The document segment of this exhibition consists of the artists stories of how they make a living, highlighting the struggle and perseverance involved in their delicate walk between art and existence.

Striking the Mountain to Shock the Tiger
An Exhibition Surveying the Creative Ecosystem for Contemporary Chinese Young Artist Groups
Amelie Gallery, Beijing, China
August 21st-Octorber 13th, 2010
Opening Reception: August 21s, 15:00pm
Curator: Tony Chang

For each generation of artists, the social environment in which they live and create has a profound effect on the development of their art. The curatorial concept behind Striking the Mountain to Shock the Tiger is sociological, using interviews and surveys of nearly one hundred artists born in the 1970s and 80s to observe the living and creative conditions of young artists and the potential effects of the current art ecosystem on future changes in art and the development of artists. Using the creative subject key words gleaned from the surveys as a core set of coordinates, Striking the Mountain to Shock the Tiger seeks out a spiritual anchor in the flourishing, diverse practices of cutting-edge art. The artistic styles of the various participant artists vary widely, but all are brimming with talent and personality. The document segment of this exhibition consists of the artists stories of how they make a living, highlighting the struggle and perseverance involved in their delicate walk between art and existence.

Artists of the 85 New Wave such as Fang Lijun lived alongside peasants in such places as Beijing East Village and the Summer Palace Artists Village, later moving to places such as Huajiadi and Song Zhuang; they drifted about with the status of wandering migrants, unrecognized by society. Their weakened, scattered state worked in tandem with the mission of social criticism, contributing to the formation of regional or conceptual groups. The artists pooled their meager resources and together they pushed art to a high point in the 1990s. The local art market was lacking at the time, and artists would sit dejectedly in their studios waiting for the occasional visit of a foreign art novelty seeker or the chance to hold an exhibition in a foreign embassy. The intolerant social mainstream and market environment to a certain extent shaped the trend of early avant-garde art's western orientation. Attention from abroad opened a window for survival to the nascent, struggling contemporary Chinese art scene, catalyzing today's prosperity and sowing the seeds for the loss of localized discourse authority for Chinese contemporary art.



The fate of artists born in the 1970s and 80s is perhaps much better: beginning in 2000, the domestic art market started to gradually expand, and artists experienced from tolerance to acceptance and then admiration from society. The bias among the general populace is that artists are part of a free group that can bask in the glow of stardom and personal wealth, but aside from a minority of artists who became famous early on, most artists must face the spiritual perplexities of individual artistic exploration and the hardships of making a living. The individualization of creative concepts has gone hand in hand with the upheaval of the demolition of art districts, and these artists have grown more detached from their peers. They face the choices of subsistence and artistic direction alone.

Through the ages, the success of most Chinese artists was built on a foundation of a supportive society. For instance, the palace courtyard painting of the Song dynasty was promoted by the emperor, and behind the rise of literati painting was the decision by the Mongolian rulers of the Yuan dynasty to push scholars and intellectuals out into the field. For contemporary art, the targets of the spiritual dilemmas and explorations of the soul transcended the esthetic range of modernism. For young Chinese artists, people their age who share a spiritual resonance with them are still chasing the path to affluence, and have yet to become patrons of cutting-edge art, while older collectors are still steeped in sentiment for realism and esthetics. These factors have come together to stunt the market for cutting-edge artistic exploration. In nearly three decades since the 85 New Wave, the pioneers of avant-garde art have only sparked a change in esthetic appreciation methods, and the path to acceptance in society and the market for contemporary art is still a long one. Growing up with this dilemma, young artists will need spiritual tenacity and improvements in the societal and market-based support systems if contemporary art is to find stable development.

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