Culture Trouble: The Significance of Cultural Context in an Art Historian’s Research on Chinese Contemporary Art

Abstract

The aim of this article is to depict the transdisciplinary method of my authorship, developed while I was working on a dissertation in the field of the history of contemporary art. “Culture Trouble” is a paraphrase of the title of a book by Judith Butler.1) She discusses the impact of gender on an individual’s identity, while the aim of my research was to analyse the influence of native culture on the artwork of selected Chinese women. My research method is based mostly on those used in the classic history of art, but it also draws deeply form the sociology of culture. My main research tool, on the other hand, is Julia Kristeva’s theory of intertextuality.2) According to Kristeva, all cultural texts, including literary works, scientific studies, and works of art, are meeting points for various earlier ones. They all create specific mosaics composed of heritage – the elements of tradition, both material and immaterial – such as scroll painting and Taoist rituals. All texts exist in relation to other text and / or other kinds of human expression. That is the reason why not only the current political and social situation in the PRC, but also the knowledge of traditional culture, is so significant to read and interpret properly, and then talk about Chinese contemporary art.