Jiao Xin Tao

Biography

The Trivial and Abandoned Daoist Temple Ground
- On Reading Jiao Xingtao’s Recent Sculptures
by Sun Zhenhua

“Where is Dao?” and Zhuangzi answered: “Everywhere.” Dong Guozi asked repeatedly for details. Zhuangzi answered: “Dao is everywhere, in ants and mole hills, in grass, in tiles and in feces.” And so he concluded his answer.If we pose the question of Dong Guozi to sculptors – “Where is the sculpture?” How will the sculptor respond? When faced with the new works made by Jiao Xingtao since 2004 – discarded packaging boxes, used gum wrappers and empty tubes of toothpaste - People might think of these questions – Where is the sculpture?

Are these castaway objects really sculptures?

This is not a trivial question but one of utmost significance. In the history of sculpture, man has been busy making sculptures of idols and worshiping them, and making sculptures of people, and paying tribute to them. It was only after a few millennia has passed that it has come to a time when “God is dead” and “Man is dead”. But then, the art of sculpture lost its direction. For many years, what was remarkable about sculpture was its inner spirituality and idealism, its grandeur, solemnity and simplicity. Now with these inner qualities of sculptures being eradicated and questioned, the question – “What can sculptures do” becomes a significant riddle for artists, similar to the riddle of the Sphinx.

Actually, during the golden age of sculpture which is also the age of theology, the sensual, material and physical attributes of the art form of sculpture were usually questioned. Although the objects represented through sculpture were lofty, the methods and materials used were temporal and limited. So how could spirituality and substance be represented and matched in such temporal and limited form? How can infinity and the absolutes be represented by this methodology? How can the omnipotent God be recreated on dirty walls or transformed into lowly earth or wood? This is not only a profound dilemma but also an ancient one, which is a question on the subject matter and the medium of sculpture. In the history of western sculpture, there was always a debate between “idolatry” and “iconoclasts”. Likewise, in Chinese history, the Zen Buddhist story of Dan Xia burning the statue of Buddha stands out as an example of iconoclasm in this debate. There is also a contemporary question which lies in the subject matter of sculpture. When the seemingly great and lofty subject matters represented by sculptures disappear, and the cultural functions of sculpture representing godliness, universality and idealism fade away, what should be the new subject matter for sculpture? What can sculptures do when the methodology and medium remain, but their subject matters are gone?

It is only by putting the art works of Jiao Xingtao against such a backdrop and under such scrutiny and examination can the meaning of his sculptures be highlighted. It is clear that Jiao Xingtao pursues the question of what sculptures can do against the background of contemporary culture in his art form. Unlike the influence on sculptures by installation art, performance art or video art, Jiao Xingtao presents a different dimension, a dimension from within the form of sculpture itself, and through the thoroughness and boldness of his art works, Jiao Xingtao pushes the boundary in sculpture and asks a philosophical question about sculpture.

What makes a sculpture, a sculpture? The answer lies in contemporary culture and society. Contemporary society is a mundane society. In an increasingly ordinary world, the grand objectives that sculpture once had gradually make way for a focus on the “sensual body”. The godliness and grandeur it once relied on have begun to fade away with the torrents of contemporary culture. The permanence thatsculpture once prided itself on bewilders before our ephemeral consumer culture, and it now turns to an aesthetic on the ordinary life and common forms which has become an irresistible trend. The works of Jiao Xingtao represent his attempts in objectively understanding the meaning of sculpture again. Among the trivial and cast-away objects, he seems to be looking for the dignity and value of sculpture again, looking for new possibilities when facing modern life. When sculpture bids farewell to a bygone era, when its meaning and values are no longer simply defined by what it represents, the only possibility for sculpture is to turn its attention to new cultural questions and face contemporary life and reestablish the relationship between sculpture and man. Only in so doing can sculpture returns to the temple ground it once occupies.

The castaway objects picked up by Jiao Xingtao actually belong to the bottom of consumer society. After meeting the consumption needs of people, these objects complete their temporal functions and are abandoned. But once abandoned, their wretchedness, dirtiness and filthiness make us disdain to even cast another look at them. Making these castaway objects the subject matter of sculpture seems almost a 180 degrees turn away from the traditional subjects of sculpture. It almost seems to push sculpture to a dead end. Although these objects as the subject matter of sculpture may seem strange, risky and absurd, they clearly did not push sculpture to a dead end, but to the contrary, through these art works inspired by the trivial and the castaway objects, Jiao Xingtao ignites the rebirth of sculpture.

Why do we not look for wisdom from ancient philosophy? Since “Dao is in feces”, why can the form of sculpture not be unexpectedly rescued from desperate situations by turning to presumably meaningless and worthless things, and transforms the ordinary into an aesthetic form? From the trivial and the abandoned, Jiao Xingtao has reconstructed a new Daoist temple ground for the art of sculpture. If sculpture can so provide a new visual experience by transforming castaway objects into aesthetic objects, and re-establish a linkage between waste and our intellect, then why should we not be ecstatic about this rebirth of new sculptural art?

Packaged Desires and Imagination Beyond the Covered Package.

Despite all of this, people may still ask: How did this happen? What caused such a change in sculpture? What is the logical relationship between such change and our contemporary society?

Living in the reality of consumer society provides us with the answer. In this consumer society, products have become the medium between the individual and the society, and consuming has become the evidence of human existence - “I consume, therefore I am”.

The aim in a consumer society is to maximize wealth. Therefore, it must constantly create new desires and needs for the general public. In such a commercial-minded system, packaging takes on a special meaning. On one hand, it inspires and induces our desire to consume and possess, and on the other hand, it strives to establish a new system of signs - connecting the possession of such signs with individual identity and status, and even associating them with personal happiness and satisfaction. All of which creates a rich hallucination based upon a false ground of spirituality.

In Jiao Xingtao’s sculptures, we note that he pays special attention to the form of packaging, such as all types of packaging boxes, the paper wrapper from a pack of Wrigley’s chewing gum and various types of objects wrapped in packaging paper. Packaging serves as a kind of cover or cosmetics over our desire. In this consumer society, the value of a product no longer depends on whether it meets our needs, or on its value in kind, but on its symbolic meaning in this exchange system. Just by its packaging and brand it may be sufficient to inspire the desire for consumption. The way Jiao Xingtao distinguishes himself is instead of portraying the vain gloriousness of consumer society like “Kitsch Art” or “Cartoon Art”, he has chosen the end product of consumerism – its castaway objects.

Instead of focusing on the glorious and shining surface of these objects when they come into our lives, he chooses to capture the sadness and loneliness of such objects when they exit from our lives. This is an irony but also serves as a warning. The materialism of contemporary world is slowly turning people into objects.

Driven by our all-consuming desires, people become machines that continuously ingest and excrete. Jean Baudrillard once said: “We are swallowed, absorbed and then completely eliminated”. Claude Levi-Strauss divided it into two types of cultures: the culture of absorption, swallow and pillage – a culture where man eats man, a culture of vomit, elimination and expulsion – a blood-sucking culture … But our contemporary culture seems to lodge between these two extremes, by means of functional combination, spatial combination, human combination and the most radical form of elimination, and from this necessary repulsion from life, realizes a striking integration from a complete synthesis.”

In the process of consumption and excretion, feces, also a waste, has the greatest tragic impact. Based upon statistics, each year, the British dispose of 2.5 billion diapers, the Japanese throw away 30 million di