China and Western countries like the United States are referred to as the East and the West due to their geographic distance. China is an ancient civilization, but has turned into a modern traditional country. Geographical concepts, concepts of time, and the concept of value have melded together, under the influence of global economic and technological strength in the region. In this structure, the East is often associated with the traditional, the old, and the conservative, while Western culture is often associated with the new and the cutting edge. As a result of Western cultural evolution, Eastern art, while being subject to its influence, also caught a similar cultural symptom: the main driving force for change only comes from the subversion of negative forces.
This is the emergence of a true fault in Chinese art. In response to this fault, the West has ignited the imagination and confidence of Eastern artists, enabling them to see the vitality of their own cultural resources and identity. Whether it is for self-criticism and the subversion of Eastern culture, or the struggle to carry out purely traditional cultural patterns, it can be seen as a response to this Eastern cultural imagination. This response indeed promoted the advancement of Chinese contemporary art at first, but presented the danger of there being one “cultural imagination of globalization,” a move away from China’s survival reality, and presenting a new style of drawbacks.
We as Eastern artists have to do a cross-cultural excursion, and look for the root cause of these things. In the "Western Debate ," we must reject the bitter chord , and gradually get rid of the shadow of the Eastern imagination to reconstruct an awareness of Chinese culture. Then we must adapt with a new consciousness to pass on Chinese culture, tattoos, and graphics in the form of re-structuring the contemporary Chinese tattoo visual system.
中国和西方,本来是因为地域的关系才有的这样称呼,而在中国很长的一段时间里,变成了一个传统与现代的时间观念。这个观念的迁徙中,还包涵了旧与新、保守与变革等一系列价值形态方向的判断内容。地域的观念、时间的观念、价值的观念混杂在一起,并受着全球境域中经济和技术强势的影响。在这个结构中,东方往往与传统、与旧、与保守排在一起,西方往往与现代、与新、与变革排在一起,很明显东方系统的命运将乞灵于西方系统的点化和解放。由于西方文化谱系的自我纠葛,东方艺术在备受影响的同时,也染上了同样的文化症候:变革的主要驱动力来自于颠覆和否定的力量。
这是中国艺术出现一个断层的真实境域。在这个断层面前,西方的东方想象曾经点燃了东方艺术家的信心,使他们看到自身文化资源和身份的活力。无论是对东方文化的自我批判和颠覆,还是以纯粹的传统文化形态所进行的抗争,都可以看作是对这种东方想象的回应。这种回应在最初的确推动了中国当代艺术的进程,但紧接着就出现了一个“全球化的文化想象”的危险,出现了远离中国的生存现实、图式化、样式化的种种弊端。
我们所要做的,是在跨文化的远游中,寻找我们这个时代根源性的东西;在“中西之辩”的苦索中,逐步摆脱东方想象的阴影,重新建构中国文化的主体意识,用新的意识来传承中国文化,以图形,纹身的形式来重新架构当代中国纹身视觉体系。