LIFE IS FUN
Gu Hongzhong，
910 - 980, portrait painter of the southern Tang Dynasty, Chinese.
The existing Night Revels of Han Xizai was copied by the Song Dynasty. The original work is created by Gu Hongzhong for the purpose of monitor and record Han Xizai's nocturnal life at the emperor's request.
The main inspiration of this painting is the composition of the scroll. The theme of the painting is mainly describing human, but its composition is very unique depending on the character of the scroll art. The artist skillfully uses partitions to divide the painting and there is a picture between the partition. But each picture still has some subtle connections from each other. For example, a man and a woman standing individually in front and behind a partition. They belong to their part of the image but also connected in the next image.
Director of the Department of Sculpture, installation and performance at the University of New South Wales, Australian.
Bonita Ely is the director of the Department of Sculpture, installation and performance at the University of New South Wales in Australia. She is also one of the founders of the Sydney Institute for the Environment of the arts.
Australian artist Bonita Ely has created a 14-meter long Chinese scroll for an exhibition in Sydney to explore the relationship between dam building and balance of nature.
I guess Bonita Ely probably chose to use Chinese scroll art because the form fits the theme she's trying to convey. As you can see from the images, she hung the scroll against the wall and extended it to the floor. Shows the relationship between the dam and the current.
Bonita Ely's own description of the work is that the research shows that damming will have a very important impact on rivers. The building of dams has a great disadvantage for people in low-lying areas and requires great care. The construction of a dam will make a river break permanently. She uses art to show the consequences of human's behaviour will lead to the deterioration of the natural environment.
What interests me is that Bonita Ely uses Chinese scroll art as a medium to present her work and I wonder why Bonita would choose scroll art to present this work, but there doesn't seem to be an explanation online. Guessing from the few images that I searched online, some animal and plant figures can be discerned, as well as some metal-like patterns. I'm still curious about why the project uses scrolls. Doesn't seems need to use a scroll. I mean, a single 14-meter long sheet of paper can produce the same effect.
Gu Kaizhi，
348-409, East Jin outstanding painter, painting theorist, poet, Chinese
The picture of the goddess of Luo is a story painting based on the Ode to the Goddess of Luo written by Cao Zhi of the Wei Dynasty.
The opening scene depicts Cao Zhi meeting the goddess of Luo River at the banks of the Luoshui River. And the following picture went on to describe the Legend. A helpless separation of the feelings shows on the screen.
This work plays an important role in the history of Chinese painting, mainly related to its subject matter. Most of the ancient hand scroll art was based on Confucian culture. In addition, Luo Shen Fu makes a combination of picture-story books and scroll art. It's a new combination of Chinese art, in terms of composition. The same characters keep appearing in one painting. The painting shows while the viewer rolls the scroll and then gradually get to know the full story.
I think I use the concept of the picture-story book in my work, so it's a good reference work. Including the position of the figures and the relationship between the line of sight. My understanding of Chinese painting is not deep enough. So, in this work, I mainly use the change of the object's position to show the moving of the picture.
Director of the Department of Sculpture, installation and performance at the University of New South Wales, Australian.
Another work created by Bonita Ely that I saw in this video, (to see details:1:40'-2:50) this work is related to Murray River. When I saw this work, I felt that its form was similar to that of Scroll Art.
They are both long enough and according to the direction of Bonita Ely's narration, the order in which the photos are viewed is left to right, representing an effect of human activity on the natural environment. It is also interesting to imagine the work being presented as a scroll, slowly unrolling the small work and seeing the images change with time and paces. This also proves what Wu Hong says in the book about the art of the scroll is a moving image. The connection between Chinese culture and Western culture seems to be reflected in this point.
Liu Haisu Museum，China.
The Su Shanghai Public Art and Community Building Project launched by the Liu Haisu Museum. It aims to bring art to the streets and alleys of Shanghai, through the space transformation, the artistic creativity, the community interaction organic fusion, stimulates the building vigour, enhances the community quality, constructs a happy life.
The Community Art Gallery is not a cold space for art display, but it hopes to present, narrate and convey a more warm community history, urban spirit and humanistic care through art and the interaction between art and human.
After the design of the designers, an idle Shanghai alley, makes this space become orderly and warm up. The clutter space has been replaced by rainbows of sunlight. I think one of the reasons that attracted me about this project was that it brought the concept of an art gallery into the community. Using it to attract artists into the community. Bringing art to people in the community in different ways, trying to shorten the distance between people and art. At the same time, it also plays a role in improving people's aesthetic ability.
The work actually is a truism or a popular topic in China's construction-old-town redevelopment projects. The creation of a new space creates the vitality of the whole area. One of the notable aspects of the project is that it is located within the community and is intended to improve the environment within the community. Increase the harmony and warmth within the community.
A representative of the "Overseas Corps" of Chinese contemporary art.
Xu Bing's work is about character, trying to illustrate words with a variety of images. He has a strong personal interest in Chinese print binding and reference books. He believes that the core of Chinese painting or culture is semiology, which affects the way of how Chinese thinking, the way of viewing the world and the aesthetic attitude. The idea that Chinese culture interprets things in symbols is well represented in Xu's sketches of characters. A large transparent glass, according to people's line of sight, filled with Chinese characters. It emphasizes the feature of Chinese character imitating nature.
Combining the Chinese characters mentioned in Lothar Ledderose's book - Ten Thousand Things: Module and Mass Production in Chinese Art, he believes that the core of Chinese culture is a modular system. Xu Bing as a Chinese came up with the concept of a symbolic system, while Lothar Ledderose as a non-Chinese observed a modular system, and I wonder how the two systems are related. Is the modular system contains the symbolic system? This seems could be one of the directions for my future research.
In addition, Lothar Ledderose said in his article that he thought Chinese characters are more beautiful and rich than English letters. Based on my observations, I think Lothar Ledderose did not notice the peculiarities of the English word's inability to stand on its own. As for the word elegance mentioned by him, which a word he describes Chinese characters. I think English is also unique, the pen can not be replaced by the Chinese brushes. Xu Bing's work, the English block calligraphy, created a way for English to be arranged vertically. In my research, I also did some research about the connection between cross-cultural and Xu Bing's work.
Qiu Yu，Beijing, China.
This is a work that I came across in the exhibition, first attracted by its form. The theme of the exhibition at that time was painting, this art is one of the few installation arts. What is more outstanding compared to other works is the combination of Chinese culture and modern technology in his works. The work uses a series of sounds that comes from soundboxes, covering the top of the soundboxes with traditional Chinese medicine and emitting the smell of medicine through the vibration of the sound playing music.
I think the work also includes the term "new sensibility" that I mentioned in my research. The vibrations spread through space, spreading to every corner of the room, this idea attracted people firstly. Secondly, through the vibration of the distribution of medicinal herbs aroma also attracted people to visit. When people find real exhibits, they can also find out which herbs are dancing with the music. In my video, I also try to find the ingredients for dancing. But that seems to be a problem for me with my phone.
There are a few things I don't like about the way this project has been presented. As can be seen from the video, the whole work is isolated in a square, people can only explore the medicinal materials through the eyes. I think one of the purposes of this work might be to let people know more about Chinese culture, Chinese medicine. The sense of distance diminishes this purpose. Removing this sense of distance and allowing people to access each herb is good for people to learn about the culture.
The second point is the way the work be arranged, which is of course entirely my own thinking. I think the arrangement of the pieces could be a little bit different. Considering the diversity of exhibitors, there are some old people or special groups. At the same time, by doing this the works might be interesting in space. But the artist may be thinking more about how to highlight Chinese herbs in his work.
The third thing is about the name of the work, I think there is a large amount Chinese phrase which could describe the work but the artist chose a name like the smell of sound, I think as a Chinese we can do better than that...