Earth, Art: China

3 Credits · Level: Graduate, Undergraduate

This seminar examines earth as material, site, and concept for art-making in China from prehistoric times to the present day. Although Chinese ritual and connoisseurial texts privileged ritual objects made of bronze and works of painting and calligraphy made from ink and silk, the earliest extant artifacts in China are ceramic vessels made from clay. Furthermore, knowledge of how to work with clay and earth was critical to the production of objects and sites both miniscule and monumental in scale: from small terracotta figurines of the silk routes to the Great Wall of China. In this seminar, we will consider the artisanal knowledge that emerged from the very earth of China, as well as frameworks such as site-specificity, new materialism, and environmental humanities. For more information about this and other courses in the Department of Art and Art History, please visit https://art.georgetown.edu This course is not available to audit.