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Fotografiile
performance ale artistei He Chengyao pot fi interpretate
ca niste reprezentari tipice ale opresiei, cu dimensiuni
de gen particulare, suferite sub presiunea miscarilor
politice mo-derne din China. Totusi, fermitatea dialogului
ei international cu formele de avangarda inoculeaza practica
ei artistica cu perceptia faptului ca corpurile (si vietile)
femeilor sunt prinse in si intre sistemele socialiste
si capitaliste ale fa-bricarii, reproducerii si circulat
iei semnului. Imaginile ei extind critica pe care Lingzhen
Wang a facut-o despre limitele aduse de "literatura
de supunere" sau "literatura celor raniti",
literatura care s-a dezvoltat dupa moartea lui Mao, si
care a creat un spatiu public pentru reflectie asupra
exceselor miscarilor politice din trecut, in special Revolutia
Culturala. Wang sustine caa aceste lucrari au izolat impactul
vietii politice asupra vietii individuale ca domeniu unic
al experientt ei personale legitimat pentru o tinta publica.
Forme diferentiate in functie de gen ale opresiei individuale,
povestiri despre casatorii nefericite, abuz domestic,
sau expresii ale dorintelor sexuale femeiesti considerate
ca fiind nepotrivite nu au indeplinit cererile de continut
semnificativ politic.
Lucrarile artistei He Chengyao inregistreaza o astfel
de trauma, la nivelul corpului, cauzata de incercarile
de separare a experientelor personale imposibil de impletite
ale politicului si publicului, in special cand imaginile,
economii ale diferitelor epoci, interactioneaza in momentul
actual al Chinei transnationale, postsocialiste. Fotografiile
performance ale artistei He Chengyao dezvaluie modalitatea
in care genul sustine nationalismul si transnationalismul,
dar si contradictiile relatarilor lor. Folosindu-si propriul
corp ea demonstreaza cum femeia a fost baza discursului
nationalist, intr-un mod care le-a conferit putere femeilor
insa le-a si interzis exprimarea propriilor experiente
subiective. Performance-urile care au fost initiate cu
Opening the Great Wall / Deschizand Marele Zid au lansat-o
in circuitul artistic international. Corpul ei in forma
fotografica patrunde pe piata ca o imagine superficiala
de consum. Performance-urile ei, cum ar fi cel de la Muzeul
Victoria si Albert din 2005, sunt acum validate ca fiind
arta, insaa se lupta impotriva globalizarii neocolonialiste
condensate in remarcile unui reporter de la ziarul The
Guardian, in care China reprima expresia artistica individuala,
in special pe cea a femeilor, afla incat ea poate fi recuperata
si interpretata in Vest.
Opening the Great
Wall / Deschizand Marele Zid(fragment), Sasha Su-Ling
Welland, Assistant Professor, University of Washington,
Anthropology & Women Studies
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He
Chengyao's performance photographs might be read as typical
representations of the oppression, with particularly gendered
dimensions, suffered under modern political movements
in China. However, her resolutely international dialogue
with avant-garde
forms injects her art practice with an awareness of how
women's bodies (and lives) get caught within and between
socialist and capitalist systems of sign making, reproduction,
and circulation. Her images extend the critique that Lingzhen
Wang has made about
the limitations of the exposure literature or literature
of the wounded that emerged after
Mao's death, creating a public space for reflection upon
the excesses of past political movements, particularly
the Cultural Revolution. Wang argues that these works
isolated the impact of politics on individual lives as
the only realm of personal experience legitimate for public
airing. Gendered forms of private oppression's stories
about unhappy marriages, domestic abuse, or expressions
of female sexual desire deemed inappropriate did not fulfill
the requirements for politically significant content.
He Chengyao's work registers such trauma, at the level
of the body, caused by attempts to separate the impossibly
intertwined personal experiences of the public and political,
particularly when images economies of different eras interact
in the current
moment of transnational, post socialist China.
He Chengyao's performance photographs reveal how gender
underpins nationalism and transnationalism, but also the
contradictions of their narratives. By using her body,
she demonstrates how woman has been the ground for nationalist
discourse, in a way that has
empowered women but also disallowed utterance of their
subjective experiences. The performances that began with
Opening the Great Wall also launched her onto the
international art circuit. Her body in photographic form
enters the market as a flickering commodity image. And
her performances, such as the one at the Victoria and
Albert Museum in 2005, are now validated as art but struggle
against the neocolonial worlding
epitomized by the remarks of a reviewer for The Guardian
in which China represses individual artistic expression,
especially that of women, so that it can only be recovered
by and interpreted in the West.
Opening
the Great Wall (a part)
by Sasha Su-Ling Welland, Assistant Professor, University
of Washington, Anthropology & Women Studies
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