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Each time I look in European and Australian history books for the
colonial period of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, I am struck
by the portrayal of European captains and soldiers fighting against sea
storms, monsters and fierce natives in their attempts to explore and
expand their nations' territories. When we learn of Columbus, Magellan
or Captain Cook, their bravery and heroism is impressed upon us.
The notion of 'otherness' is emphasised throughout European
colonial history. Historical museums, no matter whether in Europe, the
United States or Australia, employ categorised representations of
'African', 'Arab', 'Aboriginal' or other non-European races, based on
anthropological knowledge acquired and developed by Europeans through
colonial expansion. These representations focus on differences, which
are defined from the viewpoint of the European. In fact, 'otherness' led
to primitive models that served as a reference system to help Europeans
discover and revisit their own history. 'Otherness' somehow became
identified as wild and uneducated, in comparison to the grace, education
and virtue of the Europeans.
It is difficult for us to find the truth about colonial
history because we cannot reconstruct it objectively. Typically we have
only narratives - most of the time twisted explanations about past
events. |
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ECHO,2005
Acrylic on canvas,
42 panels, 273 x 722 cm overall courtesy the artist
and Sherman Galleries. Sydney photograph: Sue Blackburn
!n my painting, Echo,
2005, I appropriated nine images of Europeans exploring the Pacific
Ocean in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, including Captain
Cook's landing in Australia. I reconstructed these related images and
grafted them onto a famous, ancient Chinese 'intellectual' landscape
painting. This painting, by Wang Yuanqi (1642-1715), a great scholar and
artist of the early Qing Dynasty, represents the highest aesthetic
achievement of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century China. The aesthetic
value of such a famous Chinese intellectual painting is the harmony
between nature and humankind, as well as the abstract expression of the
individual's spiritual pursuits. However, when Captain Cook and his
soldiers emerge from the wild seascape into such harmony, their courage
and ambitious heroism is immediately swallowed and diminished. In fact,
in such a scene, these historical European heroes become more like a
group of brutal bandits.
Traditional historical analysis develops in a linear and
continuous manner. However, I would like to introduce a fresh approach
where historical analysis develops in a nonlinear, trans-cultural and
multilayered way. Taking Echo as an example, by transposing
historical images in a different aesthetic relationship and cultural
context, the painting becomes more complicated and supernatural; it
recharges our history with sublime and poetic characters. Furthermore,
the high-tech symbols that I have inserted into the painting indicate a
possible link to our current era and convey a strong symbolic meaning.
Echo
is not about Australia's history being revived in an ancient Chinese
intellectual painting. Rather, it is a reminder that we are living in an
historical arena where cultures from many regions and races are much
more integrated than in the past. We need to improve our communication
and understanding across cultures to review and transcend 'othemess' and
search for a new universal value in human life. Guan Wei |
