Road to Enigma and Profundity / Qian Weikang: Stipulated Amount and Free Fall / New Measurement Group: Analysis

Inside-Out Art Museum is pleased to announce the simultaneous openings of three exhibitions：Road to Enigma and Profundity：Guangshe and the Artistic Turn of Photography in the Early 20th Century, Stipulated Amount and Free Fall: Qian Weikang, from 1990 to 1996, and Analysis: New Measurement, from 1988 to 1995. The latter two are part of the research series “Conceptualism and 1990s.”

Road to Enigma and Profundity
Participating artists: Chen Shanshan, Chen Wanli, Ding Song, Guo Xuequn, Lao Yan Ruo, Liu Bannong, Shen Linbo, Sun Zhongkuan, Tao Lengyue, Wang Meizhuang, Wang Mengshu, Wei Shouzhong, Wu Yinxian, Wu Jixi, Wu Yuzhou, Wu Zhongxing, Zhang Yunjie, Zheng Yingsun 

Road to Enigma and Profundity traces the decade-long practice of the photography society Guangshe (1923–1934). Founded in Beijing a hundred years ago, Guangshe was an art society formed by a group of educated amateur photographers from Peking University. The society’s history demonstrates the pioneering artistic explorations of the new intellectual class using photography as a medium and the ideological impetus that drove their artistic orientation during the transition period in modern Chinese history. Part of the rapid and profound cultural changes of this period, it is a remarkable case study of Chinese intellectuals’ search for a new order in the face of a double crisis. On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the founding of Guangshe, we organized the exhibition Road to Enigma and Profundity, revolving around works by Guangshe members. We also make use of a variety of contemporary pictorial publications related to photography, as well as the works of individual photographers who followed their interests in the humanities or other personal preferences, in an attempt to outline the humanistic and artistic shifts in photography practice in China during the 1920s and 1930s, as well as the bigger picture behind them.

Conceptualism and the 1990s
We have been revisiting the historical landscape of Chinese contemporary art since 2017. By focusing on specific historical periods or individual artists, we seek to explore ideological impetus behind evolution of creation and individual careers, uncover interaction between them and their times, and illustrate the complexity and richness of both historical and personal narratives. The forthcoming two solo exhibitions, Analysis: New Measurement, from 1988 to 1995 and Stipulated Amount and Free Fall: Qian Weikang, from 1990 to 1996, serve as significant art historical case studies. Their conceptual creation during that brief period attracted certain attention and aroused discussion, with long-lasting impact. Both of them wrapped up their artistic endeavors in late 1995 and 1996 respectively. As a result, awareness and understanding of their work became largely restricted to artists and critics of that era. Destruction or loss of most of their artworks and documents after they ceased their practices has hindered subsequent generations from fully grasping and valuing their work. This deficiency significantly contributes to the obscurity surrounding emergence of conceptual art in the early 1990s within contemporary art history.

Qian Weikang spent over five years (1982-1987) working as a boiler worker at Shanghai’s Dalong Machine Factory. During this period, he immersed himself in literary societies, modernist poetry, radical writing, and was introduced to avant-garde art and modernist thought through literature. A voracious reader, Qian was deeply influenced by European literature, particularly by its modernist and avant-garde movements. In 1990, within the confines of his 20-square-meter apartment on the outskirts of Shanghai, Qian embarked on an experimental literary journey, creating what he termed “ladder poems”.

As Qian shifted towards visual artistry, his Ladder Poem experiment waned. However, the principles of self-imposed rules and restraint persisted in his work from 1993 to 1996, where he developed artworks that utilized measurement tools to objectively quantify emotions, experiences, and the subjective process of creation. Qian’s artistic endeavors, which involve “surrendering” himself and the outcomes of his actions to external elements like gravity, wind, rules, and quantitative relationships, are highly symbolic. This approach unveils an inherent paradox in his philosophy: the act of self-imposition of constraints necessitates an elevated level of self-awareness. This dichotomy lies in an unspoken truth-that the artist, while appearing to cede control, maintains mastery over his own thoughts and actions. By deliberately placing himself in situations that seem beyond control, Qian paradoxically demonstrates a transcendent state that navigates the realm of thought.

In Art News of China, dated August 29, 1988, Li Xianting launched a new column titled “Avant-garde Art,” setting it apart from the earlier New Wave Art series. In the column’s introduction, he pointed out that “tactile art” is one of the new creative directions after 1987, when the New Wave of art transcended its enthusiasm for superficial social and philosophical concepts. The inaugural article of this section, Tactile Art by Wang Luyan, critiques the overreliance on intellect and knowledge, which often overshadows direct, unmediated experience. The artists’ aim is to “reawaken the dormant sense of touch, liberating it from intellectual constraints and imbuing it with new significance.” This approach seeks to strip away the layers of reason and knowledge that have traditionally shaped our understanding of touch. This concept aligns with the broader cultural shift towards “removal of meaning,” a movement that tempers the fervor for humanistic ideals. By focusing on the unaltered, unmediated sense of touch, these artists establish a new basis for meaning.

Their new code for recognizing the nature of the world is to use the means of measurement as the basic artistic language, to exclude the direct influence of emotional experiences, transcending instinctive intuition and the irrational aspects of objective correlatives. In this conceptualization, the world is perceived as an objective entity, with human subjectivity being the primary barrier to engaging with it. The proposed method to bridge this gap involves surpassing personal experiences and emotions, such as establishing quantitative relationships. This endeavor to continually approach the fundamental nature of things led the artists, particularly Wang Luyan, Chen Shaoping, and Gu Dexin, to collaborate further. They developed a working and analytical process, adhering to more stringent and radical rules they set for themselves, aiming to minimize the influence of personal elements. The New Measurement Group was formally established on November 11, 1989. Over six years, they collaborated intensively, producing five publications. The group consider these published works, in conjunction with the archival material they assembled, to represent the full extent of their artistic contributions.