Trash-art in China and Korea: Struggle for the Cultural Heritage — the Case of Porcelain

Abstract

The article discusses examples of trash art created by contemporary Chinese and Korean artists. In view of the environmental and social agenda, contemporary artists often use materials once used for completely different purposes. Chinese and Korean artists are no exception here. The author considers examples of the broken porcelain used to create new art objects created in China and Korea. Beijing-based artist Li Xiaofeng creates wearable dresses from broken porcelain from the Song, Ming, and Qing dynasties, and works with new broken porcelain to create designs with fashion houses such as Lacoste and Alexander McQueen. Korean ceramist Yee Soo Kyung takes broken porcelain to create oddly shaped vases and sculptures using the traditional Japanese kintsugi restoration method. Recycled China creates art panels and functional flowerpots from scrap Jingdezhen porcelain and aluminum. Lei Xue works in a different plane of trash art. The artist creates products from new materials, imitating garbage, for example, crumpled tin cans. At the same time, the author paints his products with patterns traditional for Chinese porcelain. Author concludes that, unlike Western artists concerned about environmental issues, Eastern ones are more often concentrated on the preservation of cultural heritage. They are trying to present old, crashed traditional art objects in a new, more attractive light for modern society needs, as well as to fit objects into the modern social agenda, more precisely, to make them “fashionable”.