Landscape, as such, does not exist. It is made up and never neutral. The artistic representation of nature is closely linked with the social perception of the natural world. This is a two-way process: society draws its ideas about how to view and experience nature from the conventions of visual culture, while at the same time artists reflect and react to current societal attitudes to the environment. The contemporary understanding of landscape includes the sense of it as 'an ideological tool shaping the way in which we envision and construct the natural world.'
As a genre and topic, landscape looms large in the history of both Chinese and Western art. When it comes to China, landscape painting has been called "China's greatest contribution to the art of the world", and owes its special character to the Taoist tradition in Chinese culture. William Watson notes, that "It has been said that the role of landscape art in Chinese painting corresponds to that of the nude in the west, as a theme unvarying in itself, but made the vehicle of infinite nuances of vision and feeling".
Through the history the depiction of landscape, both in China and the west, it has become linked to aesthetic experience and a locus of anxiety and ethical debate. Art works in this matter do not merely portray, but also highlight current social or environmental issues and the complex relationship between humans and nature. Landscape art often emerges from, and contributes to, active involvements with “real landscape”. The notion of the “real” in the 21st century cannot ignore the reality of the growing big city as a cultural or virtual landscape that forms a background for everyday life. All these notions are used by the artists and reveal how we project our desires from and into landscapes.
The installations, photographs, videos, and sound installations of the exhibition TAKE IN NATURE compile the diverse ways in which contemporary artists use the motif of nature to examine, challenge, and re-define the concept of landscape not simply as an object to be seen, but as an instrument of cultural forces.
About the exhibition
Duration: Jul 19, 2015 - Sep 3, 2015
Opening: Jul 19, 2015, 16:00, Sunday
Venue: We Gallery
Curators: Antonie Angerer, Anna-Viktoria Eschbach
Artists: Michael Bodenmann, Barbara Signer, Song Xi, Tu Lang, Ester Vonplon, Nina Wiesnagrotzki, Wu Ding, Zhang Jiajia
Address: Building 29, No.1436, Jungong Road (Wuwei creative art park), Yangpu District, 200433
Phone: +86 (0)21 65678910
Email: Kelin@wegallery.net
Courtesy of the artists and We Gallery.
