Asian Art Archive

Interview with Antony Yung, Project Coordinator at the Asian Art Archive.

Throughout the 80’s China’s art-scene was heavily involved with political and social movements and focused on transforming conventions. After The Tianmen Square incident mass movements were replaced with individuals whom often had no direct political or social goal. How do you explain these shifts? In the 80’s, artists were very passionate about Western philosophies and involved with big issues and existential questions. These days there is more interest in the change and globalization of Chinese society and the consumption and pop-culture this is creating. This is why currently most artists in China show their personal and local experience.

What is the relationship between China’s artists and Western investors? China has no system for supporting artists at all. For this reason and to fund their projects Chinese artists are largely dependant on the Western art-market. There is a discussion going in the Chinese art-scene about how dependent Chinese artists should be on the Western market and how much this should influence the art-scene in China. A lot of artists who use Chinese icons and icons of communism have sold well with Western collectors and became very successful. The new generation of artist often feel they have nothing in common with the ideas and icons of their predecessors. But they do depend on a Western market in which there is a high demand for ‘typical Chinese’ works. Although today the market is shifting with Chinese investors emerging and the ‘Chinese art-hype’ cooling down due to the financial crisis, the issue about market dependency remains a current one.

What is the purpose of the Asian Art Archive? The AAA comes forth from a practical need; to create a discourse in the Asian art-scene documentation and research is needed. The AAA wants to provide this function and stores every sort of document about Asian art without discrimination. It doesn’t strive for any other perspective than to be an objective resource for research.