Graduate capabilities in analytical and integrative thinking

Analytic and Application-Based Exercise

In "Nest," by the Chinese-Australian artist John Young (2003), a traditional image of a Chinese mountainous landscape is transposed with an image of a naked human torso and an image of a snowy mountain that looks like a photograph taken from the contemporary era. The effect is a kind of collage or pastiche. The peaceful beauty and tranquility of the Chinese landscape in the background is still within the visual scope of the gazer. But the jarring images of modernity juxtaposed upon the mountain create a sense of discord that would not be present had the harmonious Chinese mountain been rendered without the superimposed, contemporary images.

The modern images are cool and bright, particularly the icy mountain depicted in the upper left corner of the painting, in contrast to the sepia tones of the background. The fact that the modern mountain is snowy and cold, in contrast to the warmth of the traditional Chinese landscape, suggests a kind of nostalgia for a historical past, as does the tortured, half-naked torso in the middle picture. The figure's head is thrown back in a kind of ecstasy or agony that sharply contrasts with the peace of the background image.

One of the reasons that mountains had such prominence in traditional Chinese painting was that in traditional Daoist teaching, awe-inspiring and apparently unconquerable mountains were supposed to be places of spiritual reflection and transformation of the body. Young's cutting and pasting of modern images of mountains and ambiguous renditions of the body could be read as a commentary upon how Daoist truths are still present within the world today, even though the central figure has not yet achieved a true sense of Daoist quietude. The final, superimposed scene of a single, peaceful branch that looks like a contemporary photograph suggests that even traditional images of the natural world, such as simply rendered plant life, reoccur in modernity.

Operations of transculturation are manifest in this work of Young's in the manner by which he takes his traditional or 'parental' culture, and melds it with styles and images of the present. The use of sharp color contrasts creates a sense of temporality, but the similarities of themes, such as the images of the mountain and the delicate leaf branch, creates a connection between the past and present. The central figure shows how humanity is located within the natural world, even though, rather than existing in a calm, contemplative state, the individual is engaged in a kind of physical or emotional struggle. This picture could be a self-portrait, although it is not specifically labeled as such.