Yixiang (意象) in Contemporary Chinese Ink Installation Art

Abstract

ABSTRACT Since the early twentieth century, the art tradition in China has been challenged by art practices from the West, which has led to a bifurcation in Chinese art practices: one branch has stayed true to the traditional Chinese style with ink and the other has turned to the Western style. Although always accompanied by heated debates on whether Chinese painting should retain its ink tradition, efforts have been made to find a third way in-between the two styles, to make traditional Chinese art contemporary by incorporating traditional ideas and artistic techniques in new media art practices. These art practices are much less accessible internationally because of the difficulty in categorising and understanding them. This essay recontextualises these artworks in the context of traditional Chinese aesthetics by introducing the concept Yixiang (意象), with a discussion of the artwork “Melt” by Pan, Gongkai (潘公凯). The non-dualistic, dynamic, and relational features of Yixiang (意象) resonate with the characteristics of contemporary new media art practices, which usually include dynamic moving images or installation spaces that invite audience participation. Through a careful introduction of the cultural significance of Xiang (象) thinking, as well as its embodiment in artworks, this article proposes a new way of looking at contemporary media artworks which may go beyond the cultural confines of Chinese or Western art.