Objectivity, Absurdity, and Social Critique
Yishu-Journal of Contemporary Chinese Art , Jan 12, 2009, v. 8.5, pp. 47-61
This interview with curator and critic Hou Hanru, was conducted by the conceptual and performance artist Michael Zheng and accompanies the show entitled “impossible! Eight Chinese Artists Engage Absurdity” which took place at the San Francisco Arts Commission Gallery and MISSION 17 in 2009. The discussion maps the beginning of video art is China, and how similarly to the west, video art developed alongside performance art. They discuss how that it was in the mid-eighties that performance and conceptual work were introduced in China. Within this period, and following it, artists became involved with art making as protest, often challenging the propaganda art of the Cultural Revolution. They examine how contemporary works by Chinese artists and how video as medium allows for immediacy and allows for a portrayal of reality and or the creation/capturing of an alternative.
ITEM 2009.171 – available for viewing in the Research Centre
Videos, Artworks and Artists Cited
WATER— Standard Version from the Dictionary Ci Hai, (1991) – Zhang Peili
30 x30 (1988) – Zhang Peili
Document on “Hygiene No. 3,” (1991) – Zhang Peili
Forever (1997) – Zhu Jia
Shout (1998) – Xu Zhen
Will Die, (2000–04) – Yang Zhenzhong
History of Chemistry II, Excessively Restrained Mountaineering Enthusiasts, 2006, – Lu Chunsheng
hey, Lana, 2000 – Lu Chunsheng
Groundbreaking, 2003 – Michael Zheng
urban Fiction, Image No.13 – Xing Danwen
The Face, 2004, – Ni Haifeng
Speaking, Communication, and Humanity – Yang Jiechang/Hou Hanru
Nam June Paik
Bruce Nauman
Huang Yong Ping
Joseph Beuys
THE STARS ART GROUP (XING XING)
Wu Wenguang
Wen Pulin
burning of artwork after an exhibition on November 23, 1986. – Jia Zhangke
Xiamen Dada
Fountain – Wu Shanzhuan
Marcel Duchamp
Wang Guangyi
Gu Wenda
Song Dong
Yang Fudong
Lu Chunsheng
Chen Xiaoyun
Shi Qing
Wang Jianwei
Wu Ershan
Yin Xiuzhen
Yang Zhenzhong
Xu Zhen
Song Tao
Lin Yi Lin
Chen Shaoxiong
Liang Ju Hui
Xu Tan
Kan Xuan
Liang Yue
Cao Fei
Shen Yuan
Yin Xiuzhen
Kan Xuan
Qiu Anxiong
Tang Maohong
Sun Xun
Gu Dexin
Chen Shaoxiong
Yang Zhenzhong
Yang Yong
Cao Fei
He Yong
Xing Danwen
Ma Liuming
Zhang Huan
Ni Haifeng