Rhetoric of the Image

Wednesdays, 9:00-12:00pm // 7415 Dwinelle

Over the past century, Chinese artists have worked under conditions of imperialism, republicanism, semi-colonialism, collectivism, socialism, postcolonialism, transnationalism, neoliberalism, and global capitalism. They have been central figures in political movements for liberation, reform, and revolution. They have been blacklisted and celebrated in exhibitionary regimes and art markets. They have been ignored and canonized, persecuted and elevated, silenced and enriched. Their work has been mythologized and derided as revolutionary art, collective art, hotel art, behavior art, copy art, factory art and global art. How have Chinese artists sustained a critique of capital through the many permutations of socialism in which they have worked? What does the problematic role of Chinese contemporary art in the grand narratives of the 20th and 21st centuries tell us about critique?