Image Dynamics

By Wang Chunchen

  The science of dynamics, one of the branches of modern physics, studies the relationship between motion and the structure of matter. The term dynamics has also become a frequent metaphor applied to a wide range of subjects and fields of research. When we use this term to refer to images, we endow it with a kind of immanent value, giving it status and function within the development of contemporary art.

  Contemporary photographic images produced within the scope of still-photography, digital works, or video function today as a conceptual means of exploring, observing and knowing the world. They open unlimited sources of creative possibilities and allow artists to realize their imaginative and often profound conceptions. Art, as it functions today, has changed dramatically. It has moved conceptually beyond figurative realism and simple mimetic representation of the world. As a result artists are becoming freer and more subjective in creating, changing and constructing their own images of reality. Photographic art has also undergone great changes, transforming how art in general is made and appreciated today. The new art is not simply for looking, but also for reading. It reflects the audience's own experiences as well as challenges those experiences and creates confrontations. It requires us, as viewers, to have a flexible visual sensibility, to be able to accept new types of images, as well as shifts away from conventional aesthetic expectations and modernist forms towards postmodernist pluralism and heterogeneity. We must become readers to apprehend this diversifying image field. Image dynamics is a visual cultural study of how such new skills for reading photographic image are built.

 The seven artists included in this exhibition exemplify the strategies and interpretative perspectives present in contemporary image dynamics. Their approach may refer to a comprehensive creation, such as the gesamtkunswerk art of Matthew Barney, who integrates various visual forms of contemporary art, including drawing, sculpture, photography, performance, film and installation. Allan Walker and Raz Barfield make use of computer programs to integrate various image elements in order to create a flowing, surreal image-world. Thomas Rose penetrates into the relationship between history and space by creating works based on architectural blueprints and rethinking the association of architectural space with real space. Joel Feldman verifies and contrasts social spectacles with social significance by interfering with daily visual experience, thus revealing the subjective dimension of image reading. Wang Chuan deconstructs images, looking for new methods of creating images, by studying the essence and the mechanism of image production and function in the age of digitalization. Liu Jin, a conceptual performance artist, always stresses the conceptual presentation of an image, combining the visual aspect of an image with performance in order to highlight the concept's intervention into an image.

  These artists have distinctive connotative inclinations and they represent a broad spectrum of approaches and methodological orientations that embody the creative and signifying abilities of the photographic image in our contemporary social context. The Image Dynamics exhibition aims to encourage further explorations of the potentialities inherent in the photographic medium and of the theoretical issues raised by the contemporary photographic images.

(Wang Chunchen is Art Critic and Curator of China Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing)