Classical Eco-aesthetics in Southwest China
A4 Museum, Chengdu, China, 12.21.2019
Classical Eco-Aesthetics in 1990’s Southwest Performance Art.
Investigation of Principles in Chinese Classical Eco-Aesthetics:
1990’s Chengdu Performance Art
《格物、古典生態美學、以及90年代成都行為藝術》
Dr. Sophia Kidd, Sichuan University
Abstract: In the “Great Learning” of the Record of Rites (6th-4th Century BCE) gewu 格物 meant to study, examine, and probe, to get at the underlying principles of things. Later, by the Records of the Three Kingdoms, Chen Shou (233-297 CE) reinforced a virtue ethic that tied gewu to the moral integrity of an observer, with thrifty purse, trim waistline, and love of moderation. He added, too, cycles of change from rise to decline and back again. In the Song dynasty, gewu was a key neo-Confucian learning technology, espoused by Zhu Xi and his neo-Confucian school. By the Qing, gewu translated Western ‘natural science,’ a discipline lateral to medicine and geography. In more than two millennia from Zhou to Qing, gewu has morphed from an ecological and holistic activity, to a scientific-materialist discipline. This can be reflected in the ecological collapse of our earth today, as a result of such transformations in thinking over time.
This lecture was presented at A4 Museum in Dec 2019 and more recently at Qinghua University in Dec 2021, we return gewu to classical contexts, as an investigation of principles (investigation of things, lixue), extending our study of nature and time to that of art and performance. We use gewu as a foil for looking at methodologies and attributes of performance art in Keepers of the Water, an ecological intervention performed in Chengdu (1995) & Lhasa (1996) by artists from all over China in connection with Chengdu live art collective 719 Artists Alliance and US performance artist and water activist, Betsy Damon. Exploring Yinyang Five Element Correlative thinking, Sophia Kidd inscribes a classical Chinese eco-aesthetic worldview into contemporary Southwest Chinese art development narrative. This lecture hosted in-person talks by Dai Guanyu, Zhu Gang, and Zhou Bin. Excerpts and analysis of interviews with four Keepers of the Water artists and Betsy Damon inform a discussion on how artists engage in social issues.
Keywords: eco-aesthetics, Chinese art, Correlative thinking, Chengdu performance art, Chinese contemporary art, Yinyang Five Element theory