Mythologies of Contemporary Art: Zhang Hongtu, Yang Mao-Lin, Tu Wei-cheng
In their works through the years, Zhang Hong-tu(Zhang Hongtu), Yang Mao-lin(Yang Mao-Lin), and Tu Wei-cheng(Tu Wei-Cheng)have always kept in communication on their own individual ways of both continuing and overturning history. They are interested not only in past history but also in future histories and their possible aspects, and so they test the ties between their personal awareness of history and the sweep of time’s narrative. Their works collect from many historical samples and formulas, but unlike historians, they furthermore ponder their own current reality and respond deeply to the rampant materialism of the present age.
“Mythologies of Contemporary Art” is composed of modern myths woven by numerous thought-provoking alternativehistories created by artists Yang Mao-lin(Yang Mao-Lin), Zhang Hong-tu(Zhang Hongtu)and Tu Wei-cheng(Tu Wei-Cheng). These works of art meld the past with the future in an attempt to bring us to a better understanding of our rich, ever-changing contemporary culture, while at the same time exploring how modern Chinese culture can create new values, ideas and cultural viewpoints within the global consumer economy. They use a mythologized linguistic typology to explore present cultural situations that are fraught with historical crisis.
During the “Taipei Art Group”era, Yang Mao-lin(Yang Mao-Lin)threw himself into creating epic images that belong to local memory. In recent years, he changed the direction of his art from painting to sculpture, exploring those images and stories found in modern trends that people fall in love with, solemn and respected spiritual beliefs turn into today’s spiritual landmarks filled with excessive materialism, dictating the increase in morality and spiritual standards. They are reinterpreted differently within Yang’s new fables, carrying the human yearning for romance and passion found within myths. These statues are placed on altars, with the contemporary system of spiritual worship interpreting this very differently.
Tu Wei-cheng’s(Tu Wei-Cheng’s)unique approach to history includes a solid methodology in terms of research and construction. In addition, the continued existence of the Bu Num civilization is still dependent on artists’ continuous conducting of meaningful excavations within contemporary culture so that their true history can be collected. Excavating the Bu Nnm(Num)civilization, from ruins to the modern day, Tu Wei-cheng(Tu Wei-Cheng) has continuously found new cultural objects that become this evidence that continues on the modern electronic civilization. He is attempting to extend his critique to the manipulation of artistic fashion, the phenomenon of the “blockbuster shows” by the “cultural creative industry,” as well as the mechanisms through which this is accomplished.
In the newest 12-piece series,Re-make of Ma Yuan's Water Album－(780 years later), Zhang Hong-tu(Zhang Hongtu)uses Western materials to recreate Ma Yuan’s ink paintings. The rising and falling of waves seen in the works not only show the artist’s acute observation of nature, but also represent his emotional frame of mind. With 780 years of dust piled on top, during which time humanity slowly distanced itself from nature, the meanings within Zhang’s works perhaps seem surreal, having already broken away from realism. After intensely studying this reconstructed reality, even more concepts originate from how the artist uses his own language to search for the vanishing point in the border between Chinese and Western history.
There are a wide variety of opinions found within contemporary art. The artists try to make art discourse worth of reading in the cultural context by speaking in the voice of history. However, an intriguing reality is that many of these readings and interpretations are much more like interesting myths.
