Using Contemporary Chinese Art for Critical Thinking and Art Literacy

Luise Guest UNSW June 2014

“We’re not in Kansas any more…..”

SO let’s engage our students in talking and writing about art that will amaze, astonish and engage their curiosity

http://vimeo.com/87445930

Why contemporary art?Students need to know about ‘the art of now’ because:• it is engaging, interesting and thought-provoking• it is ‘of their own time’ and relates to our world and all its

issues• it connects to the ‘artworld’, a real place with real people,

making real artworks• it connects directly with their own artmaking practice• it assists students to make connections in their art writing,

and to develop their ‘art literacy’• students WANT to engage with it, even when they are

challenged by its form or its content

Huang Yong Ping, ‘Leviathanation’ installation Tang Gallery Beijing 2011

Why Chinese art?• Because it is so exciting, so new, so constantly changing and so

important!• Because Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong are recognised as

three of the key art centres on the planet right now and their importance in the art market and the field of contemporary art continues to grow.

• Taipei continues to develop as a newer art centre and some of the most interesting artists practising in a range of disciplines are working in Taiwan.

• Because we have access to fantastic resources in the White Rabbit Gallery and the 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art in Sydney and QAGOMA in Brisbane (especially the APT)

Cao Guo-Qiang, Head On, installation as installed at QAGOMA January 2014

Why is it different?

• Chinese artists discovered Modernism and Postmodernism all at once, in the 1980s – a unique historical accident that results in art unlike anything else on the planet

• Significant influences combine ancient Chinese traditions (literati painting, folk art, gongbi realism) with Soviet socialist realism, Duchamp and Dada, Rauschenberg, Beuys and – of course – the Sensation exhibition!

• Economic conditions/rigorous academic training• It’s an explosive mix!

How does Chinese art education produce artists of such technical virtuosity and capacity to innovate?

But what will it do for YOUR students?

• Excite their curiosity• Provoke them• Push them out of their comfort zone• Engage them in learning some important

history – and some geopolitics• Link their study of art with the real world –

right here, right now!• Link with their BOW development

What happens when a Year 12 student REALLY absorbs these influences?Rachel Cronin, Year 12 2012, ‘Babel’, documented form, photomedia, video, artist’s book

My artwork explores communication and miscommunication, through language and across cultures. My intent was to emphasise the importance of language in our contemporary society both in shaping our identity and in building networks globally through interaction with others. Through the representation of language in all of its forms, I hoped to envelop and confront my audience, inviting them to question the ability of language to enhance communication, or paradoxically initiate miscommunication. Using the extended metaphor of the biblical story 'The Tower of Babel’, I worked across the mediums of photography and film, resulting in a documented form.Influencing artists: Zhang Huan, Susan Hiller, Jenny Holzer, Laurens Tan, Wenda Gu, Xu Bing, Yang Zhenzhong

“Like Beuys in the 70s or Duchamp in 1917, with Ai Weiwei we have the privilege of seeing a modern master in his moment.” (Jonathan Jones, The Guardian, 2013http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/jonathanjonesblog/2013/may/21/venice-biennale-ai-weiwei-beuys

For the Venice Biennale, Ai Weiwei created an installation detailing his 81 days of incarceration by the Chinese government back in 2011. Entitled S.A.C.R.E.D(Supper, Accusers, Cleansing, Ritual, Entropy, and Doubt), the installation at the Sant’Antonin church features six iron boxes that display scenes of his captivity. Source: http://arrestedmotion.com/2013/05/showing-ai-weiwei-s-a-c-r-e-d-the-venice-biennale/

Ai Weiwei‘Evidence’Martin Gropius BauBerlin2014

BUT contemporary Chinese art is about far more than Ai Weiwei!

Australian artist Guo Jian was arrested, and deported from China for his installation prior to the June 4 anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Massacre

For the work in question, The Square (2014) Guo created a diorama of Tiananmen Square and covered it with 160 kg (352 lb) of ground pork. “I wanted to do something privately to mark the anniversary,” Guo said. “But I should have covered [the diorama] in plastic first. It would have been easier to clean up.”

Wan Liya, in Two Cities Gallery, M50, Shanghai ,photograph Luise Guest

Past and Present – Layers of Meaning

Destroy the Old World, Create the New World…

Yao Lu, Early Spring on Lake Dong Ting, 2008, image Bruce Silverstein Gallery

Yao Lu, Mountain and Straw Houses in the Summer, 2008, Galerie du Monde Hong Kong

Zhou Hongbin, photograph, image courtesy the artist and China Art Projects

Bing Yi Huang, ink on Chinese paper, image courtesy the artist

Huang Xu, Plastic Bag #8Image courtesy China Art Projects and the artist

Huang Xu and Dai Dandan in their studio

Bing Yi Huang, Beijing, October 2013

Bing Yi’s assistants unroll the 30-meter ink painting she showed at Documenta

INK Reinvented

• http://www.metmuseum.org/metmedia/video/collections/asian/gu-wenda-ink-art

Yang Yongliang

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WaG9yXc-sPM

After 1976 artists responded to Western modernism

And to Postmodernism – all at once!

Joining the Dots:• Duchamp• Beuys• Rauschenberg• Warhol• Sensation• Damien Hirst

• How can we design case studies for our students using this most exciting contemporary work?

• How can we structure learning to assist them in engaged, authentic understandings of contemporary practice?

• How will they move from engaging with contemporary practices to their artmaking?

Han Yajuan. ‘Travel Alone’ oil on canvas image courtesy the artist

And what about critical thinking?

And what about resources?

• Start with the ‘hook’ for your students – engaging, fascinating contemporary artworks that will intrigue – and provoke - them

• Use sources such as the Venice Biennale, The MCA, 4A, White Rabbit Gallery, QAGOMA, regional galleries – and social media!

• Try Ocula - http://ocula.com/ • http://artasiapacific.com/

www.teachingchineseart.com

And my website – designed especially for NSW teachers and art students!

What I want for my students…

• That they get as excited about and engaged with art writing as they are about artmaking

• That each one of them can surprise themselves with the level of their achievement

• That they leave my class with a desire to know more about art – especially contemporary art

• That they respond authentically to artworks• So – it all starts with the work itself

Finding the “hook”!

LIU ZHUOQUAN AND GAO RONGUNLESS OTHERWISE IDENTIFIED WITH SOURCES, ALL PHOTOGRAPHS WERE TAKEN BY LUISE GUEST AND ARE REPRODUCED WITH THE PERMISSION OF THE ARTISTS AND THEIR GALLERIES

Two Case Studies of Artists’ Practice

LIU ZHUOQUANFocus Artist #1 - Beijing

“My work is like a scientific laboratory”

Liu Zhuoquan, image courtesy the artist and China Art Projects

Traditional ‘inside painted’ snuff bottles (“Nei Hua”), were painted with a fine curved bamboo brush, and with the details first, backgrounds second

All images of Liu Zhuoquan and his works courtesy the artist and China Art Projects

“On the surface life seems quiet and calm, but underneath danger lurks, represented by the idea of scientific specimens in bottles. Also we use bottles all the time in our daily life, so they are a symbol of the everyday. Traditionally painted snuff bottles emphasised the imaginary world contained inside the bottle, so in my everyday bottles I am also creating an imaginary world.”

“Bottles can be a place to conceal or save memories, the past and our history. Some of my bottles contain memories of the Cultural Revolution times, and other reflections of real events, but in a ‘veiled’ way. In the place where I was born the temple was used for the ashes of the dead, which were contained in bottles. My name is the name of this temple.”

“My time in Tibet was very important, and the influence of Tibetan culture is there in my work. The Tibetan attitude to death and their philosophy is quite different, and this can be seen in their ‘sky burial’ ceremony. It is necessary always to have a dream as life and death are so interconnected.”

Seven Sparrows (detail)

Chang’An Avenue (installation detail) shown at Sydney Contemporary, September 2013

Compare and contrast the practice of Liu Zhuoquan with Australian artist Fiona Hall. In particular, look at her works ‘Mourning Chorus’ and ‘Cell Culture’ and comment on the way that each artist has employed ‘found’ and discarded materials to make a comment about their world.

Images of Hall’s works from http://roslynoxley9.com.au/artists/17/Fiona_Hall/481/

Art Critical Connections

GAO RONGFocus Artist #2

“I am a sculptor who uses embroidery, not an embroiderer”

Gao Rong looks out her window at the changing face of Beijing….

All images of Gao Rong and her works courtesy the artist (and White Rabbit Gallery)

Gao Rong, ‘Station’ 2011Fabric Thread Sponge MetalImage courtesy the artist and White Rabbit Gallery

How can students engage with Gao Rong’s works?

Themes of Daily Life, Femininity, Family, Journeying….

Links with Pop Art, and with the Feminist works of artists such as Judy Chicago and Miriam Schapiro

Gao Rong says she was inspired by Tracey Emin – another rebellious female!

Gao Rong, Level 1/2, Unit 8, Building 5, Hua Jiadi, North Village (2010) fabric, thread, sponge, metal, image reproduced courtesy of the artist and White Rabbit Gallery.

Gao RongThe Static Eternity, 2012Cloth, Wire, Steel, Cotton, Sponge, BoardImage courtesy the artist, White Rabbit Gallery and the Biennale of Sydney

See following three slides for details of this work.

http://www.randian-online.com/np_feature/in-grandmothers-house/

Look out for a re-staging of “Static Eternity” in the next White Rabbit exhibition later this year, and a solo exhibition at Dominik Mersch, and an article in Artist Profile!

INSIDE THE BOX, OUTSIDE THE BOXArt Education

Beyond artmaking – what about art literacy and authentic, exciting, fully engaged student

artwriting?

Huang Yong Ping, ‘Leviathanation’ at Tang Galleries Beijing 2011 (photo L. Guest)

Find the “hook”!

Art Critical Interpretation

Ways to ensure that student writing is authentic and rich• Strategies for eliciting

genuine responses• Socratic Dialogues• Collaborative tasks• ‘Learning conversations’• Avoiding plagiarism• Applying art language• Developing research skills • Using ICT and social media

Huang Yong Ping, ‘Two Baits’, 2001, iron, fibreglass, metal sheets, 160 x 300 x 800 cm. Image reproduced courtesy of the artist and Rockbund Museum, Shanghai.

Some successful strategies

• Student websites / blogs• Student video productions• Using multi-media• Collaborations between schools – crossing

borders and breaking down those classroom walls

• Innovative uses of social media• The ‘Flipped Classroom’

Year 11 student web sites from Loreto Kirribilli, Sydney

• http://laralovesart.weebly.com/ • http://carlacritique.weebly.com/• http://artwritingbyalana.weebly.com/• http://aliceartwriting.weebly.com/• http://wigart.weebly.com/

• How does this work?

Planning a learning experience for your students

• Select a contemporary artist from the Asia Pacific region

• Select one or two works which you know will intrigue/confuse/surprise your students

• Ai Weiwei? Song Dong? Liu Zhuoquan? Cao Fei? Cai Guo-Qiang? He Xiangyu?

• Start to develop the introductory lesson:

“the hook!”

Using ‘the art of now’ forauthentic art learning

• Step 1: invite students to observe, think, speculate and wonder

• Step 2: require students to use rich language and their developing art vocabulary to describe, analyse and interpret a work without plagiarism or 2nd-hand ideas

• Step 3: Invite students to ask “What if?”• Step 4: Invite students to consider the relationships

to their own artmaking and hence their rich understanding of artists’ practice

What if?What if Liu Zhuoquan used new

bottles straight from the factory? Would the meaning be different?

What if YOU made an installation of objects painted in bottles to reflect an issue of concern to you – what

would they be?

Imagine other ways of installing these works, fragile as they are – if YOU were the curator, what would you

suggest to the artist?

What if Liu doesn’t do any of the painting himself? Does it matter? Is it still his own artwork?

Build the differentiation

• A “common” core task – reading and questions• A “learning conversation” – structured with

provocative questions – could take the form of a socratic dialogue

• Differentiated tasks for groups identified with quantifiable data – transparent and clearly communicated to students

• A “real” piece of published writing

And back to Ai Weiwei again…a model of description, speculation, deduction and contextualisation

• http://vimeo.com/64886243

The End Luise Guest

Thank you / Xie Xie! / 谢谢