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Papers by Madeline Eschenburg

Arts

In the 1990s, a notable trend in contemporary Chinese art was the use of human corpses as materia... more In the 1990s, a notable trend in contemporary Chinese art was the use of human corpses as material for installation art. These works were called derivative and societally harmful by critics and have been dismissed as anomalous in more recent scholarship. This paper will demonstrate that the use of corpses was the continuation of a a decade-long attempt to free art from a perceived unhealthy relationship with society through ridding the human body of ideological meaning. I argue that the use of dead bodies marks a metaphorical end to this preoccupation within the contemporary Chinese art world and paved the way for a fundamental shift in the way artists approached society as a whole.

My dissertation, Migrating Subjects: The Problem of the “peasant” in contemporary Chinese Art pre... more My dissertation, Migrating Subjects: The Problem of the “peasant” in contemporary Chinese Art presents the narrative of contemporary artworks in China made about marginalized communities, as exemplified by migrant workers and rural inhabitants, from the 1990s to the present. These groups, often referred to as nongmin in popular discourse, were upheld as revolutionary heroes throughout much of the 20th century, but lost their cultural valence with the onset of China’s integration with global market mechanisms in the late 1970s. By examining artworks involving nongmin participation from the 1990s to the present, this study explores, for the first time, the ways in which Chinese artists have continued to make art with the goal of helping these communities against the background of contemporary artists’ own cultural marginalization in the early 1990s, their acceptance into the international art arena over the turn of the century, and their provisional embrace by the Chinese central gove...

This chapter argues that performance artworks in China involving the participation of migrant wor... more This chapter argues that performance artworks in China involving the participation of migrant workers over the turn of the century simultaneously demonstrate a desire to fully merge with society through sustained engagement with migrant worker communities, and to create a critical distance between art and society. Two such different notions of the relationship between art and society are demonstrated through two conflicting uses of the concept of site-specificity, or “xianchang” in Chinese, in the 1990s. The paradoxes involved in the use and application of xianchang were a direct reflection of China’s post-socialist condition, which include both the continued embrace of the ideals of socialism and a critical questioning of the repercussions of China’s socialist legacy.

Contemporaneity: Historical Presence in Visual Culture

Review of Pagé, Suzanne, Laurence Bossé, Philip Tinari, and Claire Staebler, eds. Bentu - Chinese... more Review of Pagé, Suzanne, Laurence Bossé, Philip Tinari, and Claire Staebler, eds. Bentu - Chinese Artists in a Time of Turbulence and Transformation: Cao Fei, Hao Liang, Hu Xiangqian, Liu Chuang, Liu Shiyuan, Liu Wei, Liu Xiaodong, Qiu Zhijie, Tao Hui, Xu Qu, Xu Zhen, Yang Fudong, exh. cat. Paris: Fondation Louis Vuitton, 2016. Texts by Suzanne Pagé, Laurence Bossé, Philip Tinari, Pierre Haski, Lu Minjun, Nikita Yingqian Cai, Sun Dongdong, Claire Staebler, Venus Lau, Sasha Zhao, Robin Peckham, Jerome Sans, Liu Tian, Yang Zi, Zhang Xiyuan, Philip Tinari, and Aimee Lin. 179 pp., 83 color ills., Paperback €35 (978 0 300 22238 8)

Contemporaneity: Historical Presence in Visual Culture, 2015

The following is a month-long email exchange in which the editors of Open Ground Blog outlined th... more The following is a month-long email exchange in which the editors of Open Ground Blog outlined their thoughts and goals for the website.

Contemporaneity: Historical Presence in Visual Culture, 2015

The following is an excerpt from a conversation between contemporary Chinese artist Xu Bing, Made... more The following is an excerpt from a conversation between contemporary Chinese artist Xu Bing, Madeline Eschenburg, and Ellen Larson. Xu Bing curated an exhibition at the Central Academy of Fine Arts titled The Second CAFAM Future Exhibition, Observer-Creator: The Reality Representation of Chinese Young Art, on exhibition through March 2015. Our conversation centered around his thoughts on a new generation of young Chinese artists as well as reflection on his own early career and time in New York. The conversation was conducted in Chinese and has been translated into English.

Contemporaneity: Historical Presence in Visual Culture, 2015

The following is a transcript of a conversation between three members of the No Name Painting Gro... more The following is a transcript of a conversation between three members of the No Name Painting Group, as well as Gao Minglu, Madeline Eschenburg, Ellen Larson, and Dong Li Hui. This interview was originally conducted in Chinese and has been edited for clarity.

Contemporaneity: Historical Presence in Visual Culture, 2015

The following is an interview with five women working in the Beijing contemporary art world. This... more The following is an interview with five women working in the Beijing contemporary art world. This interview along with other artist profiles and reviews of exhibitions and artworks in Beijing can be viewed on the Open Ground Blog (http://www.opengroundblog.com).

Contemporaneity: Historical Presence in Visual Culture, 2014

Claire Bishop answers questions about some of the arguments put forth in her recent book Artifici... more Claire Bishop answers questions about some of the arguments put forth in her recent book Artificial Hells: Participatory Art and the Politics of Spectatorship.

Arts

In the 1990s, a notable trend in contemporary Chinese art was the use of human corpses as materia... more In the 1990s, a notable trend in contemporary Chinese art was the use of human corpses as material for installation art. These works were called derivative and societally harmful by critics and have been dismissed as anomalous in more recent scholarship. This paper will demonstrate that the use of corpses was the continuation of a a decade-long attempt to free art from a perceived unhealthy relationship with society through ridding the human body of ideological meaning. I argue that the use of dead bodies marks a metaphorical end to this preoccupation within the contemporary Chinese art world and paved the way for a fundamental shift in the way artists approached society as a whole.

My dissertation, Migrating Subjects: The Problem of the “peasant” in contemporary Chinese Art pre... more My dissertation, Migrating Subjects: The Problem of the “peasant” in contemporary Chinese Art presents the narrative of contemporary artworks in China made about marginalized communities, as exemplified by migrant workers and rural inhabitants, from the 1990s to the present. These groups, often referred to as nongmin in popular discourse, were upheld as revolutionary heroes throughout much of the 20th century, but lost their cultural valence with the onset of China’s integration with global market mechanisms in the late 1970s. By examining artworks involving nongmin participation from the 1990s to the present, this study explores, for the first time, the ways in which Chinese artists have continued to make art with the goal of helping these communities against the background of contemporary artists’ own cultural marginalization in the early 1990s, their acceptance into the international art arena over the turn of the century, and their provisional embrace by the Chinese central gove...

This chapter argues that performance artworks in China involving the participation of migrant wor... more This chapter argues that performance artworks in China involving the participation of migrant workers over the turn of the century simultaneously demonstrate a desire to fully merge with society through sustained engagement with migrant worker communities, and to create a critical distance between art and society. Two such different notions of the relationship between art and society are demonstrated through two conflicting uses of the concept of site-specificity, or “xianchang” in Chinese, in the 1990s. The paradoxes involved in the use and application of xianchang were a direct reflection of China’s post-socialist condition, which include both the continued embrace of the ideals of socialism and a critical questioning of the repercussions of China’s socialist legacy.

Contemporaneity: Historical Presence in Visual Culture

Review of Pagé, Suzanne, Laurence Bossé, Philip Tinari, and Claire Staebler, eds. Bentu - Chinese... more Review of Pagé, Suzanne, Laurence Bossé, Philip Tinari, and Claire Staebler, eds. Bentu - Chinese Artists in a Time of Turbulence and Transformation: Cao Fei, Hao Liang, Hu Xiangqian, Liu Chuang, Liu Shiyuan, Liu Wei, Liu Xiaodong, Qiu Zhijie, Tao Hui, Xu Qu, Xu Zhen, Yang Fudong, exh. cat. Paris: Fondation Louis Vuitton, 2016. Texts by Suzanne Pagé, Laurence Bossé, Philip Tinari, Pierre Haski, Lu Minjun, Nikita Yingqian Cai, Sun Dongdong, Claire Staebler, Venus Lau, Sasha Zhao, Robin Peckham, Jerome Sans, Liu Tian, Yang Zi, Zhang Xiyuan, Philip Tinari, and Aimee Lin. 179 pp., 83 color ills., Paperback €35 (978 0 300 22238 8)

Contemporaneity: Historical Presence in Visual Culture, 2015

The following is a month-long email exchange in which the editors of Open Ground Blog outlined th... more The following is a month-long email exchange in which the editors of Open Ground Blog outlined their thoughts and goals for the website.

Contemporaneity: Historical Presence in Visual Culture, 2015

The following is an excerpt from a conversation between contemporary Chinese artist Xu Bing, Made... more The following is an excerpt from a conversation between contemporary Chinese artist Xu Bing, Madeline Eschenburg, and Ellen Larson. Xu Bing curated an exhibition at the Central Academy of Fine Arts titled The Second CAFAM Future Exhibition, Observer-Creator: The Reality Representation of Chinese Young Art, on exhibition through March 2015. Our conversation centered around his thoughts on a new generation of young Chinese artists as well as reflection on his own early career and time in New York. The conversation was conducted in Chinese and has been translated into English.

Contemporaneity: Historical Presence in Visual Culture, 2015

The following is a transcript of a conversation between three members of the No Name Painting Gro... more The following is a transcript of a conversation between three members of the No Name Painting Group, as well as Gao Minglu, Madeline Eschenburg, Ellen Larson, and Dong Li Hui. This interview was originally conducted in Chinese and has been edited for clarity.

Contemporaneity: Historical Presence in Visual Culture, 2015

The following is an interview with five women working in the Beijing contemporary art world. This... more The following is an interview with five women working in the Beijing contemporary art world. This interview along with other artist profiles and reviews of exhibitions and artworks in Beijing can be viewed on the Open Ground Blog (http://www.opengroundblog.com).

Contemporaneity: Historical Presence in Visual Culture, 2014

Claire Bishop answers questions about some of the arguments put forth in her recent book Artifici... more Claire Bishop answers questions about some of the arguments put forth in her recent book Artificial Hells: Participatory Art and the Politics of Spectatorship.