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Traditional culture often holds an esteemed position in the minds of many artists, and the epitome of that culture is the literati painter. As early as the Han Dynasty, these men defined themselves from the court painters by bringing a sense of personal expression into their depictions of the landscape – they were renaissance men well versed in law, poetry, calligraphy and philosophies such as Daoism and Confucianism.
Many played roles as leaders and moral arbiters in their communities, but in general they are known for their hermit-like behavior – their tendency to turn away from the evils of society and head to the mountains where they would lose themselves in thought and art.
In “Learning from the Literati,” eight artists examine what it means to be a literati painter and explore the legacy of the literati in contemporary society.
Shi Jinsong expresses the contrast between the noble literati culture and our chaotic and often fractured reality. The artist has created specially crafted scholars rocks (the kind that typically adorn Chinese gardens) made from pieces of concrete rubble from the demolished neighborhoods of Beijing. Shi Jinsong has perforated them with a drill to create a pockmarked look – that classical texture so prized by the literati but which represents the violence of being uprooted.
Artist Sayaka Abe looks at the idea of displacement, playing with the words shanshui (“water and mountains,” a synonym for Chinese traditional landscape painting). A Japanese artist, now based in the decidedly flat Netherlands, Abe explores the tyranny of water in the context of the Dutch terrain in a post-Copenhagen world. In her deeply layered textile work, lino-block prints of Dutch architecture piled into boats form towering islands/mountains, which look at man’s relationship to nature – a typical concern of the literati.
With a series of sculptures in porcelain and resin Artist Qian Rong, also uses the metaphor of water to explore the conflicted relationship between literati values and contemporary society. A river is something that flows one way, and though Qian Rong admits that we cannot reverse time, we can still emulate the literati through pursuing values such as independent thought. In his work, the symbol of the boat conveys the notion that literati ideals may act as an anchoring device to weather the tides of modernity.
Chen Hangfeng also explores notions of change and stability – in a work that examines the waxing and waning of literati values in Chinese society. The work consists of depictions of plants such as orchid and bamboo, “the Four Gentlemen” of literati lore, rendered in snippets of black plastic bags. The leaves of the plants are affixed with pins (somewhat like a dead scarab beetle pinned to a piece of Styrofoam), which convey notions of deadness. A row of mini fans mounted on the side of the work causes a periodic rustling of the leaves, yet despite these wayward modern disturbances, when the wind stops, the leaves always return to their original position.
Italian artist Girolamo Marri takes his exploration of literati culture to a philosophical level asking – is it possible to really escape into the wilderness to gain enlightenment? And are the ideas we learn from nature applicable in our messy chaotic human world? Marri’s work consists of a three-channel video installation a mocumentary where Marri takes on the persona of a frustrated artist describing his travails in nature and his inability to communicate his wisdom to others.
Ji Wenyu and Zhu Weibing look at this desire for escape in a striking cloth sculpture. The work features traditional shanshui mountain scenery marred by the presence of a dam at the top of the waterfall. In the middle of the stream is a man sitting astride a stone gazing up towards the mountain. Here they are looking at not only our desire to control nature (a precedent seen in bonsais or in Chinese gardens) but also our estrangement from nature and desire to commune with nature – a theme they have been exploring in their work over the past few years.
Painter Shi Jing furthers this theme of escape by transporting the viewer to an abyss of deep contemplation with his monochrome canvases. His work consists of black paint raked into patterns that, under the right lighting conditions, reveals the image of a wild and emaciated pine tree posed on the edge of a cliff. Here we can see the tree as a metaphor for the literati lifestyle of quietude, longevity and perseverance – qualities no doubt needed to survive the hermetic existence on the mountaintop.
Also looking at the literati lifestyle is Gao Mingyan with a new installation piece – a reconstructed room filled with gathered objects, which have been perforated with a pin in the pattern of a shanshui painting. A light placed inside these objects allows the image to be illuminated. In this work, Gao hopes to create a contrast between our experience of viewing contemporary art (as something to be revered in a sterile white cube) and the literati experience of art, which was an integral part of their lives, something as normal as eating, drinking or sipping tea.
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