Video
32 minutes
44 seconds
2008 BHU115
Video
60 minutes
2004 CXYU025
This is a film about love, loneliness, and strange inner world. The narrator of uncertain identity unfolds the story from captions, fragments from everyone's inner image alternate with existing or non-existing false stories. "All women in the world have one name - Lili." All loves and losses are all alike.
Video
4 minutes
11 seconds
2006 CXYU026
Half naked young man is dragging vehemently. The mysterious power is inside the door: harvest in darkness and extreme tiredness of heart and body is endless. You can't let all this go.The invisible power that you are attempting to oppose or compete is in the other end of the rope but which controls you. You don't know what you are going to lose or gain. There is no result about the darkness. You probably know nothing. Regarding to life, you have to stay here.
Video
2 minutes
36 seconds
2007 CXYU027
This work is full of fun and delight. To create an enemy who is the most impossible one, then chase and fight with. There is nothing more happier than chasing and fighting with Santa Claus. This is not about a devil youth, not the anger to Santa's authority, not a violent absurd, not the contradiction between the west and east, not even cultural conflict, not at all. It's just a way to find some impossible happiness.
Video
8 minutes
24 seconds
2004 CXYU028
There are many fanciful craving in the city, for this is a nest for others; a dejected young drifter appears amongst the fleeting figures in the cityscape, yearning to capture his own shadow in the sky. He muses: “I much rather I am a power plug, with the city being a gigantic socket board, having wires running through the sky.” Everyone is a prisoner with no exceptions. This is a city built according to the model of electricity flow. Each feedback and loop of the electrical wave will serve to delineate its silhouette of twinkling skyline; from an open vista through the thinly diluted suburban air, each expansive breath of the metropolis can be observed to be thriving on the desires of every one of its inhabitants. Rays of dim light shooting past clusters of dwelling are catching the struggling figures down below，the variegated dusk sky is starting to quiver and becoming more and more flickering while the twisting skyline manages to keep its composure despite the burning passions it inhabits. City, is a rearing ground of immense proportion, it relies upon the desires of its people to continue to outstretch its symbiosis needs. He, on the other hand, is simply standing here, ogling at the sky, with faith on the desires that perpetually hang in the distant horizon; he lowers his head, awaiting the onset of another nightmare.
Suddenly, I seem to have slipped into the domain of all those mysterious desires in the sky through the tangles of black and white wires laid out beside me, I can envision an electrical controlled gateway sliding open above my head, within which resides an all powerful overlord who commands all the craving and desires of the city. I pull myself up from the mud pool, crawl along the riverbed to break the surface in the water, as I step off the No.28 bus I slide down the side of the bus stop sign like a drop of morning dew; looking up to the dizzying sky, I can feel a switch embedded in my head that controls the pictures streaming through my mind; up I climb a flight of stairs, before it is time to charge back down another, I eventually climbed up to the top of the tallest building in the city, … waiting, awaiting a ray of light, a flash of lightning… at this moment, my sight is like a thumbtack, it presses itself firmly into the softest spot of the city; I shut my eyes to listen to the prefect synchrony of electricity currents ebbing and flowing through the sky.
Suddenly, I seem to have slipped into the domain of all those mysterious desires in the sky through the tangles of black and white wires laid out beside me, I can envision an electrical controlled gateway sliding open above my head, within which resides an all powerful overlord who commands all the craving and desires of the city. I pull myself up from the mud pool, crawl along the riverbed to break the surface in the water, as I step off the No.28 bus I slide down the side of the bus stop sign like a drop of morning dew; looking up to the dizzying sky, I can feel a switch embedded in my head that controls the pictures streaming through my mind; up I climb a flight of stairs, before it is time to charge back down another, I eventually climbed up to the top of the tallest building in the city, … waiting, awaiting a ray of light, a flash of lightning… at this moment, my sight is like a thumbtack, it presses itself firmly into the softest spot of the city; I shut my eyes to listen to the prefect synchrony of electricity currents ebbing and flowing through the sky.
Video
7 minutes
28 seconds
2004 CXYU029
Sight will be led to the reasons and motivations of my examination and identification of the world, to confront the imagined scene and urgent possessiveness. Be it overlapped images,or parody of some behaviors, these are not what we really want to conquer, they are just props we appropriated from the world. We only provide our own insights to react with the trajectory of the world. Image is also a form of props, it appropriated neural reaction from retina to the brain. On such basis, everything is just hypothetical facts remained on retina in the right time, in the right place , and under the right reason. You should know, your body, including your eyes, cannot serve directly the crazy performance of the fleeting world.
Video
3 minutes
3 seconds
2002 CXYU030
Some daily shooting fragments and the actions of cutting are mixed and edited together. Meaningless coherence brings about fragmented psychological implications, as Barthelme said, "Fragments are the only forms I trust."
Video
4 minutes
7 seconds
2004 CXYU033
A piece of ray is a whip, and the time is an individual religion. Here is a path of mountains, and an exhausted man who is towing a tree from the bottom to the top of the hill. It will be a highly intense flashlight in one second. This is a myth of an innermost being of a person, mostly about struggle and expiation .So the memory of them is not coherent, and the desire is the most brilliant thing, recurrent fate is whipped time and time again.
Video
2007 CXYU034
The video provides us some visual residues that cannot be consumed, some hysterical emotions, fallen, dark mental activity, lethargic outlook, odd behaviors, unreasonable logic. Everyone has a stubborn darkness in their inner heart to balance the evil of reality.
Video
2 minutes
36 seconds
2001 CXYU039
The video shoots some people bouncing. In post processing, the artist removed the moments of taking off from the ground and landing, people in the video then seem suspended in the air, unable to go up or down. There is a dog barking, is that elated pride, or one-way predicament.
Video
4 minutes
2007 CXYU041
A theatre, a group of baggers, street artists, disabled people are playing American national anthem inharmoniously by using their shabby broken instruments which is comic and sad, the dual mistakes of moral, unbalanced ideology symbolization, all mess on the stage and the sense of ridiculousness implies a kind of virtual politics. The truth may like this,a twisted and massive ideological society is stuffed with the lowest level of socialism, capitalism, feudalism and the most deceptive sensation towards them. From the perspective of an artist, I shot these people from the lowest social class and laugh over their awkward actions on stage, on the other hand, I criticize myself that it's immoral to do like this but at the same time I remind myself this is an immoral work because I am not able to declare what is the basic correctness in the society where I exist.
Video
5 minutes
30 seconds
2007 CXYU043
BI is a fierce beast in legend which stands for Imprisonment.
This video is an individual psychological scan initially: be surrounded by constraint, disturbed by confusion and wrapped by desire. Then is the fierce conflict caused by the slaved and enslaved relationship between reality and ourselves. The individual heroism impulse of our attempt of change will probably become a comical performance. But the reality itself is exact the monster hidden in our deep heart. The roaring trucks in row are circling a person trapped in sludge.There is no way to get out that a sense of frustration constructed a prison in each of our hearts.
This video is an individual psychological scan initially: be surrounded by constraint, disturbed by confusion and wrapped by desire. Then is the fierce conflict caused by the slaved and enslaved relationship between reality and ourselves. The individual heroism impulse of our attempt of change will probably become a comical performance. But the reality itself is exact the monster hidden in our deep heart. The roaring trucks in row are circling a person trapped in sludge.There is no way to get out that a sense of frustration constructed a prison in each of our hearts.
Video
9 minutes
31 seconds
2009 CXYU058
A group of rural workers carrying their tools are walking in the wilderness without any facial expression. There is no beginning nor ending.It's a black karma which seems to indicate the most contradicted and miserable social class in reality or even the history. The work leads us to a group of aimless routes by a kind of depression which is similar as the struggle and conflicts in life that we are quite familiar with, like the revolts and public movements in history. Reality goes back to its start. We are able to feel something will happen but have no clue what we could change.
Video
13 minutes
46 seconds
2010 CXYU070
This work shows in 3 channels trying to discuss the hollowness of life, social barriers, desires, twisted love and rough understanding of memories. Author wrote many monologue blinking with images, time and space shifted, this work is filled with fragmented feelings towards our inside and outside life and hysterical personal experiences and explanation which shows the artist's high densified video writing. Video is not a way of watching but also a way for us to read.
Video
9 minutes
50 seconds
2009 CXYU072
It uses a violent obstreperous passion to indicate the politics of adolescence which is full of flaming rebellion and rejective attitude and it is an aesthetic appreciation and liberation of a violent revolution. It is similar as one of the screen-shot of the endless political movements in the past 100 years. A group of young people are excited throwing bundled books into blaze. In the carnival atmosphere, there is no political correctness but only beauty of pulling out and ashes of illusion.
Video
3 minutes
9 seconds
2013 CXY_2488
This video is divided into four parts, which concerns the despair of individual, other person, gourp and that of being gazed coldly. Despair is a passive response. You are aware of various despairs. You or we are aware of that dispair is ignored and diluted as psychological reality and performed and watched as a kind of form.
Video
1 minutes
6 seconds
2013 CXY_3589
A seemingly sudden image with garrulous captions, self-talk conversation, and chaotic logic.
Video
3 minutes
37 seconds
2013 CXY_4492
Strong light shines on a pair of dirty pants and pats it. The video shoots the light spots caused by dusts flowing in the air, rhythmic patting sound and lyrical music from afar.
Video
6 minutes
16 seconds
2013 CXY_8571
In the night and the pine forest, there are people holding with various weapons; the assault or defence, the mob or righteous, the crime or resistance, the inner anxiety or anger, and the sleepwalker or premeditated man, all are the fact that shapes us as all kinds of figurants, who are either afraid of death chronically or are selfless acutely. We become the mobs who are pardoned by a group potentially. When facing with the reality, all forms of response are amateurish and blinding.
Video
3 minutes
52 seconds
2003 GJY_6561
The video starts with black picture gradually covered by 2x2cm squares. After a shot pause, the whole picture zoom out from abstract color pieces to smaller mosaic and step by step turns into an entire composition in the vision effect. Taking place of the mosaic, parallel tracks viewed through the raindrop window which is focused for a while before the retrogradation happens and decomposed into pixels which we saw at the beginning. This film is part of an event titled “Parallel” in Hangzhou China.
Preview Online
Preview Online
Video
Installation
2 minutes
59 seconds
1999 GJY_9154
Like his other video, the artist uses the same processing mode that separates the sound and the visual images.
Preview Online
Preview Online
Video
2003 HJMU018
A few projectors project the images on the ground from the ceiling, the images content are several part of skin which are sweating. In the image site put a running machine, install two to three microphones on this machine.
When audience running in this machine, the video start to play, the speed of this video's play has the mutual action with the speed of running machine. With the audience's running speed's increase, the skins in the image are start to twisty.
Microphone enlarge audience's sound of breath, image's vision effect between relax and convulsion, to make the same image into different vision and mental feelings because of the different of the environment conditions.
Preview Online
When audience running in this machine, the video start to play, the speed of this video's play has the mutual action with the speed of running machine. With the audience's running speed's increase, the skins in the image are start to twisty.
Microphone enlarge audience's sound of breath, image's vision effect between relax and convulsion, to make the same image into different vision and mental feelings because of the different of the environment conditions.
Preview Online
Video
1 minutes
2002 HJMU022
One Minute Soulful Touch
Video
1 minute
February, 2001
Shanghai
The video features a pair of hands continuously doing different gestures at very slow speed, and using the outline of hands to write sheet music which is performed by the xylophone at the same time.
Preview Online
Video
1 minute
February, 2001
Shanghai
The video features a pair of hands continuously doing different gestures at very slow speed, and using the outline of hands to write sheet music which is performed by the xylophone at the same time.
Preview Online
Video
9 minutes
25 seconds
2001 HJMU023
The contents came from the postcard famous places in China. The several pictures imported to the computer were turned to be about 8 minutes video image by means of multimedia technology. In the video, it can be watched that the postcard staves drawn on were screened from right to left slowly. When the postcard moves to the middle of the screen, the most part of the outline of the picture will be dotted by different color. The music is composed according to the dots on the staves and played by various instruments.
Preview Online
Preview Online
Video
5 minutes
26 seconds
1996 HJMU024
Related to the Physiological State borrowed oscillogram of heart and breath from a patient in a hospital. The curve moving on top demonstrated the heartbeat and that on bottom revealed the breath. Covered with stave printed on a transparent sheet, the vibrating lines passed through the centre of the screen and their positions on stave became consequently recognizable to pianist who then played these notes as a piece of music. The video was made initially alluding to the relationship between consciousness and unconsciousness, as well as culture and physiological state.
I got the vibration oscillograun of a patient's hearth and breath for 5'20'' in the hospital.
Overlap the selected oscillogram with the staves.
Set the notes in the saves according to the vibration of the heart and breath.
A pianist played according to "the notes on the staves."
Related to the Physiological State has been exhibited in Chinese Video Art Communication Exhibition (1997, Gallery of Central Academy of Fine Art, Beijing), Living in Time, 29 Contemporary Artists from China (2001, National galerie im Hamburger Bahnhof Museum fuer Gegenwartskunst, Berlin, Germany) and Time Lapse (2010, Center PasquART, Biel, Switzerland).
Preview Online
I got the vibration oscillograun of a patient's hearth and breath for 5'20'' in the hospital.
Overlap the selected oscillogram with the staves.
Set the notes in the saves according to the vibration of the heart and breath.
A pianist played according to "the notes on the staves."
Related to the Physiological State has been exhibited in Chinese Video Art Communication Exhibition (1997, Gallery of Central Academy of Fine Art, Beijing), Living in Time, 29 Contemporary Artists from China (2001, National galerie im Hamburger Bahnhof Museum fuer Gegenwartskunst, Berlin, Germany) and Time Lapse (2010, Center PasquART, Biel, Switzerland).
Preview Online
Video
2003 HJMU026
In a single closed dark space, projector projects the image on the wall. The content are two men who are sleeping in the bedroom and with slight sonre. When audience comes, the sounds of mosquito are here and there, the two men awake and start to drive away these mosquito. With the amount of the audience increase, the amount of the mosquito will also increase, and the action of drive will become illusory status: pillow fight, dance, somnambulate and exercise. When audience leaves, the image will become sleep status again.
Preview Online
Preview Online
Video
6 minutes
2004 HJMU027
The item in the water is the basic clueto this work.It states the mutually dependent,dialectical relationship between the two,dimly revealed in all sorts of feelings and experiences in the space that inhabit.The different experiences of the item,which is individual,vis the water ,which is its environment,show the state of feeble helplessness and docile manipulability which constitute all the enticement and bewilderment of individual existence against the background of contemporary society.
Preview Online
Preview Online
Video
4 minutes
50 seconds
1996 HJMU029
Video
28 minutes
13 seconds
2002 HJMU030
There were over three thousand works on the art of war in ancient China, of which over a thousand have been preserved. The Thirty-six Tactics, believed to be compiled by Tan Dao Ji (circa A.D.?—A.D.436),living in the South and North Dynasties is a book that draws on the wisdom of ancient Chinese military thinking and on the lessons of actual military conflicts. It elaborates on the tactics of war, and the interrelationships between war, politics, and economy. As one the most important ancient Chinese works on the art of war, The Thirty-six Tactics has influenced the thinking of many Chinese and overseas military strategists and tacticians. The tactic of ‘on the move (escape, abandonment) is the last of the thirty-six tactics. It is actually a tactic of no tactics, to be entertained only as a last resort when there are no other tactics available. In actual practice, this tactic could mean a deliberate retreat to avoid fighting against a much stronger enemy, and to seek opportunities of beating a comeback.
The video I am presenting centers on the theme of ‘move’, relating the social situation of contemporary China to the historical background of the Long March, the famed 10,000-mile strategic retreat by the Red Army of China in the Chinese Revolution. The materials that make up the video reflect aspects of the daily life of Chinese people, including intellectuals, government officials, laid-off workers, country folks working in cities, unlicensed business dealers, and the elderly. These people, though different from each other in their social status, are all confronted with the same difficult choice of ‘move’, in the wake of the social system reform and the decline of the state-owned enterprise in China. They are forced to give up much of what they are used to, willingly or unwillingly.
In this process of ‘move’, what else are people left with, except a booming economy and an ever expanding cityscape?
Preview Online
The video I am presenting centers on the theme of ‘move’, relating the social situation of contemporary China to the historical background of the Long March, the famed 10,000-mile strategic retreat by the Red Army of China in the Chinese Revolution. The materials that make up the video reflect aspects of the daily life of Chinese people, including intellectuals, government officials, laid-off workers, country folks working in cities, unlicensed business dealers, and the elderly. These people, though different from each other in their social status, are all confronted with the same difficult choice of ‘move’, in the wake of the social system reform and the decline of the state-owned enterprise in China. They are forced to give up much of what they are used to, willingly or unwillingly.
In this process of ‘move’, what else are people left with, except a booming economy and an ever expanding cityscape?
Preview Online
Video
Installation
6 minutes
18 seconds
2002 HJM_0987
The material of the video comes from two parts of architecture's video and photo: one is about traditional architecture in Anhui Province, another is about Western modern city architecture. The work "From Architectural Immanence" presents a series of dramatic effects through computer techniques that produce a shrouded, alternant and contrary status with those two materials. Hu Jieming selects information from those building outline with different styles, then transform that information into music. The red dot and yellow dot are the fundaments of the music score in the video. When red dot and yellow dot moving with building outline, their locations in Staff are music notes. Red dot moves with the outline of China traditional architecture and plays with traditional Chinese instrument, the yellow dot moves with the outline of city structure and plays with western instruments.
Video
Installation
5 minutes
26 seconds
1996 HJM_5584
Related to the Physiological State borrowed oscillogram of heart and breath from a patient in a hospital. The curve moving on top demonstrated the heartbeat and that on bottom revealed the breath. Covered with stave printed on a transparent sheet, the vibrating lines passed through the centre of the screen and their positions on stave became consequently recognizable to pianist who then played these notes as a piece of music. The video was made initially alluding to the relationship between consciousness and unconsciousness, as well as culture and physiological state.
I got the vibration oscillograun of a patient's hearth and breath for 5'20'' in the hospital.
Overlap the selected oscillogram with the staves.
Set the notes in the saves according to the vibration of the heart and breath.
A pianist played according to "the notes on the staves."
Related to the Physiological State has been exhibited in Chinese Video Art Communication Exhibition (1997, Gallery of Central Academy of Fine Art, Beijing), Living in Time, 29 Contemporary Artists from China (2001, National galerie im Hamburger Bahnhof Museum fuer Gegenwartskunst, Berlin, Germany) and Time Lapse (2010, Center PasquART, Biel, Switzerland).
Preview Online
I got the vibration oscillograun of a patient's hearth and breath for 5'20'' in the hospital.
Overlap the selected oscillogram with the staves.
Set the notes in the saves according to the vibration of the heart and breath.
A pianist played according to "the notes on the staves."
Related to the Physiological State has been exhibited in Chinese Video Art Communication Exhibition (1997, Gallery of Central Academy of Fine Art, Beijing), Living in Time, 29 Contemporary Artists from China (2001, National galerie im Hamburger Bahnhof Museum fuer Gegenwartskunst, Berlin, Germany) and Time Lapse (2010, Center PasquART, Biel, Switzerland).
Preview Online
Video
Installation
5 minutes
20 seconds
2001 HJM_7440
Point the camera at a map of China fluttering in the wind. The cities represented as dots on the map flutter as the map flutters and become the notes for piano music. This piano piece is a vivid reflection of our reality.
Video
Installation
9 minutes
25 seconds
2001 HJM_8029
The content of this piece comes from the famous postcard series The Sights of China. Having scanned these postcards, the information is fed into a computer. This source material is edited into a 9-minute video. In the video, music staves are drawn from right to left slowly. When the postcard moves to the middle of the screen, the outline of the postcard will be replaced by series of color dots. The music is then composed according to the positions of the different of dots on these staves and played by various instruments.
Video
Installation
2 minutes
40 seconds
1999 HJM_8580
According to the EKG of the patient, drunkard, aggrieved person, and dady, made the music played by percussion, piano, sax and cello.
Video
Installation
2001 HJM_8993
The camera captures a map of China fluttering in the wind, where the swaying cities (marked by spots on the map) become the basis for a musical composition. The piano music truly portrays the moving dots as well as the poetry of the reality we are facing. Together with From Architectural Immanence (2002) and Outline Only (2001), the three works can be considered as a series. With the vocalized works resting upon image data, the music based on maps and political metaphors as well as sound contrasts originating from buildings and their internal parts, HU Jieming uses once again the media of sound. Through the playing of music, he converts the experience of visual arts, while the red and yellow dots appearing on the map seem to provide yet another relationship perspective or a key narrative.
Video
4 minutes
48 seconds
2007 HKU012
The movie is from the same named installation work by Huang Kui. It seems that enigma exists in Room 1203 and Room 1407.
Video
2 minutes
2007 HKU014
The film is consisted of hundred of link-number 100 Yuan RMB, among which were delicate differences.
Video
1 minutes
38 seconds
2014 JWY_6174
Originally, I attempted to make some videos. I had previously adapted the film Street Angel, wondering how it could be in memorial of actor Zhao Dan and actress Zhou Xuan by presenting the lifetime of them (remain unfinished so far). Accidentally, my idea of time was thus drawn from this process. I bought a camera and stood in front of Shanghai Museum one day. I pressed the shutter every three minutes, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. It started as time-lapse photography, but somehow I thought it was too conventional. Later, these over a hundred photos were jointed together by Photoshop, which took much work. Apparently, such recording is seemingly objective and strict, but anything happened within the three minutes is actually missed. People in distant view are covered because of overlapping. It is just like a paradox, with a sense of humour. They are strict but incomplete statistics.
At the end of 2014, when I was moving my studio, a beam of sunlight came through the window falling into the empty studio. That was the beginning of Easy Come Easy Go. The video is not especially made for any exhibition. I just wanted to explore the idea of time. Smart people always come up with brilliant ideas. That is called inspiration. But I always turn into a forked road while I am making art, and try to develop those unexpected ideas. And often, it becomes a mess in the end and is totally different from my attempt. However, it is usually how it works. I want to continue my Time series in the future. But at present, I don’t have any space to do it.
Preview Online
At the end of 2014, when I was moving my studio, a beam of sunlight came through the window falling into the empty studio. That was the beginning of Easy Come Easy Go. The video is not especially made for any exhibition. I just wanted to explore the idea of time. Smart people always come up with brilliant ideas. That is called inspiration. But I always turn into a forked road while I am making art, and try to develop those unexpected ideas. And often, it becomes a mess in the end and is totally different from my attempt. However, it is usually how it works. I want to continue my Time series in the future. But at present, I don’t have any space to do it.
Preview Online
Video
6 minutes
2010 KX_9098
The artist used a cooked chicken head which blinks again and again to make words appear one by one. The corresponding narration is borrowed from Meng Huangyou in Praise with Laughter, written by Zhao Nanxing in Ming Dynasty. The weasel(you) is a chicken-eating animal, and Meng Huangyou(Meng Weasel) is a nickname for a person who was famous for his appetite for chicken. The artist borrows the identity of food to tell the story, craftily referring to some nonexistent reality with this most common object.
Video
4 minutes
57 seconds
2007 LPHU001
Back in 2007, LI Pinghu finished his video work Fight Line on the building site of Shanghai Hongqiao Airport reconstruction project. Close to the runway lights, the artist managed to construct a house installation of 5m x 3m x 3m whose central axis lay in alinement with the trace of flying-off aeroplane and whose window faced with the direction from which it took off. Within the house, by setting a study desk, a bookshelf, a tea table, a bed and some other everyday stuffs, the artist imitated a standard living environment. As an aeroplane took off, the installation was slowly lifted up by one end along the incremental height in the sky. Until the aircraft flew above the house and disappeared, everything fell down and slipped to the other end under the force of gravity. The video captured the entire process of the "house" waiting for the aeroplane and finally ending up with mess.
Video
6 minutes
23 seconds
2006 LPHU002
LI Pinghu presented his performing artwork About Light in Delighting Therapy during Thirty-Eight Solo Exhibitions in May 2006. The artist was laying in the ceiling of the showing room, an arm holding a chandelier through a hole until he became too exhausted to keep and finally left it to fall down. The entire process lasted for approximately six minutes which was recorded in this very video. A certain sense of "waiting" permeated into every single second of the performance as well as viewing experience. Artist waited for his physical energy running out whereas viewers waited for the occurrence of the accident. Finally, the chandelier fell down on the ground and the image was plunged into darkness after sparks of light and electricity.
Video
2016 LR_2644
online view:
1st channel: https://vimeo.com/165825282
2nd channel: https://vimeo.com/165782789
password: lirancopyright
The work is commissioned by curator Biljana Ciric as a part of the project ‘Encounter with Pompidou’ at Centre National d’art et de Culture Georges Pompidou. The text of this two screen video installation originates from the Chinese version of Centre Pompidou’s museum guide. This former Chinese guide book includes 150 selected pieces of the museum collection’s guide (originally written by Jean Poderos and translated by Hu Bin into Chinese). Addressing the audience from various points of view, this guide book is as a signal from a distanced site, spreading our shared understanding of modernism. I divide the work descriptions of the collections into two parts and showcase within two screens, representing two kinds of points of view. The video source is taken from the documentary I shot in Singapore as a tourist, I selected and rearranged the long-lens movie and the close-up shot, matching them with the text, thus reWine two kinds of common logics appear interactively during the processes of artistic production and observation, referring to the modes of the lost ‘wonderer’ and the detached bystander.
1st channel: https://vimeo.com/165825282
2nd channel: https://vimeo.com/165782789
password: lirancopyright
The work is commissioned by curator Biljana Ciric as a part of the project ‘Encounter with Pompidou’ at Centre National d’art et de Culture Georges Pompidou. The text of this two screen video installation originates from the Chinese version of Centre Pompidou’s museum guide. This former Chinese guide book includes 150 selected pieces of the museum collection’s guide (originally written by Jean Poderos and translated by Hu Bin into Chinese). Addressing the audience from various points of view, this guide book is as a signal from a distanced site, spreading our shared understanding of modernism. I divide the work descriptions of the collections into two parts and showcase within two screens, representing two kinds of points of view. The video source is taken from the documentary I shot in Singapore as a tourist, I selected and rearranged the long-lens movie and the close-up shot, matching them with the text, thus reWine two kinds of common logics appear interactively during the processes of artistic production and observation, referring to the modes of the lost ‘wonderer’ and the detached bystander.
Video
7 minutes
10 seconds
2014 LR_3262
When I travel in Geneva, I caught sight of a swan by Lake Geneva. The swan dipped its head into the lake over and over again in search of food, and a while later raised up to inspect its surroundings. This scene reminded me of a repetitive movement during my creation. Therefore, I intentionally projected the swan’s each plunge into the lakebed onto this film, and mixed it with video and audio materials I have collected while travel in different places. It might be a tune (“Mr. Sandman”) played on a loop in an elevator at a certain art museum, a scene taken at a bar in Los Angeles Chinatown, a seagull diving underneath the San Francisco Bridge, the window scenery I shot while riding Shinkansen from Tokyo to Atami, or the view and sound taken at the Central Park of Chiang mai Moat. Thus, I have projected onto this swan as an artist, the capture of raw materials, the repeated test of my inspiration, as well as my thinking, gesture, and posture. Like what I wrote for the beginning of the film, “The moment is again and again/ Raise the head and look/ Or explore and silence.”
Video
8 minutes
51 seconds
2013 LR_3354
…Along both stretches of the village road, one sees flowers blooming naturally, without an object of reference or the pursuit of meaning. Simply walking and encountering completed the entire meaning. Here, language and time are safe in their own domains, and yet they represent and intermesh with one another. Li Ran’s poetic lines refract the temporality which was of concern to the artist at the time of creation, along with the related question of modernity. In this work, a mimicry of a Soviet film, “The Fate of a Man,” Li Ran plays the role of a Soviet soldier: he imitates to a tee the affected and artificial style of acting under Communist ideology, and enacts the story of a Soviet soldier reminiscing on the past and yearning for the future….
Text from Mimicry and Return-by Su Wei.
Text from Mimicry and Return-by Su Wei.
Video
20 minutes
2017 LR_3355
online view: https://vimeo.com/232789142
Youku: https://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XMzAyNTk2NTcwOA==.html?spm=a2hzp.8244740.0.0
password: lirancopyright
On the basis of the novel Cold Night, I tried hard to analyze a character named Fengguang. He appears less in the description of the book, and most of them comes from the imagination and conjecture of Wang Wenxuan and his family, which of that is misplaced and alienated. Other characters in the novel also have different understanding of him, who is always considered as a negative signal for Wang’s family. However, he also carries some unusual values, life habits, and relaxed attitude that differentiate him from the poor intellectual class. Those short and powerful texts unfold his utterance, personality, and emotion. When facing Shusheng, the women he loves, a subtle romanticism emerged.
In this video, I used several pieces of alienated materials, including the selections from biblical one-act play that improvised by stage actors; the aside is embellished by romantic proses and lyrics, portraying a mountaineering-gathering scenery of a heretics group, and its atmosphere turns from humored to fanatical. The weaving of images refers to different kinds of picture documents from 1950 to 1980. All above intertwined closely in the video, or occasionally deviate from each other, forming an expression with overlapping multi-thread. This is one of my understandings of how Fengguang appears in the novel.
Youku: https://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XMzAyNTk2NTcwOA==.html?spm=a2hzp.8244740.0.0
password: lirancopyright
On the basis of the novel Cold Night, I tried hard to analyze a character named Fengguang. He appears less in the description of the book, and most of them comes from the imagination and conjecture of Wang Wenxuan and his family, which of that is misplaced and alienated. Other characters in the novel also have different understanding of him, who is always considered as a negative signal for Wang’s family. However, he also carries some unusual values, life habits, and relaxed attitude that differentiate him from the poor intellectual class. Those short and powerful texts unfold his utterance, personality, and emotion. When facing Shusheng, the women he loves, a subtle romanticism emerged.
In this video, I used several pieces of alienated materials, including the selections from biblical one-act play that improvised by stage actors; the aside is embellished by romantic proses and lyrics, portraying a mountaineering-gathering scenery of a heretics group, and its atmosphere turns from humored to fanatical. The weaving of images refers to different kinds of picture documents from 1950 to 1980. All above intertwined closely in the video, or occasionally deviate from each other, forming an expression with overlapping multi-thread. This is one of my understandings of how Fengguang appears in the novel.
Video
2 minutes
47 seconds
2012 LR_3836
online view: https://vimeo.com/244970690
password: lirancopyright
The content of the film is from a video record of a Christian Church’s Christmas Gala in Beijing, 2012. These choral students were descendants of missionary groups from South Korea, they lived in the Wangjing area of Beijing at that moment. However, in the face of new reality, they left the country with their parents one by one after 2013, and I never had chance to see them again in the church.
Li Ran
password: lirancopyright
The content of the film is from a video record of a Christian Church’s Christmas Gala in Beijing, 2012. These choral students were descendants of missionary groups from South Korea, they lived in the Wangjing area of Beijing at that moment. However, in the face of new reality, they left the country with their parents one by one after 2013, and I never had chance to see them again in the church.
Li Ran
Video
6 minutes
27 seconds
2012 LR_6066
“Pretty Knowledge” (2012), is a dual-channel video work which takes after a segment of a video, popular on the internet, of a certain French seer who relates his predictions for the future. In one, he directly uses the video documentation of this “seer” predicting various major events due to happen after 1980; in the other video, myself plays the role of this seer and re-enacts his predictions with an imitation French, mimicking his French intonation and body language.
Video
2012 LR_6244
I come to realize that most conversation and communication concerning art creation are conducted in a somewhat disconnected and dislocated context. Effective sharing and communication can hardly be achieved. As a result, our creation has to undergo constant simplification and “de-content” forcing us into a extreme expression.
The title of my work, “I Want to Talk to You, But Not to All of You”, sheds light on my feelings and perception of the reality of this industry. I had a private dialogue with Biljana Ciric, curator of Alternatives to Ritual, while preparing this work for the exhibition. During the dialogue, we showed each other the photos and documents we were going to present in the exhibition, and shared, despite all the difficulties, the dilemma we face during our work. I video recorded this conversation.
I excerpted a part of it, did some re-editing, making it into a simplified version featuring a conversation between a man with mental problems and his psychiatrist who tends to solve his problems through a bunch of medical terms. In this re-edited version, words such as “spirit”, “hallucination”, “reality” and “fantasy” are constantly mentioned.
The title of my work, “I Want to Talk to You, But Not to All of You”, sheds light on my feelings and perception of the reality of this industry. I had a private dialogue with Biljana Ciric, curator of Alternatives to Ritual, while preparing this work for the exhibition. During the dialogue, we showed each other the photos and documents we were going to present in the exhibition, and shared, despite all the difficulties, the dilemma we face during our work. I video recorded this conversation.
I excerpted a part of it, did some re-editing, making it into a simplified version featuring a conversation between a man with mental problems and his psychiatrist who tends to solve his problems through a bunch of medical terms. In this re-edited version, words such as “spirit”, “hallucination”, “reality” and “fantasy” are constantly mentioned.
Video
9 minutes
2015 LR_7451
online view: https://vimeo.com/135733218
password: lirancopyright
In the pool of my sound-effect materials, there is one sound track made by synthesizer that imitates the sound of rain. It is so vivid that can be really hard to tell the difference of being man-made or natural sound through listening with ears. Usually I would loop this sound piece in hot and stuffy summer time; so it was around me while I was making this video work, and became the background sound of the video’s beginning and ending parts. Indeed, this sound piece is also a coupling of a certain kind of reality that I felt about. During the period of my creation, I set up the shooting in front of my dining table, designing different scenes of groups of still-lifes. These still-lifes remind me the objects to be seen in exhibitions — those “silent and static” artworks displayed in exhibition spaces were well-placed, or just being a random combination. We hear and see, even read through texts, but still not capable of confirming the authenticity of those works’ inner spirit. Just like this synthesized sound track of rain, it exists without crowds of black clouds or signs of weather changes, it has nothing to do with the smell of soil after raining nor the long wait full of stuffiness before raining. This is exactly where we make our creations: familiar or strange fragments of words are around us at any time, they often appear without warning and then wander or hide aside, while at the same time, they strongly attach themselves to every minute space among our logical thinkings and motives.
password: lirancopyright
In the pool of my sound-effect materials, there is one sound track made by synthesizer that imitates the sound of rain. It is so vivid that can be really hard to tell the difference of being man-made or natural sound through listening with ears. Usually I would loop this sound piece in hot and stuffy summer time; so it was around me while I was making this video work, and became the background sound of the video’s beginning and ending parts. Indeed, this sound piece is also a coupling of a certain kind of reality that I felt about. During the period of my creation, I set up the shooting in front of my dining table, designing different scenes of groups of still-lifes. These still-lifes remind me the objects to be seen in exhibitions — those “silent and static” artworks displayed in exhibition spaces were well-placed, or just being a random combination. We hear and see, even read through texts, but still not capable of confirming the authenticity of those works’ inner spirit. Just like this synthesized sound track of rain, it exists without crowds of black clouds or signs of weather changes, it has nothing to do with the smell of soil after raining nor the long wait full of stuffiness before raining. This is exactly where we make our creations: familiar or strange fragments of words are around us at any time, they often appear without warning and then wander or hide aside, while at the same time, they strongly attach themselves to every minute space among our logical thinkings and motives.
Video
5 minutes
30 seconds
2012 LR_7936
Title from Chinese poet Han Dong’s poetry anthology “Born Again”.
The video will be played on a multi-screen TV device as a biographical documentary. In the video, I played a show host, while imitating and fabricating a dead blues musician. I used a multi-screen TV device to play the video asynchronously, and used the misplacement of the playback timing to form a non-linear description of multiple tenses.
The video will be played on a multi-screen TV device as a biographical documentary. In the video, I played a show host, while imitating and fabricating a dead blues musician. I used a multi-screen TV device to play the video asynchronously, and used the misplacement of the playback timing to form a non-linear description of multiple tenses.
Video
33 minutes
2017 LR_9054
online view: https://vimeo.com/244972200
password: lirancopyright
This semi-fictional film is in a still-image format. The photographs are from my personal photo collection, including the records of Xinjiang Construction Corps’ production practices in May Day pasture from 1954 to 1964, as well as news photography and stage stills from 1950s to 1980s. In the film, the three generations of sheep are analogies of the migratory life of Christians, and the different dreams with numerous contradictions between generations are the clues of it. I put myself from both the outside and inside angles when narrating the story, provoking the contextual crack between Christians and the world around them.
Li Ran
password: lirancopyright
This semi-fictional film is in a still-image format. The photographs are from my personal photo collection, including the records of Xinjiang Construction Corps’ production practices in May Day pasture from 1954 to 1964, as well as news photography and stage stills from 1950s to 1980s. In the film, the three generations of sheep are analogies of the migratory life of Christians, and the different dreams with numerous contradictions between generations are the clues of it. I put myself from both the outside and inside angles when narrating the story, provoking the contextual crack between Christians and the world around them.
Li Ran
Video
1999 LSJU029
In 1999 Liang Shaoji made a video of himself walking barefoot on metal shavings, because he wanted to feel what the silkworms felt as they were crawling over them. (In 1992 Liang started to research how to make silkworms weave on metal shavings). He got a full truckload of shavings and spread them in the factory’s courtyard. The factory workers were his public.
Liang: “I didn’t expect it to be so incredibly painful. The smaller the shavings, the more painful they were. There was no way out, no way to escape the pain except to go forward until I reached the end of the courtyard. I had to go to the hospital afterwards. During that performance I felt like any human being in distress who has no way to give up or to get out of the situation he is in, and still you have to go on living ...”
Preview Online No.24
Preview Online No.25
Liang: “I didn’t expect it to be so incredibly painful. The smaller the shavings, the more painful they were. There was no way out, no way to escape the pain except to go forward until I reached the end of the courtyard. I had to go to the hospital afterwards. During that performance I felt like any human being in distress who has no way to give up or to get out of the situation he is in, and still you have to go on living ...”
Preview Online No.24
Preview Online No.25
Video
5 minutes
30 seconds
2000 LSJU042
“Silk Worms” represent the nature, life, science, history and society. The silk worms span on the body of human with large sounds of spinning. It recalls the imagination to the short life.
Preview Online
Preview Online
Video
12 minutes
20 seconds
2008 LSJU051
A video entitled Cloud contemplates time through reflections, similarities and contrasts of floating clouds and soft masses of raw silk.
Preview Online
Preview Online
Installation
Video
29 minutes
59 seconds
2009 LSJU096
The basic structure of a fabric is the crosswise weaving, but the structure of the natural silk is much more complicated. If you watch closely, you will find that the trajectory of silkworm spinning is like an "8", which repeats and spreads continuously. This "8" is not only a code for the life weaving of silkworm, it also resembles the symbol of "∞", which symbolizes infinity.
The video part of the work shows the trajectory of "8" when the silkworm is spinning, and the audience is welcome to interact with the silkworm and experience it by using the sandpaper (grinding wheel) to draw the "8" on the mirror together.
The video part of the work shows the trajectory of "8" when the silkworm is spinning, and the audience is welcome to interact with the silkworm and experience it by using the sandpaper (grinding wheel) to draw the "8" on the mirror together.
Installation
Video
2015 LSJ_0063
When the artist captured the process of silk spinning, he accidentally found out the seasonal changes of silkworm’s world. At the beginning, thousands of silkworms cluster together. When the silk gets thicker, certain patterns gradually emerge. The shape, density and patterns of silk vary under different temperatures and humidities, while the wave of water evolves in different seasons. Eventually, when the spinning is done, cocoons are thus buried under the silk. And the hovering butterflies resemble the blossoms in winter.
Installation
Video
2009 LSJ_0734
Materials: Natural silk, mirror shards, video projection (5 minutes 43 seconds)
Silkworms spinning silk on fragments of blue sky reflected on the broken mirrors they sit upon, their endless strands of silk spun in the figure of 8 resembling clouds and stitches that slowly but surely sew them together. As the pieces of mirrors on the floor reflect the film projection on to the walls around it, the silkworms seem to be undertaking the cosmic task of mending and bridging the azure skies that hang above all of humanity.
Silkworms spinning silk on fragments of blue sky reflected on the broken mirrors they sit upon, their endless strands of silk spun in the figure of 8 resembling clouds and stitches that slowly but surely sew them together. As the pieces of mirrors on the floor reflect the film projection on to the walls around it, the silkworms seem to be undertaking the cosmic task of mending and bridging the azure skies that hang above all of humanity.
Video
7 minutes
41 seconds
2015 LSJ_1415
Moon Garden captures the process of silkworms spinning on various materials: acrylic sheet, mirrors and metal. While filming, Liang lied on the ground as if he himself was a silkworm. Through cameras, he presents the world of silkworms where magnifies silkworms’ wriggling motion, the sound while feeding on mulberry leaves and the natural state of silk thread. The crawling silkworms, piously and serenely, go on a pilgrimage towards the Moon.
"Return to the root from which they grew. This return is called Quietness; Quietness is called submission to Fate." (Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu)
Preview Online
"Return to the root from which they grew. This return is called Quietness; Quietness is called submission to Fate." (Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu)
Preview Online
Video
5 minutes
46 seconds
2015 LSJ_2787
The "Ke Si"(a type of weaving done by the tapestry method in fine silks and gold thread) in the video is a traditional Chinese folk craft. The artist found that the vibration generated when the wooden shuttle passed through the two-layered warp caused a refraction illusion of water ripples on the loom's silk thread. The weaving ridges resemble a small boat of canal towns in the south of the Yangtze floating in the hometown of sericulture woven by water nets. From this, the work shows the romance and busyness of the "weaving" of the watery town through a clever perspective and poetic language, accompanied by a moving ancient song re-interpreted under today's context.
Preview Online
Preview Online
Video
3 minutes
36 seconds
2015 LSJ_4088
Moon Garden captures the process of silkworms spinning on various materials: acrylic sheet, mirrors and metal. While filming, Liang lied on the ground as if he himself was a silkworm. Through cameras, he presents the world of silkworms where magnifies silkworms’ wriggling motion, the sound while feeding on mulberry leaves and the natural state of silk thread. The crawling silkworms, piously and serenely, go on a pilgrimage towards the Moon.
"Return to the root from which they grew. This return is called Quietness; Quietness is called submission to Fate." (Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu)
Preview Online
"Return to the root from which they grew. This return is called Quietness; Quietness is called submission to Fate." (Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu)
Preview Online
Video
5 minutes
11 seconds
2011 LSJ_6433
When the artist captured the process of silk spinning, he accidentally found out the seasonal changes of silkworm’s world. At the beginning, thousands of silkworms cluster together. When the silk gets thicker, certain patterns gradually emerge. The shape, density and patterns of silk vary under different temperature and humidity, while the wave of water evolves in different seasons. Eventually, when the spinning is done, cocoons are thus buried under the silk. And the hovering butterflies resemble the blossoms in winter.
Preview Online
Preview Online
Video
12 minutes
32 seconds
2011 LSJ_6911
When the artist captured the process of silk spinning, he accidentally found out the seasonal changes of silkworm’s world. At the beginning, thousands of silkworms cluster together. When the silk gets thicker, certain patterns gradually emerge. The shape, density and patterns of silk vary under different temperature and humidity, while the wave of water evolves in different seasons. Eventually, when the spinning is done, cocoons are thus buried under the silk. And the hovering butterflies resemble the blossoms in winter.
Video
10 minutes
7 seconds
2008 LSJ_9406
This work started from beginning of 2008. In 2009 I tried another round and finished the editing for the first time. The work was not completed until 2014. And the humming was done by myself.
Looking at the shadow of silkworm, I can read history.
History is just like the silk fi bre running endlessly.
History is also like a wisp of cloud scudding into oblivion.
Slowly the cluster of caterpillars crawl and wriggle, casting a shadow on screen and forming an amazing piece of calligraphy - in silkworm script, an archaic style in China often found as memorial inscription in high cliff or tattoo on skin. Consisting of shadows of the movement of silkworm, the calligraphy is highly expressive: some raise heads eagerly, some squirm painfully, and others drop down accidentally. They become fable of history, the history of the hero, the great, the pain and the turmoil. As the silk piece grows thicker and thicker, light is gradually blocked so the characters of silkworm script disappear, leaving only a stele deprived of any inscription and the sound of humming. Words are not fully uttered and history not fully unfolded either. Witness of existence of those who exist, the wordless stele is also echoed by the plaint for the departed and implies the understanding of the passing of time. All things fall into void and fi nally oneness.
Chinese people have been upholding the tradition of history, literature, music and poem from ancient times. Learning from the ancients I sing out the history (like Cao Cao in View of the Blue Sea, Liu Bang in Song of the Great Wind, and Chen Zi’ang in On a Gate-tower at Yuzhou). The sound in experiment is extraordinarily deep and spacious with profound meanings.
Preview Online
Looking at the shadow of silkworm, I can read history.
History is just like the silk fi bre running endlessly.
History is also like a wisp of cloud scudding into oblivion.
Slowly the cluster of caterpillars crawl and wriggle, casting a shadow on screen and forming an amazing piece of calligraphy - in silkworm script, an archaic style in China often found as memorial inscription in high cliff or tattoo on skin. Consisting of shadows of the movement of silkworm, the calligraphy is highly expressive: some raise heads eagerly, some squirm painfully, and others drop down accidentally. They become fable of history, the history of the hero, the great, the pain and the turmoil. As the silk piece grows thicker and thicker, light is gradually blocked so the characters of silkworm script disappear, leaving only a stele deprived of any inscription and the sound of humming. Words are not fully uttered and history not fully unfolded either. Witness of existence of those who exist, the wordless stele is also echoed by the plaint for the departed and implies the understanding of the passing of time. All things fall into void and fi nally oneness.
Chinese people have been upholding the tradition of history, literature, music and poem from ancient times. Learning from the ancients I sing out the history (like Cao Cao in View of the Blue Sea, Liu Bang in Song of the Great Wind, and Chen Zi’ang in On a Gate-tower at Yuzhou). The sound in experiment is extraordinarily deep and spacious with profound meanings.
Preview Online
Video
20 minutes
6 seconds
2006 LYU006
Travelling in a raining day with freeze feeling. Walking along the Taihu Lake with beer, cigarettes, jokes, boring games and dialogues in a whole day, and will not stop…
Video
12 minutes
45 seconds
2006 LYU009
It's a place that left from one expo, many empty designed buildings be left without use anymore. There's almost nobody there. Capturing of 3 guys play game there to have some fun in such a boring part of city instead of capture a normal city view.
Preview Online
Preview Online
Video
3 minutes
1 seconds
2006 LYU011
A Gossip about aids. As the discussion progressed, the relaxing background music made the discussion awkward.
Video
23 minutes
2 seconds
2003 LYU014
There is a sensation that makes the people hold its breath, allowing the world to become blind and without directions. Personal feelings are getting blank and even inexistent, images are drifting and becoming visible for everyone’s eyes. (Text provided by the artist)
Video
35 minutes
35 seconds
2004 LYU015
It is a video poem made in 2004, the Chinese title is Ming Tian, Ming means bright, Tian means sky. On one hand it is referring to the future, on the other hand it can also be understood as a blinding bright sky. The English title is not translated directly, it means stop dazing, almost like to stop the great lengths of descriptions of dizziness, confusion, malaise, neurotic memories and dreams.
Preview Online
Preview Online
Video
Installation
8 minutes
44 seconds
2000 LYU016
This video installation takes advantage of negative film, capturing a girl scratching the skin of her head, letting the dandruffs fall down like snowflakes to the ground. Video installation, loop, the light of the television is gently screening in a semitransparent round curtain.
Video
Installation
22 minutes
24 seconds
2002 LYU017
This is a collection of film clips in which the filmmaker keeps a distance when observes the world. Aphasic, stunned, quietly listening and constantly watching, all the people she has seen and heard are presented in symbols. Their heat is gradually decreasing, making the world an extremely peaceful and calm place. On the other hand, the body is still longing for warmth; therefore imaginary shadows are looking for heat sources in the surroundings. The vibration in the air makes one feel like if the world still exists in one space nearby, but when reaching out, nothing can be touched.
Video
Installation
9 minutes
2 seconds
2001 LYU018
No matter if it is daytime, night, dusk or dawn, there is a pair of eyes watching the above persistently. It is not clear whether they are waiting or looking for the distant future or the next unknown second.
Video
31 minutes
15 seconds
2005 LYU019
All things become red in the sight of a nap.
Video
5 minutes
3 seconds
2001 LYU020
The video is concerned with a long secret diary, which has not even been written down. There is only one sentence repeated in a large number. The sentence is the following: It’s a secret. Besides, the dairy was burnt like a candle on the birthday’s evening on the 15th of January, becoming forever a memory.(Text provided by the artist)
Video
8 minutes
23 seconds
2001 LYU021
The winter is cold, lonely and silent, also causing insomnia. Only after taking a magic pill, everything is becoming warm and peaceful like a bed. A lovely nap can now be taken anywhere and anytime, a sense of falling into a long-lasting sleep.
Video
12 minutes
19 seconds
2007 LYU022
There is a Hollywood in Hong Kong and now there is a Christmas in Yan’an. The present-day city of Yan’an is not the revolutionary place as in old times, the people are becoming rich and modern. Christmas is not a traditional holiday in China, but Yan’an is offering a lot of festival atmosphere. People go shopping a lot, meeting friends, sending gifts, and setting the fireworks to pray for a richer and peaceful new year.
(Text provided by the artist)
(Text provided by the artist)
Video
22 minutes
2007 LYU024
This video is named "I love oleander", because from the artist’s perspective, the sides of the road and park are open tracts of oleander almost over the whole year in Shanghai. The humble but large flowers crowd together and are particularly conspicuous. Oleander’s sap is toxic, when breaking it, a white liquid can effuse. It seems like a large crowd of people is scattered in the city, repeating their daily life in the following way: working, eating, drinking, smoking, staying at nights, men and women become numb and toxic is caused by cigarettes and computers. Through capturing a normal party at weekend by video, trivial life can be reflected. As if all attributable can owe to the ordinary, blood like the oleander sap, colorless and tasteless but slightly sad. It’s difficult to describe this feeling, but perhaps everyone living in this city feels the same.
Video
3 minutes
8 seconds
2001 LYU025
“The Ghost Upstairs”is a blatant metaphor for the human subconscious. In the video, a doll is liken to a ghost whose voice is ironic, endlessly complaining for mess and actions of life in the dark. These continuous negative thoughts only cease once a light is turned on and a room becomes clear. It seems that in the dark of our minds a ghost exists; a ghost that hates all things and a ghost we never choose to show, as they cannot help but hate the same things.
Video
Installation
3 minutes
27 seconds
2000 LYU027
This video is about a place without light and a painted face. Hidden in the dark where one can not see one’s own hand, the dim is revealing a certain aroma. (Text provided by the artist)
Video
29 minutes
26 seconds
2009 LYU192
From the beginning to the end and return to the beginning, handing the identical matter, broke it and start from the beginning, I am enjoying, always enjoying，I thought that my life repeatedly is handing the identical matter, repeatedly without gap. Handing the identical matter. Always enjoying and repeatedly handing the identical matter, without gap, I felt tired, but will never quit...
Video
7 minutes
59 seconds
2013 LY_0008
Stimulating a subjective lens from a child’s view, who is gazing at the small fishes in the stream.
Preview Online
Preview Online
Video
2015 LY_0057
Video No.20150531 (The Cat in front of Glarus)
Clean water and dirty water surge against each other; a poker-faced cat; ascending clouds
These scenes are shot at Glarus where is full of legends. Imagination and information indoctrinated can always create metaphorical atmosphere beyond reality;
Video No.20150527 (Spores on the Tree)
Flying insects surge, and spores waft out of the tree. There’s a kind of life occurring quietly, appearing as a dense and rising image;
Video No.20150729 ( The Twilight of PG Island)
In these calm and objective shots, life, death, and now are circulating quietly in the twilight of PG Island.
Preview Online
Clean water and dirty water surge against each other; a poker-faced cat; ascending clouds
These scenes are shot at Glarus where is full of legends. Imagination and information indoctrinated can always create metaphorical atmosphere beyond reality;
Video No.20150527 (Spores on the Tree)
Flying insects surge, and spores waft out of the tree. There’s a kind of life occurring quietly, appearing as a dense and rising image;
Video No.20150729 ( The Twilight of PG Island)
In these calm and objective shots, life, death, and now are circulating quietly in the twilight of PG Island.
Preview Online
Video
34 minutes
32 seconds
2009 LY_0594
The video is made between 2008-2009, records a few friends of the artist's father bringing an old friend who has Alzheimer's disease to Fengxian for a walk, to a meal, then to a feast and finally to an entertainment bar. Moreover, there are some sequences that show the time after the birth of the son. Time goes by quietly, but life still continues.
Video
25 minutes
13 seconds
2015 LY_0660
Video
17 minutes
2011 LY_0702
The video recorded the New Year's Eve night, people went to the temple to pray for fortune for the next year.
Video
7 minutes
27 seconds
2015 LY_0797
The shots are accidentally captured with a long take: a line left in the sky by a plane and the sunlight constitute time scales.
Preview Online
Preview Online
Video
9 minutes
54 seconds
2015 LY_0825
Clean water and dirty water surge against each other; a poker-faced cat; ascending clouds
These scenes are shot at Glarus where is full of legends. Imagination and information indoctrinated can always create metaphorical atmosphere beyond reality.
Preview Online
These scenes are shot at Glarus where is full of legends. Imagination and information indoctrinated can always create metaphorical atmosphere beyond reality.
Preview Online
Video
17 minutes
30 seconds
2015 LY_0905
In these calm and objective shots, life, death, and now are circulating quietly in the twilight of PG Island.
Preview Online
Preview Online
Video
15 minutes
15 seconds
2010 LY_0914
Standing on the bank of lake, looking at birds and feeding birds; when you are seeing the scene, what are you looking at...
Video
35 minutes
54 seconds
2012 LY_1493
Several youths go fishing in the suburbs. They are fishing nearly a whole day, and getting a little boring.
Video
27 minutes
38 seconds
2007 LY_1684
This video is a continuation of LadyLady and located in the Czech Republic, Europe. Because of the language barrier, the main character feels more lonely, even though she is still curious about travelling alone. It seems that she feels lonely, but she still has a good time during her trip.
Video
Drawing
2014 LY_1847
They all happened in different time: sometimes there was only one suddenly popped out, sometimes several of them appeared at the same time. But it was all spontaneous. They just happened like that, naturally and accidentally. What can be confirmed is that myself is the source of all the clues. I feel like, sometimes, it is not finished. Instead, it is just a start, or a memo to record certain clue’s appearance. Maybe afterwards, the memo will be forgotten. But anyway, they will appear together some time again…
Video
5 minutes
24 seconds
2013 LY_2396
Video
10 minutes
36 seconds
2010 LY_2520
As the title of this video, "Dasein" is a term from Heidegger’s philosophy, indicating the concept of existence in this very moment. I try to slide the lens and switch the actual situation in order to find this kind of outside perspective on one’s own existence. The background sound consists of the quack noises of cicadas in summer, which comes and goes together with a continuous shouting out of feeling alive.
Video
30 minutes
2013 LY_2704
The video is patched together of a few brief moments, the length of one pitch consists of only one minute, whereas with a 30 times repetition it becomes a video work of 30 minutes. It looks like an accurate timer always repeating the same scene, but still seemingly coherent, like a never-ending time spiral.
Video
12 minutes
2016 LY_3033
I passed a village when I was driving from Yushan Island (one of the most beautiful islands in China located in Fujian Province) on the way back to the highway, The broken walls and the old censer in front of the doors attracted her attention. What I found is a large field behind the doors, and a slope with huge trees at the foot. It was hard to figure out the amount of the trees. The shapes of the tree root were rather weird, like two dwarfs grown out of the earth, head to head. I soon recorded it.
Preview Online
Preview Online
Video
30 minutes
2015 LY_3104
Four-part videos together record and present the entire blooming process of Epiphyllum. The Epiphyllum opens slightly and slowly. The flower diameter is getting redder and thicker, and the bud is unfolding with quiver. The flower seems to force in an animalized way. And the rhythm of life is visible in the blooming process. (01 is placed near the door of the exhibition hall in this exhibition, just like the preface and beginning of a novel.)
Indeed, the exhibition has two frameworks. If the exhibition is taken as an essay, the works can be approximately divided into two themes tangled with each other: one is intermittency, the other one is the fleeting life. It can be seen clearly from the location map that some works are talking about life and death, and some are talking about chanciness. The common ground of all works is time. Or put it another way, for my camera, time looks as if it exists but spirals at the same place, signifying nothing.
Preview Online
Indeed, the exhibition has two frameworks. If the exhibition is taken as an essay, the works can be approximately divided into two themes tangled with each other: one is intermittency, the other one is the fleeting life. It can be seen clearly from the location map that some works are talking about life and death, and some are talking about chanciness. The common ground of all works is time. Or put it another way, for my camera, time looks as if it exists but spirals at the same place, signifying nothing.
Preview Online
Video
10 minutes
13 seconds
2015 LY_3406
Video
Installation
5 minutes
9 seconds
2015 LY_3961
Video
11 minutes
43 seconds
2011 LY_4459
Video
8 minutes
55 seconds
2014 LY_4488
Plenty of roes swim energetically in the river channel in spring, but the riverbank is chilly and desolate.
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Video
19 minutes
15 seconds
2011 LY_4691
I found an old captured which was taken from a night train...I must want to keep something...
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Preview Online
Video
12 minutes
40 seconds
2013 LY_4705
This video shows a moment of gathering clouds, driven by the wind just before the storm is surging. After removing the sound environment, the flow of changing images creates a strange observation experience. However, there is difficult expressible feeling similar to uneasiness or fear.
Video
7 minutes
31 seconds
2015 LY_5894
Flying insects surge, and spores waft out of the tree. There’s a kind of life occurring quietly, appearing as a dense and rising image.
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Preview Online
Video
40 minutes
2012 LY_6454
Lao Wang and Xiao Fan were originally urban people living in cities. Because they did not want to continue to eat foods full of pesticides and hormones, they decided to rent land to grow vegetables and raise chickens. They had a lot of embarrassment but also made small progress and fun. This is part of the live record, the next episode depends on their future...
Video
20 minutes
2012 LY_6755
This is a video about the moon moving for 20 minutes, takes with a telescope, just a recording of the moon for 20 minutes.
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Preview Online
Video
22 minutes
20 seconds
2014 LY_7750
In the morn, a POV shot moves into a city of skyscrapers with a car, accompanied by tire noises and slight sounds of a record played in the car. The sky starts to grow lighter. With the movement of the camera, the city is becoming denser and denser and it looks like a black tomb. The background sound is the song about trifles in life from the car CD player, which is sung by Tom Waits in a small bar.
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Video
3 minutes
57 seconds
2011 LY_7943
The reflected sunshine floating above the river, which is shot from the perch, looks like the worldly things flowing in the time. The noise from the distant street is recorded as the soundtrack.
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Preview Online
Video
10 minutes
4 seconds
2013 LY_8085
Originally, the artist would like to record the sound of wind in reeds; however, the tourists have been shot inadvertently.
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Preview Online
Video
13 minutes
2016 LY_8545
The camera zooms in on an old sleeping cat under the sunshine in the afternoon. The video is dubbed with a sound clip of night street sounds. The artist manages to connect the two dimensions of the world.
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Preview Online
Video
17 minutes
46 seconds
2013 LY_8925
This video slowly moves its focus on the temple ground that is covered by plants. Because of the friction with time, the air captures a sense of presence. The video consists of several images, such as a spider weaving its web meticulously and several people walking past an ancient bridge leisurely. The artist removes the sound deliberately from these elements and allows that silent story to go on in unexpected ways.
Video
1 minutes
42 seconds
2015 LY_8931
Video
29 minutes
50 seconds
2015 LY_8947
Airplanes translate from right to left one by one occasionally but regularly at night.
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Preview Online
Video
3 minutes
11 seconds
2015 LY_9023
The artist shoots a creaking bench and the ceiling with a fly hovering around in a creaking background. After guessing for a while, audiences finally find there’s a woman sitting on the bench and swaying so that the old junk tunes out different tones of pitches.
Preview Online
Preview Online
Video
18 minutes
53 seconds
2012 LY_9354
The artist attempts to grasp a sense of existence, the scene in her eyes is the reflection of her inner world. In such a frozen and strange situation, maybe that quiet room could be found by oneself.
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Preview Online
Video
5 minutes
2016 LY_9683
I occasionally glimpse the scene under a bridge. The dim light of floating plants feel like humans' hair. Watching it for a moment, I can't help but to associate it with a swimming mermaid. As I dream, I go deeper into the water.
Preview Online
Preview Online
Video
2 minutes
2009 LY_9767
This video is about two minutes and was was created for FemLink (The International Videos-Artists Collection) and takes the men as the main theme. Men like to see young and beautiful women, but they might also worry about small details.
Video
3 minutes
36 seconds
2003 LWJ_2991
This video was made when I was a student. Video-making involves a lot of stuff which are often very complicated. I stopped because I was rather occupied and I decided to focus on my paintings. But the mode of thinking that I had when I made video can still be found in my paintings.
Video
14 minutes
20 seconds
2003 LWJ_5393
This video was made when I was a student. Video-making involves a lot of stuff which are often very complicated. I stopped because I was rather occupied and I decided to focus on my paintings. But the mode of thinking that I had when I made video can still be found in my paintings.
Video
3 minutes
36 seconds
2004 LWJ_9916
This video was made when I was a student. Video-making involves a lot of stuff which are often very complicated. I stopped because I was rather occupied and I decided to focus on my paintings. But the mode of thinking that I had when I made video can still be found in my paintings.
Video
5 minutes
40 seconds
2017 LY2_3277
Along the coast of Southeast China, there is a kind of boat dwellers called ‘DAN MIN’, who have been living on the sea with their boats as their home for generations. Their existence is like a piece of duckweed, drifting on the sea all year round. There is no name and race, and few people notice them.
The ink animation ‘The Earthly Men’ takes ‘DAN MIN’ as its inspiration. They have been drifting on the water for a long time, and as a marginalized group, their life not only reflects the social exclusion in history, but also reveals the individual’s inner sense of drifting and loneliness. In the work, The Earthly Men becomes the symbol of the ‘DAN MIN’ not only presenting their double drift in reality and psychology, but also trying to form a dialogue with the new social marginal group of urban strangers in the city nowadays.
The ink animation ‘The Earthly Men’ takes ‘DAN MIN’ as its inspiration. They have been drifting on the water for a long time, and as a marginalized group, their life not only reflects the social exclusion in history, but also reveals the individual’s inner sense of drifting and loneliness. In the work, The Earthly Men becomes the symbol of the ‘DAN MIN’ not only presenting their double drift in reality and psychology, but also trying to form a dialogue with the new social marginal group of urban strangers in the city nowadays.
Video
5 minutes
5 seconds
2013 LY2_3976
This is a description of a watercolor animation film titled "Origin of Species ", which explores an alternative perspective on evolution. The film starts with microscopic life forms, such as bacteria and protozoa, and delves into the possibility that evolution does not always progress towards more complex and higher forms of life, but instead undergoes deconstruction and regression, ultimately returning to inorganic matter.
The film draws inspiration from the BBC documentary "Life" and depicts the wonders and brutality of evolution in the natural world. As humans face bacterial infections, their bodies begin to break down, cells disintegrate, and the integrity of the human body is destroyed. Each part of the body seems to experience a kind of "material degradation," ultimately returning to a purely material state. The boundaries between life and death become blurred.
After escaping from their host bodies, bacteria return to the natural material cycle, no longer dependent on organic bodies but remerged into the material world as non-living matter. In this state, the boundaries between life and death, matter and non-being are no longer clear-cut. All existence is in a state of instability, constantly prone to dissolution, disappearance, or rebirth.
The film draws inspiration from the BBC documentary "Life" and depicts the wonders and brutality of evolution in the natural world. As humans face bacterial infections, their bodies begin to break down, cells disintegrate, and the integrity of the human body is destroyed. Each part of the body seems to experience a kind of "material degradation," ultimately returning to a purely material state. The boundaries between life and death become blurred.
After escaping from their host bodies, bacteria return to the natural material cycle, no longer dependent on organic bodies but remerged into the material world as non-living matter. In this state, the boundaries between life and death, matter and non-being are no longer clear-cut. All existence is in a state of instability, constantly prone to dissolution, disappearance, or rebirth.
Video
Installation
4 minutes
30 seconds
2015 LY2_4381
"A Travel Inward" is a visual and imaginative deep dive, inviting the audience into a meticulously crafted, fantastical world of ink-wash animation. Through a unique perspective—like a turtle retreating its head into its own digestive tract—and employing the expressive medium of ink, it explores the intricate relationships between existence and emptiness, self and other. The piece unveils how individuals, amidst the repetition and nihilism of modern society, can discover breakthroughs and awakenings within their disorientation.
Many in contemporary society experience a persistent norm: an endless cycle of daily repetition in which we chase ideals or goals, yet often end up alienated from reality and disconnected from ourselves. The frame-by-frame hand-drawn animation technique offers a profound response to life's monotony, reflecting the oppressive repetition that burdens the modern human psyche.
Thus, like a turtle, she ventures into her own "black hole"—a digestive tract that is both real and abstract. In every ink-infused frame, where the ink flows and spreads like pen strokes on paper, the imagery constantly shifts and interweaves, as if narrating the fragmented inner worlds of individuals. These fragments collide and fold within life's torrent, ultimately converging at the end of the digestive tract to find an "exit." There, a moment of awakening and rebirth awaits…
Many in contemporary society experience a persistent norm: an endless cycle of daily repetition in which we chase ideals or goals, yet often end up alienated from reality and disconnected from ourselves. The frame-by-frame hand-drawn animation technique offers a profound response to life's monotony, reflecting the oppressive repetition that burdens the modern human psyche.
Thus, like a turtle, she ventures into her own "black hole"—a digestive tract that is both real and abstract. In every ink-infused frame, where the ink flows and spreads like pen strokes on paper, the imagery constantly shifts and interweaves, as if narrating the fragmented inner worlds of individuals. These fragments collide and fold within life's torrent, ultimately converging at the end of the digestive tract to find an "exit." There, a moment of awakening and rebirth awaits…
Video
11 minutes
30 seconds
2016 LY2_5364
A Crow Has Been Calling for a Whole Day is a work by artist Liu Yi, created in response to various impressions and experiences during his travels in India. Seamlessly merging live-action footage with hand-drawn animation, the piece weaves a narrative through multiple dimensions—life and death, desire and religious ritual, time and dreamscapes. In the manner of a “travel diary,” the artist documents powerful slices of everyday reality and personal encounters: preserving the unfiltered vibrancy and clamor of India’s streets while incorporating elements of mystery and transcendence. In this sense, the work resembles a field-based cross-cultural study—rooted in postcolonial theory and multi-sited ethnography—offering not only an exploration of local customs and religious practices but also a reflection on self-ethnography.
Throughout the work, the crow motif no longer functions merely as an ominous or dark symbol from Chinese culture; in the Indian context, it assumes roles as a “messenger of the dead” and a “spiritual intermediary,” symbolizing the perpetual flow of life and death within the cycle of time. Liu Yi captures the crow’s unique status in Indian daily life: the birds move fearlessly through train stations, worship sites, and roadside spaces—bearing witness to the mortal world, even as they bridge the gap between humankind and the divine, the living and the departed. The title’s reference to “a crow calling all day” emerges as a kind of archetypal summons, linking those who are alive, those who have passed, and those yet to exist—an invitation to ponder ultimate questions of existence.
Formally, Liu Yi employs layered transitions between reality and animation, integrating painting, sound, video, and other media to convey the “multidimensional experience” he had in India. The work’s rich and vibrant visuals, the cacophony of everyday life, the aura of sacred ritual, and the symbolic imagery drawn from personal dreamscapes all coalesce. Meanwhile, recurring images of cows and crows—so commonplace on city streets—carry dual connotations of the sacred and the mundane. Through this multimodal, multisensory approach, the work illustrates the close ties between daily life and religious practice, inviting viewers to revisit the intricately woven tapestry of life, spirituality, and humanitarian reflection that lies somewhere between reality and the realm of dreams.
Throughout the work, the crow motif no longer functions merely as an ominous or dark symbol from Chinese culture; in the Indian context, it assumes roles as a “messenger of the dead” and a “spiritual intermediary,” symbolizing the perpetual flow of life and death within the cycle of time. Liu Yi captures the crow’s unique status in Indian daily life: the birds move fearlessly through train stations, worship sites, and roadside spaces—bearing witness to the mortal world, even as they bridge the gap between humankind and the divine, the living and the departed. The title’s reference to “a crow calling all day” emerges as a kind of archetypal summons, linking those who are alive, those who have passed, and those yet to exist—an invitation to ponder ultimate questions of existence.
Formally, Liu Yi employs layered transitions between reality and animation, integrating painting, sound, video, and other media to convey the “multidimensional experience” he had in India. The work’s rich and vibrant visuals, the cacophony of everyday life, the aura of sacred ritual, and the symbolic imagery drawn from personal dreamscapes all coalesce. Meanwhile, recurring images of cows and crows—so commonplace on city streets—carry dual connotations of the sacred and the mundane. Through this multimodal, multisensory approach, the work illustrates the close ties between daily life and religious practice, inviting viewers to revisit the intricately woven tapestry of life, spirituality, and humanitarian reflection that lies somewhere between reality and the realm of dreams.
Video
Installation
8 minutes
2014 LY2_5471
Time itself is an unfolding mystery, where each moment of “reality” is but a brief manifestation of countless possibilities. These moments intertwine and alternate in intangible dimensions, at times clear, at times blurred, and ultimately disappear in the endless flow.
Chaos, as a concept, is not merely synonymous with “disorder.” It holds profound underlying patterns, much like an ocean that appears chaotic on the surface yet conceals powerful, unseen currents operating by an unknown logic. In this work, I aim to use the core ideas of chaos theory to uncover this deeper, hidden order beneath the surface. The so-called “disorder” is nothing more than the fragmentation visible to us, while the true order lies in dimensions beyond our immediate perception, waiting to be gradually revealed through continuous exploration and reconstruction.
Chaos, as a concept, is not merely synonymous with “disorder.” It holds profound underlying patterns, much like an ocean that appears chaotic on the surface yet conceals powerful, unseen currents operating by an unknown logic. In this work, I aim to use the core ideas of chaos theory to uncover this deeper, hidden order beneath the surface. The so-called “disorder” is nothing more than the fragmentation visible to us, while the true order lies in dimensions beyond our immediate perception, waiting to be gradually revealed through continuous exploration and reconstruction.
Installation
Video
1 minutes
40 seconds
2015 LY2_9745
For us, living in the routine life seems like entering a non-stop spinning machine: There is no way to stop our minds and thoughts from an endless running.
“In the void, nothing can be caught by my memories…I can’t concentrate on anything. I contracted the nebula and compressed it as a fireball. After that, it turned into a ‘point’, and then, back to nothing.”
“In the void, nothing can be caught by my memories…I can’t concentrate on anything. I contracted the nebula and compressed it as a fireball. After that, it turned into a ‘point’, and then, back to nothing.”
Video
5 minutes
15 seconds
2015 LYQ_5185
Creeper in the darkness,
unpredictable and terrifying.
Try to face him desperately,
but found only infinite darkness.
unpredictable and terrifying.
Try to face him desperately,
but found only infinite darkness.
Video
3 minutes
32 seconds
2016 LYQ_7472
Those who were sentenced useless were buried alive in the carelessly dug pit.
Still, some try to crawl their way out of this fate.
Still, some try to crawl their way out of this fate.
Video
2 minutes
1 seconds
2016 LYQ_8162
We are noble,
and we make rules.
As the most beautiful people in the world,
we will let you know what is the inherently noble temperament.
and we make rules.
As the most beautiful people in the world,
we will let you know what is the inherently noble temperament.
Video
Installation
2 minutes
32 seconds
2016 LYQ_8608
Those who were sentenced useless were buried alive in the carelessly dug pit.
Still, some try to crawl their way out of this fate.
Still, some try to crawl their way out of this fate.
Video
7 minutes
46 seconds
2016 LYQ_9978
A group of poker-faced audience,
A reckless auctioneer,
A barter trade in a lawless land.
A reckless auctioneer,
A barter trade in a lawless land.
Video
11 minutes
2002 SQU062
In the “Black Taboo” series Shi Qing makes use of ancient mythologies that he ‘translates’ in t modern stories. Viewers encounter fragmentation: some of it coming from unreliable memories, some from worried imagination, and still more from the way in which he portrays the absurdity of everyday life by enlarging and reproducing the ordinary.
Video
23 minutes
2002 SQU063
In the “Black Taboo” series Shi Qing makes use of ancient mythologies that he ‘translates’ in t modern stories. Viewers encounter fragmentation: some of it coming from unreliable memories, some from worried imagination, and still more from the way in which he portrays the absurdity of everyday life by enlarging and reproducing the ordinary.
Video
9 minutes
2002 SQU064
In the “Black Taboo” series Shi Qing makes use of ancient mythologies that he ‘translates’ in t modern stories. Viewers encounter fragmentation: some of it coming from unreliable memories, some from worried imagination, and still more from the way in which he portrays the absurdity of everyday life by enlarging and reproducing the ordinary.
Video
13 minutes
2003 SQU065
The “Four Appearances” series consist of short stories centered around basic elements such as fire, water and the lotus. The films appear in both color and black-and-white footage showing young people on the beach, in the countryside, and in a bamboo forest.
Video
11 minutes
2003 SQU066
The “Four Appearances” series consist of short stories centered around basic elements such as fire, water and the lotus. The films appear in both color and black-and-white footage showing young people on the beach, in the countryside, and in a bamboo forest.
Video
7 minutes
2003 SQU067
The “Four Appearances” series consist of short stories centered around basic elements such as fire, water and the lotus. The films appear in both color and black-and-white footage showing young people on the beach, in the countryside, and in a bamboo forest.
Video
6 minutes
2003 SQU068
The “Four Appearances” series consist of short stories centered around basic elements such as fire, water and the lotus. The films appear in both color and black-and-white footage showing young people on the beach, in the countryside, and in a bamboo forest.
Video
45 minutes
2015 SQ_8671
We know Guattari mostly because of Deleuze. They wrote a few controversial philosophical works together. Guattari is often disadvantaged as "second author" and is usually ignored. The title "Bad Man" is a mockery of people saying that he gave Deleuze "bad influence", and a "radical social activist" is always a bad man in the eyes of the governors.
This is a small drama based on text and narrative. This is not a review of Guattari's life or his theory report. We always care about the parts that overlap with our lives, like the "escape path" that Deleuze / Guattari set up for us. When these have become "golden rules", how will we face it and respond? The performance is not the result of a repetitive rehearsal, and we don't want to treat the rehearsal as a practice itself. We still look forward to discovering. Guattari has participated in countless activities throughout his life, as well as writing and publishing. As a psychoanalyst, he died in a mental hospital where he worked for life.
This is a small drama based on text and narrative. This is not a review of Guattari's life or his theory report. We always care about the parts that overlap with our lives, like the "escape path" that Deleuze / Guattari set up for us. When these have become "golden rules", how will we face it and respond? The performance is not the result of a repetitive rehearsal, and we don't want to treat the rehearsal as a practice itself. We still look forward to discovering. Guattari has participated in countless activities throughout his life, as well as writing and publishing. As a psychoanalyst, he died in a mental hospital where he worked for life.
Video
2007 SYU022
Think carefully, where have you been yesterday?” this brief question with an interrogatory tone reveals one by one realities and life’s of various human beings.
This new video work composed of interviews, completely discarded the vocabulary of his previous works. Interrogatories observe, even intrude the interviewees’ memories and self-acceptance. By questioning closely and inducing, the artist exposes life and realities of people from different kind, professional background, social classes; “realities” that are sometime ludicrous made up stories, falsified and re-created.
This new video work composed of interviews, completely discarded the vocabulary of his previous works. Interrogatories observe, even intrude the interviewees’ memories and self-acceptance. By questioning closely and inducing, the artist exposes life and realities of people from different kind, professional background, social classes; “realities” that are sometime ludicrous made up stories, falsified and re-created.
Video
9 minutes
36 seconds
2008 SYU037
Take a photograph of the commercial street of East Nanjing Road in Shanghai, obliterate any recognizable details and information from the photo using software such as photo shop and flash, until there’s nothing but the empty and colourless shape of the street.
In a seemingly still image, every detail slips from the image quietly with the passage of time.
2008
In a seemingly still image, every detail slips from the image quietly with the passage of time.
2008
Video
22 minutes
50 seconds
2008 SYU039
1. Project plan
a. Take a photo of a bookshelf (with color)
Rub out the detailed information (including color, text, etc.) step by step with software like Photoshop, flash, until only the bookshelf and the shape and concept of the book remain. The final appearance of the image is black and white.
b. Present this process with Digital Video: in a seemingly still image, every detail slips from the image quietly with the passage of time.
2. Scene and equipment require
a. In a space without light, project the bookshelf onto a white wall in 1:1 proportion (width: 2.82m); paint the left, right and top sides of the wall black, just beyond the projected area.
b. a projection machine (400 lumens)
SHI Yong
March.2008, Shanghai
a. Take a photo of a bookshelf (with color)
Rub out the detailed information (including color, text, etc.) step by step with software like Photoshop, flash, until only the bookshelf and the shape and concept of the book remain. The final appearance of the image is black and white.
b. Present this process with Digital Video: in a seemingly still image, every detail slips from the image quietly with the passage of time.
2. Scene and equipment require
a. In a space without light, project the bookshelf onto a white wall in 1:1 proportion (width: 2.82m); paint the left, right and top sides of the wall black, just beyond the projected area.
b. a projection machine (400 lumens)
SHI Yong
March.2008, Shanghai
Video
11 minutes
19 seconds
2011 SY_3290
In the film, a young American man and a Chinese girl casually pass time in each other’s company near a construction site in a suburb of Shanghai. They are citizens of the two most powerful countries in the world but couldn’t be more shy, happy to co-exist but a meaningful relationship is beyond them because they do not share a language. He leaves after a while; she stays. A slow psychological drama, it can be easily read as a geopolitical vignette.
Video
18 minutes
19 seconds
2009 SY_3878
Shi Yong and Seth Joseph Augustine 's collaborative project, Borders Within, was a social experiment. By being blindfolded and introduced into a completely foreign environment Seth instantly became “The Outsider.” Seth was a bewildered, Caucasian American unable to speak the language, and unfamiliar with the work being done. At the same time, the Chinese workers became “The Sethnsiders.” Our meeting was a tense, awkward, and curious moment, and it became apparent that the results of this experiment were open-ended—anything could happen. Shi Yong and Seth framed our project in this way in order to discover where the internal boundaries were drawn within people. Where could we find common ground? Over the course of the week, living and working side-by-side with the Chinese workers, Seth understood a tiny bit of their life experiences. And through our limited communication, they came to know a small fraction of who Seth was. However, a vast chasm of unknown still existed, and we realized that we could never in fact know very much about one another. Ultimately, my juxtaposition within this environment served to highlight the Chinese workers’ daily life, and became a bridge into their concerns, and their struggles. (Text by Seth Augustine)
Installation
Video
4 minutes
49 seconds
2002 sy18
The video part of QQ’s fantasy is composed of alternating images of a dog-like stooping body and an architectural dome under the starry sky. By switching these pictures continuously, the performance of the body is expressed through a series of illusory actions that grows increasingly intense until consciousness is regained by falling.
In terms of the presentation of the installation, the video is projected on a thin white film while sound is spread through the bass amplifier affixed to the film. Here the concrete sound that follows the rhythm of the physical performance is intentionally overlapped with an illusory performance that is detached from any other objects in the video. They together express a circumstance where desire can only be met by solacing Karaoke style pleasure, which can be both related and unrelated to the reality.
In terms of the presentation of the installation, the video is projected on a thin white film while sound is spread through the bass amplifier affixed to the film. Here the concrete sound that follows the rhythm of the physical performance is intentionally overlapped with an illusory performance that is detached from any other objects in the video. They together express a circumstance where desire can only be met by solacing Karaoke style pleasure, which can be both related and unrelated to the reality.
Video
8 minutes
18 seconds
2004 sy21
This video presents 30 different figures (all dressed in the same way of new Shanghai look), and accordingly connects their portraits. For the viewer, it seems changed (different face types), yet unchanged (same attires).
Television is set upright. (Silent)
Television is set upright. (Silent)
Video
8 minutes
2004 STU003
Song Tao’s film noir “Three Days Ago” (2005) is a poetic venture into the nighttime terrain of Shanghai. Along the way, the viewer glimpses certain recurring leitmotivs, such as a child playing hopscotch, a brightly lit highway tunnel and a haunting building. An electronic score that plays throughout lends the film a flowing rhythm all its own. The loop-like structure encourages the viewer to focus increasingly on the atmosphere rather than over-all narrative plot. The elliptical repetition also builds suspense that seems to accumulate towards the end. The dramatic scenes appear eternally; the urban nightly journey could take place anywhere, anytime. Song Tao presents a slice of reality as kinetic views of urban space and fragments of memory.
About the project of “4.7G”：Beginning 2004, I have cooperated music short video with Shanghai electronic music person-B6. We aperiodically do the new short music video until the totally added data is equally 4.7GB，also the capability of one DVD is 4.7G.
three days ago： produced between April to May in 2004，it’s the first video which belong to <<4.7G>>-the cooperation project by B6 and Song Tao，music produced by B6，directed by Song Tao. The length is 8’30 minutes.
About the project of “4.7G”：Beginning 2004, I have cooperated music short video with Shanghai electronic music person-B6. We aperiodically do the new short music video until the totally added data is equally 4.7GB，also the capability of one DVD is 4.7G.
three days ago： produced between April to May in 2004，it’s the first video which belong to <<4.7G>>-the cooperation project by B6 and Song Tao，music produced by B6，directed by Song Tao. The length is 8’30 minutes.
Video
9 minutes
40 seconds
2005 STU004
yard：produced between January to March in 2006，it’s the second video which belong to <<4.7G>>-the cooperation project by B6 and Song Tao，music produced by B6，directed by Song Tao. The length is 9 minutes.
Song Tao and B6's Yard comprises three interrelated elements:an lelctronic music soundtrack by B6,which was the starting point for the work;a projected video film(9'25" in duration)of digitally overlain and juxtaposed moving colour images made by Song Tao in response to B6's music representing differing aspects of the urban environment in contemporary Shanghai,including nocturnal street scenes,B6 in a Moog t-shirt with headphones around his neck and finally a ballet dancer practicing in a dance studio tracked closely by a cameraman whose image is reflected by the studio's mirrored wall;and a staged environment for the viewing of the work.
Song Tao and B6's Yard comprises three interrelated elements:an lelctronic music soundtrack by B6,which was the starting point for the work;a projected video film(9'25" in duration)of digitally overlain and juxtaposed moving colour images made by Song Tao in response to B6's music representing differing aspects of the urban environment in contemporary Shanghai,including nocturnal street scenes,B6 in a Moog t-shirt with headphones around his neck and finally a ballet dancer practicing in a dance studio tracked closely by a cameraman whose image is reflected by the studio's mirrored wall;and a staged environment for the viewing of the work.
Video
34 minutes
8 seconds
2004 STU006
The repetitive structure gains strength in quantity and the shift from quantitative change to qualitative change. But in the works of Liang Yue and Song Tao, the form of repetition and monotony that they used is looks like the true-life copy.
Video
6 minutes
2007 STU012
This is the third work by 4.7G.In the background music made by B6,five youngsters gathered together,playing military chess,talking,smoking and joking that showed an easy,daily life.
Video
5 minutes
29 seconds
2006 SXU002
The memory is empty, when man gets into a state of shock. The shock of time can also called the shock of history. The most important element of this work is some old paper from 50's and 60's. The papers recorded some important information of China. To me, it has become history which I can never get close to. For this reason, I can only use my work turned this history into a doubtful legend. Our conception of history has been twisted passively or voluntarily. There are lies, secrets or maybe farces behind all these things. Maybe it is just the real history. History is how we think but not what it is. Even we have archeology and museum, we still sorrow when we face the real history.
Video
7 minutes
21 seconds
2007 SXU003
“Requiem” is an apocalyptic story about a world in despair, streets are burning and giant mosquitos flying above the city as helicopters ready for attack.
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Video
4 minutes
14 seconds
2005 SXU004
In ‘Magician’s Lie’ we see a person covered in black paint while white tribal patterns continuously form various tattoos on his body.
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Video
7 minutes
20 seconds
2006 SXU005
“Lie” is set in a space only inhabited by a character wearing a tall magician’s hat. The space is lit up from outside by the moon that shines through the barred window frames. Inside, the walls suddenly come to live, and strange creatures morph into bombs and bonfires.
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Video
4 minutes
41 seconds
2004 SXU006
“Utopia in the Day” presents a marionette theater – here, the characters are controlled by a puppet master in the character of a skeleton. Death controls the living.
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Video
2 minutes
12 seconds
2005 SXU012
“A War About Chinese Words” is a black and white movie animation where Chinese characters morph and come alive as soldiers, animals and tanks. The characters enter wars and battles
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Video
12 minutes
36 seconds
2006 SXU013
MYTHOS (2006) is a collage created with reference to personal memories as well as collective experiences. In the strange spatio-temporal image, the history has been cut into pieces. It seems that everyone is a king, everyone is a magician, and numberless chairs are there waiting while billows of flame are sweeping the brown old photos. The animation is a montage of history, and MYTHOS’ dictionary is, thus, a code full of questions.
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Video
27 minutes
2010 SXU080
We always make thorough enquiry about history. But when history is past and distant-such as a second, a minute, an hour, one day, one year, even a century-then the enquiry itself will be much more sincere and exciting than the answer. Our perspective on the world is in useless changing. We, all the people, are in hesitating and homeless situation. Everyone is a wanderer.
21 KE was produced by SUN Xun and π Animation Studio four years after its commencement, in which the artist and his team invested the dream of animate creation by pursuit in technique and exploration in artistic language. Themed with "the weight of soul", the video guided its viewers into a journey that probed for the very origin of the value of self-existence. The experimental "animation film" was mainly completed by pastel on canvas. Presented with exquisite and rich texture that constituted black and white images, and rendered by background music composed with human voice, sound of machines, noise of riots and other restless factors, 21 KE introduced to its spectators an overwhelming audiovisual experience. SUN Xun commented on this piece that “in 21 KE, time is abandoned by history and soul is lost by us..." The artist attempted to reflect on the existence of self and history by the production of a series of scenarios and events appearing ridiculous and yet familiar, as well as the establishment of the relationship between personal experience and grande narration.
Artist has exhibited his works in "Orizzonti" section at the 67th Venice International Film Festival, solo exhibition 21 KE (2010, Minsheng Art Museum), Beyond-ism (2011, ShanghART Beijing), After Doctrine (2010, Yokohama Creative City Centre) and SUN Xun – Shock of Time (2009, Drawing Center, New York) and so on.
21 KE was shown in 67th Venice International Film Festival in Italy, Art Basel Miami Beach in U.S.A., Tales from the New Chinese Cinema in New York, PhotoEspana 2011 in Madrid, Impossible Universe in Brisbane and Hell (Helvete) in Stockholm and so forth.
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21 KE was produced by SUN Xun and π Animation Studio four years after its commencement, in which the artist and his team invested the dream of animate creation by pursuit in technique and exploration in artistic language. Themed with "the weight of soul", the video guided its viewers into a journey that probed for the very origin of the value of self-existence. The experimental "animation film" was mainly completed by pastel on canvas. Presented with exquisite and rich texture that constituted black and white images, and rendered by background music composed with human voice, sound of machines, noise of riots and other restless factors, 21 KE introduced to its spectators an overwhelming audiovisual experience. SUN Xun commented on this piece that “in 21 KE, time is abandoned by history and soul is lost by us..." The artist attempted to reflect on the existence of self and history by the production of a series of scenarios and events appearing ridiculous and yet familiar, as well as the establishment of the relationship between personal experience and grande narration.
Artist has exhibited his works in "Orizzonti" section at the 67th Venice International Film Festival, solo exhibition 21 KE (2010, Minsheng Art Museum), Beyond-ism (2011, ShanghART Beijing), After Doctrine (2010, Yokohama Creative City Centre) and SUN Xun – Shock of Time (2009, Drawing Center, New York) and so on.
21 KE was shown in 67th Venice International Film Festival in Italy, Art Basel Miami Beach in U.S.A., Tales from the New Chinese Cinema in New York, PhotoEspana 2011 in Madrid, Impossible Universe in Brisbane and Hell (Helvete) in Stockholm and so forth.
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Video
9 minutes
4 seconds
2008 SXU083
'Hero' is a kind of historical complex, this complex lead to the transitions of our history. But they are usually ridiculous. "History" means to us more likely a sort of impression, or a illusory reality.
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Video
5 minutes
19 seconds
2008 SXU129
All the inspirations from a small book called New China given by a friend of mine. The print time of this book is probably before the Second World War. This book is written by a missionary who lived in China for many years and knows China very well. The general content of this book is telling people how to love their country, how to construct their country, how to be a useful person and about China’s revolution at that time.
Everyone knows that China is called New China after 1949. But there used to be the appellation. It is very interesting. After I read through this book, seeing China’s Modern history, I found this country actually runs around a circle. They can stop at any point to do some more valuable things. But maybe there are many unknown stories that behind it have changed its result. While what about China now?
Everyone knows that China is called New China after 1949. But there used to be the appellation. It is very interesting. After I read through this book, seeing China’s Modern history, I found this country actually runs around a circle. They can stop at any point to do some more valuable things. But maybe there are many unknown stories that behind it have changed its result. While what about China now?
Video
7 minutes
56 seconds
2008 SXU130
About Coal Incantation:
When we sleep deeply, everything becomes history. ---Sun Xun
Coal Spell, inspired by this old five Yuan RMB note, is an account of the rise and fall of Fuxin, an old industrial coal city located in northeastern China. As a result of the experiences and nostalgia of his upbringing, the artist began to question both History and Power:
In a mysterious dark city, yellow sand storms wreak havoc. Several huge smokestacks located in the middle of the city pierce the sky, emitting black fumes, which blanket the sun. The sound of doctrine rings out daily in order to banish various curiosities about this world. The city is a tremendous prison where history is boxed up like a monster – a brutal, fierce monster. One particular day, people were forcing the screaming Soviet Union excavator to clumsily open the skin of the land, gradually closing the heart of the city…even the changes of history can be closely watched.
People’s money, pattern is just the illustration…
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When we sleep deeply, everything becomes history. ---Sun Xun
Coal Spell, inspired by this old five Yuan RMB note, is an account of the rise and fall of Fuxin, an old industrial coal city located in northeastern China. As a result of the experiences and nostalgia of his upbringing, the artist began to question both History and Power:
In a mysterious dark city, yellow sand storms wreak havoc. Several huge smokestacks located in the middle of the city pierce the sky, emitting black fumes, which blanket the sun. The sound of doctrine rings out daily in order to banish various curiosities about this world. The city is a tremendous prison where history is boxed up like a monster – a brutal, fierce monster. One particular day, people were forcing the screaming Soviet Union excavator to clumsily open the skin of the land, gradually closing the heart of the city…even the changes of history can be closely watched.
People’s money, pattern is just the illustration…
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Video
7 minutes
30 seconds
2009 SXU267
Video
8 minutes
8 seconds
2010 SXU365
There is an old Chinese legend that says the First Emperor of the Qin Dynasty sent Xufu and 3,000 boys and girls on a boat towards the magic lands of the East in order to find the remedy for eternal life… It is said that the boat reached Japan in the end.
Similarly, in ancient China, people had different understandings of the world; one says that people believe the world is a big mountain, and this big mountain is carried on the back of a big tortoise whose name is “bei xu”, the last son of the Dragon, who is also very good in carrying heavy weights whilst standing over four big elephants … this is the way the world has been structured.
The world of the Magician, who is the only legal liar, states the magnificence of the world of politics; in reality this is just a mirage, like an oasis, and the entire world is upside down; everything is a romantic wasteland and in this wasteland will the brightness people has so longed ever appear? Or do we need to turn all lies upside down… how our lives should be?
Time has passed until now; I came to Japan for the art project at the Yokohama Art center. This artwork combines three parts; I realized the first part that comprises 10 huge ink drawings in Yokohama. In Beijing I realized the second part, which consisted in the video animation the scenarios of which are taken from Japan. The third part is a site-specific drawing I completed now in Nagoya.
This work is associated with Japan, however the story comes from China.
Director: Sun Xun
PRODUCER: Sun Xun
Script: Sun Xun
ANIMATION: Sun Xun, Tang Bohua, Fang Anguo, Han Ling, Zhou Lei,
Li Rong, Li Tianyao, Zhang Feng
EDITOR: Xu Chong, Sun Xun
SOUND: Jin Shan
IMAGE PROCRSSING: Deng Jing，Zhou Chao
Similarly, in ancient China, people had different understandings of the world; one says that people believe the world is a big mountain, and this big mountain is carried on the back of a big tortoise whose name is “bei xu”, the last son of the Dragon, who is also very good in carrying heavy weights whilst standing over four big elephants … this is the way the world has been structured.
The world of the Magician, who is the only legal liar, states the magnificence of the world of politics; in reality this is just a mirage, like an oasis, and the entire world is upside down; everything is a romantic wasteland and in this wasteland will the brightness people has so longed ever appear? Or do we need to turn all lies upside down… how our lives should be?
Time has passed until now; I came to Japan for the art project at the Yokohama Art center. This artwork combines three parts; I realized the first part that comprises 10 huge ink drawings in Yokohama. In Beijing I realized the second part, which consisted in the video animation the scenarios of which are taken from Japan. The third part is a site-specific drawing I completed now in Nagoya.
This work is associated with Japan, however the story comes from China.
Director: Sun Xun
PRODUCER: Sun Xun
Script: Sun Xun
ANIMATION: Sun Xun, Tang Bohua, Fang Anguo, Han Ling, Zhou Lei,
Li Rong, Li Tianyao, Zhang Feng
EDITOR: Xu Chong, Sun Xun
SOUND: Jin Shan
IMAGE PROCRSSING: Deng Jing，Zhou Chao
Video
10 minutes
2010 SXU470
Clown’s Revolution" is about a real island where a group of poets live. It’s a small and completely Utopian society, and a dream we have been pursuing; it is an Utopian reality, which exists in a life pursued by art. The English title is more like a process we are seeking, which is full of absurdity and metempsychosis.
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Video
12 minutes
22 seconds
2011 SXU579
This is an animation film made from wood printing block. It costs more than a year to complete the film. Wood printing block has got a unique development and history in China, since it was a culture weapon in revolution, as well as the inheritor of revolution spirit. Thus, its form is more than wood printing block itself. Those animation frames tell us a special memory of a remote country, but the memory continues to repeat in reality.
Video
9 minutes
2017 SX_3121
The Chiwen is a legendary animal decoration used on the both ends of the oriental ancient buildings’ roof ridge. Known as the dragon’s son, it is good at spewing waves and making rain, which helps prevent fire and bring good fortune to the house.
Tears of Chiwen is a metaphor. Tears symbolize water, happiness and sadness. Since the recent history of East Asia began, each country has absorbed Western cultures in its own ways, and now takes on a new look of Westernization. The work Tears of Chiwen is a reflection on the modernity of East Asian Culture in the context of globalization. -- SUN Xun
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Tears of Chiwen is a metaphor. Tears symbolize water, happiness and sadness. Since the recent history of East Asia began, each country has absorbed Western cultures in its own ways, and now takes on a new look of Westernization. The work Tears of Chiwen is a reflection on the modernity of East Asian Culture in the context of globalization. -- SUN Xun
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Video
9 minutes
43 seconds
2013 SX_4695
The ancient universe is different from ours today: the deities lived in every planet, as with in our world, and planets with deities were once very close to the Earth. Deity inhabits in all natural objects and phenomena!
"Pharaoh died, our Pharaoh died!" exclaimed Egyptians.
"He shall be buried with deities in the universe."
The Pyramid was built, beneath which lied dead Pharaohs. From certain angle and in certain time, the apex of the Pyramid could connect with the universe--- different apexes with different planets.
Dead Pharaohs are here, be with all deities! Thus the earliest monument of human was established, for commemorating "deity"!
It was also the largest tomb!
1989, Eastern Europe!
All communist monuments were transferred to a place in Eastern Europe, which is called monument park by someone, or monument tomb by others.
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"Pharaoh died, our Pharaoh died!" exclaimed Egyptians.
"He shall be buried with deities in the universe."
The Pyramid was built, beneath which lied dead Pharaohs. From certain angle and in certain time, the apex of the Pyramid could connect with the universe--- different apexes with different planets.
Dead Pharaohs are here, be with all deities! Thus the earliest monument of human was established, for commemorating "deity"!
It was also the largest tomb!
1989, Eastern Europe!
All communist monuments were transferred to a place in Eastern Europe, which is called monument park by someone, or monument tomb by others.
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Video
9 minutes
3 seconds
2016 SX_5272
This film combines the traditional woodcut and 3D visual experience and discusses the relationship between the time and life. We preserve the past by maintaining our memory and value the future by our desire. When we mention history, present, future, and eternality, memory could lie to us and tomorrow could never exist. There is nothing forever because we only live at the moment. Everything endures in the flux of time. The Universe is the only authority that could determine everything, and we are just the spies of time.
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Video
4 minutes
20 seconds
2003 SX_6696
Video
10 minutes
2014 SX_8031
This short film originates from one of Magritte’s painting named The Spontaneous Generation. It was inspired by Aldous Huxley’s novel Brave New World, which composed the Dystopia Trilogy along with Nineteen Eighty-Four and Мы, exploring the different development progresses of human society. However, when it comes to China, things corresponded with such situation during the 30 or 40 years since I born.
At the beginning of Dragon Year 2 years ago, I was invited by an economic magazine CHINA Economic REVIEW to design the cover for January issue, requiring making prediction of this new year in China from the view of an artist. Thus, there came the images of 2 dragons in this film. But it is till this year has the film been completed so that it started from forecast, and was a review of the past time as well. It is related with my future life and also connects with the past in which a moment turned to be eternal and this is the times of our lives, the past thoughts and experiences are waiting to be history, but I’m the person who goes through these things initiatively!
Magritte’s work is named The Spontaneous Generation, which means all the creatures develop from nonliving objects… The body carries the soul. But in the rapid changing world today, where do our consciousness, experiences, and even souls come from?
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At the beginning of Dragon Year 2 years ago, I was invited by an economic magazine CHINA Economic REVIEW to design the cover for January issue, requiring making prediction of this new year in China from the view of an artist. Thus, there came the images of 2 dragons in this film. But it is till this year has the film been completed so that it started from forecast, and was a review of the past time as well. It is related with my future life and also connects with the past in which a moment turned to be eternal and this is the times of our lives, the past thoughts and experiences are waiting to be history, but I’m the person who goes through these things initiatively!
Magritte’s work is named The Spontaneous Generation, which means all the creatures develop from nonliving objects… The body carries the soul. But in the rapid changing world today, where do our consciousness, experiences, and even souls come from?
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Video
12 minutes
44 seconds
2016 SX_9759
This is a film that discusses the origin of our history. It narrates how an industrial city used to be incomparably important in Northeast China, but now on its wane to be forgotten. Viewing through the featured legendary of folk customs, the alteration of political beliefs, and the historical changes, the dark and rich history captured momentarily is glimpsed.
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Video
8 minutes
12 seconds
2004 TMHU006
Music by JIN Feng
The distinctive aroma of art invented by TANG Maohong permeates his animation installation Orchid Finger as well as the silkscreen prints related to this piece. It is smart, humorous, peculiar and amusing. All the figures are displayed within round frames traditionally adopted in Chinese painting for themes like flowers and birds. The description of scenarios including flowers, pagodas and mushrooms has significantly deviated from still pictures in traditional sense. Talking in a straightforward language, it is a surreal world with self-humour, where human, animals and plants interacting with each other all gather together in the big carnival. The artist successfully presents a professional technique that combines tons of imagination and sensitivity obtained from everyday experience and then translates them into recognizable style characterized by exaggeration and uniqueness. What is reflected in his image world is not just the naissance of a new theme. Instead, it is imagination of a soul attached to flowing iconographic environment as well as reversal from tradition that bears too much to move.
The distinctive aroma of art invented by TANG Maohong permeates his animation installation Orchid Finger as well as the silkscreen prints related to this piece. It is smart, humorous, peculiar and amusing. All the figures are displayed within round frames traditionally adopted in Chinese painting for themes like flowers and birds. The description of scenarios including flowers, pagodas and mushrooms has significantly deviated from still pictures in traditional sense. Talking in a straightforward language, it is a surreal world with self-humour, where human, animals and plants interacting with each other all gather together in the big carnival. The artist successfully presents a professional technique that combines tons of imagination and sensitivity obtained from everyday experience and then translates them into recognizable style characterized by exaggeration and uniqueness. What is reflected in his image world is not just the naissance of a new theme. Instead, it is imagination of a soul attached to flowing iconographic environment as well as reversal from tradition that bears too much to move.
Video
6 minutes
2006 TMHU013
Music by LIN Di
The video installation “Sunday” (2006) is full of witty grotesquerie. The pieces are composed within circular frames, thus referencing traditional Chinese bird and flower paintings. Upon closer inspection however, Tang Maohong’s various scenes of flowers, pagodas and mushrooms display an aesthetic that is as far removed from a traditional composed still leben as imaginable. Here, a surreal universe of people, animals and plants interact and converge in orgiastic and explicit scenes that carry a humorous legibility all their own.
The video installation “Sunday” (2006) is full of witty grotesquerie. The pieces are composed within circular frames, thus referencing traditional Chinese bird and flower paintings. Upon closer inspection however, Tang Maohong’s various scenes of flowers, pagodas and mushrooms display an aesthetic that is as far removed from a traditional composed still leben as imaginable. Here, a surreal universe of people, animals and plants interact and converge in orgiastic and explicit scenes that carry a humorous legibility all their own.
Installation
Video
8 minutes
28 seconds
2008 TMHU019
TANG Maohong has been a very active artist in the Chinese contemporary art world in the recent years. Revolving around the concept of a "Big World", the pictorial content of his artwork On the Way unfolds imagination and constructs its own organization. A special appellation by foreigners of Shanghai as a metropolis, "Big World" includes all the imaginations and expectations concerning urbanization, whereas its understanding by people living in the city refers only to the land under their feet here and now. The most important part of the “Big World” concept is its inclusive character, which counts as well as one of the big city’s real inherent qualities: only if there are inclusiveness and tolerance, can communication and creativity be accessed via the flow of Trans Local Motion. With animated images of red, yellow and green lights, the artist expresses the themes traversed by past, present and future which serve as three temporal epochs corresponding respectively to the narration of the city’s historical memory, its present progressive tense as well as the future’s indefinite possibilities.
Video
52 minutes
3 seconds
2011 MIU148
"Physique of Consciousness" is the first cultural fitness exercise ever made, initiated by MadeIn Company. It comprises movements derived from dance, gymnastics, spiritual and cultural rituals. The whole series is composed of more than two hundreds steps and moves inspired from a hundred ceremonies, worships and traditions accumulated through the History of Humanity. It combines physical and spiritual virtues, enhancing body conditions and well-being.
As dance can be a form of expression and as ritual is usually linked to civilizations, the spiritual fitness “Physique of Consciousness” reflects the diversity of human ideologies. “Physique of Consciousness” consists in ten exercises, as ten chapters, with a progression of levels from easy to hard. The whole set of exercise lasts for thirty minutes. Movements are flowing, peaceful and aesthetic, accompanied by a relaxing music.
This fitness exercise is open to any public, young people as much as elders, it has various benefits such as maintaining a healthy physical condition, strengthening muscles, joint mobility, and improving the immune system. It can also bring peace of mind, by relieving stress and providing a feeling of wellness. The diversity of the movements participate to the enhancement of memory capacity and focusing function.
As dance can be a form of expression and as ritual is usually linked to civilizations, the spiritual fitness “Physique of Consciousness” reflects the diversity of human ideologies. “Physique of Consciousness” consists in ten exercises, as ten chapters, with a progression of levels from easy to hard. The whole set of exercise lasts for thirty minutes. Movements are flowing, peaceful and aesthetic, accompanied by a relaxing music.
This fitness exercise is open to any public, young people as much as elders, it has various benefits such as maintaining a healthy physical condition, strengthening muscles, joint mobility, and improving the immune system. It can also bring peace of mind, by relieving stress and providing a feeling of wellness. The diversity of the movements participate to the enhancement of memory capacity and focusing function.
Video
11 minutes
54 seconds
2012 MI_2877
MadeIn Company’s single-channel video work Continuously records MadeIn Company’s approach towards editing images. The video is composed of several parts that are short, pithy but full of interest and charm. Each part fully demonstrates the usual funny and joking character of MadeIn’s works.
Video
3 minutes
12 seconds
1998 XZ03
XU Zhen started out making videos that focused on the body and public space in a manner reminiscent of early Bruce Nauman or Vito Acconci: For example, the video “Rainbow” (1998) shows a person’s back growing increasingly red, the result of slaps heard on the sound track but never seen.
Video
8 minutes
32 seconds
1999 XZ08
In “From Inside the Body” (1999) viewers sit before three video monitors in a room outfitted with a single couch: The central screen shows the same couch, empty; the left-hand screen shows a man, and the right-hand screen, a woman. While the middle image remains static, the man and the woman begin to sniff the air, as if suddenly aware of an aroma. They smell themselves, stripping off their clothes to locate the source of this intoxicating scent. Finally, in their underwear, they walk off camera only to reappear together on the central screen, where they sit on the couch and start to sniff each other. During the course of the video piece, an aroma is released in the room, as if inviting viewers to mimic the actions on-screen.
Video
5 minutes
18 seconds
2000 XZ17
Xu Zhen made himself a rap singer and showing on the three screens at the same time. But audiences only heard his weak moaning of making love. With the comeing of climax, the audiences down the stage seems to become more and more excited screaming and while lacking of their appearance.
Video
3 minutes
23 seconds
2001 XZ19
XU Zhen is a talented artist often providing a new and unique outlook on simple and common states of human kind. His short film "We Are Right Back" does just that as it mocks and questions gender roles in modern society. As is common of XU Zhen the film is both subtle in humor and symbolism, though one might argue that the symbolism in this particular piece is more obvious. The film is set on a boat and the camera follows the swaying of the unsteady waters; we are made to see as if we are with them, XU does not allow us to separate ourselves from the societal rules he plans to demonstrate. One is aware of a couple but not of their faces, instead the audience is only provided with a view of the waist down. XU's humor is obvious as he utilizes the groins as subjects, replacing the faces one would generally recognize with only genital regions. Though one enjoys the subtly sexual humor, they are left to assume gender only with the aid of clothing and body type stereotypes. One becomes unavoidably anxious as the man begins to reach into the zipper of his pants. The man proceeds to pull out a cigarette, as if from a gender specific pocket. The cigarette is correspondingly lit by the woman as she removes a lighter from her groin pocket as well. The symbolism has become obvious. The woman is presented as providing the man with flame, inspiration, assistance, and even physical pleasure. The two continue to remove gender specific items from their respective groin pockets. The man an ash tray and cell phone, the woman makeup, and so on. Though XU presents common and easily understood stereotypes, he does so not so that we may simply observe but instead so that we may question the oversimplification of gender roles. These two humans have no identity, but only gender.
Richelle Simon in June 2013
Richelle Simon in June 2013
Video
8 minutes
11 seconds
2005 XZU062
In August 2005, XU Zhen together with his team climbed the 8848.13 meters high Mountain Everest. They succeed in cutting the hill top and took it down from the mountain. His video installation “8.848-1.86” (2005) documents an expedition to Mount Everest. Here, XU Zhen removed 1.86 meters of the mountain’s peak and transported it home to be exhibited in a large display cabinet. The video, among other allusions, is a subtle and humorous commentary on China’s policy of expansion.
Video
23 minutes
56 seconds
2006 XZU090
“18 Days” records a trip that the artist underwent with the goal of crossing the borders of China’s neighboring countries with remote controlled toy weapons.
Xu Zhen bought some remote control weapons. Then on the boundary line between China and neighbouring countries, he remote controlled these toy weapons entering into neighbouring countries. The documentary in this work recorded the whole course in 18 days.
Xu Zhen bought some remote control weapons. Then on the boundary line between China and neighbouring countries, he remote controlled these toy weapons entering into neighbouring countries. The documentary in this work recorded the whole course in 18 days.
Video
53 minutes
2005 YFDU044
Seven Intellectuals in Bamboo Forest, Part 3
Cast：
Fu Bingbing
Lv Lv
Cheng Ran
Li Shenghua
Zhou Yi
Xu Jing
Yang Ke
Director: Yang Fudong
Director of Photography: Xu Wei
Location Sound Recordist: Huang Xun
Make-Up Artist: Liu Weijian
Part three: Another kind of life. They leave the city and head into the country, areal farming village, plowing by day and resting by night, forgetting all that bothers them.
Cast：
Fu Bingbing
Lv Lv
Cheng Ran
Li Shenghua
Zhou Yi
Xu Jing
Yang Ke
Director: Yang Fudong
Director of Photography: Xu Wei
Location Sound Recordist: Huang Xun
Make-Up Artist: Liu Weijian
Part three: Another kind of life. They leave the city and head into the country, areal farming village, plowing by day and resting by night, forgetting all that bothers them.
Video
70 minutes
2006 YFDU045
Seven Intellectuals in Bamboo Forest, Part 4
Cast:
Gao Yanqing
Cheng Ran
Li Shenghua
Xu Jing
Dai Zhe
Huang Lu
Kong Chenliang
Director: Yang Fudong
Photographed: Xu Wei
Assistant Photographed: Jia Zhiqing, Liu Shunbing
Recorder: Huang Xun, Dai Dai
Art/Scence: Liu Weijian
Assistant Art/Scence: Ye Linghan
Producer: Jin Yu, Yao Peifen
Log Keeper: Wang Jiali
Makeup: Sai Sai
Stage Photo: Zhu Li
Part four: A tiny island of belief. They like the sea. They like living undisturbed, isolated. Perhaps this is life in utopia.
Cast:
Gao Yanqing
Cheng Ran
Li Shenghua
Xu Jing
Dai Zhe
Huang Lu
Kong Chenliang
Director: Yang Fudong
Photographed: Xu Wei
Assistant Photographed: Jia Zhiqing, Liu Shunbing
Recorder: Huang Xun, Dai Dai
Art/Scence: Liu Weijian
Assistant Art/Scence: Ye Linghan
Producer: Jin Yu, Yao Peifen
Log Keeper: Wang Jiali
Makeup: Sai Sai
Stage Photo: Zhu Li
Part four: A tiny island of belief. They like the sea. They like living undisturbed, isolated. Perhaps this is life in utopia.
Video
91 minutes
41 seconds
2007 YFDU059
Part five: They return to the city, devoid of identity. Perhaps they are many people, perhaps they are seven. Perhaps they are in a dream. From beginning to end, they cannot find their position. They are still a collective of youth, a future, unknown collective.
Cast of Seven Intellectuals in Bamboo Forest, Part 5
Cast:
Gao Yanqing
Cheng Ran
Li Shenghua
Xu Jing
Dai Zhe
Ni Keyun
Chen Zhongzhu
Su Mei
Huang Lu
Huang Xiaolu
Fu Bingbing
Zhou Yi
Yu Bo
Friendly Cast: Coco
Director: Yang Fudong
Phorographed: Wang Yi
Art/Scence: Ye Linghan, Liu Weijian
Recorder: Huang Xun
Cast of Seven Intellectuals in Bamboo Forest, Part 5
Cast:
Gao Yanqing
Cheng Ran
Li Shenghua
Xu Jing
Dai Zhe
Ni Keyun
Chen Zhongzhu
Su Mei
Huang Lu
Huang Xiaolu
Fu Bingbing
Zhou Yi
Yu Bo
Friendly Cast: Coco
Director: Yang Fudong
Phorographed: Wang Yi
Art/Scence: Ye Linghan, Liu Weijian
Recorder: Huang Xun
Video
20 minutes
53 seconds
2007 YFDU065
In rural areas of Hebei, the weather is cold and dry in winter, people living in the plains, quiet and simple, but also bustling about their own lives. Almost all households there keep dogs as watchdogs; the dogs are surviving dependent on the person in the same time.
Que Village is one of the small villages, only more than 100 households in it. Lots of dogs live in the village as well, they also will be sick, dead, abandoned or victims of trafficking. But in the eyes of their masters, dogs are dogs, in the end they cannot see the only road where is leading to the outside world in the east of Que Village.
Que Village is one of the small villages, only more than 100 households in it. Lots of dogs live in the village as well, they also will be sick, dead, abandoned or victims of trafficking. But in the eyes of their masters, dogs are dogs, in the end they cannot see the only road where is leading to the outside world in the east of Que Village.
Video
3 minutes
30 seconds
2007 YFDU070
1. Turn a still photograph into a film, i.e. have real people sit before a film camera in a set pose, maintaining stillness as in a photograph, holding the position until the shot is through. A photograph becomes a film. The concept is one of both photography and film.
2.The photographic style borrows somewhat on idea of "standard" video art from the 1960s and 70s, as if time is standing still.
3. The title of the piece seems a bit like a line from a poems. Several decades ago, people would write a sentence or a poem kind of like this on the back of their own photos or photos of friends, signing their names as a way of leaving a memento.
2.The photographic style borrows somewhat on idea of "standard" video art from the 1960s and 70s, as if time is standing still.
3. The title of the piece seems a bit like a line from a poems. Several decades ago, people would write a sentence or a poem kind of like this on the back of their own photos or photos of friends, signing their names as a way of leaving a memento.
Installation
Video
2008 YFDU103
Back in 2006 during the filming of Seven Intellectuals in Bamboo Forest Part IV, YANG Fudong passed Jiaxiang in Shandong Province, a city well known for its resource of blue stone. The picture of local people and their entire life centering around stone carving touched the artist, who later presented Blue Kylin No.1 in 2008. It is an artpiece composed of three parts: a film running about 20 minutes shows mountains being exploded and stones selected, which marks the very beginning of production of blue stone sculpture; 16 pieces of video played in loop capture the images of people in working process along with daily life in the city; last but not least, the sculptures per se are displayed as well. Left unfinished though, the set of sculptures plays an essential role in the whole piece as readymades carrying the artist's concepts embodied underneath. What is laid in front of us is an abrupt stop of stillborn product. The massive volume it occupies, the ink lines and traces of machining that are deliberately kept, together with the collapsing posture even before a full display of their appearance, render the unique aesthetics held by YANG Fudong, alluding to modern civilisation simultaneously.
The sculptures currently displayed in the exhibition space include:
A kylin (96 × 52 × 116 cm)
A hibernating dragon pillar (855 × 103 × 103 cm)
A Chenglu Plate (129.5 × 129.5 × 67 cm)
A base (202 × 202 × 137 cm)
2 cloud boards (199 × 99 × 25 cm, 176 × 127 × 25 cm)
2 pieces of small gravels (29 × 21 × 25.5 cm, 35 × 20 × 27.5 cm)
8 pieces and about 37 ton in total
The sculptures currently displayed in the exhibition space include:
A kylin (96 × 52 × 116 cm)
A hibernating dragon pillar (855 × 103 × 103 cm)
A Chenglu Plate (129.5 × 129.5 × 67 cm)
A base (202 × 202 × 137 cm)
2 cloud boards (199 × 99 × 25 cm, 176 × 127 × 25 cm)
2 pieces of small gravels (29 × 21 × 25.5 cm, 35 × 20 × 27.5 cm)
8 pieces and about 37 ton in total
Video
25 minutes
50 seconds
2012 YFDU106
Shooting in 2008, finished in 2012
Back in 2006 during the filming of Seven Intellectuals in Bamboo Forest Part IV, YANG Fudong passed Jiaxiang in Shandong Province, a city well known for its resource of blue stone. Blue stone (a kind of stone materials) is an abundant specialty in the local area. Chinese kylin is deemed as a propitious animal as well as a quintessential product model of the carving plant. The local people and their entire life centering around stone carving touched the artist. 2008, he creates Blue Kylin 1, and then some other versions of Blue Kylin series were adapted in the passing years. It truly reflects the current living conditions of stone carving workers at Shandong Blue Stone Carving Plant. With an aim of making their lives known to more people, the artist focuses on the low-class labors in North China. And it fully displays the humane care and social responsibility of modern art. Under the harsh local living conditions, those carving workers single-mindedly devote themselves to working hard just to make ends meet instead of paying attention to art; though they, in fact, have been doing things related to art in their daily lives. It can be too extravagant to talk about art here.
Back in 2006 during the filming of Seven Intellectuals in Bamboo Forest Part IV, YANG Fudong passed Jiaxiang in Shandong Province, a city well known for its resource of blue stone. Blue stone (a kind of stone materials) is an abundant specialty in the local area. Chinese kylin is deemed as a propitious animal as well as a quintessential product model of the carving plant. The local people and their entire life centering around stone carving touched the artist. 2008, he creates Blue Kylin 1, and then some other versions of Blue Kylin series were adapted in the passing years. It truly reflects the current living conditions of stone carving workers at Shandong Blue Stone Carving Plant. With an aim of making their lives known to more people, the artist focuses on the low-class labors in North China. And it fully displays the humane care and social responsibility of modern art. Under the harsh local living conditions, those carving workers single-mindedly devote themselves to working hard just to make ends meet instead of paying attention to art; though they, in fact, have been doing things related to art in their daily lives. It can be too extravagant to talk about art here.
Video
10 minutes
37 seconds
2010 YFDU113
“The Fifth Night” is a video installation composed of seven synchronized projections. The videos feature old Shanghai scenes, as a large décor with carriages, rickshaws and vintage cars. In the middle of the scene a stage has been built, a few jars with fishes have been placed on a table and a tramway is being frenetically repaired, illuminating the place. Vague views of people without any relationship are shown, anxious, hesitating men and women here and there attend to their own duties, a scene’s foreground can become next scene’s background; a shot is wide and narrative, while the other depicts some characters, this long screen of seven projections has more relief than if it was in 3D, and is more complete. Facing seven cameras, actors’ expressions in each objective and shot are uncontrollable; this kind of randomness presents a certain subtle and unpredictable aesthetic.
The idea behind this work came from a reflection on film production, and a new filming method was used for this video installation: seven projections, going far beyond our visual field and habits, Yang Fudong calls it “multiple views film”. The most important in the production of this work was the inspiration of the actors, as well as viewers’ feelings of the space, the artist unified this work by maneuvering its inner and external feelings.
The idea behind this work came from a reflection on film production, and a new filming method was used for this video installation: seven projections, going far beyond our visual field and habits, Yang Fudong calls it “multiple views film”. The most important in the production of this work was the inspiration of the actors, as well as viewers’ feelings of the space, the artist unified this work by maneuvering its inner and external feelings.
Video
9 minutes
11 seconds
2010 YFDU126
First Spring is a special art project cooperated by artist Yang Fudong and Prada. The work itself is also an independent short art film (35mm black-and-white film).
First Spring is inspired by the ancient Chinese proverb “A year’s plan starts with spring”. Spring is the beginning of a year as a good harvest depends on the spring sowing. In the work, different dynasty characters appear in the film at the same time as modern people. There are a series of incredible life encounters happening between them, especially, young people suspense in the sky and walk carefully in the film. The work creates a psychedelic time and space that meets the turmoil. However, the paradoxical sense of dreams in the state of uncertainty is actually the illusion that is happening while filming in the studio.
First Spring is inspired by the ancient Chinese proverb “A year’s plan starts with spring”. Spring is the beginning of a year as a good harvest depends on the spring sowing. In the work, different dynasty characters appear in the film at the same time as modern people. There are a series of incredible life encounters happening between them, especially, young people suspense in the sky and walk carefully in the film. The work creates a psychedelic time and space that meets the turmoil. However, the paradoxical sense of dreams in the state of uncertainty is actually the illusion that is happening while filming in the studio.
Video
19 minutes
21 seconds
2011 YFDU134
1.Night Falls.
2.If the warrior in night is exist or disappear.
Yejiang (The night man cometh), a 35-mm film transferred to HD video, unfold in the realm of historical fantasy. An ancient warrior is seen wounded and forlorn after battle: he is in conflict about his path in life. Three ghost-like characters appear as emblems of feelings and thoughts that surface and clash within the warrior’s heart and mind as he has to decide whether to disappear or continue fighting. The Nightman Cometh implies two meanings: one is “The night falls”, which means the night is coming; the other one is “the general fights to the end”. Before the dawn, whether the general chooses to continue fighting or disappears and gives up. Roles set in the film are symbolic and performed in the way of dislocated time and space. One symbolises the ancient heroic fighter of the War spirit. The man and woman dressed in modern attires ghostly shuttle in the images along with an ancient princess. During the process of filming, the artist subconsciously confronts the cruel reality and constitutes the structure of the intricate narrative.
2.If the warrior in night is exist or disappear.
Yejiang (The night man cometh), a 35-mm film transferred to HD video, unfold in the realm of historical fantasy. An ancient warrior is seen wounded and forlorn after battle: he is in conflict about his path in life. Three ghost-like characters appear as emblems of feelings and thoughts that surface and clash within the warrior’s heart and mind as he has to decide whether to disappear or continue fighting. The Nightman Cometh implies two meanings: one is “The night falls”, which means the night is coming; the other one is “the general fights to the end”. Before the dawn, whether the general chooses to continue fighting or disappears and gives up. Roles set in the film are symbolic and performed in the way of dislocated time and space. One symbolises the ancient heroic fighter of the War spirit. The man and woman dressed in modern attires ghostly shuttle in the images along with an ancient princess. During the process of filming, the artist subconsciously confronts the cruel reality and constitutes the structure of the intricate narrative.
Video
7 minutes
2005 YFDU30
An Sai, Shanbei,
An isolated village on the Loess Plateau, Northern China.
Two young outsiders are moving in,
While two young locals are struggling to escape.
Comes into view a donkey full of luggage,
Comes also into view a young couple,
He carries her on a bike...
An isolated village on the Loess Plateau, Northern China.
Two young outsiders are moving in,
While two young locals are struggling to escape.
Comes into view a donkey full of luggage,
Comes also into view a young couple,
He carries her on a bike...
Video
18 minutes
59 seconds
2012 YFD_0114
The Pride World is YANG Fudong’s latest work specifically created for the exhibition EDIT-Image Fetish and Phobia in September 2012. Different from his previous works, this two-channel video is projected onto the Chinese traditional Xuan paper - Jia Xuan. The black and white image and the natural texture of Jia Xuan paper create a unique visceral sensation. It triggers and foregrounds a special nostalgic sentiment from the video’s characters and environment.
Video
Installation
2013 YFD_0290
It is so real
A remote and intimate world
In the dry hot air
Someone sings in a soft tone
But it
Stands there quietly
Letting the wind
Take away its past
Things resemble each other
Like in a dream
Push the door softly and walk in
Or just stay standing where you are
2013
Part 1 Sharjah, 8 screens, B&W video
Part 2 Alhambra, 8 screens, color video
Multiple-screen video installation
Duration: 10-20 mins
A remote and intimate world
In the dry hot air
Someone sings in a soft tone
But it
Stands there quietly
Letting the wind
Take away its past
Things resemble each other
Like in a dream
Push the door softly and walk in
Or just stay standing where you are
2013
Part 1 Sharjah, 8 screens, B&W video
Part 2 Alhambra, 8 screens, color video
Multiple-screen video installation
Duration: 10-20 mins
Video
Installation
15 minutes
48 seconds
2014 YFD_3405
The Colored Sky: New Women II is a 5-channel colour video installation. Despite the mesmerizing lyric and dreamlike context of the narrative, this work illustrates the moments that girls spend their time in a boudoir or a private space as if the vivid colour refracted from the candy wrapper under the sun. The work attempts to present the sentiment when girls possess special secret gifts and examine their desire and insecurity in the hidden ways of truth and false while the young girls grow up. To the artist, filming with colour is an important attempt to promote and change the narrative method.
Video
46 minutes
30 seconds
2016 YFD_3433
"Moving Mountains" is a myth and legend in the "Lie Zi Tang Wen" who was the thinker of Chinese Warring States period . The article describes the story of the foolish man's family who is not afraid of hardships, digs the mountains, and finally influences the God Emperor and moves the mountains away. Artist Yang Fudong read the story of "Moving Mountains" during his youth, and was deeply affected by the unremitting spirit of the foolish man's family. At the same time, he encountered Xu Beihong's "Moving Mountains" paintings made during the War in 1940. And he was impressed by the illustrative composition, the vividly portrayed characters, as well as the persevering spirit, conveyed from the painting. This painting has also become the inspiration source for Yang Fudong's final film "Moving Mountains". Yang Fudong's poetic reflection on human nature and ever-changing values is the content of this 46-minute black-and-white film. Based on the characters in the picture, scene layout and other elements, after many adaptations and re-creation, the artist incorporates contemporary context and reinterprets the story of a modern version of Moving Mountains. This work reinterprets this Chinese myth and legend about perseverance and conviction, blending and colliding ancient stories that people have known since childhood with modern spirits, trying to trigger new thinking, and showing the determination, perseverance and perseverance behind the vicissitudes of significant changes — the spirit of the times.
Video
10 minutes
31 seconds
2016 YFD_7586
A Resolute Woman
A Mother
Buffalos Gift
A Lonely Fat Man/ Lost Box
Seven Ribs
Waiting for Her to Come
The Power of Being
Calls from the Intellectuals
Brothers
The Only Pine
A Mother
Buffalos Gift
A Lonely Fat Man/ Lost Box
Seven Ribs
Waiting for Her to Come
The Power of Being
Calls from the Intellectuals
Brothers
The Only Pine
Video
2 minutes
53 seconds
2006 YFD_8704
16mm film transfer to DV, 3parts:part 1 / 53" part 2 / 58 " part 3 / 1'02"
Wandering in the bustling streets, old-fashioned lanes and ruins of diverse-style architectures, two young man were performing singing(chang, 唱), dialogue(nian,念), acting(zuo, 做), acrobatics(da,打), in good order and well arranged. Though living in a daily and routine scene, what they were experiencing was unique and different "enjoyable dream life".
Wandering in the bustling streets, old-fashioned lanes and ruins of diverse-style architectures, two young man were performing singing(chang, 唱), dialogue(nian,念), acting(zuo, 做), acrobatics(da,打), in good order and well arranged. Though living in a daily and routine scene, what they were experiencing was unique and different "enjoyable dream life".
Video
8 minutes
4 seconds
2016 YFD_9975
They Said They Would Come Anyway is that Yang Fudong specially made for ShanghART to celebrate its 20th anniversary. It was shot during the summer 2014 on the island of Sandhornøy in Norway when Yang directed The Light That I feel. The lines in the film are drawn from Swedish director Ingmar Bergman’s Persona. Yang seeks to show how the wind and trees can express a narrative. As in many of his films landscapes play a paramount role equivalent to that of the protagonists.
They said they would come anyway. October, 2016
1——It doesn't matter. Tell me later today or tomorrow. You’d better leave something to keep yourself tormented, as everything else has been taken away now.
2——You know, it will have to hurt. Otherwise, it's only going to get worse.
3——You're laughing, are you? It's not that simple for me. Not so funny, either. But you always have your laughter.
4——We lay there completely naked and sunbathed dozing off and on, putting sunscreen on.
5——Every tone of voice a lie, every gesture a falsehood, every smile a grimace.
6——You’d better leave something to keep yourself tormented, as everything else has been taken away now.
7——They said they would come anyway.
They said they would come anyway. October, 2016
1——It doesn't matter. Tell me later today or tomorrow. You’d better leave something to keep yourself tormented, as everything else has been taken away now.
2——You know, it will have to hurt. Otherwise, it's only going to get worse.
3——You're laughing, are you? It's not that simple for me. Not so funny, either. But you always have your laughter.
4——We lay there completely naked and sunbathed dozing off and on, putting sunscreen on.
5——Every tone of voice a lie, every gesture a falsehood, every smile a grimace.
6——You’d better leave something to keep yourself tormented, as everything else has been taken away now.
7——They said they would come anyway.
Video
13 minutes
2001 YFDv002
Backyard - Hey! Sun is rising
The film depicts a young man, or rather four young men, as they try to retain the sentimental feeling that is about to escape them when the sun comes up in the morning. In the expectations that they would never meet, they dressed up in the old military uniform and bathed in the morning sun. Their yawning drifts away with the wind; a wooden sword is the only attainable thing in their arms. The puppet-like laziness is shattered by the dancing sword, and they communicate in the anger of love and hate, but no real pain is ever felt. They attempt to capture the fiber of Peking Opera within the melody, but are accidentally brought above the city sky of their memories. Flowers are waiting to bloom under with the gentle touch of imagination. The impulses of all desires change rapidly in the morning before the sun comes out. If tender feelings can be trusted, then our existence is no longer important. All the fragments are like discontinuous dreamscape, yet sometimes they seem real. We all know everything merely happens in the moment of dawn... Listen, someone is shouting: hey, the sun is rising!
The film depicts a young man, or rather four young men, as they try to retain the sentimental feeling that is about to escape them when the sun comes up in the morning. In the expectations that they would never meet, they dressed up in the old military uniform and bathed in the morning sun. Their yawning drifts away with the wind; a wooden sword is the only attainable thing in their arms. The puppet-like laziness is shattered by the dancing sword, and they communicate in the anger of love and hate, but no real pain is ever felt. They attempt to capture the fiber of Peking Opera within the melody, but are accidentally brought above the city sky of their memories. Flowers are waiting to bloom under with the gentle touch of imagination. The impulses of all desires change rapidly in the morning before the sun comes out. If tender feelings can be trusted, then our existence is no longer important. All the fragments are like discontinuous dreamscape, yet sometimes they seem real. We all know everything merely happens in the moment of dawn... Listen, someone is shouting: hey, the sun is rising!
Video
Installation
12 minutes
1999 YFDv003
In one of the short sequences comprising I Love My Motherland, a man performs a formless dance at an intersection. The picture is out of focus. Yang Fudong operates here, too, with the alienating possibilities of experi-mental ？lm, with short cuts and multiple exposures.
Video
2 minutes
30 seconds
1998 YFDv004
After All, I Didn’t Force You (1998), single channel video, 2’, ed. of 5
“After All I Didn’t Force You” (1998), are implicitly a reaction to the forms of individualism in a developing modern mass society. Yang Fudong strings together takes with different characters so quickly one after the other that they “lose face.”
A man explains to a woman the sentence"I didn't force you". Separate movements of 12-14 people are combined/cut to form a fictive man who repeats the words "I didn't force you" to a woman.
“After All I Didn’t Force You” (1998), are implicitly a reaction to the forms of individualism in a developing modern mass society. Yang Fudong strings together takes with different characters so quickly one after the other that they “lose face.”
A man explains to a woman the sentence"I didn't force you". Separate movements of 12-14 people are combined/cut to form a fictive man who repeats the words "I didn't force you" to a woman.
Video
Installation
18 minutes
2002 YFDv006
Flutter, Flutter… Jasmine, Jasmine
The images in “Flutter, Flutter... Jasmine, Jasmine” are both an illustration of the words of the romantic song, and a commentary on it. We see a young man and woman in a large city, dreamily staring. Just like the song, they reflect hope, idealism and emotional purity. But the changes in the city proceed rapidly, and it is a question whether their ideals and feelings will remain untouched by this.
The images in “Flutter, Flutter... Jasmine, Jasmine” are both an illustration of the words of the romantic song, and a commentary on it. We see a young man and woman in a large city, dreamily staring. Just like the song, they reflect hope, idealism and emotional purity. But the changes in the city proceed rapidly, and it is a question whether their ideals and feelings will remain untouched by this.
Video
14 minutes
2003 YFDv007
Liu Lan tells a story about the break with tradition in China. An intellectual in a white suit meets a traditionally dressed woman in the countryside. Despite their mutual love, their lives seem incompatible. A woman’s voice sings a folksong, Why are people in love always separated from one another?’ The film’s atmosphere is melancholy and the landscape veiled in mist. Here Yang Fudong shows his connections with Chinese landscape painting.
Video
18 minutes
2001 YFDv009
In a scene from “Robber South” (2001), which tells the story of a young man in the city making a living as a fruit seller while dreaming of becoming a businessman, the protagonist watches as a subway train pulls into a station, and in an instant the focus of his attention switches seamlessly to a deep blue sky. Compass in hand, he walks from house to house, tracing each door and wall with his fingers, a metaphor for his search for his own place in the city.
Video
76 minutes
1997 YFDv012
Zhuzi, a young intellectual, lives in Hangzhou, called heaven, because of the beautiful scenery. He, together with his fiancee Linshan, leads a quiet life there. The city's rainy season comes every March or April, but it came a bit early this year. The city became wet and cold during the rainy season. Zhuzi suddenly felt uncomfortable and with an emotion of nervousness. He did not know why the feeling came to him. He kept going to the hospital to examine his body, eyes, nose, ears, and skeleton with a suspicion that he was ill. After every exam, the doctor told Zhuzi that he was all right. Gradually, Zhuzi realized that the doctor was right. He did not suspect anything wrong with his health any longer. The quiet and prosaic life that he was leading was what he feared. He found that he still loves life. He felt that he should lead a happy life. At this moment, the rainy season in Hangzhou would end soon. (- Yang Fudong)
Video
Installation
14 minutes
2002 YFDv10
sound by Miya Dudu, finished 2005, wide screen 16:9, synchronized, needs carpets (dark grey)
Jiaers’ Lifestock
In two separate spaces two almost identical cinematic narratives unfold. Because of the wall separating them, we can not compare the two, and must call on our memory. Both spaces also contain a glass display cabinet with a suitcase full of books and neckties, and four small video monitors in it. The tangible objects and the monitors appear to connect with the large projections on the wall. (stedeliijk)
Jiaers’ Lifestock
In two separate spaces two almost identical cinematic narratives unfold. Because of the wall separating them, we can not compare the two, and must call on our memory. Both spaces also contain a glass display cabinet with a suitcase full of books and neckties, and four small video monitors in it. The tangible objects and the monitors appear to connect with the large projections on the wall. (stedeliijk)
Video
9 minutes
29 seconds
2003 YFDv11
This video appears to be a humorous stylistic reference to spy films. All the clichés – tension, eroticism, grave, cigarette-smoking men and atmospheric music – are present. The woman wears fishnet hose and a fur coat with her military uniform. This ambiguity of seduction and deceit is not only the earmark of espionage, but possibly also a metaphor for the present ambivalent situation in China.
Video
8 minutes
2003 YFDv14
http://www.shanghart.com/artists/yangfudong/projects/S10.htm
In “S10” (2003), two female office workers wearing uniforms covered in zippers, zip together their arms and various other parts of their bodies. At this point we have entered the realm of a modern-day Shan Hai Jing inhabited by "exaggerated" creatures, a realm that is at the same time a metaphorical expression of a new concept of "subject" that is in the process of evolving organically from the individual to the other, and to the group. If we are all interconnected, just how far does the territory of the "individual" extend?
In “S10” (2003), two female office workers wearing uniforms covered in zippers, zip together their arms and various other parts of their bodies. At this point we have entered the realm of a modern-day Shan Hai Jing inhabited by "exaggerated" creatures, a realm that is at the same time a metaphorical expression of a new concept of "subject" that is in the process of evolving organically from the individual to the other, and to the group. If we are all interconnected, just how far does the territory of the "individual" extend?
Video
46 minutes
15 seconds
2004 YFDv15
Seven Intellectuals in Bamboo Forest (Part 2)
Part two: Closed life in a flourishing city. No matter what city you inhabit, you understand nothing better than your own family, your home, and those private spaces that truly belong to you.
Part two: Closed life in a flourishing city. No matter what city you inhabit, you understand nothing better than your own family, your home, and those private spaces that truly belong to you.
Video
Installation
23 minutes
2004 YFDv16
In this ten-channel video installation, a concert is being staged at the seaside. Accompanied by various musical instruments, the love story of a young couple is unfolded on the same location. The videos set on the centre display two scenarios taking place simultaneously: one shows a young couple riding a horse along the sea and the other a pair of lovers struggling for survival from a ship accident. The other eight screens deliver at the same time the performance of diverse instruments, a trumpet and a cello played on the rocks, for example. The background music, which is hallucinatory, dreamlike and even uncoordinated, reflects the conflicts between ideals and reality. The young lovers, despite the threat of death, continue with their discussion of ideal, faith and anticipation.
Video
Installation
20 minutes
2003 YFDv18
better common soldier
sound by Miya Dudu
sound by Miya Dudu
Video
3 minutes
2004 YFDv19
Two young men wear the uniform of 70’s policeman, sometimes they look like runaway criminal. They want to escape reality which is impossible to cast off. They yearn for the bright sunshine life, expecting the time to be captured, to exchange for a calmness of the heart.
Video
7 minutes
20 seconds
2003 YZZU021
Video
117 minutes
57 seconds
2006 YZZ_0097
Yang Zhengzhong became famous in 2000 with his video “(I Know) I Will Die” that features short sequences in which a series of people speak the phrase "I will die" to the camera. It was included as a multi-channel projection at the 2007 Venice Biennale to great acclaim. It is a disconcerting, soberly presented film that confronts the viewer with existential questions.
Languages: Chinese, Arabic, Japanese, Italian, English, Dutch, French, Korean, German, Spanish
Languages: Chinese, Arabic, Japanese, Italian, English, Dutch, French, Korean, German, Spanish
Video
23 minutes
37 seconds
2012 YZZ_1988
In Exam YANG Zhenzhong illustrates a complicated dynamic between two unexpected topics. The subjects of the video are two young women wearing nothing but suggestive silk undergarments. The way in which they interact is intimate and nearing erotic. They share laughs and seem to play around in a childish nature, and do so on a bed. The camera assures the audience of the erotic nature as it films the bare legs, full lips, and other such highly feminine parts of the women. Still, among this pleasant and questionable scene, YANG places a strikingly surprising topic: politics. The two women play as they read aloud from a standardized political textbook. The highly serious and standard narration seems to clash with the playful interaction. One is left amused by the coupling of such topics, yet wondering why. It is possible that YANG has created a politically powerful video, in which he illustrates the relationship between modern Chinese politics and the youth of a nation. It is also possible that one may appreciate the video in its simplicity, and find complacent amusement in YANG’s ability to once again alter our perception of a common theme by degrading a heavily serious topic with a jovial scene.
Richelle Simon in July 2013
Richelle Simon in July 2013
Installation
Video
32 minutes
36 seconds
2015 YZZ_2736
Disguise is based on a Lacanian approach to the deconstruction of identity and, at the same time, triggers a process to awaken the awareness of the individual within the community. The masks, as exact duplicates of the employees' faces, dramatize their emotions to the point of extreme ostentation. On the other hand, the choreography in slow motion of the mechanical movements that they perform on the assembly line, that we see in the video, reveals another aspect of the work. What is more real, the role they take on or their identities? What reaction could this video provoke in the workers involved when they watch their own performances? Nothing is certain during production and all predictions can turn into new possibilities.
Video
7 minutes
22 seconds
2012 YZZ_3256
In this short film YANG utilizes some of his favored themes of space and urbanization. Similar to works such as Sleepwalking Is a Therapy, Let’s Puff, and Passage, this video is filmed with a narrow frame of an urban landscape. The focus of the film is on an elderly man who walks the edge of the curb with his cane. There is no sound save for the passing traffic and general city noise. At first the film seems mundane and without purpose. But if one takes the time to watch the film YANG has once again manipulated the vision and perception of the audience. The length and width of the frame provides only one street, no intersection, and only one sidewalk. At first the man who is walking the “straight line” is unable to be seen. But as we watch, the man gets closer. One is both amused and perplexed at the idea of this slightly crippled and elderly man walking a “straight line”. He does seem to trip slightly, but proceeds gladly. Just as society and the city follows a “straight line” of growth and development so does this man, with an unknowing and pleasant smile. Though characteristic of YANG in its repetition and bland nature, the video contains a subtle message, and, if nothing else, provides amusement and artistic pleasure.
Richelle Simon in July 2013
Richelle Simon in July 2013
Video
Installation
14 minutes
19 seconds
2012 YZZ_3299
In this video YANG Zhenzhong has approached the problem of space and perception allowing the audience to both participate in and observe his artistic manipulation of urban space creating a unique relationship between the viewer and the viewed. Not unlike his previous series Sleepwalking Is a Therapy I, II, and III from 1992, 1997, and 2007 respectively, Passage only provides the audience with a narrow frame of vision and minimal external noise. Both videos are only accompanied by the sound of human breathing. Also similar to the previous project, the camera is positioned in such a way that the viewer is made to feel as if they are experiencing the setting first hand; perceiving through the eyes of the artist. The setting laid out by YANG is a series of corridors, tunnels, passages, elevators, gaps found in schools, airports, subways, hotels, pedestrian bridges, dormitory, parks, and libraries. They are of all sizes and lengths, and not only desolate and deserted, but also bleak and grey, lacking in vibrant color and very different from reality of the city. The audience is undoubtedly disturbed by the empty and silent city they have been placed in, that is to say silent except for the subtle and disagreeable mechanic noises of the urban area. The installation is presented in a way that mirrors the video. The viewer is asked to walk through the end of the exhibition towards an extremely narrow corridor; only one may enter at a time. This further builds on the effect of thereness; the audience is both in the tunnel and watching the tunnel. The narrow frame of vision may be understood as a metaphor for the narrow vision experienced in the urban life. In YANG’s piece the audience becomes one with the video, they are both viewing and experiencing the ever changing, uncontrollable, and narrow-minded urban space.
Richelle Simon in July 2013
Richelle Simon in July 2013
Video
14 minutes
59 seconds
2007 YZZ_6655
The majority of YANG’s video installation is reminiscent of his previous “Sleepwalking Is a Therapy” videos. A camera walks through the city of Shanghai experiencing the busy streets and city sounds. The audience soon learns that the camera is looking for a dark hole, any dark hole. Once a hole is found and the camera is given escape from society, the person behind it may breathe. At one point the camera is no longer held by a person walking through the city, instead it is in an aircraft over the city accompanied by radio music and talk. As it gets closer the radio becomes clearer, but from further away one hears more and more static. This illustrates the chaotic nature of city that can only truly be observed from a distance. And only when one is alone may they be free. The video is presented in a manner that extenuates the overall message. In order to view the video one must place their heads in a hole in the wall. Just as the camera is surrounded by city, overwhelmed and needing air, so is the viewer.
Richelle Simon in July 2007
Richelle Simon in July 2007
Video
7 minutes
59 seconds
2000 yzzv01
The video "922 Grains of Rice" plays with the interaction of the image of a cock and a chicken pecking grains of rice and the sound of a male and a female voice counting the number of pecked grains. It is a humorous representation of the battle of sexes as well a comment on today’s competitive behavior.
Installation
Video
16 minutes
33 seconds
1999 yzzv02
Filmed above the crowds on the bridge at the intersection of Nanjing Road and Xizang Road in Shanghai, the scene is viewed through the eyes of a mask that is placed in front of the camera.
The video is then projected from underwater filled glass pan to a screen on the ceiling. The installation is set up in such a way that the vibrations emitted from the soundtrack will disrupt the surface of the water, which in turn disrupts the projected image.
The video is then projected from underwater filled glass pan to a screen on the ceiling. The installation is set up in such a way that the vibrations emitted from the soundtrack will disrupt the surface of the water, which in turn disrupts the projected image.
Installation
Video
30 minutes
1996 yzzv04
In a large fish bowl filled with water and 4 small water pumps, monitors are placed inside that show a human mouth repeating, “We are not fish”.
Video
30 minutes
1997 yzzv05
Fix a video camera on remote control car, and the camera is moving ands shooting on the floor of an apartment house, with the image and sound remaining unaltered. The work was first displayed in Chinese Video Art Communication Exhibition (Gallery of Central Academy of Fine Art, Beijing, 1997).
Video
6 minutes
39 seconds
2002 yzzv11
“Light and Easy” (2002) and “Light as Fuck (2001) are based upon a conviction that the lightness of the isolated exterior or interior is a source of interesting material. He perceives the weight of urban changes as an exterior phenomenon, and literally depicts the process as a weightless factor, turning urban landmarks upside down.
Video
3 minutes
59 seconds
1995 yzzv12
With the humorous march music, the guy who wears shirt, pants and hat was taking shower seriously. The movie seems to depict a change from a simple progress with clear destination to a fussy and self-amused action.
Video
1 minutes
2003 yzzv15
“Light and Easy” (2002) and “Light as Fuck (2001) are based upon a conviction that the lightness of the isolated exterior or interior is a source of interesting material. He perceives the weight of urban changes as an exterior phenomenon, and literally depicts the process as a weightless factor, turning urban landmarks upside down.
The works by YANG Zhenzhong display his hope to challenge the conventional definition of social behaviour. His creation is never destitute of metaphor, intelligence and humour. In Light and Easy 2, the artist arranged the video of cityscape along the bund upside down and presented unexpectedly an acrobatics performance. Beneath the appearance of urbanization, YANG realized the changes in weight of the city and therefore decided its weightlessness as descriptive element in this piece by holding the crucial construction upside down. In this very series, "light" and "easy" encourage the awareness accompanied by significance. They smash inside and outside previously separated from each other and produce a drama which is both amusing and thought-provoking.
The works by YANG Zhenzhong display his hope to challenge the conventional definition of social behaviour. His creation is never destitute of metaphor, intelligence and humour. In Light and Easy 2, the artist arranged the video of cityscape along the bund upside down and presented unexpectedly an acrobatics performance. Beneath the appearance of urbanization, YANG realized the changes in weight of the city and therefore decided its weightlessness as descriptive element in this piece by holding the crucial construction upside down. In this very series, "light" and "easy" encourage the awareness accompanied by significance. They smash inside and outside previously separated from each other and produce a drama which is both amusing and thought-provoking.
Video
13 minutes
5 seconds
2003 yzzv24
In 2003, YANG Zhenzhong went to the Siemens factory just outside of Shanghai where some 1,500 workers were busy assembling mobile phones for the entire planet. YANG asked each of the workers successively to say one word from a speech by DENG Xiaoping, the politician who led China to a market economy, as well as the workers' jobs there in the first place, until all 1,500 isolated words had been recited. Then the artist painstakingly spliced their contributions and recomposed together the entire speech, a long process which made the video look like a merchandise produced in assembling lines. The work emancipates faithfully the productive forces of criticism and stands as one of few works which invites audience participation and unfolds the entire processing of creation.
Video
59 minutes
30 seconds
2006 ZDU021
This video features a man, in a town of Northwest China,lost in his insanity.On a public square,in the middle of the night,his behavior eerily appears as an artistic performance:making disturbing and comical faces,singing,playing with objects surrounding him.Passers-by laugh as they see this curios character.When alone,he plays with his shadow,opening a dialogue with himself.These language and acts of his own are spontaneous,natural,as a"theaterical"scene without any acting…His unconstrained boby moving with fluidity reflects his liberated mind.
Video
3 minutes
2007 ZDU025
Zhang Ding’s double-channel video installation Boxing I & II (2007) is a beautifully cruel experience to endure. The two films depict a young man dressed in a lucid t-shirt – the artist himself – in a dark space, confronted only by a punching bag composed of three round cacti with sharp spiky thorns.
The first film consists of close-ups of the boxer’s clenched fists as he hits the cutting cactus, increasingly hurting himself until his fists are intensely bleeding, while the cactus is still intact and un-defeated. In the second film the space has widened, and the artist’s body and the sharp punching bag is emphasized with chiaroscuro effects in a dramatic light-darkness tableau. The boxer is seen striking and hitting the cutting thorns with quick painful punches in an ever-ending looped fight.
Violent and vehement, the boxer fights in vain against an otherwise fragile species - it’s a contest he can never overcome.
The first film consists of close-ups of the boxer’s clenched fists as he hits the cutting cactus, increasingly hurting himself until his fists are intensely bleeding, while the cactus is still intact and un-defeated. In the second film the space has widened, and the artist’s body and the sharp punching bag is emphasized with chiaroscuro effects in a dramatic light-darkness tableau. The boxer is seen striking and hitting the cutting thorns with quick painful punches in an ever-ending looped fight.
Violent and vehement, the boxer fights in vain against an otherwise fragile species - it’s a contest he can never overcome.
Video
14 minutes
2007 ZDU033
Zhang Dings’s most recent film “Great Era” (2007) is a surrealistic Fellini-inspired voyage using Shanghai as its theatrical backdrop. The protagonist rides along staged tableaus with his bike (disguised as a horse) in scenes perfectly synchronized with the film’s sound score.
ZHANG Ding once commented: "Someone is lost in big cities, someone is looking for them in big cities and a person is recording the way of this search in big cities." Starting from Shanghai as its background, Great Era unfolded the narration in a surrealistic fashion overflowing with Chinese taste. Velvet curtain went up and the video began. Leading actor showed up, like a lonely hero, wheeling a bicycle into an urban wasteland and then disappeared in dark night. Ballroom dancing being both merry and cold, bath tub holding greeny water and booths standing along the empty street, the solitary hero rode a horse-headed bicycle, wandering around the city in a poetic pace. At this very moment, the identities of those missing, those searching and those viewing all flowed in one.
ZHANG Ding has held solo exhibitions Tools, Law and Opening respectively during September 4th to 30th in 2007, August 29th to November 5th in 2009 and May 21st to July 20th in 2011 in ShanghART Gallery H-Space. Besides, artist also participated in China Power Station - Part II in Oslo, Norway between September 8th and December 2nd in 2007 and China Power Station - Part 4 in Turin, Italy between November 7th in 2010 and February 27th in 2011.
The exhibitions that displayed Great Era included Big City in Shanghai, Artissima Cinema: Shanghype! Portrait of the City from Dawn to Dusk in Italy and Building Code Violations Ⅱ in Beijing.
ZHANG Ding once commented: "Someone is lost in big cities, someone is looking for them in big cities and a person is recording the way of this search in big cities." Starting from Shanghai as its background, Great Era unfolded the narration in a surrealistic fashion overflowing with Chinese taste. Velvet curtain went up and the video began. Leading actor showed up, like a lonely hero, wheeling a bicycle into an urban wasteland and then disappeared in dark night. Ballroom dancing being both merry and cold, bath tub holding greeny water and booths standing along the empty street, the solitary hero rode a horse-headed bicycle, wandering around the city in a poetic pace. At this very moment, the identities of those missing, those searching and those viewing all flowed in one.
ZHANG Ding has held solo exhibitions Tools, Law and Opening respectively during September 4th to 30th in 2007, August 29th to November 5th in 2009 and May 21st to July 20th in 2011 in ShanghART Gallery H-Space. Besides, artist also participated in China Power Station - Part II in Oslo, Norway between September 8th and December 2nd in 2007 and China Power Station - Part 4 in Turin, Italy between November 7th in 2010 and February 27th in 2011.
The exhibitions that displayed Great Era included Big City in Shanghai, Artissima Cinema: Shanghype! Portrait of the City from Dawn to Dusk in Italy and Building Code Violations Ⅱ in Beijing.
Video
Installation
2005 ZDU034
In “Pry” (2005-ongoing) Zhang Ding explores the relationship between the viewer and the viewed, superiority and inferiority, exploiter and exploited. This is done with rare sensitivity and non-judgmental loyalty towards featured destinies, all of which share a common denominator of difference. These differences are manifested sexually, religiously and politically, and often with severe consequences to the protagonists.
Video
7 minutes
2009 ZDU044
Within 7 minutes, ZHANG Ding himself broke more than one hundred 60w bulbs.
Video
Installation
2005 ZDU046
In “Pry” (2005-ongoing) Zhang Ding explores the relationship between the viewer and the viewed, superiority and inferiority, exploiter and exploited. This is done with rare sensitivity and non-judgmental loyalty towards featured destinies, all of which share a common denominator of difference. These differences are manifested sexually, religiously and politically, and often with severe consequences to the protagonists.
Video
76 minutes
26 seconds
2014 ZD_4543
It was a great performance in the history of rock music, while on Apr 30 2014, it was reinterpreted in ShanghART Beijing.
Here is the video of the concert night：
https://vimeo.com/96980661
Here is the video of the concert night：
https://vimeo.com/96980661
Video
2 minutes
2012 ZD_4608
According to Buddha Jumps over the Wall, the famous cuisine made of animals ingredients such as pig, lamb, chicken, duck, fish, turtle and so forth, ZHANG Ding produced a group of animal plaster sculpture. He invited special effects expert from Shanghai Film Studio to carry out the controlled explosion, imitating the shootings and explosions and utilising advanced filming technology. Accompanied by the magnificent and solemn symphony, animals plaster sculpture were blasted, one by one and then massive explosion, and finally shattered into pieces. High-speed camera lens grasped every moment of the blasting, with liquid and debris flying everywhere in a shocking and cruel manner. It continues with the unique aesthetic expression always displayed in ZHANG Ding's works. Similar to the preparation of cooking materials, the video Buddha Jump Over the Wall, as the beginning point of the whole project, provides materials for the other works in the exhibition and lays foundation for the entire atmosphere.
Video
18 minutes
2006 ZQU004
Football Field No. 603
Invited players and referees from the state's second class football leagues are divided into blue and white teams to play a football game in the artists' home. One team scores if they kick the football out of the windows, and the other team scores if they kick the football into the kitchen.
Invited players and referees from the state's second class football leagues are divided into blue and white teams to play a football game in the artists' home. One team scores if they kick the football out of the windows, and the other team scores if they kick the football into the kitchen.
Video
5 minutes
36 seconds
2005 ZQU012
Integrated
In a twinkling sky, with the increase of white dots, densely-populated buildings are orderly formed.
In a twinkling sky, with the increase of white dots, densely-populated buildings are orderly formed.
Video
5 minutes
36 seconds
2005 ZQU013
Knots
Nine earthworms make themselves into knot at the same time, which can never been seen in the natural world.
Nine earthworms make themselves into knot at the same time, which can never been seen in the natural world.
LivingArts
Video
2002 ZQU016
Zhang Qing's creations from 2000 to 2002 focused on gender, body, and consciousness." Moo-Cow!" was a live act in Zhang Qing ’s “Experience the Scene” exhibition in Xining, Guangxi in January 2002. In " Moo-Cow!", Zhang Qing wore female makeup, naked and painted red all over, attracting and angering a bull to fight against him without any protection and weapons. Zhang Qing's fascination with physical experience is reflected in the implementation of this behavior. Just as the female dressing in his previous works, he does not cover up his male gender when dressing up like a woman. The "hermaphrodite" may be the perfect and charming sex. Zhang Qing replaced the red cloth in the bullfighting game with her own body and was ready to be attacked at any time. Cows were teased by the stimuli in front of them, and human reacted accordingly to avoid danger. This is a dangerous, stimulating power game that comes from biological reactions.
In 2010, the video of " Moo-Cow!" was exhibited in the "Big Draft" exhibition at Kunstmuseum Bern.
In 2010, the video of " Moo-Cow!" was exhibited in the "Big Draft" exhibition at Kunstmuseum Bern.
Video
17 minutes
30 seconds
2010 ZQU056
Borrowing languages from typical practice for propaganda of leaders and officials in 1980s in China, ZHANG Qing rendered meticulously every single detail of the remarkable figure of "a people's secretary" by surveillance cameras. The work retained vigorously realistic and ideological characteristics, where government-people relationship, party regulation and developmental patterns were all comfortably woven into the script. Too flawless to imagine, a perfectly dependable idol was feigned by the artist for general public. The voiceover, on the other hand, was read only in English by a professional broadcaster of Chinese nationality. Set purposefully, such linguistic environment seemingly caused the divorce between artwork and Chinese context, amazing viewers with experience of bizarreness and malpositioning.
Installation
Video
40 minutes
2016 ZQ_0231
Under the circumstances when a monitor supervises and a filming camera records simultaneously, an operator reshapes the routed mark according to the preset standard. Interacted monitoring relationships are merged among a camera, a monitor, a standardised graph printed on aluminum sheet and an operator. The intangible psychological implication surpasses the oppression from the visualised surveillance during the process of the practice, thus determines the uncontrollable abstract deformation produced under the operator’s performance.
Video
17 minutes
44 seconds
2013 ZQ_0397
In a construction site, workers use existing materials to make simple table tennis (Ping Pong) board, then they played table tennis with co-workers. From the working worker's view, the video tells the type of worker who is playing games, and their working status. Finally, after building is completed, artist lived in the room they played table tennis at that time.
About this project:
Artists believe that construction workers have their own independent ideas on visual aesthetics, and the process of construction can activate their own creativity. Meanwhile, project participants obtain raw material locally, everything, for example workers, materials and time, can be useful during the project.
As project goes on, the construction workers experience a temporary change in their identity and original employment status. The workers are liberated from the social norm and given full respect and power. The artists, at this moment, as motivators, have contributed to this series of events. At the same time, they themselves discover new roles and relationships in the realm of employment.
About this project:
Artists believe that construction workers have their own independent ideas on visual aesthetics, and the process of construction can activate their own creativity. Meanwhile, project participants obtain raw material locally, everything, for example workers, materials and time, can be useful during the project.
As project goes on, the construction workers experience a temporary change in their identity and original employment status. The workers are liberated from the social norm and given full respect and power. The artists, at this moment, as motivators, have contributed to this series of events. At the same time, they themselves discover new roles and relationships in the realm of employment.
Installation
Video
56 minutes
16 seconds
2016 ZQ_0447
Under the circumstances when a monitor supervises and a filming camera records simultaneously, an operator reshapes the routed mark according to the preset standard. Interacted monitoring relationships are merged among a camera, a monitor, a standardised graph printed on aluminum sheet and an operator. The intangible psychological implication surpasses the oppression from the visualised surveillance during the process of the practice, thus determines the uncontrollable abstract deformation produced under the operator’s performance.
Video
13 minutes
41 seconds
2011 ZQ_0462
Approaching by sarcasm and insinuation, the video work publicised an excellently performing worker in whisky factory from the angle of capitalism. From the view of surveillance system, ZHANG Qing realised his production functioning as source of evidences and clues by capturing the scenes of a good person whose performance, on the other hand, dragged the truth into an unknown state.
September and October 2011, Learning from Tom Smith was displayed in Glenfiddich Artists in Residence 2011 Exhibition. Introduced to images they were long familiarised with, however, viewers merely ended up with their further perceptions being deliberately cut off by the artist utilizing Chinese work title, film subtitle and voiceover as calculated disguise.
September and October 2011, Learning from Tom Smith was displayed in Glenfiddich Artists in Residence 2011 Exhibition. Introduced to images they were long familiarised with, however, viewers merely ended up with their further perceptions being deliberately cut off by the artist utilizing Chinese work title, film subtitle and voiceover as calculated disguise.
Installation
Video
2016 ZQ_0693
Under the circumstances when a monitor supervises and a filming camera records simultaneously , an operator reshapes the routed mark according to the preset standard. Interacted monitoring relationships are merged among the standardised graph printed on aluminum sheet, monitor, camera and operator, during the process of the consciously being monitored practice, oppressed psychological implication surpasses the visualised tangible surveillance thus determines the uncontrollable abstract deformation produced by the operator’s performance.
Video
12 minutes
39 seconds
2003 ZQ_2912
Thirty-one meters long bag, eighteen participants
Video
1 minutes
39 seconds
2012 ZQ_7709
This video was created in 2012. In 2005, I made a reverse video. I’ve been fond of such form for long. So it happened very naturally. And the idea behind this is kind of similar to The People’s Secretary (one of artist’s important representative works). Generally, I did it for fun. Maybe I will continue, but it really depends.
Video
11 minutes
51 seconds
2014 ZQ_9291
This surveillance video is regarding how six short men discover the subtle relationship between their heights and social psychology. All those are hidden inside them and never being told.
It's also a psychological monitoring when we subconsciously observe and suspect people who aren’t valued in ‘mainstream’ cognition.
It's also a psychological monitoring when we subconsciously observe and suspect people who aren’t valued in ‘mainstream’ cognition.
Video
9 minutes
17 seconds
1996 zth014
It combines humor and sadness, the artists and artistic environment today is still the same, perhaps, it attracts less attention as the system of auction, gallery and art fair is growing which narrows the environment and operating methods. Came out in 1996, did this work correspond with the trend of integrating with the world, resist with its identity and environment, or sneer at the people around?
Will/ We Must is a 35mm film work, taking the form of early silent film in aspects of the chapters, the dialogues and the montages. It carries the anthropological sense of the cultural environment, daily life and individuals in 90s.
http://www.shanghartgallery.com/artists/zhoutiehai/will.htm
Will/ We Must is a 35mm film work, taking the form of early silent film in aspects of the chapters, the dialogues and the montages. It carries the anthropological sense of the cultural environment, daily life and individuals in 90s.
http://www.shanghartgallery.com/artists/zhoutiehai/will.htm
Video
15 minutes
1997 ZJU016
A high-8 video camera is placed inside a refrigerator with the lens pointing outwards. As if in a state of auto-recording or surveillance, the camera records a series of casual actions of an item being placed into or removed from the refrigerator. When the refrigerator is open (and the light inside illuminated),the camera records an image. When the refrigerator door is closed, the screen appears black. The video imagery is subjected to the physical attributes of the inside chamber of the refrigerator with alternating conditions of light and dark. The removal of the audio emphasizes the inherent subjectivity in the image.
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Video
20 minutes
2008 ZJU019
This two-part work is made up of video and photography. The video is composed of three interrelated images, each shot from different angles and perspectives that depict close-up shots of young men and women with dignified but solemn expressions against the blue sky. The photographs depict young men and women on the back of a mule holding the reins and calmly gazing into the distance, in a seemingly heroic gesture made ironic by the mule’s sterile nature and its existence as a work animal.
Video
5 minutes
2002 ZJU020
The video depicts an endless loop of a Boeing airplane cruising on the tarmac, taxing on the runway but never taking off. The camera is fixed from the side of the aircraft as the background scenery of trees passes rapidly, insinuating movement. The audio depicts the white noise of the aircraft mixed with relaxing music often played inside planes before take off.
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Preview Online
Video
10 minutes
2001 ZJU021
A young man sits at a table near the window of a fancy café, drinking coffee, smoking, and talking on the phone, completely ambivalent to the female figure standing nearby. The “women” stands unidentified, seen only from the back, seemingly frozen in time like the cityscape in the background of the scene. The video imagery is static reading like a freeze frame.
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Preview Online
Video
8 minutes
1997 ZJU025
A miniature camera strapped on the arm of a second player records the movementof a basketball player, who is the only figure in the video and therefore seemingly playing alone inside a basketball court. The camera man’s perspective and angles are determined by the movement of the game, as a response to the basketball player’s moves. The audio is edited to heighten the melody and rhythm of the movement,emphasizing the freedom and uncertainty of the image.
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Preview Online
Video
19 minutes
15 seconds
1997 ZJU035
The video imagery captures a goldfish, jumping, breathing, flipping and struggling out of water. The video is edited without a beginning or end, pointing to the cyclical nature of life.
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Preview Online
Video
7 minutes
40 seconds
1993 ZJ_1646
The camera angle replaces the dialogist’s viewing angle. In the continuing process of dialogue without any clue and actual content, “the dialogist’s viewing angle” casually goes across everything which is touched by the visual range. Sometimes, it focus on the part details, such as other’s corners of eyes, lips, eyebrows, and it sometimes aimlessly sweeps the environment where they stay. In the 10 minutes process, the viewer is unable to identify the main body of the video.
Video
7 minutes
1996 ZJ_3577
The video shows two craftswomen running the traditional book binder to bind the magazines. The book binder is making tedium noises while the two craftswomen repeating their actions along with the boring rythms.
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Video
Installation
27 minutes
16 seconds
1994 ZJ_3832
Forever is a masterwork by artist ZHU Jia, in which an old-fashioned tricycle was readapted into the installation with a small video camera fixed on its left wheel. As the vehicle moved forwards, urban landscape in Beijing was thus captured. Accompanied by a noisy snore, the rhythm of rotation was controlled mainly by traffic on the roads, leaving the viewers dragged into a giant vortex of dizziness.
Completed in 1994, Forever enjoys an international reputation as an experimental video work in early history of Chinese contemporary art and has been exhibited several times in important venues including New York MoMA (Museum of Modern Art), etc. The artist in this piece concentrates on "the relationship between images and psychological and visual experiences". Attaching the camera to the wheel is in fact an action which gets rid of grasp of human eyes and hands and reminds spectators of existence of the camera, as well as viewing as behaviour itself. Reeling and bizarre, these images outline a unique visual experience of cities in existence. Simultaneously, the background sound conveys a message which is paradoxical and unexpected: forever revolving and forever monotony are woven peacefully into a same fabric where unusual experience is reconstructed after disturbance of audiovisual perception.
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Completed in 1994, Forever enjoys an international reputation as an experimental video work in early history of Chinese contemporary art and has been exhibited several times in important venues including New York MoMA (Museum of Modern Art), etc. The artist in this piece concentrates on "the relationship between images and psychological and visual experiences". Attaching the camera to the wheel is in fact an action which gets rid of grasp of human eyes and hands and reminds spectators of existence of the camera, as well as viewing as behaviour itself. Reeling and bizarre, these images outline a unique visual experience of cities in existence. Simultaneously, the background sound conveys a message which is paradoxical and unexpected: forever revolving and forever monotony are woven peacefully into a same fabric where unusual experience is reconstructed after disturbance of audiovisual perception.
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Video
10 minutes
2015 ZJ_5385
In this four-channel 10 min video installation different episodes play simultaneously on the four screens. The artist has arranged several different scenarios and symbolic props which make it easy for viewers to feel the pervasive ambiguity which can not be put into words. On the one hand, our imagination is tempted by the delicate details, but on the other hand, our imagination is limited through a very rigorous structure. The gradual increasing sound of the violin - musicians pulling repeatedly with A in C major tortures the audience's visual and hearing senses. A man with a hand full of colorful balloons, moves his arm rhythmically up and down. A young girl sits, smiling, on the mattress covered by flowers. The shadows of a flying flag reflect on the wall. Through the language full of hints, artist wants to express critical attitude towards the control.
Video
15 minutes
2012 ZJ_6271
"Zero" is artist Zhu Jia's work in 2012. Based on a casual tone, the video shows a group of fragmented images with no plot. The actress in different-era attires shuttled in different atmospheres, reflecting a sense of uncertainty. These images are called "described memories" by the artist. In a standard shape pattern, the conceptual images combined with practical reality, thus remolding something anew.
The artist attempts to explore the distance between outside "artificial images" and conventional "visual experience". Lens moved slowly so that the viewer has enough time to gaze details of images, carefully selected everyday objects and fictional landscape, retaining a sensibility. In the conversation "Do I resemble her?", here "her", at one hand, refers to a narrator of the past, at another those that are narrated by the narrator. Described "images" are mixed with imagination of "description" from today's point of view, juxtaposed with today's "scene" in the same time and same space in a surreal and irrational manner. Subjective perspective adrift, "soul" that run through the work, and the complexity and multiplicity in between gradually emerged.
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The artist attempts to explore the distance between outside "artificial images" and conventional "visual experience". Lens moved slowly so that the viewer has enough time to gaze details of images, carefully selected everyday objects and fictional landscape, retaining a sensibility. In the conversation "Do I resemble her?", here "her", at one hand, refers to a narrator of the past, at another those that are narrated by the narrator. Described "images" are mixed with imagination of "description" from today's point of view, juxtaposed with today's "scene" in the same time and same space in a surreal and irrational manner. Subjective perspective adrift, "soul" that run through the work, and the complexity and multiplicity in between gradually emerged.
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Video
10 minutes
2014 ZJ_9848
Set sometime in the 1970s during the Chinese Cultural Revolution period, the film depicts the clothing, interior
styles and music typical of the time. The film begins with a couple slow dancing silently in modest living quarters, then cuts to a stylized 1940s interior with a male actor dancing alone to waltz music. An unidentified male appears in both scenes as if interrupting a memory being replayed. Crew members including a makeup artist, prop assistant, and gaffer reveal the construction of the scenery.
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styles and music typical of the time. The film begins with a couple slow dancing silently in modest living quarters, then cuts to a stylized 1940s interior with a male actor dancing alone to waltz music. An unidentified male appears in both scenes as if interrupting a memory being replayed. Crew members including a makeup artist, prop assistant, and gaffer reveal the construction of the scenery.
Preview Online
Video
27 minutes
16 seconds
1994 ZJv001
A high-8 video camera was fixed to the left wheel of a tricycle on a self-made bracket. The lens oriented outward recorded city scenes as the artist rode the tricycle through Beijing streets, cycling naturally and adjusting speed according to traffic conditions. The video imagery documented city scenes while simultaneously recording the movement of the tricycle wheel.
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