DO NOW:Write 5 things that you know about or

associate with 中国 (China)

中国 China• Azalea: Large population / also lots of pollution (Mattia)

• Tatiana: Calligraphy, rich culture, language

• Marco: There were Dynasties

• Vraj: Lots of manufacturing and production things.

• Kendell: Tech industry too.

• Herbert: This is a communist country.

• Jen: There’s a lot of trade happening….historically, and in the present. A lot

of their products get shipped around teh world. (Kendell: A strong economy)

• Levy: The government is massively corrupt. There’s a lot of censorship.

• Christian: Agricultural infrastructure.

• Tenz: Very diverse in terms of ethnic groups.

• Benz: They’ve got a great wall there. THE Great Wall.

中国 China• Kate: It’s in ASIA

• Aidan: Sesame Chicken, General Tso Chicken and other American-Chinese foods

• Sakin: Overpopulation (limit of children you can have?)

• Sarah: “Made in China”

• Promia: Communism

• Artan: Fake Supreme (class: Groan)

• Michael: Pollution (Mariama said this too, but she didn’t raise her hand, so what’s

up, bro…What’s up.)

• Mariama: Chinese Mandarin is the language it’s a dialect – Cantonese, Fujinese,

Tibetan)

• Marco: Economics – a strong economy based in manufacturing, and tech.

• Danisa: Some college athletes from UCLA were caught shoplifting recently.

中国 ChinaChina is a complicated place with a long history. Written records

date back to at least 1500 BCE….though people have inhabited

these lands for millenia before then.

During this unit of study (Nov-Jan) we’ll encounter TONS of new

artists, all unique in their ideas and aesthetics.

Remember that when you’re learning about something outside

your own culture, to keep an open mind and a respectful tone.

Exhibition: Theater of the World

Institution: Guggenheim

Field Trip: First or second week of December (likely after school)

China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan

中国 (CHINA) …..SOME BASICS.

中国 (CHINA) …..SOME BASICS.

中国 (CHINA) …..SOME BASICS.

中国 (CHINA) …..SOME BASICS.

Theater of the World: Art and China after 1989 presents

work by 71 key artists and groups active across China and

worldwide whose critical provocations aim to forge reality free

from ideology, to establish the individual apart from the

collective, and to define contemporary Chinese experience in

universal terms. Bracketed by the end of the Cold War in 1989

and the Beijing Olympics in 2008, it surveys the culture of

artistic experimentation during a time characterized by the

onset of globalization and the rise of a newly powerful China

on the world stage.

The exhibition’s subtitle, Theater of the World, comes

from an installation by the Xiamen-born, Paris-based

artist Huang Yong Ping: a cage-like structure housing

live reptiles and insects that coexist in a natural cycle

of life, an apt spectacle of globalization’s symbiosis

and raw contest.

Theater of the World: Art and China after 1989 has also

been shrouded in controversy, as it contained work that

included animals in various art performances. After numerous

death threats, the Guggenheim agreed to pull these three

artworks from the exhibition.

Xu Bing

A Case Study of

Transference

Video(1994)

Huang Yong Ping’s

Theater of the World

Installation (1993)

Sun Yuan and Peng

Yu’s

Dogs that Cannot Touch

Each Other

Video (2003)

WHAT IS THE ROLE OF AN ARTIST AT TIMES OF POLITICAL CONFLICT?

Tenz: Some artists

create propaganda to

unite people (WW2,

Obey-Obama, Cold

War, Revolution,

Chinese-Exclusion

Act)

Christian: They can

convince you to join a

side, or evoke

feelings. They can

motivate you to

believe something.

Levy: It depends on

the type of art….

Benz: An artist could make

controversial pieces that get

a lot of attention. They can

serve themselves.

Gyaban: To CALL

ATTENTION to political

conflict (Banksy in West

Bank). To fight for what they

believe in.

Jen: They should be

cautious…They could

potentially upset people with

their work. Maybe the

Government could imprison

them.

Adrianna: These are

not artists who are

waiting to be famous

with these

conflcits….this is a

RESPONSE to the

conflict.

Destiny: Sometimes

you need to make

apiece that gets

attention so you can

make money, and

then you can make

work that you wouldn’t

get to make

otherwise.

WHAT IS THE ROLE OF AN ARTIST AT TIMES OF POLITICAL CONFLICT?

Michael: To bring controversial topics to light. Make people talk about it! If the gov’t isn’t telling us the whole story, artists need to help show that.

Sarah: TOTES AGREE. But artists should not be offensive. This could create more arguments.

Michael: DISAGREE WITH SARAH. It’s okay to be offensive. It’s supposed to spur an argument…and how it affects us.

Artan: Similar to plastic jesus’work. It depends on who you want your audience to be.

Mariama: Artists should say what they think.

Katelyn: Artists should assert AND question ideas. When you look at artwork, the viewer can take away ideas, but also make up ideas.

Danisa and Aidan: THIS APPLIES TO EVERYONE. But there’s a difference between offensive (it’s just rude, explicit, hateful) and controversial (It may be rude, but there’s debate. Argument! And maybe agreement at the end?)

Noume: Artists should influence opinion through their art. Everyone’s allowed to voice their opinion.

For art and China, the year 1989 was both an end and a

beginning. The June Fourth Tiananmen Incident signaled the

end of a decade of relatively open political, intellectual, and

artistic exploration. It also marked the start of reforms that

would launch a new era of accelerated development,

international connectedness, and individual possibility, albeit

under authoritarian conditions.

In China, artists were at once catalysts

and skeptics of the massive changes

unfolding around them. Using Conceptual

art, they created performances, paintings,

photography, installations, and video art.

Artists also initiated activist projects to

engage directly with society. This new work

emerged during the 1990s and early 2000s,

the same time that the Western art world

began to take greater notice of non-western

art, and as global contemporary art started

to take shape.

Conceptual Art: When the IDEA of the work

has greater importance than the aesthetics of

the work.

Song Dong

Breathing,

Tianamen Square

1996

WHAT POLITICALCONFLICTS EXIST IN OUR OWN COUNTRY?

• White Supremacy, Nazism and Fascism on the rise

• Colorism

• Religious segregation (Muslim Travel Ban)

• Threats of War (back and forths between America-Russia-North Korea)

• Gender Inequality

• Terrorist Attacks (Gun Violence)

• Debt issues for young people (college loans)

• Homelessness/poverty

• Gay rights (kicked out of religious households, or bullied persecuted)

Who are the skeptics? Who are the catalysts?

Danisa: Tomi Lahren - She posts very rude and offensive and ignorant stuff.

Destiny: Maybe she’s talking about all this stuff just so she can get money?

Artan: Concerned People.

Abdul: A lot of governors and writers

Kozak: Ta-Nahesi Coates

Danisa: It’s easier to remember the things that hurt us….

Danisa: Rape Culture - Trump

COLIN KAEPERNICK – GQ CITIZEN OF THE YEAR

Dest: If we want change, then we need leaders who advocate for change.

WHAT POLITICALCONFLICTS EXIST IN OUR OWN COUNTRY?

Tenz: Democrats and Republicans

Yeva: Sexual misconduct, (Roy Moore, Louis CK, Weinstein, Cosby, etc. etc. etc.)

Kellyah:

Benz: Abortion Rights, Immigration rights, Marriage equality.

Nila:

When the president is promoting deportation. And wanting to end DACA.

Adiba: Terrorism attacks in America. Countless shootings.

Who are the skeptics? Who are the catalysts?

Tenz: Democrats are skeptics and republicans are catalysts?

Levy: Political parties can’t be summed up like this. It’s just opinions.

DAK: Politics is a spectrum…you can’t lump them all together really.

Benz: Steven Colbert is a Skeptic for all of Trump’s stuff….Trump is a catalyst to Colbert

Christian: For sexual misconduct....maybe the public can be skeptical at first? (Victim Blaming...?)

Kozak: Ta-Nahesi Coates

.

.

CONFLICTS IN AMERICAN CULTURE

P8

Racism x 5

Immigration

Stereotypes x 4

Gender Equality

Hate Speech

Immigration

Animal Abuse

Language Conflicts

Didn’t hand in x 3

CONFLICTS IN AMERICAN CULTURE

P6

Gender Roles x 2

Stereotypes x 2

Religious Extremism

Racism x 3

Cultural Ignorance

Muslim Travel Ban

Elitism

Killing of unarmed African-Americans

Immigration / Deportations

Didn’t hand in x 8

ARCHITECTURE AND HISTORY OF THE

GUGGENHEIM

THE SOLOMON R. GUGGENHEIM FOUNDATION

THE SOLOMON R. GUGGENHEIM FOUNDATION

Solomon R. Guggenheim was a wealthy

businessman who earned much of his fortune

from the Yukon Gold Company in Alaska. His

Foundation for visual art was founded in 1937,

and its first New York–based venue for the

display of art, the Museum of Non-Objective

Painting, opened in 1939.

At the time they were known for their somewhat

eccentric art collection, featuring many great

works by Vasily Kandinsky, The need for a

permanent building to house Guggenheim’s art

collection became evident in the early 1940s, and

in 1943 renowned architect Frank Lloyd Wright

gained the commission to design a museum in

New York City. The Solomon R. Guggenheim

Museum opened on October 21, 1959…despite

many petitions against it.

THE SOLOMON R. GUGGENHEIM FOUNDATION

Solomon R. Guggenheim was a wealthy

businessman who earned much of his fortune

from the Yukon Gold Company in Alaska. His

Foundation for visual art was founded in 1937,

and its first New York–based venue for the

display of art, the Museum of Non-Objective

Painting, opened in 1939.

At the time they were known for their somewhat

eccentric art collection, featuring many great

works by Vasily Kandinsky, The need for a

permanent building to house Guggenheim’s art

collection became evident in the early 1940s, and

in 1943 renowned architect Frank Lloyd Wright

gained the commission to design a museum in

New York City. The Solomon R. Guggenheim

Museum opened on October 21, 1959…despite

many petitions against it.

THE SOLOMON R. GUGGENHEIM FOUNDATION

FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT’S ORIGINAL DESIGNS…

FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT’S ORIGINAL DESIGNS…

FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT’S ORIGINAL DESIGNS…

CURRENT SCHEMATIC Built in 1959

Designed by Frank Lloyd Wright

Signature material: Concrete

Style: Modernism

THE GUGGENHEIMNEW YORK

Built in 1959

Designed by Frank Lloyd Wright

Signature material: Concrete

Style: Modernism

THE GUGGENHEIMBILBAO, SPAIN

Built in 1997

Designed by Frank Gehry

Signature material: Titanium

Style: Deconstructivist

THE GUGGENHEIMVENICE, ITALY Built in 1750s (purchased in 1930s)

Designed by Lorenzo Boschetti

Signature material: Istrian Stone

Style: Palladian Palazzo

THE GUGGENHEIMABU DHABI, UNITED ARAB

EMIRATES (UAE)

Finished by 2017??

Designed by Frank Gehry

Style: Deconstructivist

THE GUGGENHEIMABU DHABI, UNITED ARAB

EMIRATES (UAE)

Finished by 2017??

Designed by Frank Gehry

Style: Deconstructivist

THE GUGGENHEIMABU DHABI, UNITED ARAB

EMIRATES (UAE)

Finished by 2017??

Designed by Frank Gehry

Style: Deconstructivist

THE GUGGENHEIMMISSION

Committed to innovation, the

Solomon R. Guggenheim

Foundation collects, preserves,

and interprets modern and

contemporary art, and explores

ideas across cultures through

dynamic curatorial and

educational initiatives and

collaborations. With its

constellation of architecturally

and culturally distinct museums,

exhibitions, publications, and

digital platforms, the foundation

engages both local and global

audiences.

THE VOID AND

SITE SPECIFIC WORK

maurer united architects: full half moonOne of Louise Bourgeois’

Spiders

THE VOID

maurer united architects: full half moon

MAURIZIO CATALAN

TITLE

DATE

MATERIALS

MAURIZIO CATALAN

“ALL”

2011

OVER 30 YEARS WORTH OF HIS

ART!

MAURIZIO CATALAN

“ALL”

2011

“I am happy as long as they don't live

near me,” he once told this

correspondent. “When they are

conceived, I cuddle them but the

moment they are released, they

become orphans. Mostly I hate them.”

From Italy

Maurizio Cattelan

“America”

2016

DAN FLAVIN

UNTITLED(TO TRACY, TO

CELEBRATE THE LOVE OF A LIFETIME)

1992

DAN FLAVIN

“One has no choice but to accept the fact of

temporary art.

Permanence just defies everything.”

From Jamaica, Queens, USA

- DAN FLAVIN, CRUSHIN IT

CAI GUO-QIANG

INOPPORTUNE: STAGE ONE

CARS (FORD TAURUS), LIGHTING TUBES 2004

AT THE GUGGENHEIM

CAI GUO-QIANG

INOPPORTUNE: STAGE ONE

CARS (FORD TAURUS),

LIGHTING TUBES 2004

AT THE GUGGENHEIM

From China

CAI GUO-QIANGINOPPORTUNE: STAGE ONE

CARS (FORD TAURUS), LIGHTING TUBES 2004AT MASS MOCA

HOW CAN YOU USE SOMETHING DESTRUCTIVE TO MAKE SOMETHING

CREATIVE?• Sakin: What if the UNCERTAINTY of the destruction that

makes the art.

• Sarah: You could break something down and make it again

only more creatively.

• Adrianna; Sophomores, pay attention. A scientist believed he

could create life from death….but it doesn’t quite work out.

• (Frankenstein reference)

• Aidan: In science, the destruction of something results in the

creation of something. No matter is ever “destroyed” but it

takes new forms.

• .

HOW CAN YOU USE SOMETHING DESTRUCTIVE TO MAKE SOMETHING

CREATIVE?• Moh: Fire can be used to make art…Like if you burn.....

• Kendell: There’s this guy who uses firecrackers in order to make artwork.....They cover certain parts of the canvas and light the firecrackers, The image is created from Ash, smoke, etc.

• Gyaban: Like in the reading. This guy used GUNPOWDER.

• Mattia: In photography, you can burn your film to give it effects.

• Tenz: Or like Ai Weiwei, taking a vase and ropping it.

• Jaylin: This dude last year had all this trash and he shined light on it to create a shadow of people doing things (Tim Noble and Sue Webster)

• Christian: GLOW BANDS! VASES! ATTENTION! RAHHH!!

• .

CAI GUO-QIANG

GUNPOWDER DRAWINGS

CAI GUO-QIANGCai Guo-Qiang was born in 1957

in Guanzhou City, Fujian

Province, China. He was trained

in stage design at the Shanghai

Theater Academy, and his work

has since crossed multiple

mediums within art, including

drawing, installation, video and

performance art. While living in

Japan from 1986 to 1995, he

explored the properties of

gunpowder in his drawings, an

inquiry that eventually led to his

experimentation with explosives

on a massive scale and to the

development of his signature

explosion events.

Gunpowder drawings

www.caiguoqiang.com

CAI GUO-QIANG

For the concepts of his artwork, Cai Guo-Qiang draws upon

Eastern philosophy and contemporary social issues. His work

and events aim to establish an exchange between viewers

and the larger universe around them, utilizing a site-specific

approach to culture and history.

www.caiguoqiang.com

Homeland2013

Gunpowder drawing

Benz: Gunpowder is used to

kill people….

Levy: If he picked up the

gunpoweder in Japan, then

there’s probably a connection

to how it ended an era of

Japanese culture.

Jen: There’s a ton of detail in

these very destructive works.

They look….nice.

Nila:He’s brave for working

with something that could be

so harmful. .

Prince: What’s the purpose of

these artworks? How is blowing

stuff up art?

Adrianna: You know how

gunpowder can be used for

violence, but you can make

something beautiful with it.

Abdul: He’s also pushing the idea

that “anything can be art.” (Joseph

Beuys – “Everyone’s an artist”)

Ingrid: He’s also trying to explain

that there doesn’t have to be a set

outcome with your artwork. It’s

spontaneous.

P6 First impressions

P8

CAI GUO QIANG“Personally, I like some

things to be accidental

and hard to control.

Uncertainty has a certain

allure to me.”

In the early morning hours of

June 15, Cai Guo-Qiang took

an ambitious new step in his

pyrotechnic artwork. A huge

white helium balloon slowly

ascended into the sky above

Quanzhou, China.

Attached to the ballon was a

500-meter long ladder

coated completely with quick

burning fuses and gold

fireworks…

Sky Ladder

2015

CAI GUO QIANG

CAI GUO QIANG

Behind Sky Ladder lies a clear childhood dream of mine. Despite all

life’s twists and turns, I have always been determined to realize it. My

earlier proposals were either more abstract or ceremonial. Sky

Ladder today is tender, and touches my heart deeply: it carries

affection for my hometown, my relatives and my friends. In contrast

to my other attempts, which set the ignition time at dusk, this time the

ladder rose toward the morning sun, carrying hope. For me, this not

only means a return but also the start of a new journey.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nBl7c-vU9H0

WHAT DOES CAI GUO-QIANG SEEM LIKE AS A

PERSON??• Moh: This guy is HUMBLE. He’s got

the most people to visit a living artist

exhibition….

• Kendell: He says he’s gained a

lot of influence but he stays true

to his roots.

• Benz: CHILL AND

INTROSPECTIVE. He talks about

9/11 and how he turned this around

to make his art.

• Jen: He seems like he values the

people around him, and his home.

“Home provides artists with warmth

and nutrients.

• Tenz: he seems optimistic, despite

what nature throws at him.

WHAT DOES CAI GUO-QIANG SEEM LIKE AS A

PERSON??• Promia: He’s very modest, even

though he’s achieved worldwide

popularity, he’s very level headed

and down to earth.

• Julio: He’s a creative and curious

person. (playing with fire….gotta be

curious...)

• Prince: He wanted his artwork to be

unpredictable…he used to be too

“careful” with it.

• Aidan: It’s like he has this childlike

sense of creativity. From Play comes

his art.

Cai Guo QiangBorrowing Your Enemy's Arrows

1998 mixed media

Cai Guo QiangBorrowing Your Enemy's Arrows1998 mixed media

The title references a text from the third century (Sanguozhi) in which

the general Zhuge Liang, facing an imminent attack from the enemy,

manages to replenish a depleted store of arrows. According to legend,

Zhuge Liang tricked the enemy by sailing across the Yangtze river

through the thick mist of early dawn with an army of straw men, while

his soldiers remained behind yelling and beating on drums. Mistaking

the pandemonium for a surprise attack, the enemy showered the decoys

with volleys of arrows. Thus the general returned triumphantly with a

freshly captured store of weapons.

Cai Guo QiangBorrowing Your Enemy's Arrows1998 mixed media

Borrowing Your Enemy's Arrows delivers a timeless message rooted in

Chinese philosophy. Built on the skeleton of an old fishing boat

excavated near Cai's birthplace, the sculpture, suspended

aboveground, is pierced with 3,000 made-in-China arrows and flies the

national flag.

Surreptitiously gathering strength from one's opponent is also a

strategic principle in martial arts.

Cai Guo QiangBorrowing Your Enemy's Arrows1998 mixed media

According to Cai, surreptitiously gathering strength from one's opponent

is also a strategic principle in martial arts.

How do you gather strength from your opponents? Kellyah: Befriend them. If you can become friends with an opponent, you can use this to

your advantage.

Benz: Your enemies motivate you, you seek to become better than them…it’s a “looped”

process.

Tatiana: Using conflict as a learning opportunity. It’s not just negative. Perhaps this can

be used as an example.

Moh: If your enemies gain ground on you, you can remember that and not

make the same mistake twice.

Jaylieen: An enemy is someone who contradicts your ideas.

Kendell: Anyone who wants to see your downfall.

Prem: This depends on your perspective…as a teacher, it can be difficult to be nice.

OR....being “nice” isn’t always the best technique to teach.

Marco: If you’re just sharing ideas, everyone can have a different idea. That would be a

LOT of enemies.

Levy: There’s some teachers (people?) that consistently wish your downfall.

.

Cai Guo QiangBorrowing Your Enemy's Arrows1998 mixed media

According to Cai, surreptitiously gathering strength from one's opponent

is also a strategic principle in martial arts.

How do you gather strength from your opponents?

Sarah: You’ve gotta know their weaknesses.

Katelyn: Like how they say “keep your friends close and your

enemies closer.” You need to know the intentions of your opponents.

Michael: Find areas to exploit their driving motives. And attack them

THERE.

Artan: When you have an opponent, this person helps you get better,

stronger, and MOTIVATED.

.

.

WHAT SOCIAL-POLITICAL ISSUE(S) IS THIS ARTIST DEALING WITH? HOW DOES HE

RAISE THESE ISSUES?Abdul: He shows how the divide between

people and how it shouldn’t be there.

Sakin: Perhaps he tries to show a sense of

hope….like this dragon climbing to heaven,

maybe for something “greater?”

Ingrid: Both the mountain and the ladder

pieces seem connected. Both are climbing to

heaven. The cars too…they ascend.

Mariama: I don’t know.

Adrianna: I like that he uses different mediums

to show these issues. Each piece is very

different. This isn’t obvious (let’s cure racism

with a multi-cultural mural). There’s no other art

like this.

WHAT SOCIAL-POLITICAL ISSUE(S) IS THIS ARTIST DEALING WITH? HOW DOES HE

RAISE THESE ISSUES?Tenz: The one with the boat and arrows, how people use others for their own benefit.

Gyaban: He’s got a nationalist agenda (pro-China). It’s like he uses these anecdotes to talk about present day nations.

Levy: He literally has to be pro-China, due to government pressure.

Yeva: His work reminds me of things like the Great Wall, which was built to keep out “enemies.”

Jen: He’s very optimistic with his works. Like the ladder, the boat, if something doesn’t work, he finds hope it in.

CAI GUO-QIANG“Personally, I like some

things to be accidental

and hard to control.

Uncertainty has a certain

allure to me.”

From Guangzhou China

ART AT THE GUGG!

CAI GUO-QIANG“Personally, I like some

things to be accidental

and hard to control.

Uncertainty has a certain

allure to me.”

From Guangzhou China

Ascending Dragon: Project for

Extraterrestrials No. 2. In it, a

dragon, the archetypal symbol of

China, scales a mountain to

heaven, as seen from the

imaginary perspective of aliens in

outer space. Ascending Dragon: Project for

Extraterrestrials No. 2.

Gunpowder and Ink

1989

CAI GUO-QIANG“Personally, I like some

things to be accidental

and hard to control.

Uncertainty has a certain

allure to me.”

From Guangzhou China

Ascending Dragon: Project for

Extraterrestrials No. 2.

Gunpowder and Ink

1989

How could this work relate to

these architectural

surroundings?

CAI GUO-QIANG“Personally, I like some

things to be accidental and

hard to control. Uncertainty

has a certain allure to me.”FINAL THOUGHTS???

• JAYLIEEN: He’s kinda boring to me. He’s a basic

guy. He’s not different from everyone else.

• Christian: Well, what artists make work like this?! I

don’t know any other artists that do this.

• Levy: He puts himself at intense risk…he literally

works with explosives.

• Dakota: I like that he uses a material associated

with negativity and death and makes it into

something positive.

• Tatiana: He uses this material that’s really

violent….you’d think the art would look angry...but

it’s very pretty and peaceful to look at.

• Mattia: The way he makes the work is interesting

too. It’s all trial and error.

• .

CAI GUO-QIANG“Personally, I like some

things to be accidental and

hard to control. Uncertainty

has a certain allure to me.”FINAL THOUGHTS???

• Theresa, his work takes time and effort

• Micahel: His work is like a one-time thing.

So much time and effort into this single

event. The video must be different than the

actual experience.

• Danisa: This bores me. The aftermath of an

explosion is not as fun as being there.

• Kunzang: I respect how he takes time to

make this work.

• Promia: How long has he been doing this?

(almost 40 years)

• Abdul: Does he do this outside of the

country? (yep.)

• .

THE SOLOMON R. GUGGENHEIM FOUNDATION

What about our School? Our

building?

Our neighborhood?

What are the spaces that

seem to crave artwork

being placed in them?

• .

• .

• ..