For Secondary art teachers - critical writing using Chinese contemporary art to engage, inspire and empower students

1. Connections and Contradictions:
Teaching Critical Writing with Chinese Contemporary Art
Luise Guest March 2015

2. THE PARADIGM
Linking the practice of the artist, and student experiences of
art making, with the practices of the Art Historian and Art
Critic, whilst building literacy skills and confidence
It’s ALL connected!

3. ''UNTITLED (MARILYN/MAO)'' BY YU YOUHAN
“A JOURNEY OF PRACTICE” (DENNIS ATKINSON)
Art History and Art Criticism – how can students
become immersed in these practices? How can they
respond in writing to their encounters with artworks?
Promoting curiosity,
excitement, confidence,
wonder and delight

4. Authentic, exciting, fully engaged student artwriting?
How do we empower our students to DO that?

5. THE PROBLEM…
Students are excited and engaged by art making;
many are much less so by reading and writing…..

6. What I want for my students…
• That they get as excited about and engaged
with art writing as they are about artmaking
• That each one of them can surprise
themselves with the level of their
achievement
• That they leave my class with a desire to know
more about art – especially contemporary art
• That they respond authentically to artworks
• So – it all starts with the work itself

7. Why use Chinese art?
Because it….
• Excites their curiosity
• Provokes them
• Makes them THINK
• Pushes them out of their comfort zone
• Engages them in learning some important history
– and some geopolitics
• Links their study of art with the real world – right
here, right now!
• Inspires their own art making

9. Wan Liya, in Two Cities Gallery, M50, Shanghai ,photograph Luise Guest
Past and Present – Connections and Contradictions

10. “Just what is it that makes contemporary
Chinese art so different, so appealing?”
• After 30 years of Soviet Socialist Realism
under Mao, artists in the 1980s discovered
Modernism and Postmodernism all at once
• Influences range from Duchamp to Beuys,
Rauschenberg to Warhol
• The Sensation Exhibition had a major impact,
according to uber-curator, Pi Li
• Extraordinary power-house art academies
• Cheap labour and fabrication costs

11. The Luo Brothers – tradition goes Pop

12. These things add up to….
Art like nothing else in the world right now!

14. Finding the “hook”!

15. It begins with an encounter… real or virtual
Students encounter Song Dong, ‘Waste Not’ installation at Carriageworks 2013

16. SOME SOLUTIONS AND TACTICS
First: Finding the “hook” – and baiting it!
An invitation to ask “What if?” “How?” and “Why?”

17. Speculation and Wonder
What is pulling this train carriage?
Why do you say that?
If YOU were the artist, what would
you have as the engine?
Why do you say that?
What other artworks do we know of
who might work in this way?

18. Why a train? Why a fish?
We don’t start with
information – we start
with the artwork!

19. What did Huang Yong Ping Do?
A replica of Mao Zedong’s private railway carriage
A fibreglass giant carp head – why?
Stuffed (taxidermied) animals of all kinds – what could they symbolise?
A tiger with its head inside the carp and its body inside the carriage – why?
A title: “Leviathanation” – what could that possibly mean?

20. More works by Huang Yong Ping

23. And back in the ‘80s?
Huang Yong Ping was the founding member of ‘Xiamen Dada’ after he
brought some books on Duchamp into China in the late 70s. This work
is “A History of Chinese Art and a History of Western Art Washed in the
Washing Machine for 2 Minutes”

24. What would an artwork made from
60,000 bottles of Coca-Cola Look like?
• Speculate, wonder, guess, draw it, debate –
give reasons!
• Have other artists used the symbol of Coca-
Cola in their work? Who? Why?

25. Here it is!
Well, THAT’S unexpected!
He Xiangyu, Cola Project, 2009, remains of 135,000 litres of coca-cola

26. But wait, there’s more!

27. And more….

28. Could you ‘draw’ with fireworks?
• Speculate and wonder – what would such a
drawing look like and how could you do it?
• Why might a Chinese artist wish to do such a
thing?
• What could fireworks and gunpowder
symbolise?

29. Vortex 2006, Gunpowder on paper, 400 x 900 cm, Collection of Deutsche Bank Collection,
commissioned by Deutsche Bank AG, Mathias Schormann © Cai Guo-Qiang

31. Heritage, shown in January 2013 at the Queensland Gallery of Modern Art

32. Art Critical Interpretation
Strategies for eliciting
genuine, rich responses
• Socratic Dialogues
• Collaborative tasks
• Art “games”
• Predictive tasks
• ‘Learning conversations’
• Using ICT and social media
• The “flipped lesson”
Huang Yong Ping, ‘Two Baits’, 2001, iron, fibreglass, metal sheets, 160 x 300 x 800 cm.
Image reproduced courtesy of the artist and Rockbund Museum, Shanghai.

33. And what about resources?
• Start with the ‘hook’ for your students –
engaging, fascinating contemporary artworks
that will intrigue – and provoke - them
• Use sources such as the Venice Biennale, The
MCA, 4A, White Rabbit Gallery, QAGOMA,
regional galleries – and social media!
• Try Ocula - http://ocula.com/
• http://artasiapacific.com/

34. www.teachingchineseart.com
Use my website – designed especially for NSW teachers
and art students!

35. Let’s begin with Ai Weiwei
But
Let’s not stay in
the ‘90s!!!!!

36. @Large: Ai Weiwei on Alcatraz

38. Why would we put Ai Weiwei in a Case Study?
• Well – Duchamp, of course!

39. Warhol. Of course!

40. Ai Weiwei in the Conceptual
Framework
• Postmodern practice
• Collaborative, “fabricated” art
• The art of social engagement – and social media
• “Relational aesthetics”
• Roles of contemporary artists in the artworld
• “Ai Weiwei is the Marcel Duchamp or Joseph
Beuys of our time. He makes art matter.”
(Jonathan Jones)

41. Possible “hooks”…
• Ai Weiwei and social provocation – the art of
dissent
• Ai Weiwei and Duchamp – the continuing
significance of the found object
• Ai Weiwei and Warhol – two versions of “the
factory”
• Ai Weiwei and conversations across national
borders – the art of exchange

42. Who’s Afraid of Ai Weiwei?

44. But there is so much more to Chinese
contemporary art than Ai Weiwei…
• For a start, there are all the women!
Han Yajuan both celebrates and challenges the aesthetic of ‘cuteness’

45. A shameless advertisement!
In the Piper Press catalogue
with an October release date.
More than 30 artists, in
conversation with me and
placed into their art historical
context, each chapter is
designed to form a case study,
on its own or to be used in
combination with others.

46. LIU ZHUOQUAN AND GAO RONG
UNLESS OTHERWISE IDENTIFIED WITH SOURCES, ALL PHOTOGRAPHS WERE TAKEN BY LUISE GUEST
AND ARE REPRODUCED WITH THE PERMISSION OF THE ARTISTS AND THEIR GALLERIES
Two Case Studies of Artists’ Practice

47. THE PRACTITIONERS
2 exciting artists to engage and provoke secondary students

48. LIU ZHUOQUAN
Focus Artist #1
“My work is like a
scientific laboratory”

49. Liu Zhuoquan, image courtesy the artist and China Art Projects
“Neihua”– traditional “Inside
Bottle” painting

51. Traditional ‘inside painted’ snuff bottles (“Nei Hua”), were painted with a
fine curved bamboo brush, and with the details first, backgrounds second

52. All images of Liu Zhuoquan and his works courtesy the artist and China Art Projects

57. “On the surface life seems quiet and calm, but underneath
danger lurks, represented by the idea of scientific specimens in
bottles. Also we use bottles all the time in our daily life, so they
are a symbol of the everyday. Traditionally painted snuff bottles
emphasised the imaginary world contained inside the bottle, so
in my everyday bottles I am also creating an imaginary world.”

58. “Bottles can be a place to conceal or save memories, the past
and our history. Some of my bottles contain memories of the
Cultural Revolution times, and other reflections of real events,
but in a ‘veiled’ way. In the place where I was born the temple
was used for the ashes of the dead, which were contained in
bottles. My name is the name of this temple.”

60. “My time in Tibet was very important, and the influence of
Tibetan culture is there in my work. The Tibetan attitude to
death and their philosophy is quite different, and this can be
seen in their ‘sky burial’ ceremony. It is necessary always to
have a dream as life and death are so interconnected.”

64. Seen at the 18th Biennale of Sydney, 2012, in Museum of Contemporary Art
Image courtesy the artist and BoS

65. Chang’An Avenue (installation detail) shown at
Sydney Contemporary, September 2013

66. What if?
What if Liu Zhuoquan used new
bottles straight from the factory?
Would the meaning be different?
What if YOU made an installation of
objects painted in bottles to reflect
an issue of concern to you – what
would they be?
Imagine other ways of installing these
works, fragile as they are – if YOU
were the curator, what would you
suggest to the artist?
What if Liu doesn’t do any of the painting himself?
Does it matter? Is it still his own artwork?

67. Compare and contrast the practice of Liu
Zhuoquan with Australian artist Fiona
Hall. In particular, look at her works
‘Mourning Chorus’ and ‘Cell Culture’ and
comment on the way that each artist has
employed ‘found’ and discarded
materials to make a comment about
their world.
Images of Hall’s works from
http://roslynoxley9.com.au/artists/17/Fiona_Hall/481/
Art Critical Connections

68. GAO RONG
Focus Artist #2
“I am a sculptor who
uses embroidery, not an
embroiderer”

69. Gao Rong, Level 1/2, Unit
8, Building 5, Hua Jiadi,
North Village (2010)
fabric, thread, sponge,
metal, image reproduced
courtesy of the artist and
White Rabbit Gallery.

70. http://www.randian-online.com/np_feature/in-grandmothers-house/

73. “What kind of car
can a taxi be
exchanged for?”
(2013)
Beijing
‘San lun che’ taxi
– entirely made
of embroidered
fabric over an
armature of steel
and foam.
Image courtesy the artist and
Klein Sun Gallery New York

74. Can you suggest other elements of the urban, suburban or even the rural
world that could be replicated using this technique?
What if these sculptures were
made from fibreglass, plastic or
steel – or even stone?
Would the meaning change?

75. Planning a learning experience for
your students
• Select a contemporary Chinese artist or artists
• Select a few works which you know will
intrigue/confuse/surprise your students
• Ai Weiwei? Song Dong? Liu Zhuoquan? Cao
Fei? Cai Guo-Qiang?
• Start to develop the introductory lesson:
“the hook!”

76. Flipping the lesson
• http://ed.ted.com/on/n6vdD9P4

77. Working as a critic….
• Step 1: invite students to observe, think,
speculate and wonder
• Step 2: require students to use rich language
and their developing art vocabulary to
describe, analyse and interpret a work without
plagiarism or 2nd-hand ideas
• Step 3: Invite students to ask “What if?”
• Step 4: Invite students to consider the
relationships to their own artmaking

78. And back to Ai Weiwei again…a model
of description, speculation, deduction
and contextualisation
• http://vimeo.com/64886243

79. Build the differentiation
• A “common” core task – readings and questions
and/or a “flipped” lesson
• A “learning conversation” – structured with
provocative questions
• Differentiated tasks for groups identified with
quantifiable data – transparent and clearly
communicated to students
• A “real world” writing task – a blog, a youtube
video, a tweet, a skyped or face-to-face artist
interview recorded and transcribed?

80. Year 11 student web sites –
collected critical encounters with artworks
• http://carlacritique.weebly.com/
• http://artwritingbyalana.weebly.com/

81. Thank you / Xie Xie! / 谢谢