1993 APT1 Conference : Identity, tradition and change

5 a. S e lf -c r itic ism p o t e n t i a l in i n t e rn a t io n a l a r t flows themselves. Too o ften i n t e r n a t i o n a l a r t exh ib itions merely v a lid a te previous in t e rn a t io n a l p re fe rence s , they n e i t h e r ov e r tu rn nor even r e la tiv iz e them. One can th ink qu ite c lea rly of prominence given to Anish Kapur in London, and recen tly as a British r e p r e s e n t a t iv e a t Venice, bu t in t e rn a t io n a l exh ib itions ra re ly r e - s i t u a t e the s ty l i s t i c discourse of such an a r t i s t s by comparing i t with o th e r exemplars of similar manners in the land of t h a t d iscourse 's origin. In India I th i n k of the re la tiv e ly unacknowledged work by A.N.Rimzon [seen recen tly a t th e Art Gallery of New South Wales] who comes from a qu ite large group of rad ica l young sculptors, b u t whose work can be [fa lse ly ] seen as d e r iv a tiv e of Indian a r t i s t s who h av e become famous in te rn a t io n a l ly , whereas grounds ex is t for see ing the debt the otherway round, and Rimzon as an a l t e rn a t iv e and equally in t e r e s t i n g d epa r tu re from the same source. O ther such cases ex is t in modern Chinese and Japane se art. b. Politicians: mates and enemies A r tis ts who are frequen tly in th e same a r t i s t i c discourse are to be found in qu ite d if f e r en t exh ib itions when shown in te rn a tion a lly , in ■ con tex ts which imply qu ite s ep a r a te r e -p r iv i l eg in g of t h e i r s i tu a t io n a t home. This is u su a lly a m a tte r of who's in and who’s out a t court: in the case of Gu Yuan and Xu Bing in China th is was a sep a ra tion pa ra lle l with the bloody needs of th e s t a t e in the world and not ju s t in Shakespeare. Gu Yuan, the old revo lu tion a ry p r in t maker from Yan'an days was ac tua lly Xu Bing's te ach e r and Head of Department in Beijing, and t h a t person who p illoried Xu Bing most d irec tly a f t e r the 1989 Beijing massacre. For formally a v an t garde work may be opposed by a con se rva tive art e s tab lishmen t which was once i t s e l f radical: and its usua lly the older