KONG GUOQIAO

1968 Born in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, China

1986 Entered Dept. of Printmaking, Zhejiang Academy of Fine Art (now China Academy of Art, CAA)

1993 Graduated with a Master Degree, remained as a tutor

1997-1998 Studied in Ulster University, UK, worked in the printmaking studio

2007 Graduated from the first CAA“Theory and Practice of Painting” PHD program, received his PHD

Currently Professor, CAA;

PHD tutor and director of the Printmaking Department;

Member of CAA Printmaking Society;

Director of the Zhejiang Province Fine Arts Society;

Lead secretary of the Zhejiang Society of Printmakers

PREFACE

Utilising a limited existence to contemplate a limitless future
Text／He Yongmiao

In Grecian antiquity, the appearance of something, was its eidos, or perhaps its idea. Eidos initially held the following meaning: “this object has an appearance, allowing it to be seen by humans, it persists. The thing is “at rest”. It rests among phenomena, this is to say, it rests in substance. .... A thing is. It stands alone and in this way assumes an appearance. It exists.” —— “Existence” at the nub of it, is essentially what we term the realm of “being” (presence).
In its present state, the art of printmaking, originated in ancient China, with the discovery of print press technologies. That is also to say: the origin of printmaking is the printing press. The term “origin”, in Martin Heidegger’s understanding is that from where “a thing originates, what is undergone, the place of being and selfsame with this being. ... The origin of a thing is therefore the font of its essence”. With this in mind, perhaps we can come to an understanding along these lines: (that) the essence of printmaking is “the printing press”.
The sum of the inexhaustible correspondences between art and the world, brings the real essence of art to figure as part of man’s expression of “present existence” or “present memory (remembering)”. Our present understanding, as we are, “regimented by history”, becomes a common “medium”, establishing past and present, “situated and active in the process of tradition” —— In this way, on the one hand we exist in reality, whilst at the same time inhabiting history. Under the influence of such a historical consciousness, “the requirements of past truth” becomes the medium for our present existence. In this “now”, we attempt also to put in place what is to be gained from that “past”.
In this sense, the printing press of “Being” stresses the invisible and visible components of a whole, of history. The “being” of the artist individual, employing techniques of printmaking, takes “being” in its instant. We perceive history from the standpoint of thought, at the same time, history perceives us. When history manifests, this also is our own manifesting. In this, history lives in our present moment. This is our “being” —— a kind of “living with history”, a present, subjectless correlation.
As “histories people” as well as “societies people”, We, in this world, itself already a subject, take art as a means to “distil” existence. From this, the artistic process offers a means to concentrate the “and so it goes...” of our “thinking”. Via the “process of thinking” we also express “historical existence”
                                         

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