Stretched Nostalgia

The Chinese ancient civilization creates our cultural hometown which the Han stone carving is one of its treasures. Owning to the rich cultural heritage, simple but vivid modeling, quaint and generous style, the Han stone carvings keep attracting the art lovers, practitioners and researchers.From the second half of 20th century, the human society has been developed rapidly, as well as scientific technology. The artists keep expanding new area of art, more artistic expressions are discovered as a result.Through detailed description of the artistic characteristics of Han stone carvings, the formation of the concept and the basic creative forms of installation art, and Xu Bing’s artistic practice which applies traditional art to installation art, this thesis tries to propose an inner logic of the combination of Han stone carvings and installation art. The theoretical basis, creative idea and method of this combination are discussed through the introduction of the author’s artistic practice. This thesis also intended to bring forward some consideration of the combination of Chinese traditional art and modern society.