Introduction

Established in 2004, Birdhead is a well-known contemporary artist group composed of two artists Song Tao (b.1979) and Ji Weiyu (b.1980) who were born and live in Shanghai. They both graduated from Shanghai Art & Design Academy.

Birdhead's early works mostly used teasing and subjective perspectives to record Shanghai's real urban daily life through a large number of snap photos, which made Birdhead a very representative local artist group in Shanghai. The artistic practice of Birdhead is based on photographs but also beyond the philosophy of photography. Capturing all the beings around them, Birdhead digests and applies the thinking mode of conceptual art into the context of their image interpretation. In recent years, Birdhead has increasingly emphasized the installation properties of the work and has made a rich exploration in materials and forms, constantly breaking people's traditional understanding of photography. By combining the photographic matrix, collage, particular mounting technique and so on, Birdhead delivers a “Birdhead world” in various exhibition spaces and humanistic environments.

Birdhead was nominated for the inaugural Hugo Boss Asia Art Award in 2013.

Birdhead has been internationally presented at: Diriyah Biennale, Saudi Arabia (2021); Muses, Yu Gong and Compasses, Pingshan Art Museum, Shenzhen (2020); Welcome to Birdhead World Again, Lianzhou Museum of Photography, Lianzhou (2019); Living Cities, Tate Modern, London, U.K. (2017); The 7th Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism\Architecture, Shenzhen (2017); The 6th Moscow Biennale, Russia (2015); Welcome to Birdhead World Again, ShanghART, Shanghai (2015); New Photography 2012, MoMA, New York, U.S.A. (2012); The 9th Shanghai Biennale, Power Station of Art, Shanghai (2012); The 54th Venice Biennale, Italy (2011); Artist File 2011, The NACT Annual Show of Contemporary Art, National Art Center, Tokyo, Japan (2011); China Power Station II, Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art, Oslo, Norway (2007), etc.

Birdhead’s works have been internationally collected by: Tate Modern London, U.K.; MoMA New York, U.S.A.; UCCA Foundation, Beijing; Wemhoner Collection, Germany; The Margulies Collection, U.S.A.; Astrup Fearnley Museum, Norway and so on.