Gendered Bodies: Toward a Women's Visual Art in Contemporary China

Shuqin Cui

Published by University of Hawaii Press 2015

Gendered Bodies

Toward a Women's Visual Art in Contemporary China

Shuqin Cui

https://doi.org/10.1515/9780824857424

Overview
Contents

About this book

Gendered Bodies introduces readers to women's visual art in contemporary China by examining how the visual process of gendering reshapes understandings of historiography, sexuality, pain, and space. When artists take the body as the subject of female experience and the medium of aesthetic experiment, they reveal a wealth of noncanonical approaches to art. The insertion of women's narratives into Chinese art history rewrites a historiography that has denied legitimacy to the woman artist. The gendering of sexuality reveals that the female body incites pleasure in women themselves, reversing the dynamic from woman as desired object to woman as desiring subject. The gendering of pain demonstrates that for those haunted by the sociopolitical past, the body can articulate traumatic memories and psychological torment. The gendering of space transforms the female body into an emblem of landscape devastation, remaps ruin aesthetics, and extends the politics of gender identity into cyberspace and virtual reality.

The work presents a critical review of women's art in contemporary China in relation to art traditions, classical and contemporary. Inscribing the female body into art generates not only visual experimentation, but also interaction between local art/cultural production and global perception. While artists may seek inspiration and exhibition space abroad, they often reject the (Western) label "feminist artist." An extensive analysis of artworks and artists—both well- and little-known—provides readers with discursively persuasive and visually provocative evidence. Gendered Bodies follows an interdisciplinary approach that general readers as well as scholars will find inspired and inspiring.

Author / Editor information

Cui Shuqin :

Shuqin Cui is professor of Asian studies and cinema studies at Bowdoin College.

Reviews

Sheldon Lu, University of California, Davis:
Gendered Bodies is a groundbreaking work, a definitive study of contemporary Chinese women’s art written in any language. It is filled with critical insight, abundant details, and an intimate knowledge of the current art scene. The book is a must-read for anyone who hopes to understand art and women’s aspirations in contemporary China.

Cui's choice of individual works is appropriate to the specific aspect of the subject being examined, and her analyses of the works are clear. Including a thorough bibliography and 94 color reproductions, the book treats an important topic.

In her book Gendered Bodies: Toward a Women's Visual Art in Contemporary China, Shuqin Cui analyzes the development and presence of women artists in China. . . . Cui presents the often complex art work in an understandable way with astute analysis regarding the choices that face women in more than just the contemporary art world: choosing between the constructs invented by society or choosing professional ambition. The artists in Cui's study demonstrate that the concerns of women artists transcend body and sexual differences while embracing the changes of a political and physical landscape.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	v
Acknowledgments Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Why Women’S Art? An Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
The (In)Visibility Of The Female Body In An Art Tradition: A Historical Framework Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	16
Part I. Gendering Of Historiography
1. Reimagining Women’S History And Gendering Historiography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	33
2. The Pregnant Nude And Photographic Representation Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	49
Part II. Gendering Of Sexuality
3. The Sexual Subject: Sexing The Body, Reversing The Gaze Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	69
4. The Body In Abstraction: The World Of Flowers And Crafts Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	87
Part III. Gendering Of Pain
5. Performing The Body, Expressing Pain Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	109
6. Ephemeral Bodies: Object Choice And Material Practice Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	128
Part IV. Gendering Of Space
7. From Ruin Aesthetics To Urban Narratives Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	149
8. Cyborg Bodies: Transgression Across The Real And The Virtual Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	170
Postscript. An Impossible Closure: Gender Beyond The Body Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	191
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	207
Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	235
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	249

Language: English
Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
Audience: Professional and scholarly;
Pages
- Main content: 280
Illustrations
- Other: 114 color and 2 black & white illustrations

eBook

Published: October 31, 2015
ISBN: 9780824857424