Reflections of Spring - Using Visual Narratives,Towards an Order of Literacy Spring is a season for the young and it is a time when aspirations are revealed.
It so happens that contemporary Chinese art is in the spring season and what happens in spring is that you look for seeds buried under the snow, nurture them and help them spring into life.
Unlike the precision of westerners when it comes to time, Chinese artists are keenly aware of the secrets of spirituality and senses: they use their own frame of mind and logic to define time. For a time, Chinese narrators don’t care about the dimensional tactics; neither do they employ forced figurative languages. Their artworks change with their frame of mind and the ethos became highlighted. Assuming a carefree attitude and ease, they use simple ink strokes to convey the richness and diversity of the world around them. Although their stories appear to be trivial and fragmented, they point to the fullness of neo-Daoism. Such features are also found in Chinese paintings. Commenting on the “Outlaws of the Marshes”, Jin Shengtai specifically points out that the Chinese approach to painting is identical to its approach to literature, in that what appears to be fragmented episodes echo the oriental way of narration in a time frame. Southern Song court paintings as well as scholarly paintings by the likes of Qing Teng and Bai Yang in the Ming and Qing Dynasties always emphasize the break between the tangible and the intangible. If the intangible becomes tangible, the painting will become unbecoming. As Northern Song Philosopher Zhang Zai says, “Creation would have it that no two things are the same,” the history of art tells us that through the generations, although the themes such as eight scenes of Xiaoxiang and the likes of plum, bamboo, lily magnolia and chrysanthemum are depicted over and over again, the depictions vary greatly. Certainly, many themes have been buried by the river of history due to lack of vitality or concepts being devoid of meaning. Nevertheless, in the different narratives, the same stories get broken up and magnified, reflecting the discrepancies between, and confusions and enlightenment of different generations.
The logic behind the creation of such paintings suggests that once empowered with vision of time and of order, one will discover that the predicament of contemporary painting is the lack of order, which provides the artistic foundation. Like other art forms, the traditions of the pictorial narratives are based on public consensus, i.e. the populace’s daily life, i.e. China’s harmony and rites. Adopt its core idea and develop your own unique way of thinking. By comparison, the rite and harmony oriented painting has not conceptually solved life’s dilemma, and in its highly free state of creation remains joyous without being licentious, sad without being hurt.
Spring is a season with rich characteristics. In this season, days are long and develop into new forms of time, the cradle of time. As time elapses, new time is created. In this sunny and bright season, Art Seasons is convening eight talented young artists to express their aspirations. Their works, although different in medium and themes, suggest the same realization: our paintings have never been the so-called visual products but are carriers and elevators of our civilization. The mission of contemporary art is to empower each artist to pour himself into the cultural river and keep revitalizing old experiences based on rites and harmony. The pictorial narratives of contemporary art seek to express its own time line.
