Critical Annotation
In the beginning, I focused on artists who resonated with my emotions, childhood and memories. The theme of ‘trees' made me feel that people are trees that can walk. The art creation is the soil, in which I can take root.
In the process of collating these artworks, I gradually found a clear direction for research. I am absorbed in how Chinese artists living abroad translate Chinese history and culture into the visual language of contemporary art. I am also interested in how artists discover the possibilities of artistic creation in everyday life. My practice is to reacquaint myself with the materials of everyday life and to find materials that can represent my identity.
In <Two-Minute Wash Cycle>, Huang Yong Ping placed a classical Chinese art history book and a Western art history book into a washing machine and washed them for two minutes. (1) The books end up as pulp, symbolizing that the misunderstandings between different cultures are perpetuated. This work made me realize that I see the world through the influence of multi-culture.
In Xu Bing’s <Phoenix Project>, I marveled at the artist's reuse of discarded materials, where modern materials that had lost their function were used to recreate the phoenix in traditional culture, giving the traditional oriental elements contemporary art value. Because of this work, I chose the dragon, which represents the Chinese tradition for my project.
The front of Xu Bing’s <Background Story> is a very traditional Chinese landscape painting in keeping with the oriental aesthetic, but in fact, the work is made of common materials. These works inspired me to recreate dragon patterns with cheap materials that represent transportation. I believe that traditional patterns with common materials build a bridge between tradition and modernity.
Gunpowder as Cai Guo-Qiang's main creative medium enlightened me to ignite the canvas. When the fire followed my cut marks to help me complete the work, this force between the uncontrollable and the controllable made the work more powerful. It also made me realize that my current methodology is to break the material and then repair it.
In <Cultural Melting Bath: Projects for the 20th century>, Cai Guo-Qiang invited people from different cultures to come and bathe together in the gallery. And the bath was placed around traditional Chinese stones and pine trees, with a net hanging over it, creating a new space for this work in the gallery. (2) I also chose to use a bird net to hold my work together, a hidden layer of netting that allows the viewer to wonder whether the packages are ready for transport or have just been opened.
I hope that I can be a bridge between Chinese culture and contemporary art, re-creating my heritage in a contemporary art language that the world can understand. Language is limited, but the ancient and the contemporary, the East and the West can merge in the world of contemporary art, understanding and learning from each other.
Reference
(1) Dawei, F. (2005). Two-Minute Wash Cycle: Huang Yong Ping’s Chinese Period. House of Oracles: A Huang Yong Ping Retrospective, 6-10. https://walkerart.org/magazine/two-minute-wash-cycle
(2) Kenyon. (1997). Zhou Yan Contemporary Chinese Art Archive. https://digital.kenyon.edu/zhou/1/
