Rethinking the Spirit of “Self” and “Theory”
The Practice of “Autotheory” in Contemporary Chinese Art
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 21974792 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Wenwen Gu (0000-0003-4430-6223, Qilu University of Technology, corresponding author), Ke Su (0000-0002-8735-1422, Qilu University of Technology) |
| Year | 2022 |
| Volume | 11 |
| Issue | 6 |
| Pages | 115 |
| Publication date | 2022-11-04 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Arts (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 2076-0752 • E-ISSN: 2076-0752 |
| Publisher | MDPI AG (PUBLISHER • IT) |
| DOI | 10.3390/arts11060115 |
| OpenAlex | W4308443702 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 7 |
From genre to interdisciplinary and trans-medial artistic practice, “autotheory” has attracted great attention for formally distilling a troublesome contradiction of dualistic opposition between theory and practice in arts and attempting to solve it. In this paper, autotheory is understood as the joining of reflective thinking through the “collective self” and the reflective thinking of “theory”. Based on Lauren Fournier’s research, this paper investigates two kinds of art practices in contemporary Chinese art. The first developed from the art movements of the late 1970s to the late 1980s, when there was a rethinking of collective selfhood in Chinese art circles. This “collective self” in Chinese culture expands the parameters of autotheory’s individualized, autobiographical “self”, as described by Fournier. The second example of autotheory discussed in this paper explores contemporary Chinese feminist art. Due to its cultural background and historical trajectory, different dimensions of individualized autotheoretical practices have developed in feminist contemporary art in China in the new era. The case studies presented in this paper show the flexibility of autotheory as a methodology, the complex conditions it applies to, and the potential to generate theory from expanded notions of “self” in art practice
Aesthetics · Art · Art history · China · Chinese art · Chinese culture · Contemporary art · Contradiction · Creativity · Epistemology · Performance art · Political science · Sociology · The arts · Visual arts · Artistic and Creative Research · Autobiographical and Biographical Writing · Chinese history and philosophy · History · Law · Philosophy · Psychology · Social Psychology
| Unique citing works | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,33 |
| Citation span | 2023 - 2023 (1) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 1 |