Editor’s Note
Yishu 78 presents a diverse selection of texts beginning with a feature on Lee Mingwei, an artist whom we last covered in 2002. Rachel Ng looks at his work from the perspective of cultural identity in a world of globalization and, in addition, how his work is positioned with respect to relational aesthetics. Among Voon Pow Bartlett’s interests are Chinese artists engaged with abstraction, and here she explores the work of Wang Jian and how it goes beyond formal aesthetics and enters a realm embedded in philosophical notions about nothingness. Artist Leung Chi Wo has curated an exhibition of the work of Josh Hon, and his text reflects upon an artist well remembered in Hong Kong for his early experimental multimedia projects during the 1980s, a time when such work existed outside the mainstream.
Yu Hsiao Hwei speaks with Huang Yong Ping about his project Empires or the Grand Palais, Paris, and provides insight into the thought processes that come into play in conceiving and realizing such a major installation. In his conversation with Cuban artist Juan Moreira, Zheng Shengtian builds upon his research into the exchanges between mainland China and Latin America during the 1950s and 60s. Phoebe Wong converses with Hong Kong artist Wong Wai Yin about two of her 2016 projects and uncovers an art practice that is idiosyncratic and conceptual, but that also arises from everyday experiences that are patently familiar.
Elena Marcrì identifies a number of Chinese artists who reference the tradition of shanshuihua—mountain and water painting— and considers how they bring it into a contemporary context that reveals a disparity between China’s economic progress and the possibility of ecological sustainability. Finally, Patricia Karetzky takes us into territory Yishu has not yet explored: the introduction of Christianity into mainland Chinese society, and, more provocatively, into the work of Chinese artists. The approach of these artists, however, is not one of promoting the tenets of Christianity but of exploring it in more personal and discreet ways.
Image (top): José Venturelli, Camilo Cienfuegos (detail), 1961, mural in the conference room of Ministry of Health, Havana. Photo: Don Li-Leger.
Keith Wallace
