This thesis explores the discursive materialities of contemporary Chinese art, analysing six artworks or art projects featured in the exhibition The Allure of Matter: Material Art from China (2020) and its associated research projects, through the lens of New Materialism. Traditional anthropological approaches to contemporary Chinese art often prioritise the artist’s intellectual contribution over the material, viewing artworks as “finished” or static outcomes of the artmaking-process. In contrast, this study proposes a performative and ontological understanding on the materialities of contemporary Chinese art. Drawing on New Materialist theories, it argues that materials in art can act as dynamic entities deeply intertwined with human actions and activities. Taking The Allure of Matter exhibition as a springboard, this study examines six featured artworks or art projects by Yang Jiechang, Lin Tianmiao, He Xiangyu, Liang Shaoji, Zhang Huan, and Song Dong. It seeks to fill the interpretative voids that exist within the study of contemporary Chinese art, with a focus on those works grounded in vibrant materialities, examining specific instances where materials in the chosen artworks manifest as dynamic and agential forces. These instances serve as illustrations of the intra-active becoming of human-non-human assemblages and the modes of knowledge production through the complex interplay of various agencies, including human, non-human, and more-than-human entities. This exploration shifts the focus from artist’s individual creativity to the collaborative emergence of artwork, highlighting the inseparable and often amorphous boundaries between human and non-human, subject and object, nature and culture, as well as matter and mind. Ultimately, this study aims to pave the way for a renewed perspective on processuality, causality, relationality, affectivity, and the agentic capacities of a dynamic conceptualisation of art’s materialities, advocating for the respect of non-human nature or the sovereignty of matter beyond human-centric views.
