Art Reboot

29 In China this shift took place as a gradual evolution, albeit with breakthroughs that can be seen as minor revolutions. By the mid-first millennium bce, the educated elite of rulers and literati fully recognised art as primarily a means of self-cultivation, of the complete realisation of the individual, a path to the enlight- enment experience. In order for art to fulfil this function, it had to be emancipated from lower-level roles. As further activities became considered art, including callig- raphy and poetry, the possibilities for direct and efficient self- cultivation expanded, though this did not preclude their use in lower-level functions. The artist might propagandise for, say, religion, but that did not affect the governing purpose of art – to improve the self. We see an analogue in the human progression from childhood to maturity: a mature adult may choose to be childish, but childishness is no longer the default mode. There is an ancient Chinese saying: Man grinds the ink; ink grinds the man ( Renmomo momoren ; two of the seals I use as an artist are inscribed with this maxim). An artist may grind the ink in order to write or paint, but the process of becoming involved in such arts ‘grinds’ or refines the artist and, by extension, the audience. This sums up the prevailing fully-mature Chinese approach to the high arts. One excellent example of this is poetry. Well be- fore Buddhism was introduced into China, poetry in India was seen as a means of inspiring devotion; a vehicle of religious reali- sation, not just some pleasingly structured words. Once sinicised after spreading to China, this concept expanded to include non- Buddhist poetry as efficiently enlightening. Wilderness poetry,