"Literature and craftsmanship is a very important issue in traditional Chinese culture. Speaking of literature, we are familiar with the traditional Chinese literati world, literati life, literati elegance, and even literati painting; and the craftsman has another meaning in the Chinese tradition, which refers to the craftsman, the mason, the bricklayer, the skilled craftsman, a kind of creator, such as the maker of utensils, the builder of the building, and the earliest Chinese interest in production, craftsmanship, and science, which also began with the craftsman. Curator Cui Cancan explained the theme of "literature and craftsmanship" in this way.
On April 10th, nanchizi art museum's new exhibition ""Literature and Craftsmanship" - Yang Fudong, Prospect, Zhao Zhao" was officially opened to the public. Curated by Choi Chan Chan, the exhibition features nearly 20 works including sculptures, installations, videos and paintings on the shelf.
Curator Cui Cancan said during the tour that many industries today, such as designers, architectural designers, graphic designers, scientists, engineers, these science and engineering workers were called "craftsmen" in ancient times. "After the pre-Qin, Chinese culture underwent a drastic change, the so-called emphasis on Confucianism, and then evolved into an absolute emphasis on the cultural and spiritual world, which also led to the decline of China's craftsman spirit."
"This also leads to the fact that the language of Artistic Creation in China always emphasizes artistic expression, while ignoring the importance of language and form itself." He pointed out.
In this exhibition, the artist's new 6-meter-tall work "Finite/Infinite 1#" was unveiled to the public for the first time, and the artist Yang Fudong's 46-minute black-and-white video work "Yugong Moving Mountain" was also premiered in Beijing, and Zhao Zhao will also bring several new works. From the upright sculptures in the natural garden, to the small garden scenes created in the art museum, to the poetic space where nostalgia and aesthetic beauty coexist, it shows the literati life that continues to this day in traditional Chinese culture, and jointly explores the value of "craftsman spirit" in the present.
Exhibition Scene Prospect Work "Limited/Unlimited 1#"
Exhibition site
In the exhibition, the three artists are invited to return to the contemporary values of craftsmen from different perspectives and artistic practices, showing the life and spirit outside the literati tradition. The artist envisioned the earliest creation of the representative "Artificial Mountain Stone", compared with the traditional literati aesthetic and spiritual life of the "artificial mountain stone", from the Western industrial revolution product stainless steel and production concept. The value of these works no longer depends on the aesthetic activities of the traditional literati world, but relies on sophisticated production techniques and modern craftsmanship, which complement the ideas of the literati and the concept of the artist. In particular, looking forward to the latest creations, the exploration of diversity in different materials, processes and languages, borrowing the infinite shapes created by fluid mechanics, mathematical algorithms, and abstract philosophies, and the methodology of combining thinking and production have become the symbols of modern "literature and craftsmanship".
Exhibition site
Exhibition site
"Creation" has become the subject of the prospective work, which is different from the spiritual yearning of the ancient mountain stone master's method. These new things, from modern technology, from the calculus of man and machine, do not experience the weathering of time, but cross the barrier of time. The artificial rocks of the Song people are the history of nature, the history of weathering, and the history of time; the "things" in the exhibition hall are the history of people, the history of wisdom, and the history of scientific and technological computing. In other words, the prospect presents two kinds of time in this exhibition hall, one is the distant natural time, the growth of all things; the other is the current time, the "people" and "things" under the definition of technology under the change of people in one era and one era.
Exhibition site
The space of the exhibition feels the hall display imitating the ancient Chinese garden, preserving the feeling of the main hall on the first floor and the courtyard in this Ming and Qing dynasty courtyard, such as the relationship between the strip, the square table, the town stone, and the circle chair in the traditional space. The windows near the courtyard are all opened, allowing spring light and Japanese wind to sprinkle into the hall, and nature and courtyard have the most appropriate combination. In the middle of the pool is a sculpture of an infinite half derived from modern mathematical operations, which contrasts with the traditional artificial mountain stone at the edge of the pool, forming a contrast between the aragonite and the scientific object. In the main hall, the traditional decoration layout is imitated, but it is replaced by the "creation" of future technology, and it has the feeling of "neither so nor so". The audience is placed in the middle of it, traveling through time and space to a modern peach blossom garden composed of science and craftsmanship.
Showroom scene
Artist Zhao Zhao's work "Jade Dragon Tied to a Tree Trunk" directs the viewer's gaze to more distant history, the faith projected in the creation of artifacts, the initial emergence of "craftsman". As the prototype of China's earliest animal embryo, the "Jade Dragon" has become the envy of natural strength and physique in the Hongshan culture, and is also a symbol of the psychic and power of the primitive ancestors. The artisan culture was also born, which symbolized the highest productivity of that era, a sign of the development of primitive agriculture. In other words, from the early culture created by Yu Juelong, the relationship between technology and civilization and power has become a measure of an era.
Exhibition site
Not far away, a few spring shoots series have led the eyes to the world beyond the ancient literati. Different from the ancient literati's aesthetic and symbolic personality of bamboo, zhao Zhao, although he followed the tradition of chanting and speaking, he praised the tenacious vitality of "bamboo shoots" when they broke through the soil, the strength bred in the soil, and the uncertain possibility of growth. After a spring rain, the bamboo shoots broke through the earth, and it had been waiting for a long time in the dark harsh winter. Bamboo shoots grow low and thick, and the black and dull body is full of dirt, full of unknown power, giving birth to new life.
Exhibition site
Spring shoots become the beginning of this new vitality of the second-level space, people pass through it, see the spring shoots flashing in the dark night, see the pink flowers, and realize the gestures waiting for the delicate opening. Three pink trees, a few paintings by the window, overlapping colonnades, and a distant heavenly gate provide a changing scene. Between the barrier of space and the revelation of the painting, in the distance of the perspective and the proximity of the situation, the intersection of painting and window, tree and column, and the opening of the heavenly gate form a vibrant indoor garden.
Yang Fudong's "Yugong Moves the Mountain"
Artist Yang Fudong's work "Yugong Moving Mountains" is a 46-minute black-and-white video work, which originates from a myth and legend in the Warring States period of China, in which the Yugong family braved difficulties, persevered, dug the mountain, and finally moved the story of the Emperor of Heaven to move the mountain away. In later generations, the master of Chinese painting Xu Beihong painted a picture of "Yugong Moving Mountains" which became a classic work during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression. The same spirit has different narrative structures and vivid images in two different eras and realities. Yang Fudong uses this story to unfold a poetic reflection on human nature and changing values in the aesthetic style of black and white images, reinterpreting this ancient legend of perseverance and faith.
Yang Fudong's "Yugong Moves the Mountain"
Cui Cancan believes that Yang Fudong explores the problem of modern labor in this work. He stressed: "If Yugong really lives today, we look at it from the perspective of modern people, Yugong's life must be boring, boring, dull, and must not meet the standards of our lives." Therefore, at the end of the exhibition, in the work "Yugong Moving Mountains", we went from the earliest praise to the craftsman to the reflection on the craftsman. ”
The screening space of the film is also modeled on the form of the ancient Chinese theater, retaining the characteristics of the original architecture and matching the aesthetic and nostalgic tones of the film's classical Chinese mythological stories. After the audience enters, it is as if placed in a theater of the Ming and Qing dynasties, a black and white image, a set of old-fashioned Qing Dynasty tables, under the dark glow, the hazy outside the window can see the scene in the courtyard, the spring wind and the ancient story intersect and blend, people travel through history in it, forget the times and the world in which they live.
Exhibition site
Exhibition site
"Wen and Craftsman" tells a cultural story that continues to this day, they have created a brilliant history, but they have also gained a completely different new life due to the changes of the times and contexts, and the reflection of skills and art.
The exhibition will run until July 9, 2022.
Nandu reporter Huang Qian