CHINA NOW : Lost in Transition

Chinese contemporary art has attracted worldwide attention largely because of several artists' highly creative reflections on the transformation of their landscape and the individuals who seem to be lost in transition. The people have been displaced from the traditional communal Chinese living quarters, in which residents shared a courtyard, to anonymous high- rises where they are suddenly alone and isolated from their community. The artists in this exhibition reflect the emotional trauma associated with this bewildering transition occurring at inhuman speeds. While continuing to deal with the residue of the Cultural Revolution, artists are faced with the challenge of expression amid constant demolition and construction not only of buildings, but of society at large.

Photography in China has become an important tool in coming to terms with the dynamic between the individual and the urban environment. Artists often use their own bodies in performances which subsequently are translated into photographs. China has a social structure built on control and suppression that has too often denied the right to self-expression. Using the body in performance art is a way to reclaim the power and assert individuality, while creating a bridge between the self and the larger society. In the West, we take the perspective of the individual for granted, but in China that perspective is considered objectionable, if not forbidden.