The China Project

23 the china project endnotes 1 Zhang Song’s own translation of the poem by Yang Rong titled Inscription on Minister Wu’s Landscape. 2 Yang usually refers to his identity as Australian–Chinese (as opposed to Chinese–Australian), as evidenced by the title of his exhibition ‘Australian Chinese’ at the National Portrait Gallery, Canberra, in 2001. 3 The Gallery achieved this position through advice generously shared through a network of individuals including Australian Sinologists as well as Chinese curators and artists, initially through the structure of the APT. The development of the Collection in regard to works from the 1980s has been possible due to the generosity of Professor Nicholas Jose and Dr Claire Roberts, who have had a longstanding commitment to Chinese contemporary art. In addition, the gifting of works by the late Professor Hugh Dunn, ao , and Marney Dunn, Timothy North and Denise Cuthbert, and artists Cai Guo-Qiang, Ai Wiewei, Ah Xian, Song Dong, Ni Haifeng and Irene Chou make an invaluable and significant contribution. 4 Huang Zhuan, co-curator for the Chinese selection for ‘The Third Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art’ remarked that this exhibition also marked the ‘end of the inspirational and collectivist Chinese modern art movement of the 1980s. As a result, cynicism and world weariness began to spread amongst artists. With their bored and absurdist attitudes towards life, Chinese artists began to use some fashionable political and commercial symbols and emblems to ridicule mainstream ideology.’ See his essay in Beyond the Future: The Third Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art [exhibition catalogue], Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane, 1999, p.2. 5 See Sang Ye’s interview in ‘Fringe-Dwellers: Down and out in the Yuan Ming Yuan Artists Village’, translated by Geremie Barmé, Art Asia Pacific , vol.15, June 1997, pp.74–7. 6 Geremie Barmé, ‘Artful marketing’ in In the Red: On Contemporary Chinese Culture , Columbia University Press, New York, 1999, p.202. 7 At the time of writing the repercussions for China of the current global financial crisis are unclear. 8 Fei Dawei, ‘The 85 New Wave: A fleeting derailment’, in ’85 New Wave; The Birth of Chinese Contemporary Art ’ [exhibition catalogue], Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing, 2007, p.11. 9 Fei Dawei, p.11. Dawei quotes curator Gao Minglu’s research who states that between 1985 and 1987, 87 avant-garde collectives appeared around the country, including in inner Mongolia and Tibet and that these collectives mounted more than 150 avant-garde happenings around the country in which some 2250 artists participated. See Gao Minglu et al, The Wall: Reshaping Contemporary Chinese Art [exhibition catalogue], Albright-Knox Art Gallery, University at Buffalo Art Galleries, and Millennium Art Museum, New York, 2006. 10 A remarkable book documents this work by Li Zhensheng which has detailed accounts of each of the events captured. Only a handful of works from this huge archive is reproduced in this publication although Li Zhensheng himself was a meticulous archivist who carefully labelled and chronicled each roll of film with dates, notes on each event pictured and places. See Li Zhensheng, Red-Color News Soldier: A Chinese Photographer’s Odyssey through the Cultural Revolution , Phaidon, London, 2003. 11 ‘The Gang of Four’ refers to a powerful faction in the Communist Party active during the Cultural Revolution period responsible for many of the excesses staged during this time. Leading the group was Mao Zedong’s last wife Jiang Qing and her cohorts Zhang Chunqiao, Yao Wenyuan and Wang Hongwen. It is unclear which major decisions were the direct result of the Gang of Four’s own doing and how much influence they exerted over Mao Zedong through his wife. However their activities were clearly associated with the latter period of the Cultural Revolution. Their downfall was brought about a month after the death of Mao Zedong, marking the end of the Cultural Revolution, the news of which was greeted with great celebrations in Beijing streets. 12 Jonathan D Spence, ‘Li Zhensheng: Photographer for a time of troubles’, in Li Zhensheng, p.11. 13 Spence, p.11. 14 Melissa Chiu, ‘Introduction: The art of Mao’s revolution’, in Melissa Chiu and Zheng Shengtian, Art and China’s Revolution , Asia Society in association with Yale University Press, New Haven and London, 2009, p.1. 15 Jonathan Fineberg, ‘Memory and desire’, in Zhang Xiaogang: Revision [exhibition catalogue], Pace Wildenstein, New York, 2008, p.17. 16 Zhang Xiaogang, quoted in Julia Coleman, in Zhang Xiaogang [exhibition catalogue], Sara Hilden Art Museum, Tampere, Finland, 2008, p.155. 17 Huang Zhuan, ’85 New Wave: An intellectual movement’, in ’85 New Wave; The Birth of Chinese Contemporary Art , p.19.