Using the work of three artists – graduates from the RMIT School of Art, MFA and DFA programs – as case studies, the paper describes how ideas relevant to local cultures can inform and be informed by the international (global) means of contemporary art practice, and thereby mediate and celebrate difference.
The paper will reflect on how three artists: XIAO YU BAI, a figurative painter from China; HUNG, MING-CHUEH, an abstract painter from Taiwan: and JONG GU YOON, a video installation artist from South Korea, have addressed the issues of Taoism in their practice. Taoism is a general term for a set of philosophical principles that have long histories and local variations throughout northern Asian cultures. Whilst briefly investigating the specifics of Taoism in their practice, this paper focuses primarily upon the artists’ use of the strategies and methods of a contemporary art practice informed by both eastern and western artists. It traces waves of interaction since 1950 between visual artists in the east and west. In doing so, the paper opens for reflection issues of the interconnected nature of cultures, and argues for an understanding of complexity rather than the oversimplifications of ideas and peoples so prevalent in our societies today.