China’s Enduring Passion For Ink: A Project On Contemporary Ink Artists
Chinese ink art has long departed from the old-school of scrolls and calligraphy. Contemporary ink art artists are today breathing new life to this medium. In an unprecedented manner, top Chinese ink artists will open their studios to an international audience, via The Enduring Passion for Ink with Britta Erickson.
Few, including the Chinese or those of Chinese descent, understand ink art beyond its aesthetic qualities. Adding to that, the art market has been flooded with works of varying quality, adding to the challenge of differentiating the gems from the chaff.
In response, The Enduring Passion for Ink hoped to familiarise audiences from both the East and West, by asking: Why did the artist choose ink as a medium? How is ink’s expressive range distinct from that of other artistic media? How does the artist go about creating an ink work? How does the artist approach issues such as tradition, creative innovation, and personal expression?
Artists chosen for the film showcase the variety of approaches, backgrounds, and techniques. These artists include bigwigs such as Xu Bing, Zheng Chongbin, Bingyi, and Chen Haiyan.
These artists are the vanguard of contemporary art production internationally, yet are still grounded in the rich tradition of ink in China. And each naturally focuses on a separate salient issue in ink painting.
Even if their names don’t ring a bell, the documentary offers an intimate experience with these artists as their art takes form: the essence of which the art expresses transcends the boundaries of art, and touches that of all humanity. Chen Haiyan, one of the featured artists, works trance-like and describes her work as, ‘realising a dream, something that’s in me that is yearning to be expressed onto the wooden board’ – Chen works with carved wood block prints, and brush and ink painting.
Rapport and Deep Conversations
Contributing to The Field
The idea for The Enduring Passion for Ink came when Erickson turned 50. She decided she had to create a project that was 100 per cent her own – with no answering to a museum, gallery, journal or artist; a project that would have a significant and long-lasting contribution to the field, and one she was uniquely qualified to do.
Erickson’s background is unique. She was one of the first Western scholars to focus on contemporary Chinese art. Having spent several years working with leading American collector of Chinese painting in his generation, Jung Ying Tsao, she learned connoisseurship of Chinese paintings from the Ming up to the Cultural Revolution. With a doctoral degree focusing on 19th century Shanghai artists, she has the qualifications to understand, and in turn explain ink painting currently produced in China and elsewhere, in a direct and uncomplicated manner.
While these artists’ works may grace the walls of many top-tier galleries and museums around the world, it’s rare they would open up and share their thoughts or allow viewers access to their studios.
With The Enduring Passion for Ink, viewers get to step into the studios of these artists to get a taste of the breadth and variety in this burgeoning artscape.
For trailers and further film information, visit The Enduring Passion for Ink website.
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