Penetration into the Society: the Strategy of New Arts
Taking the Practice of Zhang Dali and Zhao Bandi as Examples

China has witnessed remarkable changes in many aspects in the 1990s, as is talked about by both the Chinese and foreigners. This is not only regarding the hot issues dwelled upon with relish by the country's propaganda departments but also the personal experiences of ordinary people. This could almost seem like a platitude if we do not carefully study the colorful and thought-provoking details of the social vicissitudes and transformation. What impresses me the most is not the urbanization, high buildings, supermarkets and automobiles but the hard and tortuous course of the development of China's new arts in the past ten years. It is a course full of stimuli, challenges and dramatic changes. Obviously the overall tendency of the last ten years has been the shift from placing hope on overseas art circles to the domestic art stage, from the ivory tower to reality, and from focusing on personal experiences to participating in social transformation. It is not only the trend of the development but also the beginning of maturity for China's new arts to return to reality and to put its energy into engagement with every aspect of the society.

For the native new arts of China, the main difference between the 1990s and the 1980s lies in the fact that in the 1980s, all efforts were made to seek a larger survival space for modern arts, while in the 1990s, new arts were jointly influenced by both international art practice and domestic context. If the New Wave Arts in 1980s are regarded as a part of the ideological liberation movement of that period, the new arts of China are a miniature of the internationalization in the 1990s. Doubtlessly, the development of China's new arts in 1990s has been greatly influenced by the vicissitudes and the framework of international art. Firstly, the success in international art circles made by such artists as Cai Guoqiang, Huang Yongyong, Xu Bing, Chen Zhen, Yang Jiecang and Gu Wenda provides encouragement for domestic artists. Secondly, numerous Chinese new art exhibitions of different types and scales have been staged around the world. The native artists of China have been involved in a series of large-scale international exhibitions, including Kassel Documenta, the Venice Bienniale and the St. Paul Bienniale. Moreover, the new arts of China have leapt from an affiliated to the leading role in the Venice Bienniale Exhibition this year. This has put a magnificent exclamation mark after the involvement of China's new arts on the international stage before the coming of the 21st century.

Arguably,the new arts of China,including overseas and domestic Chinese arts, have become an important component of the international art scene. However, considering the evolution of international cultural integration, I don't think the popularity of China's new arts in other countries means the appearance of real art masters with actual roots in China's reality. There is no new art institution in China to foster great artists, so China is unable to promote its highly-qualified new arts on the international art stage. As a result, China is always "absent" from new art institutions. On the other hand, in view of international relationships, China has gradually evolved into being a new international focus at the end of the 20th century. The economic development of China and its rise in international society have caused a change in its global situation and have made China the focus of global attention. One may easily find this fact reflected in the screening of such films as The Red Corner, Kun Dun and Mulan are screening in the United States and other countries, indicating that the world is paying attention to the history, reality, laws, religions and ethnic groups of China. Therefore, the new arts of China are also the vivid spiritual incarnication of today's China. International opportunism is very common in China's new arts community. Although it can immediately bring economic profits and temporarily satisfy vanity and give a pleasant sensation of self-satisfaction, it has given up on the actual arts arena in China and has lost the soil and foundation on which art relies for existence.

China in the era of transformation is the soil to foster art masters. From the historical point of view, China's 5000-year-old civilization is the only one which has been continuous and uninterrupted in the world. It is not only the core of oriental civilization but also the sole rare survival of the international communist movement of this century. As China is changing from a closed agricultural civilization to an open industrial, commercial and informative society and is participating in the dialogue about internationalization centered in the United States, the reality, the opportunities, the puzzles, the contradictions and challenges confronted by Chinese artists provide them with the possibility of giving full range to their abilities on the international stage.

On the other hand, the drastic social transition has led to many social problems, such as environmental pollution, urbanization, the constant restructuring of social relationships and systems, a huge population, unemployment, the need for the protection of women and children, drug addiction, the malignant expansion of personal desire, hedonism and money worship. A country with such a long history and which is the cradle of oriental civilization, China has been subjected to the test of the rapid changes within communism for more than half a century. In the process of modernization, it unavoidably experienced all the common faults following from the primitive accumulation of capital as occurs in capitalist countries and presented distinctive Chinese characteristics at the same time.

In the era of reform and modernization, the world is being reshaped and China Has an even greater potential to be remoulded. Those smart and courageous artists will take advantage of the opportunity to actively involve themselves in the social reforms within their own arts.

Here I'd like to explain this kind of tendency by taking the art practice of Zhang Dali and Zhao Bandi as an example. Their art practice tries to explain what the new arts of China are.

Since returning to Beijing from Italy in 1994, Zhang Dali has kept practising his "art conspiracy" in Beijing, a city regarded as a huge construction site in many people's eyes. With an airbrush, he has sprayed his personal symbol,an outline of a man's profile, on all the public places otherwise suitable for putting up advertisements and posters including flyovers, construction sites and walls on both sides of streets. As time passed, his personal marks appeared in the streets and lanes of Beijing more and more intensively and frequently so that it became a noticeable phenomenon causing conjecture and even the disgust of the environmental protection departments. Zhang Dali changed his strategy later and deliberately sprayed his symbols on dilapidated walls which were about to be torn down for new constructions. After several days, his works, together with the old buildings and walls, disappeared from the horizon of this ancient capital after the roaring bulldozer passed over them. Many of his symbols were even displayed with "DEMOLISH" around the city. "DEMOLISH" is a red symbol painted in red pigment by city planning and administration departments on illegal or legal buildings. It means people must move out of these buildings within the deadine and that it will be pulled down shortly afterwards. Like the big red mark written by the judge on a death penalty announcement, this symbol means doubtless and absolute authority and sentences old buildings to death. New buildings are rising up where old ones were demolished. That People ruthlessly break apart the world is very familiar to us and is a solid foundation of civilizations, in order, to build a new showy and ostentatious one which makes us puzzled and lost. This is the unconscious reaction of people who suddenly become rich. The disappearance of one world and appearance of another are happeningsimultaneously. The new and the old are mixed coexist.Zhang Dali's Dialogue is neither Wandalism nor a mischievous game. It is an exchange and dialogue with the public on various layers. First of all, Zhang Dali's works raises a series of fundamental questions. What is art? What is the art representing China's social transition at present? Secondly, he introduces a personalized concept of art to the public, thus dragging serious art out of the ivory tower and attracting public attention. His works also involve the question of recognition in the era of transformation. From what kind of art can one audience find the sense of identity? A large roof can only narrowly and superficially symbolize our traditional culture. To build several Western-style buildings does not mean China is opened up to the outside. No matter how beautiful they are, Tang and Song poems only represent a past brilliance. What kind of internationally famous art works are we going to create today? Zhang Dali's art practice inspires us to closely examine the changed reality with an open and creative attitude so as to create new arts and new culture that can represent today's progress.

Zhang Dali's art practice has gradually caused a strong response in from society. The city residents and news media paid close attention to it. People often report their new findings and thoughts to the news media. The news media also regard it as a hot issue and give detailed coverage of it. Some newspapers have held discussions on it and interviewed people from different walks of life. Some support it. Some understand it. Some praise it. Some oppose to it. It has crossed the boundary between art and society. There are no unanimous ideas, even in the art circles. For example, Deng Fuxing, Director of the Fine Arts Research Institute Affiliated to the Art Research Institute of China, commented, " As a form of modern art, it is similar to 'The Red Earth Project' that appeared in China two years ago. Since it is drawn in the streets, it is very popular. A characteristic of modern art is that it is free from explanation and invites audience's participation. What matters is not the picture itself but its extensive impact upon the public." However, Yang Yongshang from. The Arts and Crafts Institute of China was annoyed by this issue. He said, " I object to it. It has destroyed the appearance of the city. It can never be called art. Art is beautiful. It hasn't stirred us aesthetic feelings. Instead it makes us feel sick."

The reaction of the city residents has also varied widely. Wang Xiaohong, an employee in a company, said, " When I first saw it, I felt disgusted and didn't know what it meant. But later my colleagues told me it is a kind of art called 'GraffittiArt'. It is very popular in foreign countries. So it is no longer a surprise to me. Since everybody can sing in the streets, why not let painters paint something there?" Yet a worker named Liu Zhiwei said, " I think there must be something wrong with that man's mind, because he tries to amuse himself in such a weird way."

The different opinions from the art circles and ordinary city residents reflects the variety of people's ideas as well as their patience toward new things.

Zhang Dali's works appear with the demolition of old buildings and disappear with the rising of new ones. Sometimes it exists when old and new buildings stand together. It is also the refraction of a certain social attitude which is difficult to ascertain and changes in the twinkling of an eye. It is either the air vent forthose people who are full of complaints or the topic talked about delightfully by those who are understanding and considerate. In short, Zhang Dali's works exchanges views with people from all walks of life about the meaning and value of today's life in Beijing, an ever-changing city. He makes contemporary art ideology permeate every aspect of the society and makes the city residents who are almost excluded from new arts feel the omnipresence of art. His works are not only a new kind of art language and art form but also represent new ideas, new forces and a new world outlook which develops in step with China.

Recently Zhao Bandi's art practice has been based upon the situation in China.In particular he has even focused on the social life of China since last year. Entrusted by the Sydney Olympic Committee of Australia, he made a pictorial poster named "The Story of China in 2000" last year. In this conceptual photographic art, Zhao Bandi shows a scene with a displacement of time,space, and gender. He projects an advertising photograph of modern family life into a background full of traditional images. Wearing white pajamas, Zhao Bandi holds a toy Panda tightly in his arms, like a mother caressing her child. Zhang Qianqian, his partner, wears only a bra and a long skirt and poses like a ferryman pulling oars. This poster presents a story of contemporary China on a nostalgic background. Though it reveals the puzzles of the contemporary Chinese, it is rather ambiguous and implicit as a whole and therefore decreases the distinctive force that should be possessed by contemporary art.

However, the year 1999 is crucial to Zhao Bandi because he finished a prestigious series of works named "Zhao Bandi and the Panda". Unlike Zhang Dali, Zhao Bandi's art practice is supported by business organizations and operation systems. Since Zhao Bandi's creation is full of novelty, uniqueness and the flavor of times, the Beijing Subway Advertising Corporation has posted Zhao Bandi and His Baby Panda in entrances, exits and passages of all subway stations. As the only public-welfare advertisement, Zhao Bandi's works stands side by side with other commercial advertisements. Kodak Company even sponsors the filming and making of the pictures. Therefore, Zhao Bandi turns the broad subway stations into art galleries,public advertisements into his art works and thousands of daily passengers into his audience. With the operation of the commercial system,Zhao Bandi's works have reached a wide audience and their art energy have also penetrated different aspects of society while releasing the vitality of new art.

What his public advertisements are concerned with the topics often mentioned by ordinary people, such as lay-off workers, taking up the cudgels for a just cause, planting trees in the city, protecting greenery patches, observing traffic regulations, safe driving, fighting counterfeiting, quitting smoking and so on. Notably, he also created the work It is Impossible to Misbomb after the United States bombed the Chinese Embassy in Yugoslavia.

The direct confrontation of Zhang Dali and Zhao Bandi's art with society in dicates the fact that it is necessary for art to penetrate social life and that clear-headed artists have realized that as the active work force of social development, artists should take part in social practice. The new art language and methodology can be referred to when developing the new arts of China. It encourages artists to step out of the ivory tower, which is a personal world, and test their own art creativity in social practices. The subject involved in art works should not simply be open to a "yes" or "no" judgement. We should raise questions from new angles. The new art language and methodology provides new references rather than judgements on values. It asks artists to think independently about life and reality in this time of radical social transformation and to explore new ways of understanding the world with a creative mode of thinking.

Faced with theInternet and globalization, the diversities in cultures, countries and regions are getting less obvious as art becomes the channel for exchange. The boundary between urban and rural areas, marginal and mainstream and art and life is getting vague as they are influencing each other. Every innovative and creative artist should carefully consider how to face the ever-changing new world with a grand new attitude towards life, how to redefine and reinterpret today's new arts and how to get the recognition of today's Chinese people. The art practice of Zhang Dali and Zhao Bandi provides us with fresh case materials.

"Focus on the Profile in the Streets of Beijing", Jiang Tao, Blue Sky Weekly, March 27, 1998

dd