The China Project

29 Three Decades: The Contemporary Chinese Collection Cultural Memory and Imagination in a Postmodern Context Feng Boyi above Li Zhensheng / China b.1940 ‘Militia Women’, Heilongjiang Song and Dance Company, Harbin, 25 April 1966 1966 (from ‘Red-colour news soldier’) (portfolio of 9 photographs) 1964–76, printed 2008 Digital print / 30 x 30cm / The Kenneth and Yasuko Myer Collection of Contemporary Asian Art. Purchased 2008 with funds from Michael Simcha Baevski through the Queensland Art Gallery Foundation / Collection: Queensland Art Gallery opposite Ai Weiwei / China b.1957 Table with two legs on the wall 2005 Reassembled wooden table (Qing dynasty 1644–1911) / 115.5 x 95.2 x 120cm / Purchased 2006. The Queensland Government’s Gallery of Modern Art Acquisitions Fund / Collection: Queensland Art Gallery If we look at the relationship between art and reality from the perspective of Chinese modern and contemporary art history, we quickly discover two notable tendencies. The first involves the many artists who continue to cling to the notion of art as a direct projection and reflection of ‘reality’, believing in the ability of artistic expression to observe the true state of life and to present reality unchecked, and naturally turning the purpose of art into a reflection of historical and social trends. The second is a repeated expression of historical progress, informed by the effect that national and class conflict has on society, and fuelled by a lingering sense of revolutionary passion. These two trends are inseparable from the larger questions of national humiliation and social crisis that underlie modern and contemporary Chinese history, and define China’s special breed of modernity. The artistic ecology of China since economic reforms began in 1978 has grown and changed, ever bound up with these two trends. The past three decades have marked an era of complex social and cultural transition for China. On the one hand, this period provided the foundation for China’s peaceful rise, enabling a confidence and satisfaction with which to look upon the future. On the other hand, the social contradictions that have followed in the wake of these prosperous times have inspired feelings of anxiety. This motley vitality, this anxious reality, has provided useful and plentiful resources for contemporary Chinese art. The bizarre and distinct context in which contemporary Chinese art is created is a major reason for its unique appeal. Many contemporary Chinese artists draw on their own experiences and memories of growing up, finding within this cultural context a clear set of references. These references have emerged as perhaps the defining characteristic of Chinese art in the 1980s and 1990s, and one of the reasons why the Chinese Avant-garde has found itself the subject of seemingly incessant international attention. Put simply, the contradictions and complexities of China’s social transition form the basis for the dynamism and richness of Chinese avant-garde art. Basic outlines of a postmodern understanding of cultural memory and imagination are evident in the concepts and methodologies used by contemporary Chinese artists. Postmodernism as a school of thought grew popular in China from the 1990s, attracting attention and debate throughout the nation’s artistic and cultural circles. As the cultural logic of late capitalism, postmodernism emerged in China after the doors were opened to the West, when transnational capital had entered the country, and the internet brought a seemingly inexhaustible supply of information. Postmodernism turns each and every form of cultural production into a hypertext — doing away with earlier formats and contexts as the new form is transmitted to places near and far. Coming from a stronger cultural position, Western postmodernism inserted itself directly into the Chinese context: looking back on them now, the debates over the ‘humanist spirit’ that swept through Chinese academic circles of the mid 1990s seem to reference a clash between humanism and postmodernism. This seems particularly evident in looking at a new generation of artists whose work bespeaks the fact that they have come of age in a relatively cosmopolitan cultural environment, but whose emotions and language are inherently tinged with postmodern references. The rich, disorderly systems and lines running through the ecology of contemporary Chinese art make it impossible, in a group exhibition, to show the full range of interesting phenomena and special attributes of contemporary Chinese art. I can only attempt to sketch what I consider to be a defining arc.