Prior to the second residency in China, I was privileged to stay with the extended family of Mr Wang near the city of Shangrao and Zunqiaoxing, Huangyuan. Walks around Houpingcun Village Committee, Zunqiao Township, Guangxin District, Shangrao City, Jiangxi Province, provided many significant features of a small rural community. The Party headquarters with history of national and international events, the staff keen to take part in a photograph; a coal processing shed, full in the morning, empty in afternoon; the temple, community rooms, Buddhist procession and a 300 year old cinnamon tree. Fruit abounded. Mr Wang's brother was good company and took me on several walks. Nobody spoke English so we communicated in other ways. I observed older people working in the fields; the concept of retirement in China is perhaps contrary of the Confuscious principle of community and society above the individual. Workers in the open front small factories (garment) were hard at work Saturday afternoon; the six day week is usual for many workers.
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On one walk we went to the next village and the Longxian Temple 葛显厅, Gexian Hall (Emperor Ge Xian). Here the Buddhist statues were simple and powerful, the temple was undergoing repainting of decorative features and some construction with a new access road, winding high up through hills and very remote. We were welcomed and took part in the triple bow with incense burners to pay respect to the Buddha.
On arrival in Chengdu, Sichuan, I was struck by the enormity of the city. Hibiscus in Tianfu Square (Tianfu the historical former name for Chengdu), Wenshu Temple, Global Mall (largest building in the world with a beach inside) .. this city is just so big, like the many others in China visited and undergoing huge expansion and construction. Visiting the A4 Luxelakes Residency Premises was at a new section of the city located 2 hour by metro from Tianfu Square.
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| Global Mall, reportedly the largest building in the world |
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| Wenshu Temple |
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| Hibiscus, flower symbol of Chengdu, Tianfu Square |
The second residency in China was at Nongyuan International Art Village NY20+ Chengdu Nongyuan Art Residency, Chengdu Sichuan. I knew this would be different to the previous and basically completely unknown as to what to expect in terms of work. However, I was thinking this would be an immersive and cultural experience and this proved to be right.
Chengdu Biennale 2023 .. just in time to catch this expo at Chengdu Contemporary Art Museum and Sichuan Tianfu Art Museum ( two buildings on the Tianfu Art Park ). Designed by lead architect Liu Yi, the building is inspired by the city flower of Chengdu, the hibiscus, that here 'floats' on the surface of the park lake. Each petal is at least one exhibition hall. 
Artists Wang Dongling; Zhang Enli; Xu Bing; Zhang Xiaoxue; Hsaio Chin .. and the fabulous architecture of both buildings on the Tianfu Art Park.
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| Wang Dongling: Come On!; Chaos Script: Pale Bear Blossoms: Chaos Script: Away In Silence. Ink on Paper 2023 |
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| Sue Song: The Art of Calligraphy. Mixed Media 2015 |
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| Ai Jing: My Mom and My Hometown. Abandoned wool, glass fibre reinforced plastic, silicone 2012 |
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| Yang Jiechang: Do Not Move. Ink and acrylic on paper, mounted on canvas 2014 |
Here, in beginning to discover the role of Contemporary Art in China, the article here, discusses globalisation, east and west identity in the post 1989 China. Extract (translated):
When it comes to contemporary art from post-89 to pre-epidemic, Wang Duanting (Critic and translator of Stallabras' Contemporary Art: Short Inroduction) is relatively optimistic. In the article, he listed two main aspects to discuss the possibility of the globalisation of Chinese contemporary art:
"First, the racial and gender composition of artists during the period of contemporary art has undergone great changes." For example, "After entering the era of globalisation, the status of Chinese art in the international art world has improved unprecedentedly, and it can even be said to be a strong rise."
"Second, anti-artist conceptualism has become a new formalised art." For example, "Contemporary art has increasingly become high-tech art and luxury art", "religious belief, cultural conflict, racial identity, immigration issues and ecological environment have become the most concerned topics of contemporary artists."
Related to this, the exhibition of Chinese New Contemporary Art Works, promoted by the curator team of the annual meeting of Chinese art critics, has been held four consecutive times in the Xi'an Cui Zhenkuan Museum, and more than 80 artists have been invited. Taking the writing nature of Chinese ink materials and Chinese characters as the starting point, the exhibition recommends those artists who pay attention to the international context, contemporary concepts and Chinese context, in order to form a dialogue between China and the West and carry out historical academic research on the development of Chinese contemporary art, in-depth and international cultural exchange. "
Shanghai Recce ( 4 day visit )
Jade Buddha Temple, an active monastery founded early 19th cent:
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| Pudong, Shanghai (above and below) |
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| Pudong from the Bund |
MAP Museum of Art Pudong: Zeng Fanzhi . Old and New . Eclectic retrospective featuring imagery referencing western art , most potent in the Abstract Landscape and Sparkling paintings, one made on site with seven art students working under instruction. Very large paintings combining Chinese tradition and western modern painting. Closer to Richter in approach to subject perhaps.
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| Zeng Fanzhi: Abstract Landscapes - Red. Oil on canvas 2023 (collaborative painting with students) |
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| Zeng Fanzhi: Sparkling Paintings - Skull III. Oil on canvas 2019 - 23 |
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| Zeng Fanzhi: Abstract Landscapes - Yellow. Oil on canvas 2021 |
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| The Bund from MAP Museum of Art Pudong, dusk |
Also at MAP: Liu Heung Shing . Lens . Era . People .. fascinating and engrossing retrospective of the documentary photographer .. set up of ad hoc dark room in hotel bathroom conveyed the conditions of capturing the moment before digital. He talks of shooting the moment Gorbachev signed the breakup of Soviet Union, not sure until developing the film if the shot had worked .. it made front pages. His 1983 shot of three Chinese youths with reflecting glasses encapsulates, in one photo, the optimism of reform and the opening up of China. He states in the opening room of the exhibition " Of the several moments I can pinpoint in my life which inspired decisions that set me on my career path, one was my child hood experience in Fuzhou in the 1950s, another was the arriving in Guangzhou in 1978. Seeing the people's ineractions and reading their body language, taught me so much about the conditions under which ordinary people lived. This accounts for the energy that would later bring to driving China's economic miracle from the 1980s across into the new millennium".
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| As a result of reform and opening-up, young people developed their own new style. Dai Autonomous Prefecture, Yunnan 1980 |
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| A local worker walking along a dusty road in a border town outside of Hohhot. Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region 1981 |
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| A young man proffers the iconic Coca Cola bottle inside the Forbidden City. Beijing 1981 |
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| Actress Joan Collins chats with Andy Warhol, while holding a snapshot of a portrait Warhol created of her. Los Angeles 1985 |
Just a glimpse of ‘Cosmos Cinema’ .. 14th Shanghai Biennale at the cavernous Power Station .. strong cinema and film component to this well curated, narrated and highly organised exhibition taking viewers through a “constellation of artists from China and around the word reflects Shanghai’s position as a cosmopolitan city and birthplace of Chinese cinema, in a country with a long Philly and artistic engagement with the cosmos”. Dark spaces ( and in the case of Russian Constructivism , way too dark ) photo dissemination nigh impossible. Plus at the Rockbund Art Museum , These Petrified Paths by Shubigi Rao , installation in a striking art deco building close to the Bund.
Final post from Shanghai recce features a glimpse of Rekindle : Experiential Fusion of Contemporary Urban Art at the Modern Art Museum .. first day so a busy vibe here.
Beijing Recce 19.12.23 - 24.12.23 in freezing frozen temperatures of -14 c. The Forbidden City was challenging ! However, the magnificent National Museum of China was thoroughly engrossing and unexpectedly I spent two days there. The Ancient China rooms, featuring artefacts dating to before 5000 BC was for me by far the most enthralling part.. the only section visited in first three hour slot. Plus next day further works including national icon landscape painter Liang Shi Xiong 梁世雄 .. the Porcelain display particularly engaging, history and method on a global influencial level. Like so much in China, the National Museum of China is simply vast ..
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| Liang Shi Xiong 梁世雄 |
Chengdu Greenway is 106 kilometre cycle path circuit around the city. With individual designed bridges, parks, features and regular stop points it is an ace hit of urban planning, well used by everyone walking and cycling in a city that is full of easy to use hire bikes ..
Guang Hui Art Museum is located in a purpose built museum on the outskirts of Chengdu. Key contextual source of Chinese thinking on the subject of painting with contemporary and modern Chinese Landscape and Calligraphy painting. Contemporary Chinese ink painting masters, Pan Gonkai and Liu Qinghe present large scale works with Gao Shiqiang presenting a gigantic work with video as part of the special exhibition Syncretic Time and Space.
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| Pan Gongkai: Decaying Lotus in Cast Iron. 2007 |
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| Liu Qinghe |
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| Zhang Dacian. Golden-Edged Red Lotus in Splashed Ink 1981 |
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| Huang Yongyu. Red Lotus 1985 |
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| Wu Changshuo. Seven Character Couplet in Various Script. |
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| Huang Qiuyuan. Poetic Vision of Li Bai 1977 |
“ ‘Shanshui’ is not only the spiritual retreat that literati have been striving for since ancient China, but also an aesthetic ideal schema in Chinese painting, while “journey” is the poetic way to enter such spiritual territory and ideal realm. Despite all kinds of hardships and wars China has experienced since the 20th century, ‘shanshui’ has always been the spiritual image and ideal feelings pursued by Chinese people beyond reality, which is constantly expressed by painters. The times also call on artists to express and think with another level of spirit and reality, where fragmentation, grandeur, construction and change of “rivers and mountains” have become a spiritual concern and symbol of a new historical period and new era, and have also become an artistic spiritual form of transcending “old Chinese painting “ “.
Looking at many Calligraphy Paintings, individual styles and characteristics begin to form. Artists specialise in the genre. Traditionally and ever since ancient times, Chinese Calligraphy Painting and the writing brush have been closely associated with people's daily live. In Shangraou, I was able to help mr Wang's nephew with his English homework (very good !) he and everyone, use a writing pad on the phone to move the finger about to write quick notes. It is a form a writing but partly or maybe essentially visual; the text is in part to do with visual symbol and drawing a form. therefore, inherent in the culture is a visual form of writing and communication present in daily lives of everyone. This has cultivated an aesthetic and cultural outlook unique to Chinese and other Asian cultures. Western civilisation and modern technology have changed perceptions of daily writing: Calligraphic Painting in the 20th century is an art form; the aesthetic expressive qualities of calligraphy, that were always present throughout history, are now highlighted.
(1) Syncretic Time and Space Exhibition Guide Guang Hui Art Museum 2023. Speech by the Curator Wang Huangsheng.
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| Qiang national symbol |
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| Continuously on the look out for ancient symbols; here Abu University embroidery collection |
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| Long Fei of the Bashan Association with one of his works in the Museum at Dazhou |
When visiting the Bashan Calligraphy Painting Academy, Dazhou, seeing work of artists like Mo Xiang ( major and large exhibition in the main gallery space) the concept of "unreadable" was introduced. Calligraphic Painting is largely to do with writing (Hu Wensui Art Museum, Shanghai) . However, at times Calligraphic Painting becomes unreadable; at this point elements and brushstrokes taper and meander. In the work of Ma Jia Qi, for example, the brushstrokes are sparse and made with large brush. Not being able to read Chinese means I can only respond to the form. The inherent quality of control and power behind the stroke and mark are the features identified both in conversation around painting and in 'reading' the work. There is, in Western painting a misreading that free flowing abstraction, gesture, non brush applied mark are playful, loose, chance based. Considered critically valid in the west, this notion is known in China as a feature of western art. However in Chinese painting it is far from the truth of the matter, where the range of calligraphic mark is considered, non accidental and precise. Although seemingly the other side of the coin, or even opposite, in methodology I feel this quality close to my practice.
China Tour Art Project Visual Diary:
Tao Hua Tan International Painting Residency
Taohuatan, Xuancheng Anhui Province
NY20+ Chengdu Nongyuan International Art Residency
Nongyuan Art Village, Chengdu, Sichuan
Part 1 and 2 of a China tour October 2023 to January 2024 by Andrew Smith
Audio: This is Not A Dream - Disfreq (with thanks)
Acknowledgement Liu Heung Shing; Mo Chiang; Wang Dongling; Huang Yongyu, Pan Gongkai, Yang Jiechang
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