Dispersion and Generation

Preface

A century has passed since Modern Art made its appearance, and fifty years have passed since the heyday of Pop Art and Conceptual Art. This past century has seen the rise of various art movements, as well as their achievements and breakthroughs. Meanwhile, “Mis-construction” as a principle is increasingly vital in confirming artwork’s identity as art. “Mis-construction” becomes the reason and creates the situation for “Gaze”. Aesthetic reception is also made possible in this very situation.

The new arts, such as Conceptual Art, Installation and Performance, greatly expand the category of artwork, and at the same time add to aforementioned aesthetic situation new forms and structures – this is the accomplishment of man’s visual culture in the last century, as is manifested by art history.

These achievements of visual culture and related systematic knowledge are quickly dispersed throughout the world, as a result of globalization and international communication network. In this process of dispersion, Diachronic knowledge system is transformed into synchronic constellation of plural cultural factors and interacts with local cultures. The previously systematic knowledge is restructured, leading to fragmented, pieced-together, flat and everyday global cultural and art scene. (This is similar to the Romanization of Greek culture)

Dispersion is the result of developed communication network, and a positive phenomenon brought about by globalization that could not be and need not be avoided. Dispersion helps the modernization of the world, benefiting mankind as a whole. Yet viewed in terms of physics, dispersion is the flow of thermal energy from higher to lower level and increase of entropy. In the larger temporal-spatial framework, seeking and building certain negentropy is a necessary balance and complement, that is, in the trend of dispersion, seeking new area of generation, facilitating generation of new art system is beneficial to global art ecology.

The irresistible force of dispersion renders generation difficult, yet at the same time making it an objective worth all the efforts of the artists with real global perspective. Generation takes place in certain area, which is set by actual situation and cultural accumulation of all times and around the world. Generation calls for both interdisciplinary approach and ability of systematic knowledge building.

Generation in contemporary cultural milieu is a constant process of self-questioning, trial and error, making adjustment and growth. Generation starts from problem awareness and lead to more than one answer. It is an open, procedural, interactive and evolving organism.

Generation is a process of constantly raising, discussing, exploring, constructing and re-generating new questions.

In “Dispersion and Generation” at ZheJiang Art Museum, I present my works in the fields of ink and wash painting, art history and theory, architecture and installation, hoping to discuss my reflection in recent years and demonstrate the recent results of it. The exhibition touches the key topics in these fields and involves the theoretical clue behind such crossover experiment. It intends to raise question, bring about discussion and debate, so as to trigger more thinking and add to the academic atmosphere in the present cultural scene.

Pan Gongkai

2014\3