Blazing into History: An Interview with Wang Tiande
By Sylvia Tsai
Cigarettes, incense and ash are uncommon materials in the context of traditional Chinese painting. Yet, since the early 1990s, Shanghai-based artist Wang Tiande has experimented with ink painting, transgressing assumptions of tradition to recontexualize the genre with a contemporary visual vocabulary. Creating some of the earliest works of conceptual ink art, Wang has challenged and developed his own form in the medium: in 1996, he created his iconic work Ink Banquet that transformed the two-dimensional ink surface to the three-dimensional sphere; in 2002, he began the “Digital” series in which a confluence of writing, painting and burning with cigarettes and joss sticks melded into one seamless gesture; and in 2006, he incorporated new media with the longstanding literati tradition. By constantly adapting and manipulating the materials of ink and paper, Wang seeks to ensure the continued existence of ink art in the canon of contemporary art and also in Chinese culture. ArtAsiaPacific spoke with Wang, on the occasion of his exhibition “Mountainscapes” at Alisan Fine Arts, Hong Kong, about his early years of studying guohua (“national painting”), his rather serendipitous sources of inspiration, his new works and his unwavering dedication to preserving Chinese ink painting.
