Modernism and Post-Modernism

Yip Wan Yee (Willa)

Student no. 2960645

willayip_artndesign@yahoo.com.hk

Does Yayoi Kusama and Ai Weiwei achieve in self-reflexivity?

Word Count: 1474

26/11/2014

Lecture: Mr. Keith Bradbury

Art historian Dr. Christopher L.C.E. Witcombe who has describes the

theory on self-reflexivity as those post-modern artists is “reflexive” on

self-conscious which involves a process of thinking about themselves and

society in a deconstructive manner, be knowing of their cultural self in history,

and speed up the process of self-consciousness (Witcombe 2000). In this

matter I chose Yayoi Kusama and Ai Weiwei who have great involvement in it.

Through their art works we can see that Yayoi Kusama reflexives on her

psychic problem and Ai Weiwei were more care on social issues instead, and

in this assignment would like to mainly discuss about their installation art

works and how they involved in self-reflexivity.

Yayoi Kusama is best known for her “dot dot” art and also as Net painting,

most of her art work used dots as the main element since she

experienced hallucinations which make her see the dots all around and all the

time. She said that she want to see her own life, a dot, namely, one among

millions of particles. Her art obliterates herself and others with the void of a

net woven with an astronomical accumulation of dots (Kusama 2002,

pp.24-25). She admits herself as a self-reflexivity artist.

Author Lynn Zelevansky has an argument on Kusama‟s work that, for her,

there is no contradiction exists between aesthetic engagement and publicity,

or psychic disorder and emotional control, and there is no same perceptible

border between her and art too. (ed. Pollock 2008, p.132) She presents

herself in an all-encompassing way.

One of the good examples of her self-reflex art work is Kusama’s Peep

Show, also known as Endless Love Show in 1996 (Fig.1) was an octagonal

room which covered by mirrors and there have a small window that you could

stick your head in and the ceiling of it set up a series of lights, when turn the

lights on, the mirror will reflect them and visitors also lighting up the room as

figure one.

Psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan stressed the fact that our first recognition

Fig.1: Kusama‟s Peep Show: Endless Love Show‟ she

showed Endless Love Room 1966

of ourselves in the mirror is in a willed mistaken. He had elaborated that if we

face two or more mirrors we will be unpleasant and even disturbing on the

reflection of ourselves (Borch-Jacobsen 1991, p.232). And this effect is well

demonstrated by Kusama in her Peep Show (Fig.1), the mirror in the

installation offer a simulative experience of fragmentation and our reflection is

dispersed around the place to the point where we become (Bishop 2005,

p.90). As Kusama said “dots are symbol of the world, the earth is a dot, the

moon, the sun, the stars are all made of dots. You and me, we are dots” in the

interview of BBC Newsnight (`Kusama's Polka dot obsessed art comes to the

Tate ' 2012). She was not only reflecting herself in art but also brings us in too.

The Museum of Modern Art also described Kusama herself and her work

are very remarkable at that time, and often prescient in arts future

developments. Sharply personal, handmade, obsessive, remain an individual

and altogether unique appearance. (Museum Exhibitions and Programs 1998,

p.37).

As well as her latest installation artwork The Obliteration Room (Fig.2).

Yayoi constructed a large domestic environment, painting every wall, furniture,

and household decoration in a pure white. Visitors were given infinity of

colored dot stickers and invited to transform the room, turning it into a

vibrantly mottled explosion of color (Kusama’s Obliteration Room 2012). She

just not created the art work this time but also invited people to join the

progress of creation, let people participate in her world. Yayoi‟s self-reflexivity

is more about her experience in psycho problems, Ai Weiwei however is more

reflect in political and social issue.

Fig.2: The Obliteration Room 2012, Look Now See Forever exhibition at the

Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane

Meanwile in China, political artist Ai Weiwei is trying to present the desire

about the right value of freedom, justice of law and equality from people

through art ( Lin 2014, p.18). His self-reflexivity is more about the public issue

in large scale of production style which will explain in the content below.

Same is installation art, but unlike Yayoi Kusama, Weiwei‟s theme and

elements of work can make people feel that they are part of the metaphor in

social issue instead. Such as one hundred million seeds which have political

meaning ( Lin 2014, p.29). Ai weiwei‟s Sunflower seeds (Fig.3) was made by

1600 Chinese artisans in barehands one by one, follow the exactly the same

of Ming‟s ceramics produce progress and it took two and half years to finish

(Ai Weiwei: Without Fear or Favour 2010).

The elements of his installation art works is a large scale. In particular the

Sunflower seeds, as he respond to a question that the relation of this art work,

he said that it related to many things, history, mass production but yet, each of

these seeds is made individual not mass production (Ai Weiwei: Without Fear

or Favour 2010).

An article elaborate that AiWeiwei‟s reflection is also the process of art

work making and organizing social activist campains, his experimantal

artwork and to illuminate social innjustices were also one of the reason that

he creats large-scale installation art such as Sunflower seeds (Fig.3)

(Natusch & Hawkins 2014, p.4).

Chinese people have been represent as sunflower that following Mao

(the sun) in the past. Author Christian Sorace has elaberate Ai use seeds to

present Chinese resident‟s pure potentiality of what they might become

when „it is imagined as a collective of individuals and what individuals might

become when they are collectively empowered as the people.‟(Sorace 2014,

p.411).

In BBC‟s television programe Ai Weiwei: Without Fear or Favour ,

Fig.3: Ai Weiwei poses with a handful of seeds in the exhibition at Tate Modern.

curator Chris Dercon also explained that there is a time people have nothing

to eat but sunflower seeds, which help them survive and therefore Ai Weiwei

decided to memerize this part of history that we (chinese people) can

overcome, he himself have been participate in too as he like to eat sunflower

seeds during chit chat sometimes (2011). Ai‟s self-reflexivity is on helping

people to express themselves in the political metaphor, history, social issue

etc.

About the self-reflexivity, as professer Witcombe said that “reflexive” also

can be knowing of their cultural self in history (Witcombe 2000), Ai Weiwei‟s

reflexive is on the social problems that he has been through, in addition of

Sunflower seeds good example of self-reflexivity is Remembering (Fig.4).

Remembering is another installation art in large scale production about

social problems including the Jerry-built school which cost at least 5000

children dead in the Sichuan earthquake and the government‟s reaction on

this incident.

Remembering is an installation art that use nearly 9000 backpacks to

assemble a sentence “她在这个世界上开心地生活过七年” means she have

been happily live in the world for 7 years, which said by a mother whose kid

was dead in the school during earthquake. This mother does not need any

apologize and reparation since her daughter will never come back (Klayman

2012).

After the earthquake there had over 7000 school room collapsed. The

reason and evidence soon came out – the “tofu dreg schoolhouses” (豆腐渣校

舍) which cost more than five thousand young life dead and after that, those

children‟s parents start to protest asked for an investigation but turn out the

government decided to pay them money and even force them to be silenced.

On this matter Ai led a citizen investigation to collect the information of

deceased schoolchildren and did this installation work (Sorace 2014, p.412).

Fig.4: Remembering, Installation for the Haus der Kunst, 2009-2010.

Obviously this art work is another good example of Ai‟s self-reflexivity. He

did participate the whole incident, he use this way to remembering the little life

from the earthquake, those colorful backpags did shocked people and directly

lead them think about the children‟s death, the cover truth and the disapear

individual for group‟s aim. His work can always reflect a self intuition, attitude

on the social matter (Lin 2014, pp.40-41).

According to those anthorities whose views on Yayoi Kusama and Ai

Weiwei‟s involvement with the self-reflexivity, it can be said that they are

considered an important exponent of the self-reflexivity.

Yayoi Kusama particularly use dots to reflect her psycho problems (dots

elements) on her artworks and on the other hand Ai Weiwei however, is

reflecting himself in history specially social issue and political problems

through large number production method (one hundred million sunflower

seeds and nearly nine thousand school backpags). And there is no doubt that

these two artist has their own way in self-reflexivity.

Reference list:

Ai Weiwei: Without Fear or Favour 2010, television program, BBC, UK,

16 November.

Bishop, Claire 2005, Installation Art: a crirical history, Routledge, New

York.

Borch-Jacobsen, Millel 1991, Lacan: The Absolute Master, Stanford

University Press, C.A..

Klayman, Alison 2012, Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry, documentury,

personal press, USA.

Kusama’s Obliteration Room 2012, television program, Tate,

Bloomberg, 14 March.

' Kusama's Polka dot obsessed art comes to the Tate ' 2012, Newsnight ,

9 February, retrieved 25 November 2014, via BBC News database.

Kusama, Yayoi 2002, Infinity Nets: The Autobiography of Yayoi

Kusama, Sakuhinsha, Tokyo.

Lin, Hsieh-Min 2014, "On Ai Weiwei‟s Art form the Publicness and Its

effect", Master Thesis, Department of Theatre Art National Sun

Yat-sen University, viewed 24 November 2014,

http://etd.lib.nsysu.edu.tw/ETD-db/ETD-search/getfile?URN=etd-001

0114-114037&filename=etd-0010114-114037.pdf

'Museum Exhibition and Programs' 1998, MoMA, vol. 1, no.4, pp.

36-43.

Natusch, Barry & Hawkins, Beryl 2014, „Mapping Nichols‟ Modes in

Documentary Film: Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry and Helvetica‟, The IAFOR

Journal of Media, Communication and Film, Vol.1, Issue 2, pp.1-26.

Pollock, Griselda (ed.) 2008, Psychoanalysis and the Image:

Transdisciplinary Perspectives, Wiley-Blackwell Publishing, New

Jersey.

Sorace, Christian 2014, 'China‟s Last Communist: Ai Weiwei', Critical

Inquiry, vol. 40, no. 2, pp. 396-419.

Witcombe, Christopher L.C.E. 2000, 'Modernism and Postmodernism',

viewed 24 November 2014,

http://witcombe.sbc.edu/modernism-b/modpostmod.html

List of Images:

Figure 1: Kusama‟s Peep Show: Endless Love Show‟ she

showed Endless Love Room 1966, from

http://uk.phaidon.com/agenda/art/picture-galleries/2012/february/02/t

he-fantastical-world-of-yayoi-kusama/?idx=10&idx=10

Figure 2: The Obliteration Room 2012, Look Now See Forever

exhibition at the Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane, from

http://www.thisiscolossal.com/2012/01/yayoi-kusama-obiliteration-roo

m/

Figure 3: Ai Weiwei poses with a handful of seeds in the exhibition at

Tate Modern from

http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2010/oct/11/aiwewe

i-sunflower-seeds-tate-modern

Figure 4: 'Remembering', Installation for the Haus der Kunst,

2009-2010, from

http://briannammarie.blogspot.hk/