Madison
NO T H I NG L O S T I N T R A N S L AT I O N By Xiangzhu Chen, Contributing Writer
It was my pleasure to be one of the translators for the Chinese artists that visited the Chazen during the exhibition’s opening. On April 10, the Chinese artists who participated in the exhibition held a forum that started with a speech which was about contemporary Chinese female artists, discussing the way that the art in the exhibition showed how Chinese female artists’ social status has been changing throughout years. I was grateful to see how people in China are now beginning to discuss how gender relates to art making. After the speech, a round table talk began. As a college student in America, I do not have many chances to communicate with Chinese modern artists face to face. Because I was a translator, I was able to have even closer talk with the artists, which I enjoyed very much. Not all of the panelists were artists. Yu Hong and Xiang Jing--who created the pieces The Ladder to the Sky and Your Body, respectively--represented the artists while Li Yuhang, a professor of art history was also a panelist. Yu and Xiang each talked about about their art-making experience. They both graduated from the China Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA). The audience was active and asked many questions; the artists
were very happy to converse about their intentions in creating their art and explain the context behind every piece. Xiang talked about how other have said that she has been insisting on only working in sculpture for years. Xiang laughed and said, “actually [that] is not the truth. I did not insist. I want[ed] to use other medium[s] too, but [mastering] only one medium took me so many years. It just took that long.” The forum mainly talked about the influence of contemporary society on Chinese art. The artists all had different interpretations, but Yu said she usually found inspiration in photos from the Internet. The use of the ordinary, or daily life, is one feature of contemporary Chinese art. Su Xinping, an artist from CAFA, said, “contemporaneity is diversity. Although CAFA still has division of different schools, for example oil painting department and Chinese traditional art department, there are 108 studios with distinctive styles that students can join. Now the lines are blurred.” I agree with Su. Contemporaneity is about “change.” The artists also talked about how things have changed in China. The process of art creation, education,
presentation and communication are changing over time. Contemporary art is how they are showcasing or manipulating the change that is happening in society. I interviewed Li about her thoughts on being a contemporary artist after the forum. “Be there.”Li said, “This is one of the aspects of ‘contemporary’. The artists [in] this exhibition are a representation of [the academic] style artists in China. They received social realistic art education.” Li participated in setting up the exhibition. She graduated from CAFA as well, and came to the United States in 1995. Li said that the labels for each art piece were made by students from Art History 411. The exhibition was also an opportunity for students to communicate with the artists directly, according to Li. In order to write a precise and appropriate introduce tag, the students had to understand the art works deeply, which was a great way for them to learn about Chinese art. I felt lucky to be a translator at the forum, and was thrilled talking to the artists. This also made me nervous because there are so many things I do not know about--yet. Someday, I hope to ask deeper questions, rather than simply translating.
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