Abstract
The study considers the Chinese-born artist Shen Yuan in the context of contemporary cultural production, particularly regarding debates about the mobility of people, objects and images, and investigates whether her installations incorporate the notion or action of movement at the levels of their functioning and/or reception. It is argued that Walter Moser’s concept of “artmotion”, as well as findings from recent mobility studies, are useful theories with which to explore this question. The transformational function of her installations is also examined in order to probe how the mobile, sensory and transitory aesthetic experiences felt by the viewer affect their perception and comprehension of objects in the world. An equal concern is how the viewer moves through or around the pieces, contributes to their meaning and thereby participates in wider discourses about Chinese traditions, politics and contemporary concerns. In addition, by considering how Shen’s aesthetics are inspired by Chinese culture at the same time as drawing on the current, global art scene, it will be shown how the transcultural is at the heart of her artistic project and how it demands a constant negotiation between two parts of her self. Finally, the study proposes that mobility studies may be usefully applied to other contemporary artists in transit.
Highlights
Silvester: Art and Motion speeding up and spatial compression of economic and social processes, Anthony Giddens has conceived of it as ‘time-space distanciation’, the stretching of the influences and relations belonging to social life across time and space
Jonathan Xavier Inda and Renato Rosaldo have reflected on the cultural dynamics of globalization and pushed forward the prevailing debate by contesting its perceived consequences, namely cultural imperialism and the homogenization of the world
Transcultural art is understood in this article, at a primary level, as the representation of two or more cultures in one artwork, following closely Fernando Ortiz’s coining of the term ‘transculturation’ in 1940 to offer an alternative to the established ‘acculturation’ which described the interaction between cultures resulting in one culture being dominated by the other
Summary
Silvester: Art and Motion speeding up and spatial compression of economic and social processes, Anthony Giddens has conceived of it as ‘time-space distanciation’, the stretching of the influences and relations belonging to social life across time and space. One such ‘mobilizer’, interested in both ‘small’ and ‘large’ mobile activities, is the subject of this study: Shen Yuan, an artist who has been acclaimed in the French art world since migrating to Paris in 1990.2 She creates mainly installations,3 most of which combine contemporary western techniques with Chinese themes or iconography, inducing two-way flows between the global and the local.
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