Divergence From the Past
Phantom Landscape II – No. 3 reveals Yang Yongliang’s divergence from traditional landscape paintings. The imagery and composition for this work was taken from Xu Daoning’s Fisherman’s Evening Song, another Northern Song hand scroll. This ancient work was an interesting painting for Yang to reinterpret, as it had been previously noted for its environmental implications. Richard Barnhardt, a scholar of Chinese landscape painting, noted that “Xu’s virtually denuded earthen slopes confirm the textual evidence indicating that most of North China was already deforested.” [1] Barnhardt was interested in Xu’s hand scroll because of the overt presence of the human figure. The grass-cloaked fisherman in the center of the composition is surrounded by other travelers, food sellers, and salespeople where he “seems to be almost furiously, tremblingly intent upon his now clearly hopeless desire for peace and quiet.” [2] While Xu dotted his landscape with human figures as a way of directing the viewer’s attention to the surrounding nature, Yang reverses the imagery. In his collage, Yang has removed the human figure, a constant element of Song landscape painting, and has supplanted it with a landscape of completely man-made elements. In traditional paintings, the placement of man-made architecture was executed with a reverent respect to nature, where the rocks, water, and trees were never disturbed by the presence of man. Susan Clare Scott maintains that there is no example of landscape painting where one can find evidence of nature being altered or disturbed. [3] Yang deviates completely from this tradition, presenting a landscape that represents the implications of human presence in the environment. No element of the work shows something not doctored or made by the human hand. This suggests Yang’s critique of contemporary society, where he views a disunity between humankind and the natural world. There no longer exists an appreciation for or understanding of nature or tradition.
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[1] Richard Barnhardt, “The Five Dynasties and the Song Period,” in Three Thousand Years of Chinese Painting, (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1997): 119.
[2] Richard Barnhardt, “Figures in Landscape,” ArtAsiaPacific 42 (1989): 64.
[3] Susan Clare Scott, “Sacred Earth: Daoism as a Preserver of Environment in Chinese Landscape Painting from the Song Through the Qing Dynasties,” East West Connection 6, 2 (2006): 77-78.