese paintings that antedate the European Modernist and Avant-garde impulses by at least a millennium. Thus, it opens ways for a counter- theorisation and re-theorisation of the predominantly Eurocentric, already existing theories of the avant-garde. Practically, and through the two short films, it exemplifies how Daoist philosophy could inspire the creation of contemporary avant-garde work. In the meantime, class, gender and racial injustices have governed human beings lives since their very first attempt at getting together. Rhythms of Anger is an attempt at theorising the coordinates of an un-humanist thought that challenges modernism as an extension of the project of European Enlightenment, a project of hope, and therefore prone to be incorporated, established, and become politically reactionary. The present thesis involved the production of two short experimental films. The first titled Slogun was produced in Sydney in 2006/2007 and the second one titled All That is Solid Melts into Air was shot in Beijing in 2008. As creative work component, they account for 50% of the thesis. 10 INTENTIONS The main purposes of the present research study are to: Argue that all major existing theorisations of the avant-garde are Eurocentric. Experimental innovation and political opposition have been practiced by many painters in China from 700 A.D. to 1700 A.D. Parallel to this, a consistent art theory that has tried to discuss such experimental, "individualist," or "untrammelled" paintings