Syllabus

Schedule:

Topics:

 

Readings:

Week 1

Tues, Jan 27

 

 

 

 

Introduction to the syllabus,semester research projects and the Cooley Gallery show China Urban.

  • ascribed vs. achieved identity (official art promoted by the CCP, academic art, pop culture, international commercial art, art of the glocal megalopolis)

 

 

Read syllabus carefully and plan ahead. For conference discussion, read Eleanor Heartney, "Cai Guo-Qiang: Illuminating New China," Art in America (May 2002): 92-97. The article is available on the artist's website under TEXTS: Articles. Go to http://www.caiguoqiang.com/shell.php?sid=3 Please also look over the artist's projects documented online, especially those mentioned in the article.

 

 
Maoist China, 1949-1976      
Thurs, Jan 29 Woodcut prints in Revolutionary China
  • popular vs mass arts
  • artists:   KŠthe Kolwitz (work in Special Collections), Li Hua, Gu Yuan
  Ellen Johnston Laing, The Winking Owl (Berkeley:   University of California Press), ch 1 (PDF); Chang-tai Hung, "Two Images of Socialism:   Woodcuts in Chinese Communist Politics," Comparative Studies in Society and History 39, no. 1 (Jan 1997):   34-60 (electronic journal).

OPTIONAL Chang Tai-hung, "Repainting China:   New Year Prints (Nianhua) and Peasant Resistance in the Early Years of the People's Republic," Comparative Studies in Society and History 42, no 4 (2000):   779-810 (electronic journal).

Week 2

SUN, FEB 1

Tues, Feb 3

 

 

MORNING SUN 6 pm

Socialist Realism:   Censorship in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction 1950s -1960s

  • censorship, Soviet Socialist Realism
  • artist:   Dong Xiwen
  

 

Biology 19

Mao Zedong, "Literature and Art," in Art and China's Revolution , ed. Melissa Chiu (New York:   Asia Society, 2008), 214-219 (main reserve & bookstore); Jerome Silbergeld, "Art Censorship in Socialist China:   A Do-It-Yourself System," in Suspended License , ed. Elizabeth Childs (Seattle:   University of Washington Press, 1997), 299-332 (e-reserve); Leah Dickerman, "Camera Obscura:   Socialist Realism in the Shadow of Photography," October 93 (Summer 2000): 138-53 (electronic journal); Wu Hung, Remaking Beijing (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2006), 167-182 (main reserve & bookstore)
Thurs, Feb 5 The Cultural Revolution 1966-76 : Politics of Communist Kitsch
  • kitsch, sentimentality
  • artists:   anonymous
  Max Horkheimer and Theodor Adorno, "The Culture Industry:   Enlightenment as Mass Deception," 1-24 (PDF) ; Melissa Chiu, ed, Art and China's Revolution (New York:   Asia Society, 2008), 19-40, 57-74, 107-117, 119-131 (main reserve & bookstore); see web sites dedicated to Cultural Revolution on the ART CHINA NOW page of Lisa's website, particularly Stephen Landsberger's site on Cultural Revolution posters

Week 3

Tues, Feb 10




Art under Jiang Qing:   Cultural Performances of Viewing Art and Meaning-Making

  • national identity and the shaping of a national eye
  • artist: Huang Yongyu
  




Melissa Chiu, ed, Art and China's Revolution (New York:   Asia Society, 2008), 133-147, 220, 222-227 (main reserve & bookstore); Eugene Wang â"The Winking Owl:   Visual Effect and Its Art Historical Description," Critical Inquiry 26, no. 3 (Spring 2000):   435-73 (JSTOR)

Thurs, Feb 12 Discussion with Stephanie Snyder on labels, problem of how to design gallery space to evoke the space of a city


  Shepherd Steiner, "On Formalism and Tinkering with the Political on the Far Side of the Subject at documenta 12," Journal of Visual Culture 7, no. 2 (2008) (Sage Premier)
II. The Post-Mao Years 1977-1989

     

Week 4

Tues, Feb 17

 

 

Tiananmen Square

  • monument, emblem, public memory
  • artsts:   the CCP
  • note: Stephanie Snyder will join us for the first 30-40 minutes of conference to discuss the Steiner article

 

 

  

 

Wu Hung, Remaking Beijing, 15-50 (main reserve & bookstore); Laing, The Winking Owl , ch 9 (e-reserve). 

OPTIONAL Peter Rowe and Seng Kuan, "Struggles with Modernism," in Architectural Encounters with Essence and Form in Modern China (Cambridge:   MIT Press, 2002), 106-35 (e-reserve)

see http://tsquare.tv/tour/

 
Thurs, Feb 19 The 1970s-1980s:   Stars, Scars, and Xiamen Dada
  • avant garde
  • artists:   Huang Yongping, Luo Zhongli, Wang Keping, Cheng Conglin
   Melissa Chiu, ed, Art and China's Revolution (New York:   Asia Society, 2008), 177-185 (main reserve and bookstore); Hilary Binks, "The Star Group of Artistsâ" http://www.zeestone.com/article.php?articleID=16; Fox Butterfield, "Wang Kepingâ" in Alive in the Bitter Sea (New York:   Times Books, 1990), 435-45 (e-reserve); Wu Hung, "Post-Cultural Revolution Experimental Chinese Art (1979-1993)â" in Transcience (Chicago:   University of Chicago, 1999), 17-26 (e-reserve).

OPTIONAL Martina Koppel-Yang, Semiotic Warefare:   The Chinese Avant-Garde, 1979-89, A Semiotic Analysis (Hong Kong:   Timezone 8, 2003), sections 3.1.1., 3.1.2, 3.1.4 (e-reserve);

Week 5

SUN, FEB 22

Tues, Feb 24

 

 

 

 

 

 


Wed, Feb 25

 

GATE OF HEAVENLY PEACE 6 pm

Mao Fever ( Mao re )

  • icon, iconoclasm
  • artists:   Wang Guangyi, Li Shan, Yu Youhan, Cai Guo-Qiang

 

 

 

 


Blog your ideas and drafts of label copy so that your group members can read and comment on it.

 

 

Biology 19 potluck

Melissa Chiu, ed, Art and China's Revolution (New York:   Asia Society, 2008), 201-212 (main reserve & bookstore); Martina Kšppel-Yang, "75% Red, 20% Black, and 5% White:   Pop Aesthetics in Post-Revolutionary China," in Pop Art and Vernacular Cultures , ed. Kobena Mercer (Cambridge:   MIT Press, 2007), 198-218 (PDF); Geremie BarmŽ, "EveryMao" and â"Modern Mao and Multi-Media Mao," in Shades of Mao (Armonk, NY:   ME Sharpe), 19-23, 39-42 (e-reserve); Wu Hung, Remaking Beijing , 183-207; Xiaoping Lin, "These Parodic Images: A Glimpse of Contemporary Chinese Art," Leonardo 30, no. 2 (1997):(JSTOR)

OPTIONAL Karen Smith, Nine Lives on Wang Guangyi (pp. 34-77) and Li Shan (pp. 220-259);
Thurs, Feb 26 Discussion of label and catalog copy for CHINA URBAN in research clusters WITH STEPHANIE SNYDER   Lisa at College Art Association Conference. When I return I will post a schedule for discussion of proposals during the next two weeks. Note that there is no other reading during this period so that you can work intensively on your research for CHINA URBAN

Week 6
Sunday, Mar 1



Tues, Mar 3

Thurs, Mar 5 RAW event
5:30-7 pm Aspen

Thurs, Mar 5

Fri, Mar 6 RAW event
4-5:30 Aspen

Fri, Mar 6 RAW event
7-8:30 pm Psych 105


Blog your individual exhibition proposal by midnight. For an example of a proposal, click here

Proposals, bibliography workshop

Eugene Tsui, architect, workshop on clothing design (optional)

Proposals, bibliography workshop

Eugene Tsui, architect, discussion of megacities
(optional)

Eugene Tsui, architect, lecture on the future of urban development in China (optional)

 

 

Week 7

Tues, Mar 10

Thurs, Mar 12

 

Proposals, bibliography workshop

Proposals, bibliography workshop

 

  

Spring break March 14-22

III. China Art Now (Post-Socialist China)

 

    

Week 8

Tues, Mar 24

 

 

 

meet in L41

 

 

 

  

 

  • We'll work on gallery installation and design with Stephanie on Tuesday.
  • On Tuesday local Portland calligrapher Yang Jiyu will inscribe the walls of the Cooley with calligraphy in the style of the King of Kowloon. Performance begins at 4 pm for the China Urban Collective only. Others who are interested can see Yang write calligraphy on the glass of the Cooley lobby walls at the opening of the show on Thursday, April 9 at 6 pm.

 
Thurs, Mar 26 Glocal Cities and Cityness (meet in L41)

 

  
  • Ricky Burdett, Deyan Sudjic, eds., The Endless City: The Urban Age Project by the London School of Economics and Deutsche Bank's Alfred Herrhausen Society (New York: Phaidon, 2008), 104-132 (PDF), 246-273 (PDF).
  • Thomas Campanella, "Reclaiming Shanghai," in The Concrete Dragon: China's Urban Revolution and What it Means for the World (New York: Princeton Archietcural Press, 2008), 56-91. (e-reserves)

Week 9

Tues, Mar 31

 

 






Thurs, Apr 2

 


Three Gorges: The City in Ruins

  • artist:   Chen Qiulin (Chengdu, Sichuan)







Imperial Cities: Ghosts and Memories

  • artist:   Yun-Fei Ji (born in Beijing, based in Brooklyn, NY)
  



  • Displacement:   The Three Gorges Dam (Chicago:   Smart Gallery, 2008), read catalog entries on Chen Qiulin (main reserve)
  • Pierre Nora, "Between Memory and History: Les Lieux des MŽmoire," Representations 26 (Spring 1989): 7-24 (JSTOR)
  • Wu Hung, Transience, 80-81, 109-119 (main reserve)


  • Wu Hung, Remaking Beijing , 207-235
  • Melissa Qiu, "Ghosts, Three Gorges, and Ink: An Interview with Yun Fei-ji," inYun Fei-ji: The Empty City (St Louis: Contemporary Art Museum, 2004), 78-91 (PDF)
  • Displacement:   The Three Gorges Dam (Chicago:   Smart Gallery, 2008), read catalog entries on Yun-fei Ji (main reserve)

Week 10

Tues, Apr 7

 



The Urban Generation

  • artist: Yang Fudong (Shanghai)

 

 

  

 

  • http://www.yangfudong.com
  • The Real Thing: article on Yang Fudong (PDF)
  • Henri Lefebvre, "The Specificity of the City" (1968), in Visual Culture: Critical Concepts in Media and Cultural Studies, eds. Joanne Morra and Marquand Smith (London and New York: Routledge, 2006), 3: 102-105. (PDF)
  • short synopsis of Part 2 of the Seven Intellectuals in a Bamboo Forest series of videos by Melissa Chiu and Miwako Tezuka, Yang Fudong: Seven Intellectuals in Bamboo Forest exhibition catalogue, (New York: Asia Society, 2009) (PDF)
  • see website dedicated to Xin Tiandi, a redeveloped Shanghai shikumen "stone gate" tenement




       

 

Thurs, Apr 9

 

 

Logomania and the City

  • artist: The King of Kowloon (Hong Kong)

    Yang Jiyu will be at Reed at 6 pm to inscribe the lobby walls of the Cooley Gallery with calligraphy in the style of the King of Kowloon. CHINA URBAN OPENING PARTY.

 

 

  

 

  • David Clarke, "The Culture of a Border Within:   Hong Kong Art and China," Art Journal 59, no. 2 (Summer 2000):   80-101. (JSTOR)
  • Michel Foucault, "Of Other Spaces: Utopias and Heterotopias." In Rethinking Architecture: A Reader in Cultural Theory. Ed. Neil Leach, 350-356. London and New York: Routledge, 1997. (PDF)

 

 
Week 11
Tues, Apr 14 		Urban Bodies on Display
  • artist:   Song Dong, Yin Xiuzhen (married, both work in Beijing)
 

 

  • Yin Xiuzhen Interview with Ai Weiwei," Chinese Artists, Texts, and Interviews (PDF)
  • Jean Baudrillard, "The Ecstacy of Communication" (1968), in Visual Culture: Critical Concepts in Media and Cultural Studies, eds. Joanne Morra and Marquand Smith (London and New York: Routledge, 2006), 3: 227-234. (PDF)
  • Christopher Mao, ed. Chopsticks (New York: Chambers Fine Art, 2002), PDF

 


Thurs, Apr 16

 


New Media and the City

  • artist: Xie Xiaoze and Chen Zhong
    Xie Xiaoze will visit our conference; artist's talk that evening at 6:30 in Psych 105, catered dinner afterwards
 



  • for the talk in the evening: NPR interview with Xie Xiaoze and Chen Zhong, click here

 
Week 12
Tues, Apr 21

At the Margins: Violence and Horror

  • artist: Li Yan (Beijing)

I

  
  • New York Times articles (2008): March 15, March 18, April 7, April 11; (2009): February 26
  • other readings from China Digital Times please browse
  • interview with Li Yan, click here
  • Juliana Bruno, "An Archive of Emotion Pictures," in Atlas of Emotion: Journeys in Art, Architecture, and Film (New York: Verso, 2008), 247-79. (PDF)
  • CHARLENE MAKLEY WILL VISIT CONFERENCE


Thurs, Apr 23



Week 13



Ink City: Guangzhou

  • artist: Chen Shaoxiong (Guangzhou), compare with Cao Fei and Zheng Guogu's work on and in Guangzhou (and it's semi-urban environs)

 

  


  • Hou Hanru, "Beyond: An Extraordinary Space of Experimentation for Modernization," in The Second Guangzhou Triennial, Beyond: An Extraordinary Space of Experimentation for Modernization (Guangzhou: Lingnan meishu chubanshe, 2005), 24-37 (e-reserve and main reserve)
  • see Cao Fei's "Sanyuanli" on Youtube
  • on Zheng Guogu (and the Yangjiang Group), see Artzine China for images and read interview with Zheng (PDF)
  • "Chen Shaoxiong," Chinese Artists, Texts, and Interviews (PDF)
  • Guy Debord, "Theory of the DŽrive," in Visual Culture: Critical Concepts in Media and Cultural Studies, eds. Joanne Morra and Marquard Smith (London and New York: Routledge, 2006), 3: 77-81. (e-reserve)

Tues, Apr 28

The City and the Cyborg

  • artist: Cao Fei (Beijing)
 
  • Donna Harraway, "A Cyborg Manifesto: Science, Technology, and Socialist-Feminism in the Late Twentieth Century," in Simians, Cyborgs and Women: The Reinvention of Nature (New York: Routledge, 1991), 149-181 (e-reserve)
  • "Realities and Other Absurdities:   A Conversation with Cao Fei," interview by Joni Low with translation assistance by Stephen Tong, Yishu (December 2006):   73-81.   (e-reserve)
  • Maya Kovskaya, "Heroes of the Mundane:   The Syncretic Imagination of Cao Fei," Yishu (December 2006):   82-85. (e-reserves)
Thurs, Apr 30 Class symposium: discussion of themes, issues, new questions   Final project due ON MAY 11