and concepts. I believe it is the idea that dictates the medium chosen, not the other way around. I explore whatever medium best serves my expressive needs. Each medium is a world in itself and has great potential for storytelling. It is also quiet liberating to explore different mediums, different avenues of my own personality and to truly embrace the history that comes with a particular medium. It’s almost a way of educating myself in terms of techniques while striving to choose the perfect medium for the perfect story. Lately I’ve been working at making concrete sculptures. They explore ideas of monument, architecture and minimalism. I try to challenge this industrial material to bring poetry and synergy. My interests do not necessarily vary from one medium to the next. I believe each works influence each other and constitute a larger plunge into the thematic I have been exploring since the beginning of my art production. As an artist you are basically self-taught, however you hold a B.A in Communications 22 Caroline Monnet LandEscape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW
and Sociology that you received from the University of Ottawa and the University of Granada. How did these experiences inform your evolution as an artist? Do they influence the way you currently conceive and produce your works? It’s true that I studied Sociology and Communications. I think it is difficult to know what you really want to do in life when you are asked at 17. I have always been interested in art, in people and society in general. Because I don’t come from an artistic family and I did not have artist friends as a teenager, I never really thought I could make a career doing art. It is only later, in my early twenties that I started seeing things differently and knew I wanted to work in film and visual arts. However, I believe my sociology background has had a huge influence in the work I do. I think it is nice to arrive to the art world from a different angle. My interest in society and in people is engraved in the work I do still today. Art for me is a powerful tool for education and empowerment. I still believe the artist or the filmmaker has somewhat of a responsibility in our society. The artist expresses a point of view on the world and can therefore help in sparking debates, sharing ideas and challenge our own ways of organizing our communities. Making art is a constant study of the world, others and myself within that. In the end, it is not so different from any sociological endeavors. I became a filmmaker without really expecting it. I had studied sociology and communications and worked briefly for the National Broadcasting Corporation as well as a documentary television series. I made my first film Ikwé in 2009. I was living in Winnipeg at that time and came across a small grant opportunity to direct and produce my first film. It completely changed my life as I had finally found something that I was passionate about. Filmmaking to me is a way of encompassing all forms of art. It speaks to performance, music, painting, photography and sound. It is collaborative, creative and challenging. As a self-taught filmmaker, I think I just try to do my own thing. I don't encompass myself into a style or a box. Because I have no formal 22 LandEscape Caroline Monnet CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW
Caroline Monnet 22 LandEscape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW
22 LandEscape Caroline Monnet CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW
training, I tend to follow myinstincts andfigure things as I go. Each film for me is a new challenge, a new opportunity to get better and refine my own style. Concepts and story often dictate the style of the film but I believe each film is filled with the same sensibilities, vulnerability and esthetic. As I grow as filmmakers, so do the films. I am more ambitious now than I was five years ago, but it’s because I am always up for new challenges in creating narratives. I also believe that my dual practice in visual arts has a huge influence in the way I envision my films. I would start to focus on your artistic production beginning from Gephyrophobia, an interesting project that our readers have already started to get to know in the introductory pages of this article. What mostly appeals to me of this work is the way you blend a minimalistic gaze on urban spaces and a suggestive composition: I find truly engaging the way you subvert our perceptual parameters and I have to confess that it suddenly forced me to relate myself to your works in a different way. Would you walk our readers through the genesis of this interesting work? What was your initial inspiration and how did you develop it? Gephyrophobia is an experimental film, shot on a bolex 16mm that was commissioned by the WNDX festival of moving image in Winnipeg (Canada). At first, it was supposed to be a silent film, but when the images came back from the lab, there was no way they could remain without a soundtrack. I truly believe that sound is crucial in creating a mood and therefore an experience. With Gephyrophobia, I was asked to capture the pulse of the city of Ottawa, which is the capital of Canada, in a way that resembled the first experimental documentaries of the 1930’s. This is why I approached the project as a kind of city symphony. The incredible Frères Lumières composed the soundtrack. This was our first collaboration and 22 Caroline Monnet LandEscape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW
they have been composing most of my films since then. I love how they captured the essence of what I was trying to do with sound. On one end, the more government run city of Ottawa, more square, desolate, and on the other end the more catholic lower class driven reality that exist on the other side of the river. They played with multiple layers of instruments, which fits perfectly with the minimalist black and white look of the film. The film might be minimalist and elegant in form, but encapsulates layers of meaning that you have to understand for yourself. Another interesting project of yours that has particularly impacted on me and on which I would like to spend some words is entitled Portrait Of An Indigenous Woman, that can be viewed at https://vimeo.com/113858061. As most of your works, this piece is open to various interpretations: in particular, your exploration of indigenous identity allows you to capture from small gestures a peculiar beauty and communicates me a process of deconstruction and recontextualization both on a formal and on a semantic level. What is it specifically about indigenous identity, which fascinates you and makes you want to center your artistic style around it? For me, Identity is an endless topic. It is all around us and often the most interesting thing in the world. My earlier work was narrated from a first person perspective and identity was at the center of the work. More recently, I’ve moved away from a personal specific identity obsession, but the work is still grounded in documentary foundations to evoke different realities. With Portrait of An Indigenous Woman, I wanted to portray the reality of being an Indigenous woman from various perspectives. Too often as indigenous woman, we are put in categories. I wanted to challenge these perceptions by letting a group of women speak for themselves themselves. The project started in December 2014 during a residency at the Banff Centre for the Arts in Canada. We have already examinated the way your work investigates about social issues from 22 LandEscape Caroline Monnet CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW
22 Caroline Monnet LandEscape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW
22 LandEscape Caroline Monnet CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW
an identitarian aspect: in Roberta, that I have to admit is one of my favorite work of yours, you focus on the osmosis between social conformism and the intimate sphere: but rather that a conceptual interiority, I can recognize the desire to enabling us to establish direct relations. While conceiving Art could be considered an abstract activity, there is always a way of giving it a permanence that goes beyond the intrinsic ephemeral nature of the concepts you explore. So I would take this occasion to ask you if in your opinion personal experience is an absolutely indispensable part of a creative process... Do you think that a creative process could be disconnected from direct experience? I am a firm believer that I can only speak about the things I know. My own personal reality is always intrinsically weaved into my work. Personal experience is a stepping-stone in creating the work I do. Roberta is a fiction film, but it is also based on the memories I have of my grandmother when I used to spend time with her during the holidays. I wanted the main character (Roberta) to be beautiful, eccentric and likable. I remember thinking that my grandmother was the most amazing and exciting woman. Only later I realized her eccentricity was hiding something deeper. She was hurt and displaced. Memories also feed imagination in my opinion. The authenticity of the story comes from a direct experience, but the fiction behind it allows for further possibilities in storytelling. The film tells the story of Roberta who left her native reserve to follow her husband in a suburban area in hopes of a better life. There she finds herself alone, far from her family and friends, and turns to amphetamines to cure her boredom. I used humor in order to talk about a dramatic subject and to make fun of a conformist lifestyle. My character is an indigenous character, but any woman of that age could probably identify with her. This helps in braking conventions and stereotypes. By showing this reality, I believe I’ve created a 22 Caroline Monnet LandEscape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW
new story in the world of indigenous cinema. Thanks a lot for your time and for sharing your thoughts, Caroline. Finally, would you like to tell us readers something about your future projects? How do you see your work evolving? Presently, I am artist in residence at the ARSENAL gallery of contemporary art in Montréal. It’s a great space showcasing amazing artists. I feel very lucky to be there and have the chance to be part of it. I have been producing sculptures that revolve around personal materiality. These works are somewhere between architecture, installation and sculpture. On the filmmaking level, I am developing a few new projects, including my first feature film, in collaboration with Daniel Watchorn. I don’t want to talk too much about it as it is still in the very first stages of development, but promises to be challenging and exciting ride. Once again, I feel like this project will aim at challenging preconceptions of indigenous realities while trying to establish understanding between different communities. I hope my work can continue to sustain itself and evolve as much as it has been evolving in the last recent years. I am always on the look out for new opportunities and I hope I can start reaching bigger audiences with both my film and visual art practice. 22 LandEscape Caroline Monnet CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW
through my work, was initially triggered by a personal experience from which I started depicting the anxiety of existing, keeping a trace and the duality of living and dying that human beings still fail to abide to. In the book “the possible life of Christian Boltanski”, Catherine Grenier asked Boltanski whether he thinks art’s main purpose is to retain something from childhood, the artist replied saying that art is an attempt to prevent death and the flight of time. He then added that art is always a sort of defeat, a struggle one can’t win: “Starting a portrait of your brother from scratch every day, you’re not going to make him immortal: he’s going to age, he’s going to change and the portrait will never be him.” Similar to Boltanski, I might, after all, be trying to prevent death, while seeking to add to discussions of personal and collective memory within the context of society and its narratives: from the culture of commemoration, the grieve, the aftermath of conflict and the many personal mourning agonies. Being both emotionally and conceptually engaged in the topic, my work seeks to develop and communicate the experience through various visual perceptions. An artist's statement efining and redefining memory, death and the Rnotion of material presence Myriam Dalal 22 LandEscape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Myriam Dalal Lives and works in Dallas, USA
LandEscape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW 22 Leaving Soon, 2013
Myriam Dalal's works accomplishes a multilayered exploration of the notions of memory, death and material presence, drawing the viewers into a liminal area in which subcounscious and conscious level cohexist in a consistent unity. Her projects trigger the viewers' perceptual parameter to raise questions about the elusive relationship between universal imagery and the way we relate ourselves to the realm of experience, creating an unconventional and captivating narrative. One of the most convincing aspect of Dalal's approach is the way it condenses the non-sharpness quality of memory with a tangible language, walking the viewers into an area of intellectual interplay that urges them to explore unstability in the contemporary age: we are very pleased to introduce our readers to her multifaceted artistic production. Hello Myriam and welcome to LandEscape: to start this interview, would you like to tell us something about your background? You have a solid formal training and after having earned BA in Fine Arts you nurtured your education joining the Masters in fine Arts program at the Académie Libanaise des Beaux Arts in Beirut, where you eventually degreed with distinction about five years ago, with specialization in Artistic photography. How have these experiences influenced your evolution as an artist? And in particular, how does your Lebanese cultural substratum inform the way you relate yourself to art making and to the aesthetic problem in general? I’ve always wanted to be a “painter”. I was three and my parents started noticing the very little –arguable- “talent” that I had. Honestly, I don’t think it was because of my remarkable doodles, but what got me hooked up, practicing ever since, was the appreciation I always received when I showed them the sketches. Putting my three year old reasoning into Hegel’s philosophy on arts and aesthetics, I think what I wanted was to visually communicate with a broader audience, in an attempt to restore my existence. My academic background played a fundamental role in rooting the research, and versatility of both medium and concept in my work. As for the connection between the social context of being Lebanese and my work, I’d like to say that, as a human and an artist, my universal being is deeply and undeniably affected by my merged memories and experiences in this sociocultural environment. The distinctive feature that marks out your multifaceted production is a successful attempt to condemn into a consistent unity the notions of memory, death and material presence: your approach reveals an incessant search of an organic balance between the emotional Myriam Dalal 22 LandEscape Maya Gelfman CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW LandEscape meets An interview by Julian Thomas Ross, curator and Melissa C. Hilborn, curator [email protected]
sphere and an autonomous conceptualism. Before starting to elaborate about your production, would you like to tell to our readers something about your process and set up? In particular, have you ever happened to realize that a synergy between several viewpoints is the only way to express of the ideas you explore? The fascination I have for death is every series’ trigger. (I think I share this fascination with every human being.) From that point on, I question every facet of a subcategorized death panel. I question but I also feel the anxiety of my concept. The combination of both easy to connect to, personal and emotionally elaborative thoughts, with the universal and conceptual nature of the visual work that I present isn’t the only way I found to express the ideas I explore, but rather the only way I chose. I’m not interested in elitist approaches to contemporary art. We would start to focus on your artistic production beginning from leaving soon, an interesting multimedia installation that our readers have already started to get to know in the introductory pages of this article. This project challenges the viewers' perceptual parameters to rethink the elusive relationships between memory and the way it is triggered by sense: when walking your readers through the genesis of this captivating project, would you tell us something about the role of memory in your work and why you have centered a relevant part of your practice on it? When losing a loved one, memory works in the most repetitive pattern, unlike the saying that time heals wounds. Those now burdening wounds keep surfacing even when they’re mostly unwelcome. The human senses are scientifically blamed of the involuntarily triggering of these memories and must be hypothetically shut to escape to forgetfulness. “Leaving soon” exemplified my personal anguish which transitioned to a nationwide scale, by losing collectively as victims of suicide bombings in Lebanon since 2013. I used all five senses in my installation to emotionally trigger the viewer’s memory. Other than in “leaving soon”, memory’s responsibility in parallel to death has taken a significant part of my practice because of its abstract nature and the absurdity of its involvement in death and its reasoning both individually and collectively. Myriam Dalal 22 Myriam Dalal LandEscape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW
After all, everyone wants to leave something behind in their quest to immortality and memory ends up being their medium. Leaving soon has been recently exhibited at the Ayyam Gallery that has been transformed into a site-specific installation: how do you see the relationship between public sphere and the role of art in public space? When curator Rania Monzer from Ayyam Gallery Beirut suggested we disregard the gallery’s space and build a dark room in which the installation fits, “leaving soon” surpassed its initial impact solely because this meant that any given viewer is not asked to step into a gallery to interact with the work, but rather enter a neutral space, free to maximize the experience with all five senses. In my opinion, and as I previously explained, the more people I can connect to, the closer I am to being an artist and in that sense, the public sphere and the integration of viewers in the work itself is crucial when no space limits are forced. Another interesting work from your recent production that has particularly impacted on us ad on which we'll be pleased to spend some words is entitled Consuming Memory in which you have accomplished a compelling investigation about the idea of consumption, that pervades our contemporary societies and especially the Lebanese one, that is caused by the constant fear of being held back towards history. We have been impressed with multilayered feature of this work, which gives permanence to the intrinsic ephemeral nature of the notion of memory. So we would take this occasion to ask you if in your opinion personal experience is an absolutely indispensable part of a creative process... Do you think that a creative process could be disconnected from direct experience? Genuine is a virtue of art. In “Consuming Memory” I tried to convey a personal theory in which I connected consumerism to collective 22 LandEscape Myriam Dalal CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW
Myriam Dalal 22 LandEscape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW
22 LandEscape Myriam Dalal CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Leaving Soon, 2013
memory in an attempt to visually translate and question the pattern of Lebanese collective memory. I wouldn’t call it direct experience but rather personal interest and approach submersed in a socio-cultural background. For instance, in my series “Souvenir”, I visualized the feeling of suicidal patients whose memory is generally diagnosed with selective impairment. The creative process here wasn’t triggered by direct experience but still lies under the socio-cultural context of the subject itself which was elicited after reading in a recent research conducted by a local NGO, that one Lebanese citizen commits suicide every three days. Consuming Memory has impressed us also for the way it raises questions about our contemporary societies, often subverting the perceptual parameters that affect the unstable sensibility: many artists from the contemporary scene, as Judy Chicago or more recently Jennifer Linton, use to include socio-political criticism in their works. It is not unusual that an artist, rather than urging the viewer to take a personal position on a subject, tries to convey his personal take about the major issues that affect contemporary age. Do you consider that your works could be political in this way or do you seek to maintain a neutral approach? And in particular, what could be in your opinion the role that an artist could play in the contemporary society? I don’t look for answers, I’m not a scientist and I don’t make judgments because I’m in no position of favoring doctrines that end up serving as propaganda. My work was never about making statements that favor or criticize a socio-political matter; it rather raises questions. It’s neither up to artists to increase awareness, given the fact that campaigns do that efficiently; nor irritate the world with their political statements. 22 Myriam Dalal LandEscape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW
Artist Mona Hatoum doesn’t portray the Israeli regime’s atrocities committed in Palestine in “Present Tense” for instance; she rather succeeds in incorporating the viewer in thoughtful questions of identity, heritage, borders and history. Artists shouldn’t play any role in contemporary society other than maintaining an authentically true and genuine approach to their world. We definitely love the way Ra’is El Teiboot questions the abstract feature of images, unveiling the visual feature of information you developed through an effective non linear narrative. In particular, playing with the evocative power of parts of human body, Ra’is El Teiboot, establishes direct relations with the viewers: German photographer and sculptor Thomas Demand once stated that "nowadays art can no longer rely so much on symbolic strategies and has to probe psychological, narrative elements within the medium instead". What is your opinion about it? And in particular how do you conceive the narrative for your works? “Ra’is El Teiboot” which translates into “How to Make the Coffin Dance” was based on a non linear narrative form because it served the purpose of a DIY self explanatory photo book which is supposed to teach the reader how to perform the culturally familiar middle eastern coffin dance in eight different steps, as performed by the dancers, actors and performers chosen to take part in this catalogue. Several art movements argued over whether art should hold symbols, tell stories or question psychological connotations, whether in film making, photography or literature. But I think the approach that serves most in communicating the subject, should determine the technical means to it. The performative nature Ra’is El Teiboot of triggers primordial parameters concerning our relation with physicality: as Gerhard Richter once remarked, "my concern is never 22 LandEscape Myriam Dalal CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW
22 Myriam Dalal LandEscape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Leaving Soon, 2013
22 LandEscape Myriam Dalal CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW
art, but always what art can be used for": what is your opinion about the functional aspect of Art in the contemporary age? Both the book and the YouTube video projection presented in the installation of the photo series “Ra’is El Teiboot” (how to make the coffin dance) integrate the viewer in the work physically, because I thrive to make the most of this interaction with the viewers while articulating my visual thought. Richter’s remark on communicating art, explains better his use of the verb “used for” in the quote you just presented: “Art serves to establish community. It links us with others and with the things around us.” Only in that sense, I think that the “functional” aspect of art can be implicated. Thanks a lot for your time and for sharing your thoughts, Myriam. Finally, would you like to tell us readers something about your future projects? How do you see your work evolving? I’m currently working on two new series: the first “Contemporary Memorial Portraits” in which I explore how time and technology led to the popularization of a sadomasochistic performance, that of taking pictures of dead bodies right after accidents’; and how this once practiced sign of fearless remembrance of the dead -by taking the corpse’s last portrait photograph during the Victorian erahas now shifted to “democratically” exposing pictures of anonymous dead bodies to all. The second series “Days in Qana” explores the time and space repetitive feature and memory’s relevance and registration mechanism on nearly 106 civilians who lost their lives in the small southern town of Qana in Lebanon after an Israeli airstrike in 1996. I can’t visualize the progress of my work yet, but I hope I get enough time and exposure to see it evolve. 22 Myriam Dalal LandEscape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW
classical Chinese landscape painting are rolling hills and rivers of native countryside in peaceful scenes done with softer, rubbed brushwork. Emphasis was placed on the spiritual qualities of the painting and on the ability of the artist to reveal the inner harmony of man and nature, as perceived according to Taoist and Buddhist concepts. My creative focus has been on the Traversing Medium and Reappropriating Motifs in Contemporary Art with continuous investigation of traversing traditional art form of Chinese landscape ink wash painting through the concept of contemporary western art setting. I have focused on exploring digital 3D skills. I want to blur the institutional and historical boundaries between traditional Chinese ink wash painting and Western graphic practices by using western 3D graphic skills to re-figure the traditional Chinese ink mountain painting. I have used the 3D software Maya to recreate the mountains, water. Beside my investigation of re-figuring the traditional art form of Chinese landscape painting, I have been also reappropriating motifs. Mountain, river, tree and water have always been popular subjects for Chinese landscape. Much of my work often interrogates historical, social and political themes from a Chinese perspective. I tried to insert modern industrial chaos into the traditional peaceful vision. It is a very interesting mix. I want to address environmental and social issues that have been brought by China’s social, economic, and cultural development. I have been working on a series of projects to epitomize the notion of inclusion by signifying the fusion of East and West aesthetic values through the lenses of culture, language, ethnicity, religion, and politics. An artist's statement andscape painting was regarded as the highest form Lof Chinese painting, The Xiaohong Zhang 22 LandEscape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Xiaohong Zhang Lives and works in the Whitewater, WI, USA
LandEscape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW 22
Xiaohong Zhang accomplishes the difficult task of a establishing an effective synergy between painting and movement, creating an area in which emotional dimension and perceptual reality coexist in a coherent unity. Unlike artists such as Carsten Höller, she does not let the viewers in the foggy area of doubt. Recently focusing on China’s environmental problems, her evocative imagery invites us to investigate themes investigating the relation between reality and the way we perceive it. One of the most convincing aspects of Zhang's practice is the way she creates an area of intellectual interplay between the heritage of her Far Eastern Identity and her current experience in a pluralistic society, . I'm very pleased to introduce our readers to her refined artistic production. Hello Xiaohong and welcome to LandEscape: to start this interview, would you like to tell us something about your background? You have a solid formal training and you hold a MFA from Southern Illinois University: how did this experience influence your evolution as an artist? Moreover, you are currently an Associate Professor in Department of Art and Design at the University of WisconsinWhitewater; do you think that teaching and daily relations with your students informs the way you conceive your works? My name is Xiaohong Zhang. I came from a small town in Northern China. I was traditionally trained in academic art forms that include Chinese brush painting, western style 22 LandEscape Xiaohong Zhang CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW LandEscape meets Xiaohong Zhang An interview by Julian Thomas Ross, curator and Melissa C. Hilborn, curator [email protected]
22 Xiaohong Zhang LandEscape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW
22 LandEscape Xiaohong Zhang CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW
drawing, and foundations of graphic design in earlier 1990’s period. We did not have today’s computer technology during my undergraduate studies when I lived in China. I started to learn about computers in 1999 when I studied at Southern Illinois University, Carbondale. During those three and half years in graduate school, I experienced intensive digital techniques and computer software and training. I even took programming classes like C++, database, etc. The entire evolution of an artist for me is a gradual transformation out of instinct and eagerness to learn the new things. The intensive teaching preparation and selfstudy of new media arts became a trigger to change my work styles over time. I used to integrate my 2D digital graphic skills with my fine arts background. Recently I started to work with the 3D in which I use 3D software Maya to rebuild the urban landscape view by incorporating traditional mountains, water and also contemporary industrial subjects like cranes. Teaching and daily interactions with my students has informed the way I conceive my works. It has changed my working process and the way of creating new projects. Before starting to elaborate about your production, would you like to tell to our readers something about your process and set up for making your artworks? In particular, what technical aspects do you mainly focus on your work? And how much preparation and time do you put in before and during the process of creating a piece? My creative focus has been on “Traversing Medium and Re-appropriating Motifs in Contemporary Art” with continuous investigation of traditional art form of Chinese painting through the concept of contemporary western digital art setting. In other words, I am always trying to use the new media technology to deliver the traditional aesthetics. The detail of mountain and rock is the interaction result of water, ink and color on rice paper. It is very similar to western Xiaohong Zhang 22 LandEscape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW
22 watercolor working process and I immediately used the software function to create a traditional Chinese style mountain after I learned it. The preparation time for completing a new work is considerably longer for me now. It can be a month or up to a year. The preparation includes software proficiency and creative thinking and iterations. Now let's focus on your artistic production; I would start with Across The Divide. Our readers have already begun to get to know you in the introductory pages of this article. I would suggest that our readers also visit your website directly at http://facstaff.uww.edu/zhangx in order to get a wider idea of your artistic production. In the meanwhile, would you like to tell us something about the genesis of this interesting project? What was your initial inspiration? Across the Divide Project is a platform for Chinese artists and scholars teaching in American universities to share creative practices, research and teaching through exhibitions, symposiums, and other related events and activities. It focuses on a shared cultural identity over differing geopolitical convictions under the large frame of Chinese culture. In 2002 Professor Yu Li at California State University, Long Beach, initialized the Across the Divide forum. He initially established connections with 14 Chinese artists who were teaching in universities across the United States. After oneyear of careful and extensive preparation, in 2004 he successfully held the first exhibition and symposium to open a public dialog on their cultural positions in American society. Inspired by Professor Yu Ji, in 2011 I collaborated with my colleague Michael Flanagan to host an international traveling exhibition Across the Divide and a related Symposium in the Crossman Gallery at University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, United States. The 2011 Across the Divide exhibition at UW-Whitewater included twentyfour contemporary Chinese artists who were working in academia across the United States. With an emphasis given to artwork that blends LandEscape Xiaohong Zhang CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW
22 Xiaohong Zhang LandEscape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW
22 LandEscape Xiaohong Zhang CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW
cultural influences drawn from both Eastern and Western aesthetics, the exhibition presented both experimental and traditional approaches that artists have applied in their studio practices to explore their personal cross-cultural perspectives in relationship to the changes that have been brought by China’s current social, economic, and cultural development. The entire Across the Divide project has been slated to elevate awareness of the Sino-Asian immigrant experience, Chinese art and educational practices, and highlight the value of global visual literacy in the Eastern and Western education systems. The investigation about shared cultural identities effectively accomplished in Across the Divide reveals the connection between different cultural spheres which describes such a real-time aesthetic ethnography: you seem to be drawn to the structured worlds we inhabit and how they produce a self-defining context for our lives and experience... A relevant feature of Green Blue Mountain that has particularly impacted on me is the way you highlight the inner bond between Man and Nature: you invite the viewer to appreciate the intrinsic but sometimes disregarded beauty of geometrical patterns, bringing a new level of significance to the idea of landscape itself. Like Jean Tinguely's generative works, this piece raises a question on the role of the viewers' perception, forcing us to going beyond the common way we perceive not only the outside world, but also our inner dimension... I'm personally convinced that some information is hidden, or even "encrypted" in the environment we live in, so we need to decipher them. Maybe that one of the roles of an artist could be to reveal unexpected sides of Nature, especially of our inner Nature... what is your point about this? My landscape works, including Green Blue Mountain, have been deeply influenced by the philosophy embedded in classical Chinese landscape paintings. Landscape painting was regarded as the highest form of Chinese painting. Classical Chinese landscape paintings often involve depictions of peaceful scenes of 22 Xiaohong Zhang LandEscape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW
rolling hills and rivers in the native countryside rendered through softer, rubbed brushwork. Emphasis was placed on the spiritual qualities of the painting and on the ability of the artist to reveal the inner harmony of man and nature, as perceived according to Taoist and Buddhist beliefs and concepts. In China the world is composed of two basic opposing forces, namely Yin and Yang. Mountains and Water Painting comes to show how the balance of Yin and Yang appears in nature. The imposing mountains protruding to the sky are the masculine power of Yang while the gentle clear water is the feminine energy of Yin. Ink that composes form embodies Yang, while Yin appears as the empty and bare paper representing mist, water and sky - both forces are prominent yet delicately blended together. My landscape work is based on retaining its inner essence while updating its subjects and media. Viewing my landscape work, it is clear that depictions of nature are seldom mere representations of the external world. Rather, they are expressions of the mind. Green Blue Mountain addresses China’s environmental problem of excessive urban development. As the speed and scale of China’s rise as an economic power accelerated, with no clear historical parallels, so has its unprecedented various pollutions endangered the ecosystem. Environmental degradation is now so severe, with such stark domestic and international repercussions, that pollutions pose not only a major long-term burden on the Chinese public but also an acute political challenge to the ruling Communist Party. The work uses traditional Chinese painting styles to show Chinese metropolitan areas surrounded by industrial building trash and wrapped in a toxic gray shroud. The ambience created in Spring Mountains has reminded me the concept of Heterotopia elaborated by French social theorist Michel Foucault. I find very impressing the way it highlights the signs of absence, urging us to rethink the concept of Space and Identity. The 22 LandEscape Xiaohong Zhang CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW
22 Xiaohong Zhang LandEscape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW
multilayered experience suggested by this work gives hints of something else happening or going on, almost on a subliminal level from ordinary reality. Could you explain this point to our readers? Ancient Chinese artists are not addressed as a group the way we are today for people with fine art skills. Painting skills are a social symbol specifically for highly educated and privileged class. Generally artists have a dual identity – politicians and fine artists. Song Dynasty emperor Zhao Ji is a good example. He was the emperor, but also was one of the most famous bird-flower artists in the history of China. My Spring Mountains has retained the peaceful vision from the Chinese tradition. Meanwhile I intentionally changed the subject and media. Traditional trees become modern industrial cranes. In the midst of the chaos caused by extraordinary urban development, the red cranes became the intruder to the peaceful vision. The red cranes here are symbols of modern industrialization in China and its dire impact to the environment. The impetuous way modern technology has nowadays come out on the top has dramatically revolutionized the idea of Art itself. In a certain sense, we are forced to rethink the intimate aspect of the 22 LandEscape Xiaohong Zhang CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW
materiality of an artwork itself, since just few years ago it was a tactile materialization of an idea. I am sort of convinced that new media will definitely fill the apparent dichotomy between art and technology and I will dare to say that Art and Technology are going to assimilate one to each other. What are your thoughts about this? I feel technology plays an important role in the history of creative art. It is the part of art making process. 40,000 years ago when Asian and European cave painters made paintings on cave walls and ceilings, mineral-based pigment was the only available “state-of-theart” medium at that time. Gradually canvas, oil paint and bronze became the “new media” and have been used and accepted by all artists. The invention of camera and photographic technology completely changed the art world. Realism is no longer the ultimate goal of artist. Today's digital media, which is commonly referred as the “New Media”, becomes the de facto technology. I'm interested in breaking down the arbitrary division between traditional art and new digital world. I believe infusing digital technology will become the major trend of art creation in the future. 22 Xiaohong Zhang LandEscape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW