Breathing by Song Dong - Movie Review Example

Presentation and Discussion Paper Student’s Name Course Name Institutional Affiliation Date of Submission Breathing by Song Dong (1996) Breathing involves a 40-minute breathing session. During the breathing, Song Dong lays his head down. In 1996 for Breathing Part2, he lay his face down in a deserted Tiananmen Square in the New Year’s Eve in Beijing. Again, in 1996 for Breathing Part 1, he lay on a frozen surface of Houhai Lake. Houhai Lake is an artificial lake in Forbidden City’s Western edge located to the North Western side of Tian’anmen Square[Wis11]. On each occasion, Dong simply breathed onto the surface for 40 minutes directly in front of his face. Since it was winter, the surfaces were extremely cold and within sub-zero temperatures. On the contrary, his breath was warm and moist and upon hitting the cold surface, it turned a crust of ice on the concrete slab floors in the previous location. However, the little ice crust did not affect the lake’s thick ice since by the morning of the following day; there was no evidence to these activities except for the photographs. According to Tan [Tan08] From the Breathing activities, Dong revealed that it is not possible to breathe on top of ice and create ice[Cla06]. In Part two, the implication was that although an individual may effect change, it could only be minor and fleeting given the antagonistic forces around it. From his actions, song uses his body and its qualities to introduce a minor change into his surrounding but had no long-lived effect on them. The two performances are separated by time with the first part occurring during the night and the second part occurring during the day the following morning. In part one, Breathing on a cold surface was expected to produce ice on it while in the second part; Breathing was anticipated to melt the ice on which Dong breathed. Due to the cold temperature, no ice was formed. According to Clarke [Cla06] water plays a crucial role in this work. Writing Time with Water Song Dong (2005) This work of Art by Song Dong is not confined to any personal perspectives, and is performed in ‘en plein air’ in numerous locations ranging from Beijing Hutong to the Times Square in New York. The focus by Song Dong is on time. Through his drawing, Song Dong focuses on the how rapidly time disappears and is consumed. This video was aimed at demonstrating the power of the non-existent and the ability to produce meaning from nothing. In this work, Dong writes each actual hour, minute and second in water. Dong spends one hour in the middle of Time Square. Dong continuously documents his time using a brush and water and writes on a concrete floor around him. This form of open-air performance attracted a huge crowd of workers and tourists who watch him for 59 minutes. Since New York is a big city, the performing there brought out a focus of just how fast time passed by and was part of Dong’s continuing series of Writing Dairy with Water. October 17, 2005 12-1 pm. The use of water introduces temporality. Writing on hot concrete in the middle of a summer day facilitates the disappearance since the water evaporates within no time. Additionally, having the performance occur within one hour indicates Dong’s struggle to recapture a waning sense of time. By using water, the message is that of cultural and historical phenomenon and frames and for Song Dong, this is a useful aspect of demonstrating the nature of life in contemporary china and the world. Presentation Paper Introduction A renowned Chinese artist named as Song Donga has unparalleled contribution to photography, sculpture, and painting contemporary art. A close look at Song Dong’s art work reveals modest use of daily materials to develop art that provoke ideas within reality of living in China today, temporality, value for self-expression and identity, and design of consumption and waste. Song Dong’s reflection of context and ritual is evident in “Writing time with water.” This artwork explores Taoist philosophy in a mighty way just as his work in “Breathing.” How Work Relates to History His exploration of visual art is a heavily centralizes on Tao. In Beijing, Tao is the natural order of objects that goes beyond human thoughts, senses, and imagination. It requires meditation and to some extent contemplation[Ver14]. These two aspects make it possible to develop a supernatural experience. Due to the intensity of Taoism, it is regarded as the force that propagates all living phenomena while initiating works beyond human rationality and reasoning. Today, Taoism force is experienced through Modern Cartesianism. As observed from both Breathing and Writing Time With Water, Taoism encourages a mutual actions with forces of nature instead of going against them. According to Vergne [Ver14], Taoism philosophy suggests respect for natural order. Among the Chinese people, the use of water is essential in painting[Cla061]. Song Dong’s Writing time with water demonstrates the use of water to demonstrates temporality compared to ink which represents permanence and memory through preservation of history. For instance, Writing time with water at Beijing and New York occurred at a time when globalization was slowly getting absorbed by nations worldwide. With temporality, the implication was to suggest the rejection of globalization while commenting on the modernity drive of novel China amidst globalization. With the introduction of the new China, the old China is destroyed and its traditional ways put to dissolution. Dissolution is mostly because globalization comes with evanescence such any attempts to document history have no visible memory to rely on. Consequently, only the myths created by oral tradition keep the world going[Ver14]. For the humankind, globalization results to generational gap, where the new generation is dominates the way of life alienating the older generation with rapid changes. The broad ideological divide between younger and older generations is evident in Song Dong’s Waste not that exhibited at least ten thousand items gathered over five decade in his mother’s house. The representation was an outstanding perspective of the social history of china and the mental changes of the Chinese people[Ros12]. Water in Breathing is evident in the form of ice. The intended result of forming ice in Part 1 and forming melting ice in Part 2 did not achieve its results due to evaporation. For this two-part piece, an ambiguous political dimension is evident. This is suggested through the evaluation of a strongly antagonistic surrounding that is Tiananmen Square, and the thought that a single person could effect change on such antagonism[Cla06]. In China, Tiananmen Square is a symbol of the People’s Republic. The Square was the venue where the proclamation of the Communist state occurred in 1949. In addition, the Square has hosted numerous political rallies, hosts the mausoleum, and staged multiple propaganda events. Conversely, the Square is linked to traumatic memories particularly due to its hosting antigovernment demonstrations. In this case, it does not support political meaning that favours state authority. In the case of Song, the Square avoided obvious political reflections and inclined to a political ambiguity. However, the political association with this work was exclusive as Clarke (2006) reveals that police official prevented Song from performing on the Square until he explained his mission as an artist. It is for reasons as this that Song referred to the venue as dangerous and sensitive. The Square’s regulations included banned video recording and no videos are present for this presentation. Consequently, only the still photos and sound recordings proof the event. According to Clarke (2006), breathing is a fundamental aspect of human validity based on this performance and for its creation of a small and evanescent private mark in a setting linked to impersonal public history gently asserts individual selfhood. The performance, like the Writing Dairy with Water, water also played a part of the artist’s motivation to produce this work. As a child, Song revealed having enjoyed breathing on the inner side of the window in cold weather and watch as it condensed. Formal Techniques For his two pieces, Song uses water on surfaces like concrete and ice. The use of water could be defined as a divergence from the overt use of ink on canvas and substituting water to save ink. Using water makes gives it focus despite the predominance of ink paintings. According to Clarke [Cla061] water is depicted as a hazardous contemporary media in China that requires control from state power mobilization. Another formal technique used in Song’s pieces was the use of “Public-oriented” contemporary presentations intended to reach out to broader audience and popularize Chinese experimentation art[Wis10]. Song presents both pieces in public places giving him the opportunity to present his ideas in larger open space. This was more stimulating compared to closed spaces since the artist had the opportunity to create more context-oriented pieces, and challenge the boundary between consumerism and culture. References Wis11: , (Wiseman & Liu, 2011), Tan08: , (Tan, 2008, pp. 49-50), Cla06: , (Clarke, The Waterly Turn in Contemporary Chinese Art, 2006), Cla06: , (2006, p. 75), Ver14: , (Vergne, 2014), Ver14: , (2014), Cla061: , (Clarke, Raining, Drowning and Swimning: Fu Baoshi and Water, 2006), Ros12: , (Rosanna, 2012), Cla061: , (Clarke, Raining, Drowning and Swimning: Fu Baoshi and Water, 2006, p. 138), Wis10: , (Wiseman, 2010), Read More

pends one hour in the middle of Time Square. Dong continuously documents his time using a brush and water and writes on a concrete floor around him. This form of open-air performance attracted a huge crowd of workers and tourists who watch him for 59 minutes. Since New York is a big city, the performing there brought out a focus of just how fast time passed by and was part of Dong’s continuing series of Writing Dairy with Water. October 17, 2005 12-1 pm. The use of water introduces temporality.

Writing on hot concrete in the middle of a summer day facilitates the disappearance since the water evaporates within no time. Additionally, having the performance occur within one hour indicates Dong’s struggle to recapture a waning sense of time. By using water, the message is that of cultural and historical phenomenon and frames and for Song Dong, this is a useful aspect of demonstrating the nature of life in contemporary china and the world. Presentation Paper Introduction A renowned Chinese artist named as Song Donga has unparalleled contribution to photography, sculpture, and painting contemporary art.

A close look at Song Dong’s art work reveals modest use of daily materials to develop art that provoke ideas within reality of living in China today, temporality, value for self-expression and identity, and design of consumption and waste. Song Dong’s reflection of context and ritual is evident in “Writing time with water.” This artwork explores Taoist philosophy in a mighty way just as his work in “Breathing.” How Work Relates to History His exploration of visual art is a heavily centralizes on Tao.

In Beijing, Tao is the natural order of objects that goes beyond human thoughts, senses, and imagination. It requires meditation and to some extent contemplation[Ver14]. These two aspects make it possible to develop a supernatural experience. Due to the intensity of Taoism, it is regarded as the force that propagates all living phenomena while initiating works beyond human rationality and reasoning. Today, Taoism force is experienced through Modern Cartesianism. As observed from both Breathing and Writing Time With Water, Taoism encourages a mutual actions with forces of nature instead of going against them.

According to Vergne [Ver14], Taoism philosophy suggests respect for natural order. Among the Chinese people, the use of water is essential in painting[Cla061]. Song Dong’s Writing time with water demonstrates the use of water to demonstrates temporality compared to ink which represents permanence and memory through preservation of history. For instance, Writing time with water at Beijing and New York occurred at a time when globalization was slowly getting absorbed by nations worldwide. With temporality, the implication was to suggest the rejection of globalization while commenting on the modernity drive of novel China amidst globalization.

With the introduction of the new China, the old China is destroyed and its traditional ways put to dissolution. Dissolution is mostly because globalization comes with evanescence such any attempts to document history have no visible memory to rely on. Consequently, only the myths created by oral tradition keep the world going[Ver14]. For the humankind, globalization results to generational gap, where the new generation is dominates the way of life alienating the older generation with rapid changes.

The broad ideological divide between younger and older generations is evident in Song Dong’s Waste not that exhibited at least ten thousand items gathered over five decade in his mother’s house. The representation was an outstanding perspective of the social history of china and the mental changes of the Chinese people[Ros12]. Water in Breathing is evident in the form of ice. The intended result of forming ice in Part 1 and forming melting ice in Part 2 did not achieve its results due to evaporation.

For this two-part piece, an ambiguous political dimension is evident. This is suggested through the evaluation of a strongly antagonistic surrounding that is Tiananmen Square, and the thought that a single person could effect change on such antagonism[Cla06].

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