STAGFLATION AND DELAY WITHOUT LOGICAL PROGRESSION

BY  GUZHENQING

  Stagflation and delay without logical progression is the present situation in China not only for economic and social development but also for the development of contemporary art production. This state of stagflation and delay clearly faces us with an invisible bottleneck, so that everyone in this state pessimistically waits for something big to happen while also wasting time and life every day at a loss for what to do, risking missing out on the opportunity for revolutionary change and innovation. In this time, just as games of money and power overwhelm Chinese society, they overwhelm the Chinese art scene as well. This period might bring about a period of rubbish for art history. The work for the vast majority of people is to only reflect on history, but never to create it. This period of stagflation and delay cannot go on forever, but no one knows how long it will last and how much damage it will do.

  At present, the stagflation and delay in the development of Chinese art do not appear to anticipate a validity period for logical progression, but instead the impending expiration of every existing value. When artists refuse to work and co-operate, it is an attitude and posture of negative rebellion and independence. When artists do work and co-operate, on the other hand, it is certainly not a form of submission. It could perhaps be an extension of self-awareness and the free spirit. It could be positive but tragic intervention in a social situation. Stagflation and delay are a straightjacket, but no one knows, when this straightjacket is removed, whether the world will disintegrate or reawaken. Perhaps this is a time when artists can really understand Chinese art tradition and the artistic spirit. Art can be done and art can be not done. Art can care about nothing and art can care about everything.

HERE AND NOW, FROM BOREDOM TO ENDLESS DELAYS

BY  DAIZHUOQUN

As modernity falls under suspicion, we grow tired and hesitant about all the faith and values we once held so firmly. Mankind’s schemes of modernity are falling to ruin and we must reevaluate and mourn for all the things we once enthusiastically and faithfully pursued, such as doctrines, movements, revolutions, plans and sustained economic growth, while the embers are still warm.

This is the era we are going through right now. As we begin to doubt our rationality, the here and now becomes increasingly important. As we decide not to plan out the future or follow the past, we become confused, hesitant, and self-alienated. As we set out on dehistoricization, we come to doubt the veracity of history and our existence in the present, even the present and presence. Jacques Derrida convincingly demonstrated that presence has been repeatedly distorted and eroded by the past and the future, and history, including art history, cannot be understood as the continuation of presence. 

Here and Now means boredom, endless delays, a kind of excessive, useless and suspended time. When we try to contemplate the current predicament of art, we find that we have been forced into a pure ritual of repeatedly wasting time, one that is carried out with great care and seriousness.