Song Dong - 'Stamping the Water' 1996
Andy Goldsworthy - 'New York Dirt Water Light' 2010
"Art is a self reflective procedure that no longer privileges the finished product but instead the process of construction" - Song Dong
For Chinese contemporary artist, Song Dong, the constructive process, and symbolic meaning behind his works are just as important as the works themselves. His 1996 work, ‘Stamping the Water’ is a collection of 36 unornamented photographs that record Song Dong himself, creating this piece of performance art. He conducted the site-specific performance in a river in Tibet, where he performs an ancient Chinese ritual, where something sacred is stamped with a seal, providing a blessing or declaring something of importance. Song spent an hour in tranquility, repetitively stamping the river with an archaic wooden seal bearing the Chinese character for water. The seal leaves no trace in the water; hence the symbolic power is instantly withdrawn. The importance of the work therefore lies in the single most action of the stamping; ergo, highlighting the concept of impermanence within nature, and our relationship with the world around us.
Song Dong is a significant figure in the post-modern Chinese art world, and an important artist in the development of Chinese conceptual art since the 1990s. Many of his works are transitory and site-specific, with works exploring the notions of perception and the ephemeral nature of existence. Song’s work calls for mediation and contemplation in order to understand the somewhat mystical experience exuded through his art. ‘Stamping the Water’ is a perfect example of his signature practice as the importance of the work exists purely in time and in the imagination. Like many artists of the post-modern generation, his critique manages to walk the thin line between the politic and the poetic. He subtly creates work based on contemporary society, government, and social expectations. ‘Stamping the Water’ nonchalantly suggests the power and dominance of the Chinese government over the country of Tibet. The work crystalizes the sense of tradition whilst emphasizing the immediacy of contemporary issues.
Song uses non-art materials and his method and work are an attempt to relocate our experience of art, somewhere between modernity and tradition; past and present. The documentation of Song’s work proves to be essential, which without, the work would only exist in the sheer momentous creation and only disperse in memory afterwards.
Andy Goldsworthy is a British post-modern artist whose works closely correlate to those of Song Dong. Focusing on the concepts of nature, and the growing global concern of environmental degradation. Similarly to Song, Goldsworthy pertains his work to the world of nature and the relationship humans share with our surroundings.
Working in forms of natural installations and temporary site-specific land art, Goldsworthy exhibits mostly outside the gallery, relating his work directly to nature by using non-art materials found on onsite (eg. Leaves, ice, water, stones, sticks). His works constantly explore the fragile limits of the found materials whilst creating a gracious balance between the existing environment and his personal point of view. One of his works called ‘New York Dirt Water Light’ (2010), similarly to Song Dong’s ‘Stamping the Water’, is a documented series of time-elapsed photographs of New York’s streets and footpaths, decorated with shapes and forms made from gutter water, dirt, and city lights. Using his signature snake-like squiggle, Goldsworthy walks along the streets of New York painting a wet line along his path. The line starts out deep, although slowly fades as the water evaporates. Goldsworthy uses the nighttime reflections of city lights to illuminate the damp path that he’s created.
Both ‘New York Dirt Water Light’ and ‘Stamping the Water’ emphasize the notion of ephemeral art and the import of the work’s construction itself. These two works are transient, and exist only through documentation. Both pieces signify the inevitability of their own destruction; the momentary act of stamping the water, and the evaporation of the water in the street. Goldsworthy himself, comments on his practice by saying “the very thing that will bring the work to life will bring its death…there’s no getting away from the fact".
These two documented artworks are idyllic examples of post-modern art today. They comparably shift the idea of art away from its traditional objects and materials, and rather establish its purpose as the investigation of its own meaning. The line between art and life is fading, and both artists explore the notion that life is a continuous flow of events that follow one another, and contradict each other; hence art can no longer be a set principle, if it aims to be pertinent within our society.
Art must be a continuum of constant change, and must explore the thematics of life itself, in order to be considered relevant and alive. It’s the connection created between the ephemeral nature of existence and the exploration of contemporary issues that makes both Song Dong’s and Andy Goldsworthy’s work so powerful to its audience and relevant in our world today.
Song Dong is a significant figure in the post-modern Chinese art world, and an important artist in the development of Chinese conceptual art since the 1990s. Many of his works are transitory and site-specific, with works exploring the notions of perception and the ephemeral nature of existence. Song’s work calls for mediation and contemplation in order to understand the somewhat mystical experience exuded through his art. ‘Stamping the Water’ is a perfect example of his signature practice as the importance of the work exists purely in time and in the imagination. Like many artists of the post-modern generation, his critique manages to walk the thin line between the politic and the poetic. He subtly creates work based on contemporary society, government, and social expectations. ‘Stamping the Water’ nonchalantly suggests the power and dominance of the Chinese government over the country of Tibet. The work crystalizes the sense of tradition whilst emphasizing the immediacy of contemporary issues.
Song uses non-art materials and his method and work are an attempt to relocate our experience of art, somewhere between modernity and tradition; past and present. The documentation of Song’s work proves to be essential, which without, the work would only exist in the sheer momentous creation and only disperse in memory afterwards.
Andy Goldsworthy is a British post-modern artist whose works closely correlate to those of Song Dong. Focusing on the concepts of nature, and the growing global concern of environmental degradation. Similarly to Song, Goldsworthy pertains his work to the world of nature and the relationship humans share with our surroundings.
Working in forms of natural installations and temporary site-specific land art, Goldsworthy exhibits mostly outside the gallery, relating his work directly to nature by using non-art materials found on onsite (eg. Leaves, ice, water, stones, sticks). His works constantly explore the fragile limits of the found materials whilst creating a gracious balance between the existing environment and his personal point of view. One of his works called ‘New York Dirt Water Light’ (2010), similarly to Song Dong’s ‘Stamping the Water’, is a documented series of time-elapsed photographs of New York’s streets and footpaths, decorated with shapes and forms made from gutter water, dirt, and city lights. Using his signature snake-like squiggle, Goldsworthy walks along the streets of New York painting a wet line along his path. The line starts out deep, although slowly fades as the water evaporates. Goldsworthy uses the nighttime reflections of city lights to illuminate the damp path that he’s created.
Both ‘New York Dirt Water Light’ and ‘Stamping the Water’ emphasize the notion of ephemeral art and the import of the work’s construction itself. These two works are transient, and exist only through documentation. Both pieces signify the inevitability of their own destruction; the momentary act of stamping the water, and the evaporation of the water in the street. Goldsworthy himself, comments on his practice by saying “the very thing that will bring the work to life will bring its death…there’s no getting away from the fact".
These two documented artworks are idyllic examples of post-modern art today. They comparably shift the idea of art away from its traditional objects and materials, and rather establish its purpose as the investigation of its own meaning. The line between art and life is fading, and both artists explore the notion that life is a continuous flow of events that follow one another, and contradict each other; hence art can no longer be a set principle, if it aims to be pertinent within our society.
Art must be a continuum of constant change, and must explore the thematics of life itself, in order to be considered relevant and alive. It’s the connection created between the ephemeral nature of existence and the exploration of contemporary issues that makes both Song Dong’s and Andy Goldsworthy’s work so powerful to its audience and relevant in our world today.