Date of Award
Spring 4-8-2023
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Bachelor of Arts
Department
Art History
First Advisor
Patricia Yu
Abstract
This project investigates the works of two contemporary artists living and working in China, Cai Guo-Qiang and Yang Yongliang, and how their work is considering and responding to greater processes of climate change and environmental destruction. I center my discussion around the city of Shanghai, connecting the physical landscape and the city's history to my discussion of their works. In the first half of the project, I explore Cai Guo-Qiang's exhibition, The Ninth Wave, to understand why the connections between artistic intent, viewer reception, and eco-art do not always line up neatly. In the second half, I focus on Yang Yongliang's work and how the concept of apocalypse in his photo-collages is understood by him as an industrial process that can rapidly and drastically change the landscape.
Recommended Citation
Prescott, Ian, "Ink and Oil-Spills: Eco-Art in Contemporary Chinese Art" (2023). Honors Theses. 634.
https://digital.kenyon.edu/honorstheses/634
Rights Statement
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