Abstract：
1. There are different artistic expressions in contrasting times owing to diverse needs, which illustrate different spirits of time.
2. Contemporary arts have finished the breakthrough in format, and pay more attention to definition, introspection, and intuitionistic feelings when it comes to content.
3. Contemporary arts are not trying to cross the border of art, instead, they are exploring our possibilities in art, which we have not known.
Art is not just a megaphone for the individual artist, but often reflects the spirituality of an era. Contemporary art comes with a defiant force, bringing a delayed beauty through negation. Today, we can feel the process of art’s completion on the spot and become part of it, because it is no longer confined to the original rules and a single medium. The boundaries between creator, work, and audience are broken down.
James Turrell, Gathered Sky, Installation, 2012 (Photo by Ben McMillan)
Note: In this wonderful space, our consciousness is focused on the light itself, rather than on the objects that appear because of it. Unlike past experiences, here is pure serenity, where each person creates a different world by engaging with light. Some bask in the serenity of light, while others are bored by the discomfort of escaping the mundane world.
The artists invite viewers to complete the rest of their work, guiding us to perceive the world and the relationships that exist within it, sometimes brutally and shockingly, reminding us to ‘return’. Also, they bring a new sense of light, time, space, or other things that throw us into a more realistic world.
Zhou Jie, 36 days, Performance Art, 2014
Note: Nudity makes us abandon our preconceptions and rethink the meaning of the body. However, Zhou Jie’s intention is not to be nude, but to show her state of existence. We can vaguely sense: Just like those wires, the world refuses to be fully naked and sincere to protect us from being stung by the brutal truth. We seem to have lost the ability to sleep soundly, even though the bed is soft. In such a state of existence, a hard wire may be more real than a soft feather.
Wang Shihua, Cang Xin, Gao Yang, Zuoxiao Zuzhou, Ma Zongyin, Zhang Huan, Ma Liuming, Zhang Binbin, Zhu Ming, Duan Yingmei, Lv Nan, To Add One Meter to an Anonymous Mountain, Performance Art, 1995
Note: I found the work very powerful, and it made me think about how I should exist. The fearful, disguised, and arranged lives seem to have made us forget that we are supposed to be rooted in the earth. Should art be defined? Perhaps the best art in the world would not be better than a person looking back over his life in moments prior to death.
Although contemporary art attempts to cross the boundaries of art, no matter how its form changes, the essence of art remains the same; what changes is our understanding of the essence of art. All art is the same, that is, in leading people back to the highest dimension. If we return to the highest dimension, the boundaries of art will automatically disappear.
Zen Master Koan, Ten Ox Herding Pictures——Both Bull and Self Transcended, Traditional Chinese Painting, Song dynasty (960-1279)
Note: From my point of view, contemporary art is attempting to reach or breakthrough itself to a realm where there is no separation between subject and object, and the self transcends its ‘self.’ There is no will, no longer seeking answers to truth, the duality of self and reality has been overcome——if so, art will be complete freedom. When art returns to human beings themselves, art will still be art. But if people return to their origins, art will be dissolved, and there will be no boundaries.
References
[1]Wang Shouzhi, ‘A History of Contemporary Art in the World’, Beijing: China Youth Press, 2001.
[2]Su Rong, ‘What is the Border——The Chaos of Contemporary Art’, in Public Art, Vol. 2019, No. 18.
[3]Wang Xiaohua, ‘The Diverse Landscapes of Contemporary Art’, in Chinese Journal of Art Studies, No. 5, 2021.
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