In and Out

By Binghui Huangfu

In and Out is an exhibition of ten contemporary Chinese artists most of whom were born in Beijing. Six of them live in China, while the remaining four reside in Sydney, Australia. All of these artists grew up in China with the Cultural Revolution's restrictions and were consequently enthused by the freedom of expression allowed under the open-door policy of 1979. The four living in Australia were part of the exodus from China in the late 1980's.

The title for the exhibition was selected to represent the flow of information and people that constitute the dynamics of contemporary Chinese art. It describes not singular directions, but circular movements of ideas and the process of cultural exchanges that have characterized the past 18 years of Chinese contemporary art. The exhibition seeks to express the assimilation of ideas and describe methods by which ideas are gathered, absorbed and/or discarded. It considers the dynamics of the translation of ideas. It does this against the background of different societal pressures on the development of contemporary Chinese art practice "in and out" of China.

The background to the development of contemporary art in China lies in recent political changes. 1979 saw the end of the Cultural Revolution and the beginning of the open-door policy. The reform of economic policies and easing of ideologies made for, in Chinese terms, a relatively free intellectual environment.

Information about development in the west had been suppressed during the Cultural Revolution. After years of being taught that they were more advanced technically and culturally than the west, the Chinese were shocked to discover the disparity between Chinese and Western lifestyles. Young people felt they had to keep pace and were excited by the possibilities presented.

For artists this meant absorbing the developments of 20th century Western art. The mediums available for their use were varied. Some Western philosophical texts and art critiques were translated into Mandarin and introduced to Chinese readers. Western art journals were available, although not officially sanctioned and still in their original languages. The theories of modernism, post-modernism, deconstructionism and the philosophy of existentialism, were available in China in the 1980's. Often though, artists were being influenced by the visual form without understanding or caring about the context of that form. Young artists were trying to be as "new" as possible. The underlying structures of modernism were having a major effect on the society as a whole. The collective mass culture, so long a staple of Chinese life, was being replaced by the culture of the individual. This culture was searching for expression in messages contained within art and notions of an avant-garde.

The pace of change was frenetic. It seemed artists were trying to rapidly absorb 100 years of Western development as much as possible. Artists embraced everything from Impressionism, Expressionism, Dada, Pop, Conceptual art and Action art. No sooner was a style established than it was replaced by something else. The characteristics at that time were adaptation and imitation. These were self-conscious attempts to develop a Chinese "way" of contemporary art, via hybrids adapted from Dada, Conceptual, and Action art. During the 1980's these various forms of modernism became the most readily assimilated art forms. Conceptually capable of expressing a growing sense of individuality, they had the appeal to infiltrate the whole culture. Modernism's belief in the avant-garde related well to the explosion in artistic activity. The hero of the Cultural Revolution could survive in the heroism of the avant-garde. The modernism expressed, however, often contained this Western form overlaid on a Chinese core.

Many of the commentaries written in the last 18 years have sought to explain developments in Chinese culture and art by using Western terminology, philosophy and patterns. In essence, many commentators seem to be seduced by the exotic elements of this previously little-known contemporary culture. They failed to recognise the fundamental differences in the evolution of the two cultures.

The linear development, often used to describe Western art and culture, is not an appropriate system to describe the Chinese experience. China's pattern of contact and isolation gives it a unique character. It is a feature of Chinese culture that introspection and revision accompany change. Likewise the sense of heritage, born of being one of the oldest continuing cultures, has the effect of causing change to be absorbed and blended rather than the new supplanting the old. Equally, it would be a mistake to view the development of contemporary Chinese art as purely a process of appropriation. The process of translation and interpretation may be better tools for examining the current trends in China. The artists and writers represented in this exhibition are examples of various aspects of that process.

The translation of language or ideas demand precise and faithful attention to detail; even then, there may be misinterpretations. The process relies on re-contextualising information. The ease with which something can be translated also depends on the existence of similar concepts for both parties involved. Where this is not the case, progress towards understanding is slowed until there is some commonality of experience. In China, the 1980's was a period of building a common ground for dialogue but this conscientious effort to catch up was not appreciated by Western viewers. The character of transferring ideas from one culture to another, particularly during the early stages of the dialogue, is open to this type of misinterpretation. This is particularly so if the source of the information being translated develops a view as to how that information should be used.

The intent, this engendering of common ground, may also run the risk of the displacement of ideas caused by fundamental differences in cultural perceptions and values. This can result in bodies of understanding slipping past one another. The complex divergence of views fuelled by basic societal separations or distinctiveness is also a major hurdle. For China and the West, dissimilarities between primary, collective and, societal structures on the one hand, and those based on the eminence of individual aspirations on the other, becomes one example of the great divide impeding understanding of one another. Having said this, it is as important to remark that collective structures and individual aspirations cannot be understood in exclusive and ideologically irreconcilable terms. For it must be remembered that gaining a status for individuality. And defending that claim, and prospecting that claim, are important goals for creative practitioners in China. Indeed, the artists featured in this exhibition lay claims to being able to produce work that is "new" and "experimental", work that is interrogative, reflexive, at times even subversive, These aspirations or attributes point to marked degrees of registering a sense of individuality; such registrations are made at considerable costs and risks, at the personal as well as at collective levels. How this sense of individuality is conceptualised and activated, how these costs and risks are ascertained and discussed, are matters, well worth studying and for which separate, yet overlapping, undertakings are needed.

No translation is neutral or free of value. The purpose of the translation is often to subject one language to the dynamics of another. Different languages are prime indicators of otherness and often the aim of translation is to make one language safe with respect to another. In this vein, any concept that undergoes translation runs the risk of suffering a loss of content in varying degrees. What is more, that content which is then translated back to the original, suffers a double loss. The dimunition and confusion experienced by both sides is compounded. The process is unequal and asymmetrical.

Translation in the context of the visual arts appears even more problematic. Its complexities are magnified by the process of borrowing; these are among the dominant factors that underline the art dialogue that took place between China and the West in the 1980's. The varieties of modernism that were avidly adopted and cultivated by emerging Chinese artists were seen as end developments, when translated again for and by the West. They were not seen in relation to particular historical forces and biographical situations; nor were they articulated with regard to arduous, yet urgent efforts at grappling with the influx of information proliferating at a bewildering pace and volume. One way to approach these procedures and their outcome is to describe them as the beginnings of a process of hybridisation, whereby new work is produced in the intervening spaces where influences from the West and imperatives from domestic culture collide and compete for attention and competence. Artists have to traverse these in-between spaces, mapping them in ways that are pertinent to individual aspirations and sensibilities. The resulting productions are not and can never be wholly one or of the other. They are fabrications that may be construed as fantastical; even so, and for all that, they are real and of our time.

Even as artists in China were forging new directions arising from their understanding of the duality of what it is to be modern in China, artists began to look across the seas, seeking an international arena; at the same time, curators and the art establishments from outside were showing interest in the art and artists of China. However, the meeting of the two did not guarantee mutual understanding or deeper appreciation.

By the end of the 1980's the confidence of many artists had grown, and they were given opportunities to exhibit or travel overseas. Chinese artists were invited to travel and exhibit abroad by foreign embassies, galleries and universities. The selection of the work to travel was generally made by Westerners. The work tended to fit the perceptions of the West. The effect on the artists involved was considerable. This was the Chinese artists' first experience of globalisation, the existence of multiculturalism, the distortions arising from Orientalism and a new understanding of the power of the debilitation of the centre and of the periphery.

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