CONCEPT OF BODY OR FABLE OF GENDER IN THE ERA OF AIDS
Some art critics are used to describe Han Dong’s style and feature of his image form with iconology impression terms. Such as: planar space relationship, simple and pure cold grey tone, mainly flat paint technology, body material, non-sexuality and stiff appearance of the character, simple and graceful color, plain and heavy connotation. In addition to that reference to the origin of the style. Borrowed from early Renaissance painting language, European metaphysical painting school influence...However, those descriptions are merely epistemological analysis. They may be avoiding on purpose, or incapable of giving axiological judgment to the style and feature in Han Dong’s oil painting ideology.
Han Dong’s artistic work in 1990s mainly worked on two categories of conscious activity. The first category engages the instant nature of sin and influence to realistic existence; the latter category imagined a gender fable through the visual form of hermaphrodite. Death, same as gender, belongs to the category of life. Both of them belongs to the secret of the origin.
In the intentionality of holy and beloved reflected in Plain Solemn Holy Ceremony and Clean Hands series, women, as the subject of the paint- ing, are mostly quiet and peaceful. Their eyes look at faraway place with serenity, as if driven by some force. Remembering and touched in the heart, they listen to feeble and vast summon. Although constrained in a sealed space, but the wall of objectiveness is removed from their con- sciousness. Surrounding their estrangement, the cold, grey and gloomy space congealed. There’s only silent echo, reflection of scattered and soft light and shadows. Silence consist the basic style of Han Dong’s works. The figures, incidents, objects, imagery as well as the overall space atmosphere hides in the silent stream of life. The sensitivity of artist’s heart is also driven by constrained meditation. It seems that he is governed by a nontransitive consciousness. His objective understanding to the world is paranoid and vulnerable, and has little realistic relationship with historical changes of the time, but he maintained an extraordinary, unique esthesis to the spiritual substance of the time.
Female figure present as dream walking, playing a secret ceremonial drama of sin and punishment. “...as through one man sin entered into the world” (Romans, 5:12) The original sin produced instant and lasting influence from Eve’s body; When their heart feel the pain of punishment, “they knew that they were naked” (Genesis, 3:7); they tried in vain to create self-righteousness, “they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons.” (Genesis, 3:7). Finally, the communication between human and God is cut, “Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God amongst the trees of the garden.” (Genesis, 3:8) The sin entered the world, coming with it the suffering to human society. Spirituality died on earthly men because of the existence of life, “And life is nothing but the long and agonizing accouchement.” (Albert Camus, Notebooks, 1942 – 1951)
The sin is suffering; suffering is the punishment for death. “For the mind of the flesh is death” (Roman, 8:6).
Here the artist took away the desirable carnal elements of the female body, and in the secular way of looking, it means miserliness, urge and criticize. They are wandering, stiff, numb or rigid phantoms. In fact, those carefully “fabricated” subjective images meant the painful awareness and replacement of imagination. They are bearing the blame and punishment, exposing the shame of human beings. Their prototype is the fe- male praying saints from the artist’s subconsciousness. The reason the painting used them is such subjective image inside the creation carries the connotation of purity, humbleness and mystery.
In this series, Han Dong deconstructed and responded Camus existential subject about absurd. Absurd became active regret and undertake of death toward sin. The artist transferred Sisyphus’s rigid recurrent slavery of pushing the rock to the mountaintop into a ritual and lyric self-atone- ment. Therefore, it can be endlessly moving a square table with firm and indomitability (Moving Table, 1994), or repeating certain logic syllogisti- cally (Existence, Repetition, 1996), or uselessly ‘painting’ as dissembling (Humdrum People on Painting, 1997, The Pipe is Painted with Fallacy, 1995), all surpassed the nihility and sinking of determinism, fulfilled spiritual atonement in self-punishment. Thereupon deep curse became
heartfelt praise, gloomy pain became capability of justice from credibility. Sisyphus is pushed by the rock, rolling to the mountain. Then he turned into the legs of the rock, and then, the rock and him were mixed into the strength of each other, singing insde the rock, rolling the world. Plain Solemn Holy Ceremony (1995) happened to indicate the beauty and victory of such awareness. Two humble and pure nude women jointing a square wood with piousness and respect. At the joint point there’s a piece of whiting. The artist omitted the ‘incarnation’ narrative of the wood reference. He deconstructed the cross which used to be an installation of death into a unified whole, a bridge that connects god and human, and between human. The holy whiting powerfully symbols the affection of holy spirit, and the holy spirit did his work on the two women. The standing women steadily and firmly holds up the wood, the contemplating vision expands far; The other woman bends her body to join, and devoted her whole body and mind for the completion. At the same time, she comforts and touches this object emotionally, as Virgin Mary carried the holy son after the crucifixion.
Rather than praise Han Dong’s transcendent artistic esthesis and expression with our limited comprehension, why not think about the spiritual quality required by contemporary art creation? For Han Dong, such spiritual quality sometimes is withstanding the carnal temptation paraded in “the era of strongman”, resisting ignorant censure from social habits and keep the human capability of sympathy as well as purity and accuracy in esthesis.
Through cultural critique on “hermaphrodite”, Han Dong shifted from metaphysical nontransitive consciousness to observance of realistic existence. While pitching in timely subjects such as sociology and psychology, he remain the potential religious feeling and hidden theological think- ing.
In the series of oil painting created between 1997 and 1998, the nude female (with expectation of holy and beloved or atonement ceremonial si- lent) turned into ‘hermaphrodites’ with gender feature of both male and female. In the style, the restrained emotion, pure intentionality and grace- ful style is kept. Symbol elements of related intentionality increased the overall mystic conception, which increased the fable nature of the work even more.
Falling of the Wing of Love and Desire (1998) provides a ‘wedge’ for the series: a lonely nude body, with the right hand holding a giant wing and the left hand holding the voluptuous breast that can produce milk, a Greek sculpture-like penis dangling between the legs abstinently, and the slippers on both feet pushed this strange figure into reality.
The fall of love and desire originates from the guilt of the era of Aids.
The reclusion of Venus, reflected in sociology is secularization of sex. It transformed into short interweaving of sex stock market. Liberty of sex directly leads to paralysis of human morality, losing sexual desire, disassembly of family and more vicious punishment than the violence of can- cer. Realistic result of sex liberation cuffed people’s cognitive style with patent of sex. Therefore, the symbol of ‘hermaphrodite’ is: it’s a merciful sex difference concept, that matters when acknowledging multielement of human sexual desire and sexual right is equal in both genders. It’s about whether the real meaning of sex is free it from sex or admit the multielement of truth is just a beginning, and the proper working of demo- crat principle in privacy and human right.
Inter-interpreting and inter-referencing image connections are produced in Han Dong’s ‘wedge’. For example, in A Resting Fire, the folded fan magically caught fire in a fan gesture. It indicates the mystic will of lust is everywhere, at the same time indicates the lust of the subject is expressing according to the feeling of lust itself, rather than a fixed way. Such state also indicates the lust and sexuality is non-straight, just like what a dying or refusing-to-eat ‘blue bird’ breast-feeding (The Song of Blue Bird, 1998) signifies. Sex is not the bodily relationship of two genders. It’s also a free and clear leap that surmounts two sexes, as the moral principle Michel Foucault imagined. Pursuing things never been thought about or imagined before through self-questioning.
Traditional concept of sex decides a person’s social gender by biological gender, and decides his or her sex identity. Through existential expres- sion of ‘hermaphrodite’, status restrictions, binary oppositional ‘binary prison’ is canceled, and traditional boundary for classification became obscure. He deconstructed the alternative distinction of sex identity and sexual desire by virtualization and performances of ‘paint’ and ‘open’. Ditching the unitary, linked illusion of ‘self’ and replaced with another kind of ‘self’. We can see from a series of works that the sex identity of the subject is a changeable process of virtualization, performance and ritualization. It’s consist of constant repetition and constant giving new form to the social gender.
Actually, the concept of “hermaphrodite” comes from ancient epistemology. It’s a common formula for ancient people to express entirety, strength and existence of individuality. Male and female both exist in the mystery beyond it that produces everything.
Taoism philosophy was the only philosophy in the east that has universal depths. “Tao” contains both tender and feminine tone but at the same time regard the nature to be consisted of Yin and Yang.
The protagonist of Esoteric Buddhism is “Prajn?a?”, the mother of wisdom. As a symbolic rite, an intercourse between man and woman, through perfect control of senses and practice of wisdom, would achieve the profound meaning of ‘hermaphrodite’. Swiss psychologist Carl Yung intro- duced the idea of ‘anima’ and ‘animus’, In the unconscious of the male, their self finds expression as a feminine inner personality: anima; equiv- alently, in the unconscious of the female it is expressed as a masculine inner personality: animus. ‘Hermaphrodite’ is the result of anima and ani- mus inter-projection and penetration, i.e. the unconscious mind intentionality of two genders unifies and bring anima and animus to conscious.
Han Dong effectively used religious characteristic about divinity power in the practical process of pursuing his artistic value, and irradiates the most precious and delicate sensitive vitality of the subjects created.
Daozi, 1999
