“Contemporary art” is a phrase without any clear definite. On an international sense, modernism art which is mainly focusing on art’s form discipline fulfilled its task in the 1960s and 1970s and led to the end and liberalization of art—everything is art; life is art. It has been expanding into non-art territories ever since, generalizing into “contemporary art”, “visual art”, etc. Contemporary art demonstrates a strong sense of our current times and emphasis of social problems no matter how vague its concept is.

China’s contemporary art, not like the western one which developed step by step following clear clues and went through a complete formalism stage, but was built by artists pushed by China’s rapid changing societies. The contemporary Chinese art must respond to the ever greatly changing societies since the late 1970s. The reaction the artists share is the wakening and growing of individual consciousness though they react differently owning to various temporal backgrounds and targeted problems.

The Chinese culture used to stress “group” while degrading “individual”. Personal experience and wider visions, however, enabled many Chinese gradually realize the significance of “individual”, because “groups” are made of numerous individuals, and group is an abstract community, while individual is a specific being. It’s people’s instinct to pursue personal gains. The standard measuring a group for each member is that whether an individual’s benefits has been protected and multiplied. The wakening and growing of individual consciousness can be seen through the asking for more individual benefits and judging of “Groups” in personal perspectives.

Each man belongs to a certain social group and subject to others’ influence, but personal feeling is the first and the last standard measuring everything. What’s more, it’s only you that should be responsible for your own doing. Individual consciousness wakes up and grows when one realizes all men are human not god and others’ words or conceptions need to be testified. Then, you can be called independent, not relying on or blindly following others. Surely, that also means we must shoulder consequences whether they are good or bad, right or wrong.

The momentum of individual consciousness, foundation of modern civilization, is “seeking the truth” during which people realized how valuable personal feelings are. Concepts like subjectivity and individualism are just synonyms of individual consciousness in different contexts. It is getting rooted in more and more Chinese with the development of contemporary Chinese society, reflections on history and absorb of modern civilization. It was earlier showcased by contemporary artists. As relatively more sensitive people, they expressed their views bluntly targeted at various problems in society based on their living conditions, trying to communicate with more people by making their voice heard.

It’s an enduring process as for the growing of individual consciousness. People in a group can easily rely on or blindly follow others. It’s the same in the contemporary art community. Great artists, first and foremost, are people with strong individual consciousness. Pushed by it, they could find something and make creations with independent perception and judgment. Quite a few people in China’s contemporary art community sometimes make common sense mistakes in modern civilization and contemporary art for their limited knowledge and vision. Many people confine themselves in their old and narrow field or satisfied being mediocre following others blindly, while individual consciousness in contemporary art calls for independence, freedom, openness and creation. Those few artists with a clear view of them are quite outstanding in a mediocre Chinese contemporary art formed in recent years under multiple influences such as education and market.

Some artists participated in this exhibition are already well known, while some are quite young. They paid attention to different problems, but they do share one thing—pursuit of individual consciousness and that’s why they had their unique discoveries and creations. As different individuals, they came up with free expressions and formed various art forms during independent experience and thinking. Common living background and similar life pursuits are exhibited in their seemingly different works, which are closely related with China’s current society.

June 7, 2013