Rock Balancing Land Art: A More-than-Human Approach

Abstract

Creative Arts Educ Ther (2021) 7(1):26–33 DOI: 10.15212/CAET/2021/7/9 Rock Balancing Land Art: A More-than-Human Approach 石头平衡：道法自然的大地艺术 Abstract As it happened during the Covid-19 pandemic in the spring of 2020, the art of balancing rocks had therapeutic effect of comforting me. It was the physical law of balance that had taken psychological effect through my performance of keeping rocks in balance. Setting out as an incidental and personal art practice in the beginning, it evolved quickly into an improvisational community art project, attracting hundreds of participants who together turned a torn embankment into a gallery of land art, bringing joy and consolation to each other during the difficult period. The dynamics behind that improvisational artistic activity reminds me of the traditional Chinese philosophy of Tao-follows-nature (道法自然) that implies a more-than-human approach of art education. A retrospect into the rock art project and a study into Shan-Shui (山水), literally “mountain and water,” the genre of classical Chinese landscape painting, come up with an alternative understanding of art education that does not count on the teaching of a human teacher, but on a sensational leaning process empowered by the nature, which was compared to an artist’s surrogate pregnancy for the nature by Shitao, a Chinese art philosopher, in the 17th century. Keywords: pedagogy, more-than-human, art, Tao 摘要 在2020年春季新冠大流行期间，平衡岩石的艺术行为对我产生了具有安慰作用的治愈效果。当我努力保持岩石平衡时，物理学意义上的平衡定律发挥了心理学意义上的平衡作用。最初，它只是我偶然的、个人的艺术实践，但是很快演变成一个自发的社区艺术项目，吸引了数百名参与者。他们一起把一条破碎的堤坝变成了一个大地艺术的画廊，在那个艰难时刻给彼此带来了欢乐和慰藉。这个自发社区艺术背后的动能，让我重新思考中国传统哲学思想“道法自然”，及其所暗示的一种“超出人类”的艺术教育方式。回顾岩石平衡艺术项目，研究中国古典山水画体裁，可以得出对艺术教育的另类理解——不依赖于人类教师的教授，而是依赖于自然赋能的感性学习。这种学习方式，在17世纪山水画家石涛的《苦瓜和尚画语录》中表述为“山川使予代山川而言也，山川脱胎于予也，予脱胎于山川也。” 關鍵詞：山水, 道, 自然, 教学法