By Gao Ling

The Chinese artists has integrated their art careers into the need of a struggle for existence and political struggle for the independence of the nation, the liberation of the people, the construction of a new China and a breaking away from a progressive politics. This has lasted for a long time in history. Their arts have become a visual tool and weapon for the various classes in China. And some are blue-chip. The exploration of the ideological emancipation, conception and experiment of context have been ploughed by the Chinese artists through the thirty-year-long revolution, and this has created a freer and more independent manner for the art scene to reflect the change that happed in the Chinese society. As a result they have gained attraction through some important exhibitions. However, these works, which have recorded the change of society and spirit of Chinese for the past thirty years, could not effectively offer a perspective and constructive hint to the whole art scene. The reason is that all such works relate to a single artistic vision of the society. Should art for human? Or should it for society? Or even for a country or politics? This has become the only proper course for the innovation of art. If art reflects or expresses nothing about the man, such an art could not be tagged as the contemporary art, especially not for the Chinese contemporary art. Seemingly such a vision of the society echoes the trend of democratization and freedom in world. But such an artistic society has sacrificed an intact artistic vision. Besides it makes no profit for the development of art worldwide. Because a way of chasing a freedom and democracy of a society and political system has never been the mainstream in both the past and present art world in the West. The highlight is always set on expressing a consciousness hidden inside humans as they meet the challenges of the world and environment. Democracy, freedom and a sense of civilian have all been fostered by the Enlightenment and Industry Revolution several hundred years before. Those are the key factors. The western art has long set eyes on the truth of painting language and landscape painting for a goal to overcome the problems and challenges that are triggered by the Revolution.  

This means that we have misread or exaggerated the role of the art in the democracy and freedom in western society. But we have ignored the whole value that has developed from its own logic and the direction of the art development in the world.

Art is born for human beings, and such a social vision does represent the essential and ultimate meaning. But this doesn’t mean that the object of the artistic visual expression should be filled fully by only people or society, especially for a nation that possesses a natural tradition and consciousness of landscape like China. A society of people is not formed only by people, but also formed by the nature. A society without the nature is unbelievable and nonexistent. But such an elementary principle has been forgotten in the art development for the past thirty years in China. It is exactly the right principle that discovered by our ancestors that become the richest fortune for the development of the whole art history.

Such a situation is caused by various factors, but mainly is because of the richness of the change for the past thirty years in every aspects of the society. The change is so huge that it has attracted the artists to hold their brushes to testify it and ignored other meanings of art. They could not extend their visions from the relations between people, and society to the existence of all species: like the mountains, nature, and environment. 

An artistic vision without nature resembles a vision without society. Neither is complete. Our ancestors have been respected for the rich consciousness for the nature in art history. How could we redraw the consciousness of the nature that come from our ancestors to form a new vision and style that fits the direction of the art development by applying the international visual languages and materials with the global background and climate-emphasized trend? This will be the best way to escape the displacement and estrangement that are caused because of a different history and reality from the West. Now the relationship between humans and nature has become the priority of a sustainable development. Our traditional consciousness of the nature will be the nutriment for the world art development.  

The Consciousness of Nature in History and the Discovery of Nature Beauty

Human lives in the nature. The nature is the prerequisite for the existence of the human. Such a relationship has existed from the very beginning of human history. However it has been a long and slow process for the nature to become the object in human’s mental world. In other words, the thoughts of the nature, the physical world and the universe grow up gradually into a vision in human’s ideological field. Due to different environments two different understandings of the natured are built. And the two different visions of the nature have influenced the ideology, spirit and culture in the East and West.  

This nature is a physical existence in respond to the mental thoughts of human—the first nature. It is a summation of all substances in universe. It will not shift for the will of us. It exists for itself. The understanding of this summation of all that surround us has formed a vision in philosophy, aesthetic culture and creations in art. Such an understanding, or the knowledge and expression of the nature, is called the second nature. It contains various backgrounds of economy, politics and culture. 

In China, our ancestors have built a faith for the nature: adore it and follow it. “Tao is One. One grows two, two to three, and three to every thing.” Taoism emphasizes the circulation of nature and human. It never stops. And such a saying has pointed out the rule: “human follows the earth, the earth follows the sky, the sky follows Tao, and Tao means the nature.”  The nature is the rule for the move and development of everything. So the behavior of human must follow the nature and comply with it. The harmony between human and nature is the highest level for a substance. From a modern aspect, such a vision of the nature reflects the worship for nature. People were willing to express the nature through their mental thinking with a concrete image imagination, rather than try to analysis or transform. As a result the traditional vision of the nature in China became a vibrant field for the image-related thoughts.

The word Nature originates from the Latin “Natura”, which means the law of the all. The original meaning in Greece is the internal features of all. In fact, in the eyes of the ancient Greeks the origin of the world has nothing to do with any “existence”, but the truth. “Every thing and all the things are made from it. It is the origin and the end (the forms changes but the Entity remains). That is the essential element and the truth for everything.” Therefore, the Westerner believes that, the knowledge of the nature is the research of the truth. They follow the truth by observing the internal features of the nature. The Truth and nature do not stand side by side as they are treated in the East. For them are they the reason and result, decision and being decided, subject and object. Human has to treat the nature as an object and analysis it, hoping to find the truth inside the nature. Such a situation is enhanced after the appearance of Jewish Christian. “They separated the spirit and nature and let the former reign the latter. They made it to a rule that humans, in some way and some aspects, are superior like the God towards the nature. In the world only the human gained spirit, so that they feared no obstacle came from the nature. The Bible shows: the earth is designed for human sake. ” “Even under such a developed generation, the Christian still govern the thoughts of Europe. Their faith has provided a domain for the initiators of new science. Such a control over the nature is a victory for the science, but it is at the same time a proof of the description inside the Bible that human is the master of the earth.” Such statements from the western scholars prove that, represented by the European, a faith of both philosophy and religion has divided the human and nature. They believed that man possesses a right to rule the nature. They paid attention to the exploring, transforming and conquering of nature. Even when the revolution of religion and the Renaissance came, and the people in the West have been freed from the religion and regain the value and dignity as human beings, the faith of “human prevails” has been even deepened. Such a vision of the host and guest emphasizes the sense and science, believing that with science and rationality own man unlimited potential. 

The discovery of the beauty in nature is a long process just like the development of the vision in the history of human. Jakob Burckhardt writes, “Such an appreciation of the nature is usually a long and complicated journey of discovery. But the origin is hard to be detected, for before its appearance in poems and paintings such an obscure sense could have been long existed.” For China the obscure sense for the nature and landscape has been found before the Qin Dynasty. It has been developed in Han and prospered in Weijinnan Times. The distance of human and nature that showed in The Book of Songs, The Songs of Chu, and other essays of Laozi, Zhuangzi and Confucian is so tiny and the relationship is so harmonious, which clearly reflects the passion and love of the nature. Although immortality, mystery and Tao meditating have mingled such emotion and vision in Weijinan Times, the desire of freedom in spirit and carefree mood that entailed from the appreciation of the landscape has mirrored a more mental-related and transparent vision world compared to the former virtue of nature and at the same time a strong western painters. In such way the ancient painters put the viewers and themselves into the landscape, making the viewers become the painter of a picture and the art too, allowing everyone to develop the imagination and to add all the details of the picture. While the western painters and viewers passively look inside the sight that stand in front of a certain point. (Such a situation has then incisively changed as the philosophy of Kantian showed up, which is, the viewers begin to look outside while they stand inside. This marks the beginning of a half-century-long revolution in the western art world.)This means, the key for the Chinese painters is the spatial vision and aesthetical sense of the universe. Zong Baihua believes that “such a spatial consciousness and expression is ‘as unlimited as the space’. Such a space does not formed by the western perspective space that is filled by geometry and triangle. It is a space of Yin and Yang, light and shade, high and low.” He cites Dong Qicang’s words: “the ups and downs of the mountains build grandeur. The high and low thin woods make emotion. This is the secret of painting.” What’s more, the concept of time and light of the Chinese is also worth attention. Confucius once said, “It flows so without paying attention of days or nights.” Time is compared to a river, and the flying time is just like people standing against the river. The future come across from behind, when it flows across the people, it becomes the present. But this lasts no longer than a glimpse. Therefore it is gone before man could face it. Compared to the saying of time in the West is such a comparison more accurate, since it admits that the present keeps coming and provides accidents and surprises. This is in accordance with the spatial consciousness of “as unlimited as the universe” (The Book of Changes)—the concept of time in Orient keeps recycling. Time is in fact the only eternity of the present, but not one-way. In most cases the themes of the works in the East would not be limited in time. Those mountains and gullies, plum blossoms, orchid, bamboo and chrysanthemum always stand above the time, for the scenes in the pictures in fact are results of observations of different time. They are the images inside the Chinese’s mind. If time is not linear, if space is not abstract, but a substance that includes everything, then light does not need to go through the space in a certain time and there is no need to show the shade in the western paintings.The artists in the West depict the beauty of the outside world accurately and perfectly. They treat this as a tribute to the God, since they gain a different vision of the nature and have been influenced by the principles of the Jewish Christian. God is believed to be the creator of the world and beauty. And artists had a commitment to paint as what the nature looked like. They focused on both the whole sight and details, especially the features of space and timing. As for the composition and manipulation of space, the focus perspective is applied for a concrete moment and space with light and color. Bruegel, Poussin, Turner and Constable are the masters of landscape painting. They all create a 3-dimension space in the picture, making everything disappears at a certain point. The front view, medium and distant view is arranged by following such a perspective. Such a rule for the classical landscape painting has pushed all the painters to chase after a life-like picture of the nature. They use their logic to find scientific ways for a more direct, vivid and effective expression, even for a tiny difference hides in a detail. 

Reflection in Contemporary View

Although the western artists see the world with science and numbers, while the Chinese counterparts pursue a poetic art space, they depict both the nature and deliver a vision of aesthetics, ideal and morality. Despite the objective and scientific meaning of environment.” This is in fact a term that contains substances in the nature and extension of cultural matters. Man could not treat the environment as an object that can be observed, felt and expressed since man could never stand outside an environment.

The outsider in the vision of nature lacks a meaning of “be faithful to what you have seen” and the sentiment of philanthropy. The relationship between man and the nature could only be featured with control, reign, exploitation and conquest. A concept of conquering the nature through science and technology has become a common view after the 17th Century. It has worried the thinkers in the West. Husserl points out: “at the turn of 19th and 20th Century, the evaluation of science has changed. We set this as the starting point. What we are discussing now does not refer to the scientificity of any field, but the knowledge of every field of the common science. What has it meant to life and what could it mean …the demonstration-based science is rejecting an urgent question that man has to face when a fundamental revolution for man’s destiny is needed in a wretched time like what we have now: if a life is meaningful or not. These are such common and inevitable questions for the whole human ration. Don’t they need to be thought and answered with a rational vision? All the questions decide, whether one could freely make decisions as he live with others and the environment. They involve that whether man could logically shape himself and his world among various possibilities.”  

In 1962, the American marine biologist Walter Lechner published his masterpiece The Silent Spring after a four year’s long hard work. This aroused the awareness of environment protection and survival. Under the encouragement of Lechner, the massive movements against environmental pollution and destruction rose. The truth is that, after the Industry Revolution the world.

faced a serious environmental crisis in 1980s and 1990s. the crisis could be found in the crisis of world population, crisis of fresh water, the extinction of species, lost of soil, desertification, decrease of forests, crisis of energy, destroy of ozonosphere, climate change, acid rain, red tide and so on. The explosion of ecological crisis has seriously endangered the live of human. Therefore a massive ecological movement occurs. The movement is a brand-new movement both from form and content that has never been found in history. As a green movement, this ecological movement is the biggest-ever and form-most movement in the developed countries. China, the biggest developing country in the world, is facing the same pressure and challenge despite its development of economy.

Maybe we should escape or retreat to the era of our eastern ancestors when naturalism and care-free mental state flourished, and see the technology and use of nature as devils? This is a vision that misunderstands the signs as root. Apparently it lacks an insight and theory. There are progress and setback in the exploring, transforming and using of nature. The key always lies in, or we could know and understand the relationship between man and nature once again.

The Third Nature—

the Contemporary Expression of the Nature

How could the artists readjust the vision of the nature and the manner of expression in their works? How could the contemporary artists who have gained rich traditional sense of landscape face the rich resource in art and the serious ecological crisis and find their own solutions? If we admit that we could not return back to the self-content and elegant landscape that is created by our ancestors, who lived in the farming era, then there should prefer “consciousness” for this key issue.

I choose the “Chineseness in Indigenous Mode”, but not “Chinese Consciousness”, to represent the works from Chinese artists, for avoiding three misunderstandings that might occur: first, it is not defined from a certain nation, but from a view of philosophy and universe. Second, it is not

a concept of geography, culture, or space, but an upgrade and conclusion of the eastern vision. Third, it differs from the exoticism or any kind of piecing together with various Chinese artistic materials, but a vision of rich diversity and internationality. The consciousness replaces the experience. That is an advance of experience, a penetration of theory.

What is the meaning of “Chineseness in Indigenous Mode”? Proverbially the traditional thought of consciousness possesses a feature of “integral structure”. Viewed today, that is a concept of a universal integration, an acknowledgment of universal ecological style. “In the West the classical rationalism is compared with empiricism by Kant and debated by judgment. It has stripped from the concepts that stand above the human judgment. That has provided a condition for the development of human knowledge in the West.” The development of philosophy, aesthetics and theories has proved the endeavor of overcoming the negative effects that are brought by rationalism. As the knowledge of human consciousness in the West deepens, the theories, concepts, domains and issues have all found similarity of the oriental, especial Chinese consciousness. Under a comparison in structure and combination of thoughts and consciousness in the West and East, as the logic of human and society keep developing to the present, has make such a methodology possible. 

This means that “Chineseness in Indigenous Mode” originates from the traditional Chinese “integral structure”, but it pays attention to the suitable elements through the research, exploration, discovery and transformation of the western traditional culture, especially those on external physical property and logicality. It is nothing like a simple transplant. It is reconstruction of the eastern and western consciousnesses that have escaped the limitation of nation, country, race or faith. “It is hard to imagine, without a positive learning and transforming from the contemporary art in other regions, the Chinese art could have been so rich in material, manner and language and so on, and gain an understanding and reputation worldwide. The interaction, adoption and combination of the East and West are not just a need and possibility theoretically, but also a requirement of world variation and development. As the world keeps its pace of globalization, the mode of production has made an unprecedented shock and influence on all lands and civilizations. How to find the common ground and spiritual integration under a situation of different development stages and levels? Then it is necessary to find a mutual respect and understanding through the culture and aesthetics.”

The advantage of art lies in the image, a visual image. The image of “the Third Nature” of the Chinese contemporary artists is a concrete visual expression of the relationship between human and the nature in “Chineseness in Indigenous Mode”. And it is a reconstruction of artistic expressions of the East and West that is built under its unique culture and tradition.

New Meaning of the Contemporaneity

What is the contemporaneity of art? This has become the hottest topic nowadays. The contemporaneity of art in fact gains various ways of manners in different fields and levels. People present definitions to politics, democracy, freedom, justice, comment, personality and joy and others ago.  Now the human once again face the problem: how to cross over the high wall of material world reigned by the commodity exchange law, and to wake the natural attribution inside human up.” It is a big issue for all the artists of today, including the Chinese artists, to find a way to repair the natural attribution inside human and build a wall to defend the attack—or should we say, to balance the market value system. A simple repeat of the ancient landscape painting would definitely be at odds with the psychological need of times. Then “is there no more other aspects, such as the value, trait, rhythm or spirit—especially the spiritual resonance of the ancient masterpieces—that could be created with camera, computer or oil painting? Isn’t this the goal that some Chinese modern artists endeavored for in the early 20th century? ” Landscape painting should preserve such a trait and sense as what Mr. Sigg longs for. But the gain of such trait and sense need a homage and imagination of the nature (even when it is second-handed) from the artists—how much do we know about the nature in our planet? Can we respect, worship and even praise the greatness of the nature under the endless disputes and wars of resources between nations, races, religions? Art and cultural media pay attention to the development of the humanity more easily under this open and democratized era with informationization and globalization. This is for sure. The point is that the responsibility and goal of artists are more than that. They contain a richer and further appeal and target—because the earth exists, the human appear. The earth and human, the nature and humanity are tied together. However inside them there is lopsided. The nature and the earth could gain more attention from the human. The expression of the state and principle of the both could win a far-reaching and broader horizon. That is an important direction of the art world. The value orientation of contemporary art is decided not just by the attention of the destiny of the human in society, but also the attention of the destiny of the society-nature tie.

The 17 artists in the exhibition have visualized our meditations and questionings with their personal point of view and attention.

28th Jan-4th Feb, 2012