2009 -

Origins in Translation: The Interpretation of Contemporary Chinese Art in the West since 1980

(Current PhD research)

Current research examines contemporary Chinese art from the early 1980s onwards when exhibited in the West (Great Britain, Europe and North America) in terms of a ‘lost in translation’ paradigm, whereby I will investigate the cross-cultural translational processes used to exhibit Chinese contemporary art.

The postmodernist art theories and interdisciplinary post-colonial developments of the late 1970s and early 1980s established a new interest and research into non-Western art. At this time, the Cultural Revolution in China renewed cultural traditions and diasporic developments where artists and curators moved to the West to present, exhibit and interpret Chinese contemporary art in the international arena. Current Chinese culture encompasses a dynamic but tenuous mix of ancient traditions and modern experiments, where artists and curators create highly complex artworks, concepts and exhibitions. This recent frenzied interest, largely economic, that has been aroused by the explosion of the “China phenomenon,” has to some degree completely disoriented the West (Dal Lago, 2008). In this instance as curators, we present the growing and changing face of China where artists are seen as ambassadors for their country. They are trying to make sense of their past and history, whilst negotiating and comprehending the contemporary changes to their society. Simultaneously, curators are trying to understand this narrative. It could be seen that contemporary Chinese art is undervalued on the international stage due to a traditionally Western bias in the art world (Devine, 2003), where, if artworks do make it to the West, the majority of them have been produced with this particular market and public in mind (Dal Lago, 2008).

Hence, the progressive urbanization and globalization of China and its relationship to the West and the distance of the artwork and artist from its “home-country”, or origin, has presented a new set of questions where the re-contextualisation of contemporary Chinese art needs to be considered spatially on a local, national and global scale and also its temporal conditions in relation to art history. The often deemed Eurocentric founding of art history as a discipline, when in relation to contemporary Chinese art, confronts the question, is art, specifically art history, a global phenomenon? How is contemporary Chinese art interpreted, exhibited and understood when it is moved from its origin to the West, specifically the UK? What happens to its origin and embedded history? How do we interpret this history appropriately when exhibited in the UK? Is language and translation confined to the lands of the elite? Should the interpretational power be handed to the artist? What are the objectives to be obtained by translations? What are the epistemological, linguistic and semiotic concepts involved? Can we rely on translation alone to provide interpretational insight?

Translation is only a provisional way of coming to terms with the historically determined differences, “otherness” and foreignness of contemporary Chinese art. The remoteness of Chinese language and culture from the West and thus, the knowledge of this, immediately reaffirm our own identity and location in the international domain. In theory, due to modern technologies and communication, we are now considered closer to each other, but it is as if we can see more clearly how far apart we still are (Dal Lago, 2008). Therefore, has contemporary Chinese art become conventionalised in the Western perspective? Chinese culture is often marginalised within the Western domain due to our limited knowledge of its Eastern location and historic context, yet, conversely, we display and present this culture with (mainstream) “blockbuster” significance and a “wow factor” approach. Does this present contemporary Chinese art within a dichotomy of marginal versus mainstream discourse?

This PhD investigates notions of interpretation through the use of language and translation. It is important to establish the definitions of the terminology in use. In this study, it is an exclusive curatorial examination of the translational route from Chinese to the English language with regard to the interpretation of contemporary Chinese art. Translation, in this instance, is defined within the confines of visual and curatorial practice, as to how an artist, curator or artist-curator presents, understands and interprets contemporary Chinese art in the field of Western culture and the national and global arenas. By looking into the process of visual interpretation and display implemented during the curation of an exhibition of contemporary Chinese art in the West, it will examine the cross-cultural translation of an artwork, or artist’s concept and context, into the Western perspective with the possibility of its negotiated difference existing in a “Third Space”.

Through this PhD, I hope to realise and highlight the cross-cultural translational processes used to exhibit Chinese contemporary art, and its possible mis-interpretation, over the past thirty years, between China and the West. The notion of collecting, displaying and curating contemporary Chinese art is still considered a new phenomenon. Now, art must be selected for being good art, not because of the artist’s country of origin. That is important. Thus, it is the role of the curator to remove this seemingly novelty impression or “wow” factor that is linked with China, somewhat due to the proximity of the art from our own Western location. We need to go back to grass roots, hear and see what the actual protagonists think, and focus the public’s attention on the words that are spoken instead of distracting them with all those trappings that usually make it impossible for Westerners to see China for what it is, and not for what it should be (Dal Lago, 2008).

The research and knowledge gathered from this proposed study will be ‘translated’ in a practical capacity through curation, by conceiving and creating an interpretive curatorial language through which to culturally translate contemporary Chinese art to the West, methods of cultural ripening through perpetual translation, producing an appropriate socio-artistic context to an exhibition with the historical consciousness and awareness that it warrants, culminating in an exhibition and accompanying catalogue.

Perhaps only when China begins to lose its exoticism in the eyes of the West will its art be appreciated precisely for what it is? (Moore, 2009).

2006-7

The Shift in Power: The Artist - Curator (Master’s Thesis, approximately 15,000 words)

Over the past twenty years, relationships have changed between the artist and curator, curator and art institution, and artist and art institution. Consequently, the term curator has been in flux with multiple meanings and connotations. This change is partially due to the emergence of new artists and different types of art, including Surrealist Art, Installation Art and more recently, New Media Art. Artists have chosen or been forced to reconsider their role, which has made the word or term curator more widely acknowledged and has also furthered the development and progress of the artist as a collaborator, seen to take on the role of the curator, or become an artist-curator. This study developed from a personal interest and experience in the subject, and ultimately questions whether the artist-curator can be respected and valued within the contemporary art world, whilst mapping the shift in power from the curator to artist.

It comprises four Chapters of which the first places historically the role of the curator and the emergence and development of the role of the artist-curator. Chapter 2 contextualises these histories through the review of recent literature by Alex Farquharson, Gavin Wade and Claire Doherty, which has mapped the field of the artist-curator. Chapter 3 highlights the types of curatorial-based postgraduate education that has emerged over the last fifteen years, undertaken by prospective curators. It questions whether artists can become artist-curators without formal postgraduate education in curating and, thus, whether these courses are fundamental to the role of becoming a curator. Chapter 4 references the work of artists groups and collectives who have successfully become artist-curators, and relevant exhibitions, which exclusively examine the role of the curator. Finally, the conclusion suggests new questions and areas of investigation, and considers the future of the role of the artist-curator.