Crafts and Art
Group Exhibition
Wu Shaoxiang, Jiang Shuo, Zhan Wang, Shi Jinsong, Fang Lijun

Location:
Linda Gallery | Beijing
Linda Gallery | Beijing
Organization:
Wu Shaoxiang, Jiang Shuo, Zhan Wang, Shi Jinsong, Fang Lijun
Artist:
Sept. 22, 2019 - Oct. 29, 2019
Date:
Curator:
Liao Wen
Contemporary art emphasizes the free expression of personal feelings. In principle, it can use all kinds of ancient and modern art methods, including crafts, technology, and even exploring many other possibilities. The key is how to transform inner thoughts into "individual” product and express the best in the most appropriate language getting it original and with a personal touch.
This exhibition wants to explore the issue of transforming Chinese traditional crafts into contemporary art language.
Western traditional art history separates art from crafts, art is advanced, and crafts are regarded in low esteem. A feminist artist in the 1960s and 70s broke this concept. Because, even in the entire history of Western modernism, “decoration and craftwork” has always been regarded as a woman’s work. This “Low Art” is always separated from the “High Art” with a noble, ethical and spiritual meaning. As a feminist strategy and breakthrough, some feminist artists deliberately use female red (such as knitting, weaving, sewing, embroidering) to make works, many of which have been written in art history, but fundamentally, the concept of “low-level” is still ingrained, so Western contemporary artists who dare to use craftwork to make their work are rare.
There are many traditional Chinese art methods, and there are basically three main parts, the literati, the folk, and the craft. Different from the West, in the Chinese concept, these three departments are like three old people with different personalities. They are not only well educated but also close. In the long history, the three major departments have formed their own peaks, and the three major departments have a delicate and complex integration and infiltration in various ways, just like neighbours can often collaborate in festivity.
There are advantages and disadvantages in the same department, but the three ones are equal. Although literati and craftsmen have different social identities, there is no deliberate inequality in specific exchanges, inquiry and mutual learning.
Therefore, there is hardly a psychological barrier for Chinese artists to transform their craftsmanship into their works, and the use of technology is also logically settled in the feelings and expressions of the works. With artistic appeals, they give traditional craftsmanship a personal, creative semantic (new path), and a technical breakthrough is the expansion of artistic language.




