Wang, Zhen
(2017)
RE-IMAGINE URBAN WONDERLAND: CITY, TRADITION AND CONTEMPORANEITY.
Master's Thesis, University of Pittsburgh.
(Unpublished)
Abstract
This study discusses the artistic representation of urban landscape, materials, and performing bodies that reflect on the fast urban expansion in China since the late 1990s. Even though Chinese urbanization has incurred a series of social issues, the significance of traditional culture enables artists to explore the communication and unity of human beings, urban materials, and natural environment as an alternative way to redefine the urban antinomies. This demonstrates what Wu Hung defines as the self-orienting power of Chinese contemporaneity in art field and also corresponds to Gao Minglu’s Yi Pai theory that reinterprets contemporary Chinese art from traditional philosophy and aesthetics. From the tradition-based perspective, this thesis argues that the representation of urban human beings and materials can be seen as a way of ritualization and meditation through traditional values, which guides the artist and audience to re-imagine harmony and integration in the urban wonderland. The artists discussed in this thesis include Zhang Dali, Chen Qiulin, Yang Yongliang, Xing Danwen and Chen Qingqing. They expressed their subjectivity through a culturally ingrained way of ritualization and meditation. The manifestationof harmony or the aesthetic of Yi, in this light, is not only to reconstruct the temporal significance of traditional culture in contemporary Chinese art, but also functions as an enduring way of understanding and communicating with the ever-changing world.
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Details
| Item Type: |
University of Pittsburgh ETD
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| Status: |
Unpublished |
| Creators/Authors: |
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| ETD Committee: |
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| Date: |
21 September 2017 |
| Date Type: |
Publication |
| Defense Date: |
12 April 2017 |
| Approval Date: |
21 September 2017 |
| Submission Date: |
24 April 2017 |
| Access Restriction: |
No restriction; Release the ETD for access worldwide immediately. |
| Number of Pages: |
50 |
| Institution: |
University of Pittsburgh |
| Schools and Programs: |
Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences > East Asian Studies |
| Degree: |
MA - Master of Arts |
| Thesis Type: |
Master's Thesis |
| Refereed: |
Yes |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: |
contemporary Chinese art; Yi Pai; urbanization;tradition;unity |
| Date Deposited: |
21 Sep 2017 13:59 |
| Last Modified: |
21 Sep 2017 13:59 |
| URI: |
http://d-scholarship.pitt.edu/id/eprint/31562 |
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