Photography by Jia-Ni Dong
Art Practice
To revisit the experiences of the past, re-present the
memory of events and people, explore and re-interpret cultural iconography, and
mediate the above mentioned through form and materiality has interwoven and
actualized the very existence of my studio art practice.
A work of art addresses more than just the form. It
interweaves together signifiers that bring to mind the interconnectivity of
form, content, and context. Since the beginning of my college art education, I
have come to understand better the importance of grounding my self-identity
within the socio-cultural and historical contexts that I connect with. I have
also discovered along the way symbols that derived from my life experience are
powerful signifiers to define who I am in art making. To incorporate the two
strands of thoughts into art making has since become the primary endeavor of my
studio art practice. Over the years, orchestrating the personal experience
coded symbols to address personal queries on self identity has turned into a
significant component in my studio art practice. They are the keys that open
gateways for me to reconstruct a platform illustrating selected interactions of
mine with the world and hence to draw out my view about issues that I chose to
discuss. These signifiers might seem scattered and unrelated, like broken
pieces of memory within a work of art. Nevertheless, once links are formed
among them, like thread being woven into a piece of tapestry, they would
generate together layers of meanings that formulate contexts and narratives
that in turn unveiling a multitude of possible interpretations.
A work of art, at the same time, is the beginning to a
journey of imagination for not only the artist but also the viewer. Art making
does not come to an end once a work is done. The signifiers on the artwork have
now become stimuli for the viewers to recall their own personal experience and
to construct yet another meaning that intersect with that of the artist’s. In
this light, the interplay of context and symbolic meaning in my artwork
attempts to bring to the viewers an awareness of the temporality of being and
an unavoidability of otherness.
The physical presentation of my art is usually quiet
and unimposing. Nevertheless, I would like the work to resonate within the
viewers an awakening of a long forgotten self … perhaps even an awareness of
seeing and reading things as if they could be otherwise once the viewers are
aware of my interpretation of the work. I believe a work of art should be free
from the restriction of a preconceived sense of space and content as it
provides the artist with a way to express and the viewers a way to re-interpret,
regardless of time and physical space.
Research
My ongoing research interest lies in observing and
making sense of the influence of socio-cultural and historical contexts on the
contingent formation of self and how these negotiations within an individual
are being mediated into art making.
Hauser (1982) stated the creation of art is determined
by the interplays of multitude factors, for instance, nature and culture,
geography and race, time and place, biology and psychology, and economic and
social class, etc. and “none of them asserts itself consistently in the same
sense; each acquires its particular meaning according to the context in which
it appears with the other in the development.” (Huaser, 1982, p. 94) Although
my personal artistic growth is a testimonial to his statement above, I began to
understand his words better examined the formation of individual artistic style
among a group of young artists that graduated from CAFA (the Central Academy of
Fine Art, Beijing). Juxtaposed my on going studio art practice with those of
the participants’ and examined the similarities and differences under the scope
of socio-cultural and historical lens shined a new and different lights on the
notion of self in art making for me. The outcome of the research, thus far, is
my dissertation titled To occupy a different space of mind – Investigating
the connectivity between the socio-cultural and historical contexts and the
positioning of self in the studio art practice of the Post Eighty Generation
Artists in Beijing. The research not only gave me opportunities to
interact with the participants and to make sense of their artistic creation,
but it also marked a significant step of my academic research interest in the
area. By studying the studio art practice of the young Chinese artists, I found
a reality that parallels and at the same time intersects with that of mine. It
is from this reality that the young artists find their identity in art making;
it is also through this very reality that I see the grandeur and multiplicity
of contemporary context and reaffirm the importance of celebrating the
connectivity between contexts and self in artistic creation.
To mediate and address the influences of
socio-cultural and historical contexts on self by way of studio art making, not
only enables artists to search for and to formulate their very own artistic
identity, but it also helps them to understand and look at the world open-mindedly. Whether it is from a researcher or
an artist point of view, context ought not to be understood as a horizontal
platform or as a lineal chain of events. Rather, it is best described as messy
yet sensible interconnectivity that transcends the idea of time and space. To
make sense of this mess through art making is actually not as frustrating as it
might seem. It is like genealogy, like drawing our own family tree on a piece
of paper. If we are patient and diligent enough, it will gradually turn into an
infinite endeavor that fit pieces of a puzzle together; and the endeavor, at
the same time, will construct in front of us an amazing world that we dare to
imagine.
Teaching
On
Education
When
knowledge becomes problematic, then education is to open a window and
to bring in light that inculcates within human minds the possibilities of
otherwise.
Knowledge empowers, it gives an individual a clearer
mind to read and to understand the surrounding world. However, it also forms
within an individual a filter that prevents the person from comprehending the
same world better. Knowledge, hence, could turn into an entrapment.
In the spring of 2009, I heard Maxine Greene
addressing education in a seminar. Of all the issues that she discussed, the
connotation “open a window on the wall” that she began the lecture
with keep coming back to me through the course of the years. Indeed, her
philosophy on education is significant for me in defining myself as an educator.
I hardly questioned the value of knowledge and education but Greene really “opened up a window that bring in light”
for me. Perhaps society has inculcated in our minds a utilitarian perception in
understanding education. It has been reduced to mere means for knowledge
transmission so individuals could be better equipped as useful citizens and civilized
beings. Greene’s manifestation, somehow, made me realized that perhaps, through
transmission of knowledge, education had also formed within us walls that
stopped individuals from seeing things beyond the already known. Therefore, educators
should be aware that learning to look at things from other perspectives and to
realize the possibilities of otherwise is equally important if not more in
education.
On Studio Art
Practice:
If studio art practice is a life style, then the
essence of art making lies not in an end product but in a forever evolving
creation.
We ought to value more the process
that we took to bring to the world a temporal moment of pause as these moments
give others more than just a completion of an artistic endeavor or a conclusion
of a particular phase of our life as an art maker. They inclusive of all that
we took to arrive to that particular place and time as living human beings.
Nevertheless, before we depart on yet another venture, we ought to also be
mindful that the new voyage starts not afresh but from where we left off, be it
in art making or in defining ourselves as a human being. For us to travel light
while carrying along with us the ‘personal or societal burdens from the past’,
we ought to constantly reflect upon ourselves honestly the steps that we took
in defining our state of being. If our art is a true reflection of who we are,
perhaps the process of art making is about nothing else but “being honest to
ourselves”.
