From Elegy to Consolation in Chinese Contemporary Art

Reaction Paper Instructions:

Please write a course reading-based, double-spaced 4-page response paper by addressing all of the following questions. Please do not provide short answers to each question in disconnected paragraphs, rather, you are expected to organize your argument and analysis into a coherent essay.
✔ In your view, what is art and what are the most fascinating aspects of contemporary Chinese art (i.e. avant-garde, politically provocative, cynical realism, bridging Chinese and Western cultures)?
✔ Among the artworks introduced by this course, please name three artists that inspire you the most and analyze the artistic-aesthetic style and philosophical meaning of their respective works (i.e. painting, calligraphy, sculpture, installation, multimedia production, etc.)
Please use Times New Roman font 12.
You are required to cite the course readings properly and include authors, titles of the readings, and page numbers in the reference or cited works section. Citation styles may vary and please feel free to follow MLA or Chicago styles.
[example links: https://www(dot)library(dot)cornell(dot)edu/sites/default/files/mla_style_revised.pdf, (Links to an external site.) https://www(dot)chicagomanualofstyle(dot)org/tools_citationguide.html (Links to an external site.)]
For this article, I want to compare Cai Guoqiang with other artists like Ai Weiwei, XuBing, Caofei, and Zhang Xiaogang, etc. To me, Cai Guoqiang's art has a very specific universalism. It does not involve literal politics, yet it showed people the possibilities/ what's beyond our imagination. Cai's Sky ladder, as well as his performance show, has stood out so much compared to other Chinese contemporary artists. The title of this response paper is quoted from his firework show- Explosion Event-in Shanghai West Bund in 2014. His work has a more intellectual mechanism to engage with people. Xu Bing and Ai Weiwei are just being smart/ it almost feels like they are making a public stunt. As for Aiweiwei, his work is good initially, but later just became very repetitive. He's been doing the same thing trying to tell people what they already know.
https://caiguoqiang(dot)wordpress(dot)com/2014/08/21/cai-guo-qiang-the-ninth-wave-opens-in-shanghai/
https://publicdelivery(dot)org/cai-guo-qiang-fireworks-shanghai/#The_2014_fireworks_project_in_Shanghai
To me, an elegy to consolation is a journey for every human living on this planet.
https://www(dot)guggenheim(dot)org/teaching-materials/cai-guo-qiang-i-want-to-believe/explosion-events
Spirituality, and its link between the seen and unseen worlds, is a constant source of inspiration for the artist who delves into historical Chinese traditions such as Taoism, Buddhism, Feng Shui, Qi Gong, Confucianism, and other practices, to explore and find fodder for his work.
https://www(dot)youtube(dot)com/watch?v=jxHWJjaUDQg Xubing's video
https://youtu(dot)be/lLTT8ogRf50 Cai's Skyladder trailer
Xubing's work has a sense of globalism and universalism in it too, yet it is a rather smart one, he is just using the West approach to tell them what the East language is. Yet Cai's work does not have this trick, it feels more authentic and universal by itself. Because we all have longings for the unknown force, we all have connections to fire, light, etc.

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Chinese Contemporary Art
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Chinese Contemporary Art
To define art, we must consider its diverse nature and how different people and scholars understand it. Human beings create visual, auditory, or performed artifacts that express their imaginative and technical skills. Or be appreciated because of their beauty when explored. This paper delves into Chinese art, focusing on the fascinating aspects of contemporary Chinese art.
In my view, art is something personal that we do to express our thoughts, intuitions, emotions, and even desires. Through art, we share with others our personality by revealing to them how we experience the world. Art provides the platform to communicate to the world private concepts that words alone cannot faithfully portray. Art is, therefore, one's creative work in expressing themselves or making something visually entertaining. It is someone's way of depicting a society creatively and skillfully triggers people's emotions and leaves a lasting memory.
In most cases, art users use art to communicate or remember significant periods or people in society. Important societal aspects can therefore be illustrated through pieces of art. In most cases, art tends to be unique to the societal cultures in which they are developed. For example, a piece of art developed within the Chinese culture will be unique to the Chinese culture and values, depicting something significant about them or their history. Similarly, other artworks are unique to their traditions and values.
Chinese art is one of the fascinating areas are with rich and continuous tradition. Contemporary Chinese art has many aspects that make it extremely interesting. As explained in the description of art, most of the time, art pieces draw heavily from the culture and values of the people. However, when looking at contemporary Chinese art, there is a difference as it does not fully reflect the Chinese culture as it was the case with traditional Chinese art- which thoroughly defined the Chinese culture (Chao, 2019). Careful analysis of contemporary Chinese art reveals one of its most fascinating aspects: bridging Chinese and Western cultures. A Chinese or anyone who has followed the history and culture of the Chinese people can always quickly identify the traditional Chinese art piece in the gallery as it reflects their culture. It, however, becomes difficult to tell a Chinese piece of art from the others when contemporary Chinese art is considered. Examination of contemporary Chinese art shows that the pieces of art significantly blend Western and Chinese culture. They do not purely speak about Chinese traditions and culture. By incorporating Western culture, contemporary Chinese art validates the statements being made by various individuals that 'China is going to the world.' The rise of global cultures.
There have been arguments that Chinese art has maintained its history over the years, and China, being guided by socialism policies, cannot have its artwork influenced by Western culture. However, these arguments do not consider that today Chinese artists are well-traveled and exposed to different cultures, unlike the traditional artists who were mostly c...

Updated on January 26, 2024

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From Elegy to Consolation in Chinese Contemporary Art

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