BRIANNA GETTIER
Brianna Gettier is a senior majoring in Art History with a concentration in Critical Curatorial Studies. She joined William & Mary as a transfer student in the fall of 2020 and has been co-leading the Art and Art History Students Association this academic year. Brianna has a passion for museum studies and library science and has worked in the William and Mary Special Collections, helping patrons with their research and providing support for library exhibitions. While studying in Washington, D.C. during the summer of 2021, Brianna interned for Armed Services Arts Partnership, an arts non-profit, that provides free art courses to military families and personnel to spark connection and a sense of belonging, and she currently is an official member of their Programs Team. Brianna is looking forward to graduation and seeing what is next.
A LAYERED LANDSCAPE: IDENTITY AND EXPRESSION IN HUANG YAN'S BODY PAINTINGS
Huang Yan, Chinese Shan-Shui Tattoo No.10, 1999, chromogenic print
Contemporary artist Huang Yan (1966-) brings together centuries of Chinese artistic production with innovative choices of media, subject matter, and techniques. By painting traditional Chinese landscapes on a groundbreaking canvas – the nude human figure, Huang molds the past and present and the traditional and cutting edge. Huang lives and works out of Beijing, producing beautiful landscape scenes inspired by the Chinese Sung Dynasty (960 - 1279 CE) that wrap around the human body to accentuate the natural features of the model. He then photographs his subjects, immortalizing the work before washing away the paint, adding yet another layer of innovation to his works. As Huang carefully layers the paint on the skin, he also adds layers of symbolism that speak to religious beliefs, individualism, and cultural identity. He rediscovers and reinvents landscape – considered the staple of traditional Chinese art – in order to tackle the ever-changing perceptions that surround personal and collective identity. My research peels back the layers of Huang’s intimate and painstakingly detailed human body landscape scenes through an analysis of Huang’s Buddhist beliefs, the history of Shan-Shui, and the connection between artist, body, and landscape. In doing so, this paper illustrates how Huang uses the Chinese art historical past both as an intimate means for self-expression and a broader mechanism for cultural expression to carve a place for himself in an increasingly globalizing contemporary art world.