Examples of Chinese contemporary performance art

In Guangzhou from January 29th to February 4th, 1991, a newly established new art group "Big Tail Elephant Working Group" held the "Big Tail Elephant Working Group" in the exhibition hall of the Guangzhou First Cultural Palace. "Elephant Working Group Art Exhibition". Participating artist Chen Shaoxiong hung a transparent plastic film in the exhibition hall with three layers inside and outside, which was triangular in plan view. It was stretched with angle irons and iron chains, and white cloth was laid on the ground. The volume of the plastic film, which is triangular in plan view, is 270 × 1200 × 800 cm, and the film area is approximately 160 square meters. The artist spent seven days applying a specified amount of film each day with black paint, and marked the date of application, in order to realize his cutting of the concept of time. It should be pointed out that Chen Shaoxiong, Liang Juhui and Lin Yilin, the three founding members of the "Big Tail Elephant Working Group", have all participated in the "Southern Artists Salon. First Experimental Exhibition" mentioned above, and they Therefore, in the first year of the 1990s, when China's contemporary avant-garde art was at a low point of transition, they were the first to form a group in the metropolis of southern China. This was not only because they inherited the enthusiasm for art from the new wave period a few years ago. It also has something to do with the geographical and cultural atmosphere of South China being different from that of North China. This is the earliest experimental base for reform and development in China. Because it is adjacent to Hong Kong and Macao, it has a stronger commercial atmosphere and pragmatic spirit than northern cities. It is also an area with a higher degree of modernization. Therefore, it is not interested in the commercialized material world brought about by modernization and high technology. The artist who is in it is the one who feels it most deeply. Corresponding to the world filled with material materials is the artist's attitude and processing method. There are two types. One is that ready-made products of material materials are assembled and installed by the artist's hands to convey the artist's thoughts; the other is that the artist directly uses the body and the movement process of action to experience and convey its interrelationship with the surrounding material world. For several members of the "Big Tail Elephant Working Group", choosing the increasingly abundant and unfamiliar material ready-made materials around them as a medium and transgressing back to personal behavioral media was an inevitable necessity based on a realistic background. The cultural vacuum in the region, especially in Beijing during the transition period of the 1980s and 1990s, formed a sharp contrast. What must be seen is that in Chen Shaoxiong's "Seven Days of Silence", what the artist is aware of is the blackening of the pre-set plastic film within a certain period of time, which is the completion process of the ready-made installation within a set period of time. The act (blackening) itself is not regarded as the main component of the entire work. In other words, the plastic film already exists as the subject, and the blackening only serves the subject as a time process. In addition, from the perspective of visual language, the act of blackening itself is not the dominant part of the visual image of the overall work. Similarly, Chen Shaoxiong conducted a "5-hour" installation performance art activity at the Red Ant Bar in Guangzhou in 1993.

Coincidentally, in Changsha, the provincial capital of Hunan Province adjacent to Guangdong Province, Sun Ping, an art editor by profession, said in a work report: "In 1992, the smell of commodities made me aware of new products. The situation came... I took advantage of the opportunity of the 'Guangzhou Biennale' to launch a campaign of 'China Game No. 1. Issuance of Stocks', and then bought back a batch of stocks that are usually displayed in department stores or fashion stores. A hanger model for selling clothes, and the next year we started the production of 'Chinese Acupuncture' Department C using fashion models as a medium...In fact, since the 1990s, I have been paying attention to the impact of the rise of the market economy on people's mentality. "China Game No. 1" is one of the earliest attempts. It is only because performance art is restricted by various conditions that I turn to the art method of installation, because I not only hope that our works of art have directness and presence that point to current issues. nature, and I also hope that they have the materiality that can be spread and can become the spokesperson of a disappeared history." (Sun Ping's "Work Report on "Chinese Acupuncture" (unpublished)). "China's No. 1 Game. Stock Issuance" refers to the event in which young artists from all over the country gathered in Guangzhou in October 1992 to participate in the "First Chinese Contemporary Art Biennale of the 1990s (Oil Painting Part)" (referred to as the "Biennale"). On the machine, a series of actions including issuing "China Sun Ping Art Co., Ltd.'s issuance of RMB stocks (A shares)" at the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts and reading out the prospectus announcement. By making his own stocks and selling them to the public, Sun Ping simulated the stock trading craze that was sweeping the country at that time, introducing into art a life scene that the government had to agree with and the people responded enthusiastically and almost flocked to it.

This kind of directness and vividness in addressing current social and cultural issues cannot be achieved by the formal language such as the style, pattern and technique of easel painting, and the ridicule and humor infiltrated in it are something that every contemporary Chinese can relate to. You can feel it with all your heart. Through careful planning, careful detail conception and production, and sudden operations, Sun Ping captured the hot and sensitive nerves of the society at that time and set the stage for the integration of art and social life. A set of procedures, what he calls the rules of the game. He did not deliberately act as the subject of the entire prospecting behavior. The fact is that the development and implementation of his preset prospecting plan (including text, procedures, on-site reactions, etc.), as an event, is the subject of his behavior; in other words , the full development of his behavior and the participation of the audience are the basis for his behavior to be established. Therefore, although he is different from Chen Shaoxiong's previous works that had a strong installation color, he still does not regard his own activities and lifestyle as the subject of the entire stock offering. To be more precise, this is a project that is set according to the process of business society. Participatory game events are very simulated and ironic.

If the performance art activities of Chen Shaoxiong and Sun Ping originated from the influence of the increasingly strong commodity economy atmosphere in the south on contemporary avant-garde consciousness, then in Lanzhou, Gansu, far away from the coastal cities, a man who calls himself "Lanzhou The artist group of "Legion", however, is extremely cautious and even resistant to the art promotion and art packaging that are concentrated in the South, as well as the various artistic activities and expressions caused by the commodity economy that occur in this region. Cheng Li, Ma Yunfei, Ye Yongfeng, Yang Zhichao, Liu Yiyi and others seemed to have smelled the dangerous atmosphere behind various art market operations coming from the south, and believed that modern art might be swallowed up by the promotion of market economy, and Many artists in the New Wave Art Period are intoxicated by the enthusiasm of market operations. A phenomenon of physical decay is taking shape. Chinese modern art needs a revolution to clean up the door. Therefore, on December 12, 1992, the "Lanzhou Art Corps" was formed in Lanzhou, a group of young artists that adopted the organizational system principle of "free combination and natural interleaving", and proposed a package of steps to implement performance art activities. In 1993 On January 8, they used the blank death notice they found from the hospital and the obituary they had discussed and agreed upon, and mailed it to artists and art critics across the country. The obituary had been published in Shanxi Daily, and the person who died was designed by them. , made of paper and clay, was described in the eulogy as "Zhong Modern, an artist who has long colluded with critics, art dealers, and newspaper editors, created personal relationships, and sold his works crazily." On January 17, the funeral of "Zhong Modern" was held. In front of the large venue was a glass coffin with "Zhong Modern" lying on it. He was made to look naked and hairy, but his body was sickly and white. Beyond that was a 10-meter-long black cloth with a huge inscription written on it. The word "Burial" in black on a white background and the words "Three Strikes" and "Three Antis" in black on a red background (referring to "Down with the painting tyrants, down with the picture magazines, and down with the painting dealers", "Opposed to finding people, opposed to selling paintings, opposed to publishing") ) slogans were laid out on the snow. After reading eulogies, shouting slogans, and setting off firecrackers, the Legion members took turns wearing all-red, all-black, and all-white funeral attires, and wore masks. Four people lifted up the words "Zhong Modern." "The coffin slowly walked towards the city. Finally, the "ashes" of "Zhong Modern" that were burned to ashes by gasoline were buried in a small wooden box. At this point, the "burial" performance art activity was completely over. Compared with Chen Shaoxiong, The difference between Sun Ping and Sun Ping's activities was only in a small, relatively closed space. The artists of the Lanzhou Art Corps carried coffins and paraded through the streets, crossing many roads, attracting the participation and attention of countless people, and thus clearing the door in the art circle. Concepts influence and collect people's visual experience and emotional responses in a wider public space and time, making Chinese performance art directly meet the people in an open environment for the first time and guide the latter to participate, and its impact on death The design, production and mailing of notices, obituaries, eulogies, and relic boxes have greatly spread the "burial" activity at the artistic level and received extensive information feedback. Performance art is fast, flexible, highly targeted, and accurate. The shocking and participatory characteristics are relatively comprehensively reflected in the "Burial" activity. It has undoubtedly become one of the more successful examples of the interactive relationship between behavior, society and art since the 1990s. Of course, its implementation Success is closely related to being geographically far away from developed political and cultural areas and thus having less interference from acceptance and understanding.