An article by Samuel Sklar
Conceptual art is commonly associated with rejecting or dematerializing the art object. Works from the 1960s Conceptual art movement like Joseph Kosuth’s One and Three Chairs, which consists of a word chair, a picture of that chair, and a printed definition of the word chair, exemplify this perception.
The work is intentionally visually banal and exists to communicate ideas about how art is defined and understood. Artists from this movement viewed non formal features like concepts and ideas as their primary medium and produced visually banal, easily reproducible, or ephemeral works. [1] These artworks require creativity and artistic skill but not the technical skill many associate with typical visual artworks. Some skepticism directed at conceptual art’s value from critics and audiences is often based on these perceived features. Challenging the value of objects in art has sometimes overtaken how conceptual art is viewed and defined. However, the goals of certain American artists from the 1960s do not define the style, and there are examples of conceptual artists who utilize more traditional aesthetic features, like visual appeal and beauty, for conceptual ends. The practices of conceptual artists from the 1980s, such as avant-garde artists within China, were influenced by the existing conceptual art movement. Still, they incorporated distinct themes and local influences that led to approaches that utilized aesthetic features for conceptual ends.
[2] Chinese conceptual art developed in the context of economic reforms and opening-up policy of the 1980s. This led to artists engaging with contemporary developments in Western art as texts were imported, with conceptual artists like Sol LeWitt and Joseph Kosuth having their works translated into Mandarin in 1982. Many conceptual artworks in China were influenced by the strategies and theories of Western conceptual art, but artists in China did not seek to adopt or join existing movements. [1] Some conceptual artists in China distinguished themselves through amore accepting attitude to the use of traditional aesthetic qualities for conceptual ends. The art historian Gao Minglu refers to this aesthetic approach to conceptual art as “maximalism.”[2] The visually stunning conceptual installations of Xu Bing exemplify this maximalist practice.
Xu Bing’s 1987－1991 conceptual installation Book from the Sky creates a visually stunning environment that uses historically established calligraphy practices. It consists of five-hundred-foot-long hand scrolls that hang from the ceiling and traditionally bound books placed on the ground, indicating a monumental quality that communicates the scope of the work. The scrolls and books are filled with two thousand images that appear as Chinese characters written in a Song-era calligraphy style associated with the literati tradition. [3] These features could function as a successful installation piece. However, there is another conceptual layer to this work. The characters that fill the books and hanging scrolls are meaningless inventions of the artist, who systematically constructed a fake writing system by rearranging elements of real characters. This process created false characters with the appearance of textual meaning.
The monumental scale and calligraphy associated with an established intellectual and artistic tradition fulfill an expectation of beauty, creating the expectation of meaning. This is then frustrated by the illegibility of the characters. The visually appealing aesthetic features support how meaning is displayed and distorted through traditional knowledge and communication systems. The aesthetic, therefore, elements set up expectations that are then confounded. [1] The paradoxical feeling of grasping for meaning, only to be met with a sense of emptiness, is a conceptual basis of the work. Book From the Sky demonstrates how some Chinese conceptual artists utilize aesthetic features, often calligraphic traditions, to communicate conceptual meaning. The interest in text and ideas as a medium takes inspiration from the Western conceptual art movement, but the influence of Chinese art history and philosophy is central to the work. This artist has also discussed how ideas of emptiness in Daoist and Buddhist traditions in form his works, particularly the Buddhist concept of wu (nothingness) and the art historical term xu (emptiness). [2] The interaction between emptiness and substance in Chinese art philosophy can be seen in how the term xu is typically paired with its counterpart shi (substance). Neither xu nor shi is given primacy over the other; their interdependency is stressed. [3] This philosophical and art-critical tradition does not indicate a sharp divide between formal and non-formal features; instead, they function together as a whole.
This contrasts with the Platonic tradition Western artists like Kosuth arguably worked within, where concepts are pure forms separate from reality. While the value of concepts is stressed, this value stems from the purity of form that exists within a space of ideas, not from emptiness or lack of substance. Philosophical practices in China inform how the nonphysical relates to and interacts with the physical elements within art. Rather than being at odds or one overtaking the other, their interdependency allows for a fluid approach to how concepts and objects work together to communicate ideas in conceptual art.
Book From the Sky highlights the experiential approach some conceptual artists in China took in their practices. Informed by existing conceptual art movements, Chinese artists created a distinct style influenced by established philosophical and art traditions within China. It also demonstrates that visual aesthetics can be present in conceptual, dematerialized artworks.
