Abstract
I believe the exhibition and incident of the Interpol—A Global Network from Stockholm and Moscow in Stockholm, Sweden, 1996, was both a special and representative case revealing Wenda Gu ’s ambition, ideas, and frustration. It reflected the complexity of cultural exchange , especially in a new era when the West and the East reengaged after decades of separation. In addition, it was a comprehensive experience for the artist because it showcased the spirit of his critique of culture , displayed the continuity of his analysis of culture , and demonstrated the concept of the synthesis of culture . As a revelatory moment in the maturation of Wenda Gu’s thought and art, it was unique, rich in disputes, frustrations, and disappointments, but also in excitements and achievements. Despite the many problems of this event it nevertheless incarnates Gu’s ideal, and provides us with a profound understanding of the challenge of cultural interaction , and complicated role he plays as the “interstitial .”
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Notes
- 1.
Hegel ’s Science of Logic, translated by A.V. Miller, London: George Allen & Unwin Ltd. 1969, p. 431. The italic words are as they are in the book.
- 2.
As for the proposition “combining two into one” (合二而一, “he er er yi” ), see the footnote 120, chapter 3.
- 3.
Claude Levi-Strauss, The Elementary Structures of Kinship, 1949, revised edition translated from the French by James Harle Bell and John Richard von Sturmer, Boston: Beacon Press, 1969, pp. 24–25.
- 4.
Derrida’s discussions on writing or language can be found in his Of Grammatology, mainly Part I “Writing before the Letter,” see Jacques Derrida Of Grammatology, translated from French by G. C. Spivak, The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1976, pp. 1–93, and his essay “Structure, Sign, and Play in the Discourse of Human Sciences,” in The Structuralist Controversy: The Language of Criticism and the Science of Man, edited by Richard Macksey and Eugenio Donato, The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1972, pp. 247–265.
- 5.
Jacques Derrida analyzed the relation of writing and speech in terms of semiology. The graphic sign—writing—stands in for the phonemic sign—speech. It is, therefore, “the sign of a sign,” while the oral sign is the “sign of the thing.” Writing is then supplementary. Even the oral sign is supplementary, since it exists as supplement to the “real world.” The graphic sign of writing is particularly supplemental because it is a supplement to a supplement, a sign of a sign. In Of Grammatology, Derrida argued that writing should not be subordinated to speech, and this subordination is nothing more than a historical prejudice. He argued further that to define a graphic sign is to define any sign. Every sign is a signifier whose signified is another signifier. According to Derrida, we can think of the origin as a place where there is no originary, only a supplement in the place of a deficient originary. It is deficient for this reason. We can think of the supplement as a surplus, something extra added to the whole and outside of it. But if the whole is really the whole, then nothing can be added to it. If the supplement is something and not nothing, then it must expose the defect of the whole, since something that can accommodate the addition of a supplement must be lacking something within itself. Derrida called this “the logic of the supplement.” And the world consists of “chain of supplements.” There are two points in this “supplementarity.” First, it is a replacement, which replaces “something missing” or “absence of something” in the whole. Second, it is an addition, which adds something new to the structure itself but is still outside of it. The analysis of “supplementary” can be found in Derrida’s Of Grammatology, translated by G. C. Spivak, Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1976, see Section 2 “…That Dangerous Supplement…” pp. 141–164, and Section 4 “From/Of the Supplement to the Source: The Theory of Writing,” pp. 269–316, all in Part II, “Nature, Culture, Writing.”
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Zhou, Y. (2015). Conclusion. In: Odyssey of Culture. Chinese Contemporary Art Series. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-45411-4_4
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