Deconstruction and Reconstruction: A Poetics

Author: Zhang Xiaoling
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2000-03-01
Features: If the theme of contemporary society given to artists is "shock"—its immense profit strategy makes artists yearn and feel lost, then a more intrinsic theme is "numbness"—consciousness is generally damaged after being shocked, and the instinctive resistance born from shock disappears in the adaptation to profit. In this sense, the decline of contemporary art can be attributed to the surrender of consciousness to external forces. It is precisely in this sense that the author begins to discuss "conceptual art," as the author sees it, the restlessness it displays from its marginal position is this era's post-artistic impulse. Conceptual art is an art phenomenon that flourished in the 1990s, known as the experimental field of post-avant-garde art, including installation art, performance art, environmental art, land art, and textual art, etc. This book studies the phenomenon of conceptual art against the backdrop of China's social and cultural transformation, and broadly explores hot issues in contemporary society and cultural trends, while also providing a theoretical sorting and summarization of this new cultural poetics. At the same time, it conducts case analyses of more than 20 artists and their works.
Excerpt: Absurdity
Text: The Allegorical World of Character Reconstruction For many years, Xu Bing's ever-changing activities in character construction have remained one of the most dizzying games of our time—in the New Wave Art period, it appeared in a sacred and solemn manner, while in an era of post-discourse overflow, it became completely animalized: in the slow hatching of silkworm moths and the fierce mating of pigs. Xu Bing, in this way, tirelessly pokes at the real world composed of daily experience, reason, and self-proclaimed culture, to the extent that hostility and mockery almost constitute the starting point of the absurdity of its text. Here, a real world is emptied, leaving only a group of luxurious signifiers without a point of convergence—thousands of deliberately crafted unreadable characters, a large number of dignified scholars watching the ridiculous scene of "," and a batch of Europeans and Americans studying the inexplicable "square characters" with great interest, etc. This is a absurd allegory, a myth beyond the level of ideological endurance of the times, yet it was accepted. Why? Because many people gradually realized that the absurdity of the text stems from the absurdity of our existence. In this sense, what could be more real and more easily accepted than absurdity? This may be precisely Xu Bing's implicit intention: to construct an allegorical world through the deliberate creation of characters, in which all paradoxes against the real world's inner experience will be greatly and polycentrically presented. This is the moment when the real world is degraded while the absurd text strides forward with high prestige. All aspects of cultural rationality will be questioned, inverted, and even rejected. This is an endless rejection, and even the act of rejection itself is instantly rejected, perhaps its only endpoint is anxiety and confusion, which is also the absurd endpoint Xu Bing is willing to see. Xu Bing's peculiar way of speaking may be a reflection of his unique, paradoxical existence and thinking. The latter became the original impulse for constructing characters and the source of the allegorical world. On Xu Bing, all irreconcilable elements are inexplicably mixed, to the extent that he cannot be positioned in any cultural standard or thought. It is difficult to say whether he is a modernist or so-called "post-modernist"—the savior's desire, the pursuit of meaning, and the, mockery, and meaningless values of the latter are intertwined at the level of spiritual confusion, both constituting the driving force and the predicament of his text. This mixture and contradiction are also reflected in his thinking. It can be said that Xu Bing developed his skeptical attitude through rational reflection on history and culture, and in this sense, he can even be seen as a metaphysical transcendental thinker. However, in my opinion, this skepticism comes more from life experience—Xu Bing cannot escape the confusion and contradictions imposed on the real lives of people by an age of meaninglessness, let alone an artist who is good at thinking. Without the shock of experiencing absurdity and the sensible wisdom and skepticism gained from it, there would be no "Heavenly Book," "Silkworm Series," or "Cultural Animal" with such absurdity. Therefore, Xu Bing was destined to become a allegorist, a person who must exist in an elusive meaning text. From "World Analysis Mirror—Heavenly Book" to "Cultural Animal," the absurdity of the pseudo-text not only constitutes the internal logic of Xu Bing's artistic text, giving it a unique consistency, but also always places the text at the intersection of the meaning, contradictions, and predicaments of contemporary art: since the artist is powerless to give meaning to the empty world, then it is better to acknowledge the poverty of meaning and the meaninglessness of existence in an absurd way, rather than resorting to the low-level pleasure of or empty promises of meaning. Xu Bing chose absurdity in the midst of contradictions—absurdity may indeed intensify the dimness of the world, but is not the dimness and meaninglessness the only meaning state of the present? Is it not the beginning of new meaning? Why did works like Xu Bing's arise? This question is not complicated, in my opinion, it is the release of Xu Bing's inherent skepticism in a special period—the vacuum period of meaning after New Wave Art. The climax of New Wave Art was in 1985 and 1986. Excessive ideology and promises of meaning led New Wave Art to an early decline under the unbearable burden. The failure of meaning promises led to a widespread reflective mood and skeptical trend in the art world, and many artists rejoiced at this. Yesterday they were the "great souls" and "ultimate truth," but today they were afraid of falling behind and became the gravediggers of these values. Is this the value destination of modern art? Xu Bing may have started his release of skepticism from here, and organized his knowledge accumulation—Laozi, Zhuangzi, Chan philosophy, and Jarry-style existentialism—into an artistic attitude: since the meaning present from the beginning is merely a language illusion and cannot guide reality to the sublime, then why not use meaningless repetitive labor to rewrite words like "sublime"? Meaningless labor seems absurd, but it is the only way to reach the sublime, because it completely reduces the hypocrisy hidden by the excessive meaning promises of New Wave Art—the truth in an age of meaninglessness is the sublime. At this time, Xu Bing wrote: "From the endless experience of a point, one can achieve sudden enlightenment of the heart and harmony with nature, the purity of behavior and the lack of utilitarianism make the mind calm and clear, to be alone in the bustling city and be transcendent, this realm has the same sublimity as Sisyphus in ancient Greece. The sublimity comes from the effort made in knowing its meaninglessness." For Xu Bing, how the age of meaninglessness presents itself through meaningless labor and the resulting text is the beginning of his new artistic possibilities. He must construct and imagine a world to express his skepticism, and only the absurdity and boredom produced by meaningless, endless real labor are enough to constitute this world. All of this will begin with the unnoticed desk work. Before "World Analysis Mirror—Heavenly Book," Xu Bing's focus and obsession with the novel visual effects of continuous prints had already foreshadowed his rejection of daily experience and normative forms, which was the necessary technical preparation for "World Analysis Mirror—Heavenly Book." Subsequently, Xu Bing discovered the infinite construction possibilities of characters detached from their meaning in traditional movable-type printing, and it was this possibility that constituted the possibility of Xu Bing's artistic text—randomly combined characters, losing their meaning, became an unreadable alien world, and thus no meaning could be obtained from it; the rational values and daily experiences we rely on for existence and judgment were rejected and mocked here. It can be said that Xu Bing found the best form for the text in technical labor: a pseudo-textual world composed of prints, multiple engravings, and character creation, thereby transforming the ideological myth of New Wave Art into a absurd and mysterious allegory. "World Analysis Mirror—Heavenly Book" was completed in 1987, and Xu Bing's character creation project seemed to have never stopped. According to statistics in 1991, it had already reached more than 4,000 characters. Its methods were not complicated: first, to combine existing Chinese character elements such as radicals and feet in an unusual way; second, to arbitrarily add or delete elements of Chinese characters. Because meaninglessness ensured the legitimacy of arbitrary construction, the proliferation of pseudo-Chinese characters had enough energy to form a huge installation and be framed into an ancient-style "heavenly book." This is a world that seems familiar but is extremely strange, where any subject will be absorbed and destroyed at the same time, and any attempt to understand meaning, along with the passion for reading, seems ridiculous, because "World Analysis Mirror—Heavenly Book" says nothing, it even lacks the interest in analyzing the world. However, it is indeed a world, just a world where the referent has been completely exiled—in the world of "Heavenly Book," what can the daily experience and value methods of the real world do? After the referent dies, the subject no longer has any reason to prevent the super-speed proliferation of signifiers, which constitutes a self-sufficient world, playing with itself, and carelessly discarding the subject in an unknowable position. However, those who are self-righteous are still pursuing meaning in the face of the full humiliation of "World Analysis Mirror—Heavenly Book." But this is no longer a sacred moment of understanding the super-referent or the whole meaning, but a moment of ambiguity, where polycentric meaning production and consumption take place. Every subject can occupy a position in the text and obtain meaning that belongs to itself. It is interesting to listen to the meaning produced in a meaningless world. Some see "contemporary confusion consciousness" in their works; others attribute it to the victory of visual aesthetics and a breakthrough in the field of calligraphy; still more people like its concept because its essence far exceeds visual content, etc. This reminds us again of Kristeva's famous quote: "Explanation of the infinite because desire makes meaning infinite." Indeed, in the contemporary era, there is no reason that can effectively prevent people from reconstructing meaning within their own experience, and "World Analysis Mirror—Heavenly Book" has announced the legitimacy of this behavior beyond all artists. In the context of cultural disintegration in the late 1980s, what is the meaning of the vast signifier group of "World Analysis Mirror—Heavenly Book"? Except for the above-mentioned testimony to the legitimacy of polycentric meaning, its meaning can also be sought in "deconstruction" and "transition." The so-called "deconstruction" refers to the comprehensive subversion and disassembly of the ontology and functional theory of New Wave Art. The "ultimate value" and ideological commitment function of New Wave Art have already been shaken and crumbling under the impact of the signifier movement in "World Analysis Mirror—Heavenly Book," and its ostentatious posture of glory, sublimity, and "great soul" has also been stripped of its mask in the absurdity game of "World Analysis Mirror—Heavenly Book." In an era of cultural disintegration and meaninglessness, nothing is more meaningful than stripping off these masks and directly facing the absurdity of fate in an absurd way; at the same time, this "deconstruction" itself is a "transition." The decline of New Wave Art heralds the transition from modern art to contemporary art, and Xu Bing found the most moving reason and the most decent way for this transition through a Chinese-style post-discourse. In this sense, he rescued New Wave Art from the gradually exhausted discourse and meaning predicament, making himself both against and a part of New Wave Art. Therefore, it is no wonder that "World Analysis Mirror—Heavenly Book" became a symbol of the art of an era—not only because it constitutes the above meaning, but also because the allegory it tells in an absurd way becomes a kaleidoscope that satisfies people's various desires, with everyone composing the graphics of their own desires from it. Xu Bing's cleverness lies in making an absurd text so moderate that it suits all tastes and desires—desire for absurdity and mockery, desire for rebellion, desire for antiquity, desire for tragedy and sublimity, desire for interpretation, desire for ignorance, etc. For those living in the context of cultural disintegration, it is both an absurd deception and, at the same time, a real thing because of its perfection and the satisfaction of the desire for experience. Moreover, people are simply not interested in distinguishing between absurdity and reality. "World Analysis Mirror—Heavenly Book" pushed Xu Bing into a predicament: after completing the pseudo-literary game with great rationality and willpower, when it reaches its absurd result—a social text—whether there is still a need to elaborate it? Can it be extended to another way of play? Xu Bing reflected on this predicament in his creative notes: "‘World Analysis’ provides multiple interpretations, and it has also thrown me into a new predicament. This predicament, in turn, has prompted me to interpret it, to interpret the process of my solitude with it and what it has caused. Its content has given me some hints of unfamiliar thinking, and this unfamiliarity has helped me recognize the clarity of its own predicament. It proves that the common experience of the world and I are incompatible and have no reason, the habitual desire of thinking state accompanied by relaxation and anxiety progresses, forging the original substance, the only progress is this fate, realizing itself, approaching clarity again and again, a sorrowful process. This operation has a certain inevitable constraint, once on this toy, it seems you can't stop, until you say 'enough,' and the subsequent interpretation is recognition." As "World Analysis Mirror—Heavenly Book" was absorbed by society as an exploration of how to "cross over," all of Xu Bing's efforts found an end in a state of boredom: filled with the aversion and helplessness produced by the long engraving of "Heavenly Book," the loud self-righteous explanations of polycentric meaning, the pleasure of losing sublimity and tragedy in the pseudo-character group, and the emptiness of relief from work. The excessive meaning they produced almost mocked Xu Bing's meaningless labor, forcing and tempting him to seek new artistic methods to dissolve them. "Ghost Hitting the Wall" was the product of this pressure. In May 1990, Xu Bing began the work of printing the Jinshanling Great Wall under the name "Ghost Hitting the Wall." The entire work took nearly a month, involved dozens of workers, used 300 bottles of ink, and more than 1,000 high-quality Korean papers, printing more than 1,000 square meters of prints. Here, Xu Bing expanded his personal "Heavenly Book" project into a social one: inviting architects as consultants, hiring workers, arranging photography and video, and contacting the media, turning an ordinary daily behavior into a conscious special cultural space through Xu Bing's meaningless labor. From "pseudo-text" to "pseudo-Great Wall," has the text undergone substantial changes? For Xu Bing personally, this change exists, as he himself said: "‘Ghost Hitting the Wall’ personally, what interests me is the space cut off from it before and after under specific consciousness constraints, and the possibility of new thinking opportunities hidden in the entanglement of contradictory purposes." However, from a cultural and work logic perspective, "Ghost Hitting the Wall" is merely a variation of the "Heavenly Book" text, a simple continuation. Printing the Great Wall is merely repetitive labor of character creation and engraving, and the installation effect of the Great Wall prints indoors clearly failed to surpass the shock of "Heavenly Book." Although Xu Bing repeatedly emphasized the behavioral and event nature of the entire work, due to the mismatch between the cultural psychology of the work and the overall social value trends, its event nature only had a slight response within the small circle of artists; more importantly, "Ghost Hitting the Wall" repeated both the artistic thinking of "Heavenly Book" and its concept, the only difference being the object. What happened in "Heavenly Book" happened again— time was shocking, the second time it seemed to just evoke a habit. But in the end, it was not that Xu Bing's allegory was not good enough, but that in the early 1990s, people had become accustomed to everything meaningful and meaningless, no matter how good the allegory, it was difficult to move them. For Xu Bing, the skepticism towards cultural deception and established values is not only the basic character of his art but also essentially his own nature. As long as this spirit remains, then his allegorical world composed of pseudo-texts will continue to turn. Several years later, after a period of living in the United States, he began his skeptical thinking again on the relationship between Eastern and Western cultures, and this thinking itself turned the pseudo-texts into more challenging texts— они were reduced to the level of animal behavior and were the focus of attention and thought. I call this stage the "animalization" of pseudo-texts. What does this "shocking" mean? It means that Xu Bing pushed an absurd game to its extreme, and skepticism reached not only absurdity but also malice. Only because it is malicious can it be effective, this is Xu Bing's last resort against people who have been drowned in cultural hypocrisy. The solemnity and sanctity that "Heavenly Book" and "Ghost Hitting the Wall" still maintained were stripped off, and the exposed text was more direct, closer to reality, and more unbearable than ever. Xu Bing also became more like a localized postmodern artist than the classical scholar or modern intellectual he once tried to play. The past skepticism only led to cultural criticism carried out in an absurd way, and now it openly became a reducer of cultural regression to animality—this is truly an unparalleled reduction. Through this, Xu Bing almost put culture on a noose of absurdity or even malice.