Ink art as method: Diagnostics of dipolarity

I argue that in China, ink is not only a special material with a historical connection to literati art, but also philosophy-in-practice. It confronts the limitations of expression, and forms the idea of Black (deep and in a state of becoming) and Blank (white and empty). This is a dipolarity or dualism within the disposition of art. I discuss how ink art is a new method, and give it diagnostic value in relation to contemporary practice. China’s contemporary ink artists seek to resolve the paradox of working with both conceptual art and the specialism of painting as an art through letting the natural elements of ink express themselves sufficiently, by letting nature create itself, in order to combine techne and nature. This ‘blank-blank art’ is an example of dipolar thinking, or yinyang thinking, and therefore is distinct from the modern or contemporary art which is predominantly monopolar or binary. Considering ink art as method offers a new direction which opens a space of ‘between-ness’, evoking the forgotten dream of Marcel Duchamp, which he named the ‘infra-mince’.