Or is it Second Nature

Text: Dr. Sophia Kidd

Or is it Second Nature explores contemporary art from the perspective of affective geography, mapping how emotions and cognition empower artists and audiences to navigate their natural, cultural, and spiritual environments. Or is it Second Nature presents case studies of eleven artists: Shu Qun (舒群), Qiu Zhijie (邱志杰), Tian Ye (田野), Li Zhanyang (李占洋), Zhang Xiaotao (张小涛), Li Chuan (李川), Qiu Anxiong (邱岸雄), Li Tingwei (李亭葳), Chen Weicai (陈伟才), as well as Alois & Ling Nimmervol (阿路易斯&琳·力迈尔佛), focusing on natural, cultural, aesthetic, and affective geographic elements within their artwork. 

Viewers of artworks in Or is it Second Nature are encouraged to first and foremost feel the artwork, then make sense of who created them, materials used, and what information passes through sight, sound, spatial negation, time, and touch.

We feature paintings, prints, sculpture, installation, video, and performance art in Or is it Second Nature. Paintings and prints rely solely on a sense of sight, with lights, darks, value, contrast, texture, brushstroke, and composition all inducing feeling. Videos also speak through sound and space, moving through time. Sculpture and installations compete with our bodies for space, speaking to us through sight and corporeality, as does performance art, which speaks to us through all of our senses, including those of time and space. All these types and genres of artwork ask us to feel what the artist has felt, to come to our own conclusions as to what these feelings mean in our own lives.

Our “second nature” 感性 (ganxing) is social, and competes all the time with our “first and original nature 天性 (tianxing).” Artists help us reconcile these natures, by creating middle spaces that lead to dreams. When Master Zhuang asks us if we are a person dreaming, we are a butterly, or a rather a butterfly dreaming we are a person…it is “second nature” to know we are human, and not butterfly, for only human beings would ask such a foolish question. But is it foolish? And should our second nature negotiate the world with such a rigid imagination?

Paintings in Or is it Second Nature by Qiu Zhijie, Zhang Xiaotao, Qiu Anxiong, Li Chuan, Shu Qun, and Alois Nimmervol are as varied as are these artists and their approaches to art. Qiu Zhijie claims that “cartography has become a methodology. Making maps is not only a way of drawing, but also a way of understanding the world.” 

Indeed, his exhibitions throughout the world have featured the use of painting as cartography. While Qiu Zhijie often adds text in both English and Chinese to his painted maps, Or is it Second Nature features his Experimentation in Color series 色彩实验系列 (Secai shiyan xilie). This series relies not only on text, but also color and composition to speak to us in non-verbal languages of riverways and blood capillaries, a dream-like language of vitality. 

Zhang Xiaotao’s paintings are studies of forgotten and neglected sites. Encounter 1904 相遇1904  (Xiangyu 1904) juxtaposes an imagined past and recollected architecture beneath a freeway overpass. Fitting an entire legacy within an otherwise unimportant space, one through which we merely pass on the way to another “more important” place, reminds us of how affective spheres of consciousness work, always embedding micro-recollections within otherwise fleeting moments.

Silence 寂静 (Jijing) follows another utterance of meeting. In this case, however, it is one between sunlight and shadow, a meeting within the human soul as a feeling of tranquility and stillness. We find ourselves once again in a concrete space with cement below, alongside, and above us. It is a physically alienating space, one which we pass through pretending not to care. But the canvas is unpopulated by living beings, there is nothing human about this space, except for its utility. We feel the shadow of an existential void, into which shines a golden ratio of light.

In Could it all Happen Again? 一切可以重来？(Yiqie keyi chonglai?) we see a volcano exploding. The volcano is rendered in grey-scale with dark values and detailed fissures throughout the exploding land mass. The plume of smoke is also uniquely shaded with dark and light values which, along with the volcano, are foregrounded against vaguely rendered mountains and clouds – visible through outline mostly, as our memories are – while the presently exploding moment is felt and embodied, rich with nuance. 

Shu Qun’s contribution to Or is it Second Nature includes two paintings which picture arches and sacred architectures that would be found in other lands. An as yet Incomplete Representation series #2 & #3 …待完成的象征…系列2、3号 (…Dai wancheng de xiangzheng…xilie #2 & #3) are composed to reveal the inside, and then the outside of sacred spaces. Number 3 is set against a flat and dark background, while Number 2 contains high contrasting shades and dimensions expressing a more balanced feeling of imagination. 

Alois Nimmervol’s paintings offer variety in Or is it Second Nature, employing a mark-making approach in his representation of the water and sunshine of the island of Tahiti. This artist’s contribution to Or is it Second Nature brings with it a level of abstraction in form, texture, and stroke which reminds us of the ways in which art education varies between civilizational cores, and that aesthetics are, to a certain degree, geographically influenced.

Or is it Second Nature features video artworks by Qiu Anxiong, Zhang Xiaotao, Li Tingwei, and Chen Weicai. Qiu Anxiong’s video artwork is a stark contrast to what many of his audiences are accustomed to seeing by the artist. Jiangnan Poem 江南错 (Jiangnan cuo) is an early work created nearly 20 years ago, both minimalist and naturalist in scope, with none of the elaborate dystopian animation we find in the artist’s well-known New Classic of Mountains and Seas. The color scheme is, however, very much the same—black and white, a precursor of the ink-wash animation by which Qiu Anxiong would later be known. 

This is a meaningful meditation upon a single moment in nature. A stark and sparse image of the upper portion of tree branches, upon one of which sits a single bird. A breeze gently moves the branches, an earthy life force 地籁 (dilai) so subtle in feeling and tone that, when the bird abruptly alights, we awaken from the poem. 

This focus on ecology envelops humans, nature, and culture in a system of feeling and co-existence which, although apparently gentle and non-assuming, directly confronts social expectations, demanding we lean into our “social” second nature. Parting the Water to See the Stone is reminiscent of Buddhist and Confucian exhortations to “shine a light on one’s mind/heart, and reveal one’s true nature,” as well as Aldous Huxley’s claim that, “if the doors of perception were cleansed, everything would appear as it is, infinite.”

Li Chuan, Tian Ye, Li Tingwei and Chen Weicai’s installation artworks in Or is it Second Nature populate affective spaces between people, culture, and nature. Tian Ye’s installation artwork Be Careful Not to Overdue It 点到为止 (Dian dao wei zhi) brings the affective power of visual texts into view.

Calling upon the ritualistic nature of visual texts and the ways in which we behave around them, exhibition audiences are incorporated into a performance of devotion as they read visual texts from different affective regions of the earth. This artwork also invites audiences to interact with the painted walls of this installation, mark-making through burning, leaving traces of their own feelings and actions within the world of art-within-the-world. 

Ling Nimmervol’s sculptures inhabit space on the exhibition floor of Or is it Second Natureas monoliths from the affective dimension, harbingers of peace as well as the natural deity of the ocean. Peace 平 (Ping), made of and mounted on stainless steel, is composed of just three shapes, one of which resembles the curved edge of a knife, cutting through the feeling of obscurity and obtuse aggression. A red vertical line descends the height of a slender rectangle like a drop of blood, as two circular holes penetrate the semicircular blade, eyes through which the future views us standing here today.

Li Zhanyang’s performance installation in Or is it Second Nature provides us with an opportunity to be benevolent, to make a difference in students’ lives, and to contribute to the future of art. Artworks serve as maps of our affective spaces, helping to understand our lives. But we cannot leave it at that. We must examine our feelings, and then make a decision—a decision to benefit others. 

Li Zhanyang’s artwork provides his students at Sichuan Institute of Fine Arts with a platform on which to sell their artworks, to earn some money, and to continue their exploration of and commitment to art. Representing the forces of the art market, rising unemployment in society, and a lack of opportunities for emerging artists to exhibit their artworks, Li Zhanyang’s Market Gallery 李占洋货廊 (Li Zhangyang huolang) brings us back to earth, and gives us an opportunity to take home a piece of Or is it Second Nature at bargain price.

— Dr. Sophia Kidd, Chongqing, China