Kunsthalle Kowloon

Text by Robin Peckham

Inter Art, a deservedly obscure photography space on the south side of 798 in Beijing, recently hosted the exhibition Remix and Share, organized by Creative Commons China and the web portal Artintern. The issue of copyright and open systems for alternative licensing is not an altogether immaterial one within the Chinese art world, particularly in light of increasing forays into the realm of digital production coupled with a lack of security or even interest in the circulation of artist materials like viewing copies and work reproductions. Unfortunately despite the productive efforts of Creative Commons in both the mainland and Hong Kong, this particular exhibition does not appear to contribute to this discussion in any significant manner. Curated by Wu Hong (not to be confused with Wu Hung) and Zhu Handong in a style that insists on covering a maximum area of wall space without regard for an overall aesthetic experience, the exhibition accepted applications from approximately 200 mostly obscure artists, selecting works by over 60 for the final presentation. Leading new media figures including Yao Dajuin, Yan Jun, and light artist Wu Xiaojun were also issued special invitations to participate.

Accompanied by the usual speeches and group photographs that accompany such bureaucratic curatorial work, the mandate of the exhibition seems more interested in the fact of its own existence than in the processes or possibilities associated with “remixing and sharing” under the Creative Commons model. Textual materials accompanying the project celebrate the notion that this group of artists could accept CC licensing; indeed, it seems that little if any concern was placed on a coherent exhibition plan, conceptual rigor, or aesthetic qualities of the works chosen for inclusion–which is truly regrettable, because an endeavor with this kind of institutional support has an exciting opportunity explore just how intellectual property, the figure of the remix, and networks of circulation operate within the international art world in general and specifically in the environment of 798 at the heart of the Beijing art scene. As it stands, the mere presentation of mediocre digital images as contemporary art in atrocious frames explicitly neglects the persistent fact of “sharing” within the Chinese context. Digital reproductions, both two- and three-dimensional, are routinely circulated from artist to gallery to media to the public, initially for promotional purposes but later out of sheer visual pleasure. This use case presents a fascinating, already-existing culture of circulation, and one that approaches questions central to the mission of Creative Commons in China.

Perhaps endemic to economies of contemporary visual art with its reliance on limited editions and patronage, such questions increase rapidly in significance with specifically material genres of Chinese contemporary art that utilize the matrix of labor and production to negotiate between concept and execution. For example, when Wu Xiaojun releases his “2025 Project” under a license requiring attribution, noncommercial use, and no derivatives, there are a number of components that are theoretically included in this package: documentation integral to the work (renderings of the installation), plans for its realization (the text of the sculpture), details of its execution (technical information and dimensions), and ultimately the underlying conceptual material are all considered part and parcel of the piece, differing from the simpler cases of design or illustration in which a single image stands alone and complete. To allow the reproduction of the work-assemblage that comprises of these components, under the stated restrictions, is a noble move that can indeed bring a greater transparency to the art world, if tricky issues of authenticity, certification, and editions can be solved without resorting to additional legal structures. On the other hand, what does it mean to release a concept to be represented without the possibility of derivative work? For Creative Commons in China, where does the work of art reside: in the material or in the inspiration?

It may be convenient to approach these questions from the perspective of work more traditionally suited to the Creative Commons model: Liu Wei’s “Purple Air” series offers an interesting scenario. These works, now numbering in the dozens, are oil paintings on canvas executed by moderately trained assistants with the aid of sketches based on projections of digital files, in this case created by the artist in Microsoft Paint. Here the issue of cultural metadata appears in a larger way. If, hypothetically, this digital file is available not only for distribution but also for derivative work, then any other artist’s interest in altering it exists not in the techno-utopian ideal of objectively moving creative discourse through a false discourse of progress, but rather in utilizing the “Liu Wei-ness” of the aesthetics, perhaps in satire or in reference to his past work. Within economies of highly-editioned circulation of art, particularly through galleries and their audiences, the sole interest of remix or secondary critique indeed lies with the conceptual but not necessarily aesthetic value of the prior work, a fact not necessarily true outside of China and certainly not applicable beyond the art world.

The exhibition at Inter Art fails to address these and other pressing theoretical problems related to further implementation of Creative Commons licensing, passing up an opportunity to embrace the already-existing practices of image piracy and digital reproduction in the cultural territory of the Chinese art world. Instead, the wholesale importation of occasionally outmoded practices native to the spheres of digital design into an inappropriate systematic and cultural context has presented yet another obstacle for the understanding and implementation of a praxis of open source culture, a problem that will not be reversed without significant and rigorous rethinking of the economies of circulation and understanding that regulate image production and reception in China.