UNIT1 Critical reflection
Research proposal
1.0 Artist Statement
We can find that writing in contemporary art has changed from the status of an embellished poem inscribed in writing on a traditional Chinese painting to an effective creative tool for the artist. Studying this artistic phenomenon helps to provide a more detailed analysis of the current state of Chinese contemporary art and to consider how Chinese culture can seek common ground while preserving differences in a more open and international mindset.
This study will be written on the early creations of three artists, Xu Bing, Gu Wenda and Wu Shanzhuan. On the one hand, we hope to use case studies to make the process of the occurrence and development of textual art more concrete and tangible. On the other hand, these three artists are also representative Chinese textual art production artists and have extensive international exchange and exhibition experience. Therefore, by combing and comparing their works, we can understand the primary forms of text art in Chinese contemporary art and the main problems they face. We explore the different logics and philosophies of their use of the written word as a medium for artistic creation, as a glimpse into the emergence and growth of textual art in China. From the 1980s onwards, the work of these artists not only participated in the 85th New Wave of artistic curiosity and exploration but also laid the foundations for the subsequent development of text-based art. Thus, analysing and comparing their early artistic creations will help us understand the text's emergence and extension as a medium in contemporary Chinese art.
2.0 Research Methodology
2.1 Case Study Analysis
The case study method, also known as the case study method, is a continuous investigation of the subject person or thing under study over an extended time, thereby sorting out its development and changes. Since the beginning of text art, many artists have experimented with text as a medium or element in their work, and selecting representative artists for in-depth case studies is a way to get twice the result with half the effort. This paper takes Xu Bing, Gu Wenda and Wu Shanzhuan as examples. Firstly, through a chronological analysis of the artists' creations from the 1980s to the 1990s, we can sort out the lineage of the artists' creations, which is conducive to our analysis of the morphological and semantic changes of textual art. Secondly, the objects and concepts captured by different artists when creating textual art vary, and a specific analysis of the representative artists facilitates the establishment of a classical, figurative perception of textual art.
2.2 Comparative study method
Artists face many differences in their artistic creation, including cultural memory, international perspectives, and theoretical support. As a result, their textual artworks exhibit different facets, such as the religious and mystical feel in Gu Wenda's work, the Pop tendencies in Wu Shanzhuan's work, and the Eastern philosophical implications in Xu Bing's work. Based on a case study of the three artists, a horizontal comparison of their works can provide a clearer perception and perspective on the central issues facing contemporary Chinese textual art and the crucial choices it has undergone.
3.0 Research Significance
This essay explores the early works of three artists, Xu Bing, Wu Shanzhuan and Gu Wenda, and explores their different logics and philosophies in using the written word as a medium for their artistic creations, thus providing a glimpse into the emergence and growth of written art in China. Since 1978, when China began the process of reform and opening up, Chinese art has gradually broken away from its previous state of suppression and confinement and has taken on a vibrant and innovative appearance. With the Sixth National Art Exhibition in 1984 as the nodal point, the development of Chinese contemporary art began to emerge from the previous realist model, drawing extensively from Western modernist and postmodernist art to form the more diverse and avant-garde 85th New Wave art (Moffat et al., 2020). At this time, many Western books, picture books, and works on Western philosophy and literary and artistic theory were translated and introduced into China, creating a 'cultural fever' in the fields of art, literature and film. From the 1980s onwards, the work of these artists not only participated in the 85th New Wave of artistic curiosity and exploration but also laid the foundations for the subsequent development of written art. An analysis and comparison of their early works will help us gain a clearer understanding of the emergence and extension of text as a medium in contemporary Chinese art.
The use of text as a medium in visual art has become a trend, both in China and in the West, and the American theorist Curtis Carter (1976) has mentioned that artists have intensified their efforts to find suitable words to add to the visual image, and text is among them, appearing in different forms in artworks. For Chinese artists, words have an even deeper meaning: "Perhaps because of the unique ideographic nature of Chinese characters, their symbolic function and pictorial colour ...... and the fact that they have their specific calligraphic form - Chinese characters carry with them a rich cultural and historical connotation, which constructs its mythology (Carter, 1976). The emergence of the written word as a creative medium in the field of contemporary Chinese art thus involves cultural and philosophical issues beyond artistic forms and concepts. Research on this has taken on a more profound significance.
At the same time, based on my previous studies and practice, I have developed a strong interest in text and have often used it as an essential element in my designs, so using it as an entry point for studying contemporary Chinese art fits well with my practice. Indeed, the study of history is to give us a clearer understanding of it and allows us to imagine and hope for more in the future. The writing of this essay is both a compendium of the early creative lineage of the artists who came before me and a prompt and encouragement for the author's future research and practice.
References
Carter, C. L. (1976). Painting and language: A pictorial syntax of shapes. Leonardo, 111-118.
Moffat, A., Riach, A., & MacDonald-Lewis, L. (2020). Arts of Resistance. Luath Press Ltd.