Rhythms of anger : Daoism and Chinese untrammelled painting, toward a counter-theorisation of avant-garde

  • Mahmoud R. Yektaparast

Western Sydney University thesis: Doctoral thesis

Abstract

Philosophy, arts and politics share a passion for dissent. Avant-garde art, as that which mines the territories of the conventions and undermines the what is, has always existed as a social and highly political phenomenon. 'Rhythms of Anger' is, theoretically, an anti-colonial research that highlights the existence of Daoist texts, aesthetic theories and artistic styles in the Chinese paintings that antedate the European Modernist and Avant-garde impulses by at least a millennium. Thus, it opens ways for a counter-theorisation and re-theorisation of the predominantly Eurocentric, already existing theories of the avant-garde. Practically, and through the two short films, it exemplifies how Daoist philosophy could inspire the creation of contemporary avant-garde work. In the meantime, class, gender and racial injustices have governed human beings' lives since their very first attempt at getting together. Rhythms of Anger is an attempt at theorising the coordinates of an un-humanist thought that challenges modernism as an extension of the project of European Enlightenment, a project of hope, and therefore prone to be incorporated, established, and become politically reactionary. The present thesis involved the production of two short experimental films. The first titled Slogun was produced in Sydney in 2006/2007 and the second one titled 'All That is Solid Melts into Air' was shot in Beijing in 2008. As creative work component, they account for 50% of the thesis.
Date of Award2010
Original languageEnglish

Keywords

  • art
  • modern
  • 20th century
  • themes
  • motives
  • modernism (aesthetics)
  • painting
  • Chinese
  • philosophy
  • Taoist
  • art and society

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