By Zeng Chenggang
“Chinese Pose·China Sculpture Exhibition” series, invested with our hope towards the dream of Chinese sculpture, have gone through six years. Its collective display every three years could present the developing features of contemporary Chinese sculpture in a comprehensive and thorough way: the current Chinese sculpture has become a multi-cultural carrier integrating society, economy, science, religion, philosophy, history and so forth. It is rebuilding its self-value and innovating aesthetics, demonstrating diversified art forms and spiritual guide amid multi-cultural collision and integration.
Dr. Sun Zhenhua categorized contemporary Chinese sculpture into ten types on the 1st China Sculpture Exhibition six years ago, which is appropriate, vivid and still applies now. However, we’re surprised to find more diversified explorations and value orientation more apt to contemporary characteristics in promising young artists in recent creations, such as the spiritual admiration for traditional culture, perseverant attachment to their land, humane expression towards real life, reflections and research upon the circumstances of times and nation, expressions about personal experiences and so on. Different as they depict their works, the rules, forms and implications presented when focusing on these topics have deep-seated relations with the living circumstances and spiritual beliefs of contemporary society. Sculpture today, on the basis of carrying on excellent traditions, has integrated eastern humanity qualities and thinking patterns with inclusiveness, boldness and innovation in language, images and narrative methods. In cultural sense, it is a new construction of values, which assumes important reference and enlightening significance to the trend of Chinese sculpture and Chinese culture under the global context.
Traditional art began to suffer from unprecedented collision since the invention of camera; the progress of science and technology enabled the way of obtaining pictures by mechanics and electronics mainstream of cultural media; with the innovation of technology and the rapid development of holographic scanning, 3D printing and other techniques, sculpture and painting which relied greatly on handicraft are gradually breaking away from craftsmanship: all of these make us incomparably anxious. Nonetheless, from the works collected and sculptors’ creations in this exhibition, we find that technology didn’t threaten the development of sculpture; rather, it enabled “the property of technology” to return to works in a fresh way. The employment of new technology has activated the representative forms of traditional materials, and endowed sculpture with more abundant concepts and meanings, making “craftsman spirit” extraordinarily outstanding in the perfect blending of technology and art, which is recreation with new science and technology as starting point and new forms as guide, as well as an innovation of aesthetics belonging solely to today.
China has paid great price in the transformation from ideological society to economic society, and the chain reactions thus generated have direct impacts on our understanding about many concepts and questions; at the same time, we synchronize with the world but still lagging behind, while the rapid development of economy has made all specific values doubtful. Under these circumstances, what kind of posture should sculptors have in order to face traditions and reform? How should they construct a new value orientation and spiritual pursuit? In the past 20 years, sculptors have been swaying and exploring between classical and modern postures, and great transformation has taken place in the field of sculpture: the number of practitioners soaring, sculpture education of colleges just unfolding and young sculptors coming out in great succession. All the endeavors have finally taken shape today.
The efforts through the past six years have made “Chinese Pose·China Sculpture Exhibition” a promising platform with hopes and strength, from which many sculptors walk to broader stage. Each of the “Sculpture Exhibition” is our periodical reflection and summarization about Chinese sculpture, which displays contemporary sculptors’ concern about the prospect of domestic sculpture and their strong cultural confidence. The conscientious creation of every sculptor is propelling Chinese sculpture to move forward, and as a member of that process, let us make joint efforts to contribute our share to the undertaking of Chinese sculpture, to make it showcase in the world art stage with a more positive, steady, abundant and inclusive posture.
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