Ordinary Painting Show
(by Zhou Yi)
I want to re-program painting for just a moment. Suppose painting is really no different from the New Media (though new media is no longer new to the young generation of artists today).  It is comforting to know the two are going to be the same soon or later regardless. Though some theorists have talked about the medium as the chief concern for contemporary painting, paintings in the past have imitated collage, photography, machine made form, appropriated signs and comics (even the brush gestures of abstract paintings were once meticulously depicted); so the paintings themselves reveal, it is still the desire for imagery that drives painting. The modern movement of collage foresaw the future of creating images without any skill barrier. When visual expression begin to dominate the online social platform today in China, creation of imagery is truly an ordinary activity of whip-out and share, employing easy and efficient methods of re-creation. Technology functions as magic glue basically for paste and synthesis. One do not need be original or technically gifted, you can show people what you see or think simply by moving your fingertips. And this is no compromise, for it is both more fun and original (paradoxically) to appropriate existing, well known data than to start from scratch. Nothing is better (in term of communication) than alter loaded lines to serve your own sense. Instead of having an online conversation, the new point of interest in direct and instant thought sharing, simultaneously satisfying the need to express, influence and spread, is brought forth by the internet and digital platform. Though technical benefit does not necessarily mean painters must upgrade their tools, but certainly a new perspective at what painting can be, not limited by the medium specificity and maybe finally a chance to be ordinary. Professional knowledge has grown less important than imagination and the viewers willingness to fill in.