Attempting to approach China as a single subject leads to an encounter with contradictions. Home to what is arguably the oldest continuous culture in the world, it has yet faced unprecedented changes over the past century alone. Its citizens stand between two very different worlds, and each generation’s experience is seemingly unrecognizable to the last. This struggle between the historical and ahistorical may be the cohesive element of the volume. Many of the works featured deal with a piling-on of contradictory elements, a rewriting of history, or a collapsing of past, present and future. Some attempt to present the realities of contemporary life in China through documentary footage, others merely hint at its nuances through poetic gesture. What is offered is not a complete picture of media art made in or responding to contemporary China. Instead it is an attempt to correct the assumption of a single Chinese artistic “voice” or style, to present the multiplicity of experiences in as wide a breadth as possible.
Find more information about art project Land of Illusion – Reconstituting History and Culture in Virtual Reality, and commentary by Stephen Persing, click here.
He Li, 3D modelling, animation and performance in Second Life online virtual world.
Daniel Shanks, performance in Second Life online virtual world.
Scott Grant, performance in Second Life online virtual world.
Philip Zhenming Zhai, conceptual advisor, music composition and performing in Second Life online virtual world.