Everything that happens today is connected to what happened yesterday. Artistic creation is no exception. In the past over 30 years, the evolutionary route from imitation to today’s art consciousness has been “doomed” for contemporary art in China because the concept of modern and contemporary arts is itself introduced from the West, so is the concept of Marxism.
Behind artistic works is often the influence of the times and the artist’s attitudes towards and reflection on it, which together forms the essence of these works. As a result of the interaction between arts and the time, the place, western influence and the market, a variety of artistic forms have appeared in history, such as the Political Pop and the Cynical Realist paintings that appeared at home in the 20th century, paintings that have stolen the whole show in the art market in the past decade. Abroad, Chinese artists have successfully incorporated traditional Chinese elements into popular forms of contemporary art in the West for the 1990s was a decade of “cultural diversity” in the West. In the first decade of the 21st century, the rapid economic growth in China was a mixed blessing: it made China the second biggest economy in the world but at the same time widened the rich-poor gap and severely damaged the environment. The new circumstances are captured by artistic works. Some artists are bold enough to expose the ugly reality under the surface of a glamorous piece of work, and some others adopt a visual language that is reserved yet sharp to allude to the reality, a compromise to voice their discontent and protect them from revenge at the same time --- works of this type are often included in major exhibitions. Judging from the present situation, the latter is a better choice --- it puts up a resistant gesture and doesn’t try to appeal to the audience. It would be perfect if such works are original in the artistic form and eco-friendly in the materials used. In contrast, the former makes art cheap by trying to flattering the audience.
There’s another option, the most popular artistic choice in the world: using completely new materials and forms for artistic creation. Thanks to the leading position of western countries in scientific and technological advancement, artists from central western countries are unparalleled in the creation of works of this type. So artists in non-mainstream countries, without cultural advantage, have to make another choice: they still use new materials and forms, but their works must appear abstractly meaningful --- you know I’m talking but you don’t know what I’m talking about.
In the past decade, there are certainly many works of “Small Fresh” style emerging, which can be ignored here.
However, most of our exhibits this time are different from any of the above, but they represent something many artists have been trying to do, and a phenomenon that we cannot afford to neglect. These artists focus more on their feelings, experiences and living environment. Perhaps it’s a helpless choice as the conflict between globalization and regionalization intensifies? Perhaps artists don’t care what the mainstream is doing, but care more about what we should be doing as self-consciousness? Perhaps they don’t need the praise of anyone for their works for to live in this place is what they want to do here. It’s fair to say that their works are more “in-the-site”, or there’s certain “deviation” from mainstream hiding in their works.
Therefore, what is “deviated” from? What do we mean by “in-the-site”? And how to redefine its relationship with “globalization”? These questions are what this exhibition is focusing on.
Academic Presider: Wang Zhiyuan