This combined studio practice/text thesis analyses links among the Chinese concept of jingjie, the archetypal patterns of sacred places, the picturesque movement in European aesthetics, and site-specificity in 1960s Land Art. In addition to examining site-specificity and the theoretical aspects of my studio practice, I explore the relationship between my ethnicity and my work in the context of contemporary Chinese and Taiwanese art environments. Guided by the principle that "practice and theory inform each other," I restate the significance of jingjie in contemporary art, especially its connection with the physical and psychological patterns found in archetypal "sacred places." Jingjie was fundamental to the spatial fluidity found in Chinese landscape arts, especially garden design. After demonstrating how Chinese gardens influenced English landscape garden principles and the 18th-century European picturesque movement, I argue that similar East-West connections served as direct and indirect influences on the site-specific work of middle and late 20th-century Land Art artists. I then describe how picturesque depictions of the relationship between man and nature influenced 19th-century landscape architecture in North America and 20th-century Land Art throughout the West. Finally, jingjie and Chinese gardens are used to explore archetypal sacred place patterns and their influences on the Western tradition of the picturesque. These parallel East-West connections served as the foundation for later interest in site-specificity, and were essential in establishing a historical context for understanding cross-cultural currents and their influences on Land Art artists. Using jingjie as my focus, I examine aspects of contemporary art that are not usually addressed by art critics, and reconsider the relevance of the Western picturesque tradition through a reciprocal model of cultural influences.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:408342 |
| Date | January 2003 |
| Creators | Chuang, Yu-Cheng |
| Publisher | Goldsmiths College (University of London) |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
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