On June 27, 2014, the exhibition of the elective course the “Performance and Practice of Material” by the 3rd Studio of the Department of Sculpture, CAFA was on display at the big studio of the Channel Gallery. Professor Zhan Wang was the teacher of the elective course, and Zhu Liye was the teaching assistant of the course. Because it was an elective course across the academy, the course brought together 20 students from various specialties, such as the School of Chinese Painting, Department of Oil Painting, Department of Sculpture, School of Architecture, School of Design and Department of Experimental Art, etc., on the day of the activity, Zhan Wang personally explained the source of the idea of each student’s work, the process of production and the ideas they want to express, in addition to the interpretation of the goal and the intention of the course.

It was presented in an almost 10-meter-high space, which was a challenge for the students to arrange their work. However, it was very naturally presented: although they didn’t use a spotlight, the relationships between the work, and the relationship between the work and people were more real. 20 students undertook all kinds of experiments and attempts around the exhibition subject “addiction”. For example, the use of silk stockings, cloth toys, plastic straws, sculptural rubbish, etc., in the creation; as well as the creation that broke the previous concept of painting. Although the exhibited work is half-baked or immature, in the opinion of Zhan Wang, it is possible to open more creative spaces for the students and discover their potential, because of the half-baked or immature ideas.

The reason why taking “Addition” as the exhibition subject was that Zhan Wan believed that “addiction” referred to an irresistible inner urge, which brought about an action that was separated from the purpose of the action itself, which was unreal and non-profitable. Zhan Wang hoped the students could reveal the secrets in their hearts during the course, in order to have an improved self-discovery, self-challenge, and break through the limit of oneself; rather than to only present a seemingly great job.

The one-month-long “Performance and Practice of Material” course had boldly adjusted the curriculum provision. This course was mainly divided into two stages: at the first stage, Zhu Liye, who graduated from CAFA with a master’s degree in 2014, served as the teaching assistant and arranged an experimental course week entitled “Original Thinking and Artistic Language” for the students; at the second stage, Zhan Wang taught the students for two weeks. The main content of the course included: discovery of personality and the potential art subject of life, so that the students from different departments, of various bases, experienced the entire process in conceptual art, starting from conceiving, scrutiny, production, adjustment, finishing the work, and arranging the exhibition.

During the first lesson of the course “Original Thinking and Artistic Language” by the teaching assistant Zhu Liye, Zhu told the students to use paper as the material to create original nests of their spirits, to mobilize students’ original thoughts; and the students could then thoroughly experience the spiritual possession of some space and the material wealth, and then dominate and process it. Then the students purified the ways and rhythms of processing material and space through the use of the body, used in the creation of painting and sculpture without a subject. In addition, a naked model leisurely changed a posture every five minutes in the studio, so that the students together with a model stayed in the room, they could see and feel the model, instead of directly looking at and observing the shape like they did in a realistic lesson, students used the way of “randomly looking” into life. After that they removed their vision from the model, and experienced their responses to the model, so as to make their creation in paintings and sculptures.

After the first week of classes, Professor Zhan Wang directed a course on the creation led by a specific subject. The course was divided into three themes: “My Addiction”, “The Unknown Side of My Life” and “The Thing I Hate”, through discovery of the individual character, the students of various bases were allowed to enter. In this process, Zhan Wang talked about life and work with each student, in order to understand each student’s personality, eventually led students to understand their own personalities, and at the same time, it generated a creative power of artwork, and the student could experience the way of thinking of conceptual work, the difference and relation between work and life.

The effect of the exhibition, the most important thing of the exhibition is to enhance students’ self-consciousness, because confidently expressing oneself is the most basic step of art. For how to express, deeply express it, students had a good experience with this course. Especially during the elective course, the final presentation of the exhibition marked that the course had finished the double exploration of artistic content and the language.

Text by Zhu Liye, Ye Yuanfeng, translated by Chen Peihua and edited by Sue/CAFA ART INFO.

Photo by Hu Zhiheng, Zhu Liye/CAFA ART INFO.