In today's era of globalization, people can enter and exit different cultural circles, thereby increasing the way they perceive themselves. We can use others to understand ourselves. This way of self-awareness may be more effective than self reflection. Su Shi once said in a poem, "I don't know the true face of Mount Lu, only because I am in this mountain." Swanitz also said, "What I see behind your thinking structure is what you cannot see." With the eyes of others, it is not easy to see blind spots.
For ink and wash, as a symbol of Chinese painting, its other is the oil painting that was born in Europe. If we look at ink painting from the perspective of oil painting and Western culture, we may break through the fog, discover the true ink painting, natural ink painting, and construct ink painting art that belongs to our era based on this. Therefore, the task of deconstructing ink painting may need to be accomplished by introducing foreign cultures.
Chinese culture has formed a strong inclusiveness and vitality in the long historical evolution process. It is only due to falling behind in the process of social modernity transformation that a mentality of cultural conservatism has formed. As China becomes increasingly powerful, this cultural conservatism may evolve into narrow nationalism, thereby hindering our true contribution to contemporary culture. At the time of promoting the cultural industry and traditional culture throughout the country, we propose the deconstruction of ink painting, by incorporating a level of self reflection and self criticism into our culture, to promote the healthier development of contemporary culture.
If we are familiar with the history of ink and wash, and if we further understand the characteristics of Chinese culture, we will find that there is no insurmountable gap between the physical universality and cultural identity of ink and wash. The cultural significance of ink and wash can ultimately be traced back to the physical characteristics of ink and wash. This is like the Chinese characters we use, not completely traceable between their form and meaning. In the terminology of structuralist semiotics, the relationship between the signifier (sound and form) and the signified (meaning) of Chinese characters is not established by any convention, but by natural intuition. Therefore, the relationship between the signifier (physical characteristics) and the signified (cultural meaning) of Chinese characters is not arbitrary, but meaningful. From this, we will feel that the running character is running, the walking character is walking, the laughing character is laughing, and the crying character is crying. The reason why Chinese characters have this characteristic is not only because there are traces to follow between the signifier and the signified, but also because we are accustomed to using intuition to discover the natural connections between different things. Chinese characters are like this, ink and wash are like this, and all aspects of Chinese culture based on Chinese characters are like this.
From this, we can distinguish three types of ink: one is ink with only physical characteristics, which we can call natural ink; One type is ink wash that is full of rigid programs or difficult to decipher passwords, which we can call habitual ink wash; There is another type of ink painting that is unobstructed between nature and culture, which we can call artistic ink painting.
Deconstructing ink painting is not deconstructing natural ink painting. As long as ink is used, it has the natural characteristics of ink. In this sense, natural ink painting cannot be eliminated in any way. Deconstructing ink and wash refers to deconstructing habitual ink and wash, breaking down various rigid programs that cover ink and wash, and cracking various difficult passwords that cover ink and wash. Let ink return to the ink itself and its natural state. However, returning to the natural state of ink painting is not the ultimate goal of deconstructing ink painting. The ultimate goal of deconstructing ink painting is to construct artistic ink painting on the basis of natural ink painting. The purpose of deconstructing ink painting is to bypass natural ink painting and achieve the goal of artistic ink painting. Why does this deconstruction work need to be done? What's wrong with staying in a habit? This involves perspectives on art, as well as a more macro perspective on culture.
It is gratifying that many artists have emerged recently, exploring ink and wash from different perspectives and achieving gratifying results. They deconstructed ink painting in the name of ink painting and completed a seemingly impossible task. The deconstruction here is not dissolution, but liberation; Deconstructing ink painting is not the end of ink painting, but the rebirth of ink painting. After suspending various stereotypes and bad habits related to ink and wash, what remains is the ink and wash itself. Returning to the object itself, which was originally a task proposed by philosophers, often relies on art to accomplish it. At this point, philosophy and art share the same goal. They are all using negative methods to accomplish the impossible task of self liberation.
