ATKINS & AI GALLERY BEIJING “Procreation’s Matrix” takes the pretext of a woman's womb, rotating about, for me like a satellite map... in my eyes, it is also a predictor of the future of humanity --- our era's dominant force of an insatiable matrix (the Internet) - future of our social relations, (and ironically primitive communication) --- and the absence of a visible hand - the future of our social and economic lives." - Meng Liping, December 2011 Meng Liping 孟丽萍 Li Yongfei 李永飞 Procreation's Matrix Spring of Faiths (opposite) Ink Pen, Watercolour and Wine on Paper Gel Rotring Pen on Paper 2008 2006 110 x 78 cm 34 x 24 cm ATKINS & AI GALLERY BEIJING CHANGING THE PAST - R E D I R E C T I O N A M I D S T C O N T I N U I T Y - A GROUP EXHIBITION OF NINE ARTISTS FROM CHINA DESIGNED, COMPILED & EDITED BY EMILY DE WOLFE PETTIT Shao Yan 邵岩 For Everyman to be Happy in his own Heart Ink on Paper, Hanging Scroll 2010 300 x 120 cm 4 CONTENTS Acknowledgements 7 Christopher Atkins Introduction Emily de Wolfe Pettit 8 Artists' Works Cai Yaling 16 Jiang Shan Chun (Wang Xin) 22 Li Yongfei 32 Meng Liping 64 Qu Weiwei 74 Shao Yan 82 Song Jianshu 92 Wang Ye 98 Wu Xiaohai 104 Artists' Biographies 113 A Brief Introduction to Atkins & Ai Gallery, Beijing 126 Copyright © E. de Wolfe Pettit and C. Atkins. All Rights Reserved. Strictly no reproduction of any material without prior written permission from the Editor and the Artists 5 Wang Ye 王烨 Rossetti's East Ink and Watercolour on Silk, Mounted on Wooden Panel 2011 45.5 x 30.5 cm 6 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Christopher Atkins As the nine artists from China shown in this exhibition transmit the meaning of their civilization, following in the footsteps of millennia of forebears, there is a sense that a greater purpose, rather than a singular mission, is theirs to be won. In changing times, the transmission of the stories, philosophies and ways of life that endure, depicted through media of the clearest and most direct dissemination of essence, allows all of us to find our way, and to gradually make meaning of this ancient 'Civilisation-State' and its influence amidst new global dynamics. Changing the Past is an exhibition curated for this purpose. All of the art works presented here have never previously been seen outside China and, for some of the artists, it is their first appearance beyond their home country. Many thanks indeed to Emily, who, through her tireless dedication to a greater purpose, gives voice to those parts of China still veiled in mystery as they remain largely behind closed, or half-closed, doors. Most of all our thanks to the artists for creating these marvellous works. Qu Weiwei 曲巍巍 Education's Golden Mean Iron Line Drawing on Mao Bian Paper 2010 40 x 40 cm Both works from the Atkins & Ai Gallery Collection, Beijing 7 WHEN THE SPIRIT TRANSCENDS ITS PHYSICAL CONSTRAINTS Essay after “The Refutation of Time”, January 2011, Atkins & Ai Gallery, Beijing Emily de Wolfe Pettit THE MOST REMARKABLE ASPECT AT THE OPENING OF THE 21ST CENTURY may be claimed by historians in centuries to follow as a period distinguished by fundamental remodelling of the New World to aspects of the “Old World”. On various intra-levels in the West, we see the consideration of age-old models and practices:- from currency debates (linking world currencies to gold); to our attitudes to ecology (self-yielding and self-sustaining communities); and eco-political lives (the resurgence of Sovereign states). Most notable to this landscape is a fast-approaching, “Second Wave” return to the Old World, through the nurtured prominence of China. Indeed, this ancient power is actively embracing connections to her own distant past and traditions - not as an after-thought, but as complement to her modernization (in the face of China’s championing of technological advancement, this Old World will undoubtedly coalesce with a much more futuristic vision of the New world). A number of Chinese with whom I breach this subject proudly draw a comparison between the Tang dynasty:- China as industrious and trailblazing, with an educated, taste- shaping elite, emulating middle class and huge mass of labour force undertaking menial work and relatively untouched by modernization. While there is undeniably an exchange between East and West, and certain Western practices continue to be discovered and adopted in an ongoing, deeper “Opening-Up” - as Chinese venture to the West and Western merchants to the East in ever-increasing number, experiment with Western-style cuisine and clothing and living on Lake Geneva (Beijing) - the agents of Western influence in China arguably operate largely on deceptively superficial levels. Conversely, when reading a Western’s guide to “Doing Business in China” today, the foreign businessman is more likely to encounter a crash course on Sun Tzu’s The Art of War than standard Western business school case studies. The comic situation intended by this analogy belies a more serious message:- that contrary to popular Western assumption, rather than the “Westernisation” of newly emerged countries, we are increasingly likely to witness a redress of the balance to the East on all levels, including the cultural arena. Indeed, commentators familiar with China speak of the promulgation of a “Civilisation- State” rather than a Nation-State, implying that the most essential resource China holds lies in her cultural heritage and the greatest impact China may yet to have on the world is through the dissemination of her cultural values.1 In this vein, a growing momentum to the reinterpretation of traditional Chinese artistic philosophy - and moreover philosophy of life - continues to deepen its mark on artists in China today. Parallel to this, increased confidence of this “Civilisation-State” is steadily lending itself to the re discovery of what is intuitive, indigenous and distinct in the visual arts, for instance the reinvigoration of contemporary landscape painting and ink brush works.2 1 Martin Jacques’ “When China Rules the World”. The dissemination of philosophy and wider Chinese culture is likely to be seen on an unprecedented scale following the exceptional spread of the Chinese language amongst younger and future generations outside of China. 2 Recent exhibitions of Chinese contemporary art in the West that explore all three include:- “Pure Views”, curated by Lu Peng, at the Louise Blouin Foundation in London October 2010, subsequently travelling to the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco, in which the Chinese tradition of landscape painting in contemporary guise is presented. ”Shanshui: Poetry without Sound? Landscape in Chinese Contemporary Art”, an exhibition of seventy works from the Uli Sigg collection, was held at the Museum of Art, Lucern, May - October 2011. In addition to the many notable solo museum shows of contemporary ink artists, recent group exhibitions include: the calligraphy exhibition, “Brush and Ink: The Chinese Art of Writing” at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York in 2006. In 2007, the Third Chengdu Biennale was devoted entirely to contemporary ink painting, in which another of the ink artists of this exhibition, Li Yongfei, was represented by his very large ink and sculptural installation surrounding his “Shan Hai Jing” scroll. Last year, “Fresh Ink: Ten Takes on Chinese Tradition” opened at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston opened in conjunction with a symposium at Harvard University, the first major North American exhibition of contemporary Chinese ink painting (November 2010); “Contemporary Chinese Art” at the Today Art Museum, Beijing (March 2011); and this year, Maxwell Hearn, curator of Asian art at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, has organized a contemporary Chinese ink painting exhibition, titled “New Ink”. Furthermore, a contemporary ink museum in the West Kowloon Cultural District, Hong Kong, is currently planned. 8 Song Jianshu 宋建树 At Last Pagoda Wood 2010 525 x 120 x 85 cm approx. 9 For all the outward appearance of Western art more artists pay attentions to societal and political issues, influence through Pop in China, the revitalization of there are also some people who are more concerned with the life traditional Chinese philosophy of art and aesthetics - and experiences of ordinary persons. The former may help remind philosophy of life continues to underpin artistic practice the observers of the existence of a “Chinese Art,” or “Chinese in China, and regain assurance in recent years. Concurrent Contemporary Art,” as in their capital forms. But I am certainly to this, the ripened confidence of this ancient power is prone to the latter. I have a deep concern with the substantial life lending itself to artistic conviction in what is indigenous, experiences of ordinary people.”4 intuitive and distinct. Furthermore, in subject-matter many respected and upcoming artists working in China today Such subjects and their treatment through traditional are re discovering directions where the vital force is not Chinese approaches to aesthetic experience distinguish contingent on material factors; rather, traditional Chinese a unique aspect of art practice in China today, and philosophy, enduring stories and the dramatis personae arguably reaches the very core of understanding unposed, uninhibited characters possessing an almost China’s development:- that contrary to popular Western primal quality. The backdrops are the rich, idealized assumption, rather than the “Westernization” of China, landscapes or crowded domesticity of China, and the she retains her autochthonous, very traditional ‘heart backbone of every Empire in history - a vast and fluid and soul’. Indeed, the artists presented in this exhibition population of manual workers.3 As the prominent Chinese guide the viewer to skip back far into various chapters artist Zeng Fanzhi has observed of his creative interests of China’s distant past, to un peel the superficial layer’s and artistic practice:- of her present to find the deeper signifiers of a culture, “The unique social circumstances and ideologies enrich the entrenched behaviour and customs that will likely become artistic spectrum of contemporary China.