HOUSTON — One of the things artist Xu Bing struggled most with when he moved to the United States from China in 1990 was language. “Your thinking ability is mature,” Xu later recalled, “but you have the speaking and expressive abilities of a child. You are a respected artist, but in this linguistic context, it is as if you were illiterate. In response to his situation, Xu developed Square word calligraphy, a hybrid writing system that incorporates English letters into Chinese-style characters. This innovative new language would become a cornerstone of his artistic practice in the 1990s.
A number of Xu’s Square Word Calligraphy works are displayed in Invoking Memories: Art Beyond Chinese Traditions at Asia Society Texas. Curated by Susan L. Beningson and Owen Duffy, the exhibition features 32 Chinese-born artists who, like Xu, negotiate the long heritage of Chinese calligraphy and ink painting through alternative approaches and materials.
“This exhibition aims to build a cross-generational conversation about how today’s artists are pushing the boundaries and probing the depths of different Chinese artistic traditions,” Duffy said. Hyperallergic on a recent tour. The more than 50 works of art on display draw on tradition by reinterpreting cultural influences – artistic conventions and techniques, as well as poems, stories, plays and literature – from a wide range of historical periods, decades and even centuries past. For example, Zheng Chongbin’s large ink painting “New Six Canons (Xin Liufa)” (2012) refers to a 5th-century text on the fundamentals of Chinese ink painting, while the Zhang Hongtu’s ironic “Zodiac Figures” (2002) condenses old and new as Tang dynasty-style ceramic tricolor animals don the garb worn by popular Mao Zedong figures of the 1950s and 1960s.
Other artists abandon traditional materials altogether. “Wrinkled Texture 113” (2021) by Wu Chi-Tsung appears across the gallery as a skillfully executed painting of wave crests or rugged mountains, but up close the piece reveals itself as a cyanotype made of paper crumpled exposed to light. Nearby, Fu Xiaotong’s densely textured “719,560 Pinpricks” (2019) forgo brush and ink altogether, creating a lush view from only the repeated, expert incisions of a needle. Fu’s piece is a gentle rebellion against tradition that also subtly brings the ink painting into three dimensions.
Of course, the ink painting on paper does not completely disappear from the exhibition. “Can the eyes sing? The Bodies of the Sacred Mountains” (2021-22) is a wall-sized tour de force that envelops the viewer’s body. Although inspired by nature – the artist created the massive painting while staying in the mountains of Taihang – his swirling, pulsating brushstrokes evoke a psychic landscape more than a physical landscape. In the next room, Yun-Fei Ji’s 3-meter-long scroll “Three Gorges Dam Migration” (2008) is a delicate yet captivating interpretation of China’s rapid modernization using traditional oil painting techniques. ‘ink.
Several works have been specially commissioned or are exhibited for the first time in the United States. A notable example is Yang Yongliang’s “Imagined Landscape, Rabbit” (2022), where the mountains and waterfalls characteristic of traditional Chinese ink paintings are formed by digitally pasted photos of high-rise buildings and military vehicles. The article is a pointed commentary on today’s political tensions and climate concerns inside and outside China.
One of the most moving pieces is Ren Light Pan’s ‘Sleep Painting – 12.31.14′ (2014), a deeply human expression of quiet strength. The wall tag describes the room as being “water, body heat, ink and despair on canvas”. To create it, the artist saturated the canvas with ink and slept on it inside his parents’ garage. Her curved and protective posture and the dark palette of the work exude a tender vulnerability with which the spectators cannot help but understand. “She’s a trans artist, and this piece was done before she transitioned. For her, it almost works like a portrait from a past life,” Duffy explained. While other artists in the exhibit may look story from hundreds of years ago, Ren looks back on an old me. Regardless, the artists of Summoning Memories to use the past as vital and living material for the work carried out today.
Invoking Memories: Art Beyond Chinese Traditions continues at Asia Society Texas (1370 Southmore Boulevard, Houston, TX) through July 2. The exhibition was curated by Susan L. Beningson, PhD, with support from Owen Duffy, Nancy C. Allen, Curator and Exhibitions Director, and Rebecca Becerra, Exhibitions Director and Registrar.
