Page 24 - Studio International - January February 1975

composition, detail, project an intense the political life of China. Many people not exploitative — and the participatory
enthusiasm and love for their machinery contribute to them, though not form of the wall-newspapers and
and electricity, their crops, and the anarchically. They serve to explain the blackboards, is also echoed in leisure and
groupings of people working together, task of the moment, to give unity and sport. The mass swims, the long-distance
resting, discussing, studying, shopping to take part in the big revolutionary runs in which thousands take part, or the
and so on. Realism and romanticism are movements such as the current campaign early morning Tai Chi sessions in streets
convincingly fused together. The to criticize Lin Piao and Confucius. and parks, where people of all ages and
paintings convey a great sense of The wall paintings in the May 7 degrees of skill practice together, are very
adventure in the large-scale collective Cadre School contain poems, short moving to a Westerner. There are also
undertakings of irrigation systems, essays about the problems of particular many signs that the amateur artists,
terracing climbing the mountains, kinds of work and so on. In the through their own inventions, are
the density of healthy crops. And Capital Iron and Steel Works near Peking bringing the ancient arts of the body —
at the same time delight in the small there is one blackboard to each acrobatics and dance — closer to the life
scale — the workers' tea-cups, a book, a production team (100-200 people) and its of today, in fact integrating the two
newspaper, shoes left behind to enter the contents are changed every three days. poetically at a popular level. Acrobats
soggy field — material details of real life. The blackboards have a social rather than performing in communes will now do
Many workers, peasants and soldiers aesthetic origin; but this need not prevent balancing and juggling with ordinary
first discover they have a talent for them continuously gaining in artistic everyday objects that happen to be
painting through their contributions to power. Even in a single factory you find around. One juggler I saw at an
wall-newspapers and mass-criticism many varied ways of combining images acrobatics performance in Canton used
boards. Everywhere you go in China, in and words, use of coloured chalks, etc. I two metal rods with revolving ends.
the street, in factories, communes, single out the blackboards because they Though they were called 'tridents' and
schools, hospitals, you see these boards, use visual imagery. They are only a part were probably based on a traditional
usually taking the form of blackboards of the environment, one of the things turn, the rattling sound they made and
which are easiest to rub out and remake. which gives the factories and fields of the way he rolled them over and under
Sometimes they stand outside with small China their alert, conscious atmosphere. his body gave a breathtaking impression
roofs to keep the weather off. They are a The imagery of the Huhsien paintings of a man moving in harmony with a
form of communication inseparable from — showing people inter-dependent but machine.

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