16 Chinese Art in China’s Last Dynasty By Allie Mickle


At the Minneapolis Institute of Art (Mia),


various teams worked


simultaneously to finish installation for one of the most innovative exhibitions presented by the museum to date. After months of discussion and planning, contractors, museum staff, associated designers and other parties gathered in the institution’s special exhibition wing to completely transform the space. Te excitement around this exhibition is thanks to international theatre and opera director, designer, and artist Robert Wilson who, in collaboration with curator Liu Yang and Mia’s team, wholly reconstructed the common design of museum exhibitions, particularly those that present traditional Chinese art. Power and Beauty in China’s Last Dynasty: Concept and Design by Robert Wilson embraces an immersive experience of imperial life during Qing rule, with objects made more dynamic through unpredictable gallery treatments and sensory elements. Robert Wilson is best known for his avant-garde theatrical productions, an early famous example is his 1976 opera Einstein on the Beach with composer Philip Glass. Since then, Wilson has continued to influence the arts,


actors and musicians,


partnering with famous performing


around the world, and designing exhibition spaces for museums. Liu Yang, Mia’s Curator of Chinese Art, may be familiar to Mia visitors as the curator of the 2012-13 exhibition China’s Terracotta Warriors: Te First Emperor’s Legacy, which enjoyed record-breaking attendance. Since his appointment in 2011, Liu has engaged in extensive research of the museum’s collection of Chinese art and added numerous important works to its holdings. Liu had been planning a Qing-dynasty exhibition concept with ideas for gallery groupings and themes, but the idea to collaborate with Wilson came later in the exhibit planning process.


In


August of 2017, Liu and a team of Mia staff travelled to Water Mill, New York for a workshop at Wilson’s Watermill Center, founded in 1992 as a collaborative laboratory for the arts. Every summer the centre hosts creative individuals from theatre, dance, music, and visual art to work on various projects that Wilson is currently engaged in. Mia’s special exhibition space was laid out to scale, with wooden planks placed on the ground to represent walls and participants standing in the space as sculptures or posing as mounted robes to give a sense of how many objects could physically fit into each gallery. With an understanding of gallery themes and objects, the design plan for the 10 galleries of Power and Beauty emerged,


including sound,


light, and gallery treatments. Te exhibition flows through distinct galleries,


yet creates a sense of


wholeness throughout, thanks in part to lighting design by Berlin-based AJ Weissbard,


ASIAN ART MARCH 2018 soundscapes by


Amitabha, Qing dynasty, 19th century, jade, 33.34 cm, the John R Van Derlip Fund and Gift of the Tomas Barlow Walker Foundation.


Brazilian sound designer Rodrigo Gava,


Stephanie Engeln. Spurred by a desire to display works


that had not been installed for some time, Liu took inspiration from Mia’s extensive holdings of Qing-dynasty textiles and objects. Te Qing dynasty, the period from 1644-1911 in China, marked an unrivalled flourishing of the arts in the empire. Tanks to a rise in imperially-commissioned art objects, the court existed and lived in striking opulence, which not only served to visually pronounce imperial power, but also as a physical stage in which Qing emperors could play the role of Son of Heaven. Power and Beauty serves to adapt this setting into the modern day,


providing


exhibition visitors with a thematic taste of the imperial courts. Te first formal gallery that visitors enter creates a space for meditation and mental clarity. A single,


simple


porcelain vase placed in a darkened room allows viewers a moment to clear their heads and prepare for the experience that the exhibition provides. Tis gallery responds to the Chinese principles of yin and yang, symbolised frequently through the ideas of light and dark. While Western notions typically present light as positive and darkness as negative, in Chinese philosophy, the two are dependent on one another and do not contain any good or bad connotations. Te


first gallery and set production by


Large storage jar with cover, Qing dynasty, 17th-18th century, porcelain with underglaze blue decoration, 69.85 x 46.36 x 46.36 cm, gift of Ruth and Bruce Dayton


UNDERSTANDING OF QING IMPERIAL LIFE THROUGH SOUND, LIGHT


AND OBJECTS


highlights this concept, using a darkened room as opportunity to appreciate the simplicity of the single lit object and rest one’s mind. After meditating in this darkened initial space, visitors are led into the second gallery by a Mia staff member, a move that


simultaneously excites and disconcerts as the eyes adjust to the


THE EXHIBITION CREATES AN IMMERSIVE


Standing figure, Warring States period, 5th-4th centuries BC, bronze with gold inlay 13.18 × 5.08 × 6.35 cm, 0.3 kg, gift of Ruth and Bruce Dayton


extreme visual shift of a bright room full of objects. Set on individual square shelves, almost 100 objects from the museum’s collection provide evidence of the Qing dynasty’s prevalence for the arts. Te physical works on display are surrounded by digital object representations, with a gridded wallpaper that features images of additional works from Mia’s holdings. Qing objects are placed alongside works from earlier dynasties and periods from China’s history to symbolise the Manchurian emperors’ desires to validate their rule and visually connect themselves with previous Chinese emperors. Te third gallery highlights a selection of robes from the museum’s impressive collection of over 600 Qing imperial textiles. Placed on a raised platform and installed on T-shaped mounts in a regimented order, the selected robes suggest the rigid hierarchy of court officials, a system signified by one’s dress and attire. Different symbols and colours were used to make a clear declaration of one’s role and status at court. Te installation is set off by the room’s wall treatment,


covered floor to


Nine-dragon box, Qing dynasty, Qianlong period (1736–95), red, green, and brown carved lacquer (ticai), 21 x 28.6 x 28.6 cm, gift of Ruth and Bruce Dayton


ceiling in a hard and layered dry thatch. Gallery eight responds to gallery three, but rather than presenting the public face of the court, it reflects on the inner life of court women. Objects are placed on a platform of the same size and height, yet rather than suggesting the rigidity


Te Five Hundred Lohans (section), Qing dynasty, 18th century, kesi (silk brocade) with traces of pigment, 889 x 42.545 cm, the John R Van Derlip Fund. All Photos: Minneapolis Institute of Art


of role, the selected objects are seemingly more randomised, placed to indicate an informal nature of the Forbidden City’s inner chambers. Tis room highlights objects from Mia’s renowned collection of Chinese wooden furniture, most notably a huanghuali hardwood bed, clothes rack, and towel stand. Porcelain objects are placed throughout while gorgeous robes rest on life-like mannequins situated in scenes of apparent interaction. Te apparent beauty and splendour of imperial women’s life in the Qing courts is given atmosphere through a soundscape of selected Puccini operas. Te installation reflects the reality that court woman were surrounded by sumptuous beauty and connected with imagery of elegant flowers, but were not provided the same freedoms or opportunities as men. Tis idea is subtly reinforced by a wall treatment of crushed silver Mylar, which has been manipulated to create controlled, beautiful form. Gallery five holds Mia’s imperial Qing-dynasty throne made for the Qianlong emperor (r 1736-95). Tis throne is


lavishly decorated with


imperial dragons and celestial landscapes, the composition of which references official court insignias and is reminiscent of Qing court robes and textiles. Placed on a high-stepped platform and surrounded by four red pillars, the single throne suggests the total authority of the Qing emperors. Entirely covered in gold leaf, the wall behind the throne is painted with an over-scale and formidable imperial red dragon facing viewers, with its body wrapped around the room. Tis idea of the fearsome ruler is further suggested through the room’s soundscape,


a ceremonial track


intermittently punctuated by a man’s scream.


Te corresponding gallery is a large


room holding a single object, a small bronze figure with gold inlay, from approximately 400, that directly faces the throne while accompanied by the pure sound of a singing child. Tis single ancient figure recalls principles of traditional Chinese governance, where the authority of rule is given to the people. While rulers were believed to have complete authority due to the Mandate of Heaven, this rule could be taken away if a ruler did not consider the welfare of his people. Te slightly taller than five-inch bronze figurine almost seems to act as a warning to the ruler, where if he is cruel or oppressive, the heavens can take away his authority. Wilson’s exhibition design employs themes of light versus dark, big versus small, sparse versus bountiful, with each gallery organised to highlight these differences and elicit an emotional response in the viewer. Tese themes are brought into the modern day by including contributions from two contemporary Chinese artists. Wang Dongling, one of China’s most renowned and greatest living calligraphers, provided the


(中国末代王朝的威势与华美), which when blown up to the scale of


title treatment in Chinese Power and Beauty


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