Image: artist Jess MacCormack
Introduction / Issue 37: Automated Images
Issue 37 of InVisible Culture, “Automated Images,” offers a range of approaches that interrogate the invisible mechanisms of automation. It is informed by visual artist Harun Farocki’s term “operational images,” which describes the ways in which automated systems communicate internally by breaking down, mapping, and tracking the physical world according to highly restricted subsets of information.
In Invisible Culture (IVC) / editorial / 2024
Image: cover photo from Dover Publication
Styles in Painting: a Comparative Study
To address the common struggle of making sense of Western paintings with their overwhelming variety of themes and styles, Zucker, Paul (1889–1971) combines art history and aesthetic theory, adopting a comparative approach to analyze paintings of the same theme across different periods. This allows readers to grasp the evolution of Western painting over 2000 years at a glance. Originally published by Dover Publications (New York, NY) in 1963, I have translated this book from English into Chinese.
By China Youth Publishing House (中国青年出版社) / English version / translation / 2024
Image: Photographic Archive. MoMA Archives, New York. IN1382.39. Photograph by Kate Keller.
The Anthropology of Art, after the End of Art: Contesting the Art-Culture System
This review examines the anthropology of art since the mid-1980s—a period of upheaval marked by the destabilization of “art” as a category. Key moments include critiques of MoMA’s 1984 Primitivism exhibition, the crisis of representation, postmodernism’s influence, and decolonization movements like the 1984 Te Maori show. Boundaries—between “West” and “the rest,” “high” and “low”—were renegotiated, reshaping public culture. The authors explore shifting art theories, the rise of noncanonical art, and contemporary intersections between art and anthropology. (Translated from English to Chinese.)
In China Folk Culture Forum (《民间文化论坛》) / English version / translation / 2023
Image: cover photo from Oxford University Press
Image: Little guests in the Moon Palace, Designer unknown, 1972, Landsberger Collection.
Portraiture (Oxford History of Art)
This review examines the anthropology of art since the mid-1980s—a period of upheaval marked by the destabilization of “art” as a category. Key moments include critiques of MoMA’s 1984 Primitivism exhibition, the crisis of representation, postmodernism’s influence, and decolonization movements like the 1984 Te Maori show. Boundaries—between “West” and “the rest,” “high” and “low”—were renegotiated, reshaping public culture. The authors explore shifting art theories, the rise of noncanonical art, and contemporary intersections between art and anthropology. (Translated from English to Chinese.)
By Shanghai People’s Publishing House (上海人民出版社) / English version / translation / 2023
The Reproductive Future: “Space Babies” in Chinese Posters 1950s–1980s
This paper analyzes late 20th-century Chinese posters depicting children in space, comparing them to Soviet and American counterparts (1950s–80s). It explores how these images reflected and influenced political, social, and gender narratives, while engaging with Chinese myths and reproductive ideals. It also examines why chubby babies featured prominently, linking this to Chinese moral values.
In Journal of Cultural Interaction in East Asia / peer-reviewed journal / 2023