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Eros Zhao: The Great Song - Genyue

by Victoria Lu

Throughout the history of China, the time period that is most revered by literati culture is the Song dynasty. The foremost amalgamation of traditional Chinese art—the Chinese garden—combines architecture, design, calligraphy, painting, and furniture, to name just a few, all of which constitute different aspects of the cultural space for traditional Chinese literati. The summit of the Chinese garden is the Genyue of Emperor Huizong of the Song dynasty (1082-1135). Now, after more than one thousand years, the creator of the artwork “The Great Song-Genyue,” Eros Zhao seeks to create a new renaissance of the Song dynasty on a conceptual level, called the Later Song in historiography. As a contemporary literati, Zhao wants to express his aesthetic view toward art, through the form of “state-supervised” artworks.

Eros Zhao attended undergraduate school at the China Central Academy of Fine Arts, where he majored in Chinese painting, and after that he received his MFA in painting and drawing from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and he also taught courses there for several years. Today he is an MA/PhD student in the department of East Asian Studies at the University of California-Los Angeles. With a passion for the aesthetics of the Song dynasty, he grieves at how northern invaders destroyed the delicate and graceful civilization of the Song in 1279. Thereupon he regards himself as the spiritual successor of the Song emperors, carrying on the Song traditions through the form of conceptual art.

In ancient China, the system of state-supervised and manufactured art was the only means to extend individual aesthetic standards to other fields, exert influence on a whole cultural era, and influence even later periods, through for instance the imperial kiln and Zao ban Chu. The imperial garden, as the assemblage of different art forms, can help the artworks and products created under such aesthetic concepts be realized in other aspects of daily life. The conceptual artwork “The Great Song—Genyue” by Eros Zhao creates a whole kingdom of artworks through the form of an imperial garden with Song aesthetics. This artwork was initiated in 2012, in Zhao’s graduate exhibition at the Art Institute of Chicago. In the exhibition, Zhao constructed his own kingdom of “The Great Song” and the reign era of “Xianzhe,” showing his first installation artwork of “Genyue—the Palace of Xuanhe.” This garden studio, which shared the name of the studio of Emperor Huizong of the Song, had the structure of a literati studio, and upon the main wall seven ink paintings “Dui” were presented. In front of the wall was a Ming dynasty table, upon which the video art “Ascending to the Throne” was showed, as well as ink, paper, brushes, inkstone and other artifacts, all of which were inscribed with the reign period “Xianzhe.”On both sides of the studio were Qing dynasty lattice windows. This set of installation artworks included porcelain with the inscription: “made in the Xianzhe reign era of the Great Song,” artifacts with the inscription: “imperially made in the Xianzhe Era,” paintings and calligraphies inscribed: “made in the first year of Xianzhe reign era,” and coins with the inscription: “Xianzhe Yuanbao—Dangqian” were exhibited. Since this exhibition, all the artworks created by Eros Zhao are marked with the year of the Xianzhe reign era, which include paintings, calligraphy, furniture, indoor installations, porcelains, among other art forms. The “Great Song” is a lifelong passion project for Zhao.

While studying at the University of California, Los Angeles, Eros Zhao seeks to reconstruct the institutions and aesthetics of the Song through his research in Chinese art history and archaeology. The artworks that he has created are based on the study of Song dynasty gardens, state-supervised porcelain, imperial lineage, ritual systems, as well as his experiences in the fields of calligraphy and painting. For example, the coins that he has made include three different versions of currency: “Xianzhe yuanbao,” “Xianzhe chongbao” and “Xianzhe tongbao,” which include more than ten types of gold and silver coins, such as dangqian, dangbai, xiaoping, zhe’er, zhesan, and zheshi. The first issued coin “Yuanbao—dangqian” is the installation artwork based on his overall conceptual art system “The Great Song.” On the surface of the coin is Zhao’s calligraphic work, with the cursive style of the Chinese characters “Xianzhe yuanbao,” intended as a rejuvenation of the Song tradition that currency should bear the handwriting of the Emperor. On the reverse side of the coin are two Chinese characters “dangqian” in an homage to the calligraphic style of the Emperor Huizong of the Song dynasty. Thus, the coins reflect a combination of monetary art and calligraphy. This artwork represents the establishment of the Later Song kingdom of Eros Zhao, key to the conceptual art system of “The Great Song.”

As a painter who had strict training in the Chinese style, Eros Zhao follows in the steps of the Huizong Emperor of the Song and focuses on the creation of calligraphies and paintings. He always insists on retaining the traditional way of creating art and the use of traditional materials, and disagrees with modern trends to use Western materials or other substitutes to paint or write. He regards the process of grinding the ink and preparing for the mineral material as an important part of the artwork. All his ink paintings and calligraphies use specially made lacquer-smoked ink and pine-smoked ink , and all his color paintings use paint made from natural minerals and plants. This insistence, with the purpose of focusing on the beauty of painting materials outside of the painting space, helps him to be deeply immersed in the traditional aesthetics and be in communication with nature. He longs for how ancient literati created artworks where there are “bright windows and clean desks,” and where one must “wash one’s hands and burn incense.” This can be also viewed as the Daoist idea that man and nature are one. All of his artworks have Daoist motifs, with the wish to express the Dao with calligraphy and paintings. Through the conceptual art of “The Great Song” he seeks to honor the Emperor Huizong in the passion for Daoism, and also bringing forth a resurgence of original Chinese religion.

As a collector, Eros Zhao also puts the art of traditional handcraft into “The Great Song” through his research of ancient Chinese art. In the beginning, he followed Professor Qigu Jiang, who is an expert in Chinese art, to learn how to collect Chinese artifacts, with a focus in the porcelain of the Song to Yuan dynasties. Later his interests became more diverse and he started collecting calligraphy, paintings, furniture, lacquerware, gold and silver objects, jade, sculptures, and textiles. After he became a student at UCLA, he began studying the Chinese Bronze Age with Professor Lothar von Falkenhausen, and Chinese Art History with Professor Hui-shu Lee. Recently he has become a formal student of the famous scholar, Professor Fu Shen, focusing on the field of traditional Chinese painting and calligraphy. With a passion for the ancient Chinese handcraft and an adherence to the traditional materials, Eros Zhao wants to revive traditional methods in his own works. This is not to present artwork for the altar, but to return it back to daily life through the realization of ancient aesthetic concepts.

Eros Zhao’s concern for applied art originated in his three-year experience as a designer for a renowned international fashion line, during which he became interested in the problem that modern Chinese style lacked a sense of brand. Chinese people of means have never had a lack for luxury goods, throughout history there were always gold and silver artifacts, and various antiques available. Nowadays, China is home to almost no famous luxury brands, and yet it is the country that has the largest consumption of luxury goods in the world. The brand of luxury goods in the West, such as Louis Vuitton, Chanel and Dior, are named after their creators or designers, and have passed down for generations. On the contrary, Chinese art brands disappeared when their creators passed away, such as Zhang Cheng in the Yuan, or Jian Qianli in the Ming. What holds the passion of Chinese people are the artworks that bear the inscription of the state, for instance: “made in the Qianlong Era of the Qing dynasty.” And this trend even lasted after the founding of People’s Republic of China, through the government brands of “Red Flag” and “East Wind” were very popular. This passion shows their trust in the quality and aesthetic standard of these products, as well as their worship of authority. The system of “state-supervised and manufactured” art resembles the concept of brand in the West. “The Great Song—Genyue” of Eros Zhao uses this system to interpret the traditional Chinese view of brand, using high quality material and techniques to establish a system of luxury goods. This brand is based on traditional Chinese culture, whose products cover a wide array including artifacts, daily goods, architecture, decorations, apparel, electronics, films, music, publications, and even individual customized products.

“The Great Song” is a major lifelong project for Eros Zhao, combing all of his major artistic and historical passions. Conceptual art is only the form in which he packages this work; in reality his ultimate goal is to birth a new renaissance of true Chinese literati culture.