'Father' of Chinese media art visits London

By Rory Howard
0 Comment(s)Print E-mail China.org.cn, May 29, 2015
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The title "father of Chinese video art" have followed artist Zhang Peili since the late 1980s when he first showed “30x30” to a group of artists and critics at the now famous 1987 Huangshan Conference.

Zhang has come to London on May 19, 2015 to attend the Chinese Visual Festival and to show the London audience some of his works. [China.org.cn]
According to Zhang, “30x30” is a three-hour practical joke and a statement on boredom. A joke was thankfully cut down to five minutes for the London audience.

Back in 1987, the original idea, Zhang has said, was to press play button, lock the door to the theatre, and return after three hours. Before he could leave, the artists and critics in the room forced Zhang Peili to fast-forward the video, taking its running length from three hours down to only fifteen minutes. Those fifteen minutes were just long enough to earn Zhang that title: "Father of Chinese video art".

“30x30” is the first work that Zhang showed at the Chinese Visual Art Festival. The work is one that is often read about, but rarely experienced in its entire bum-numbing three hour entirety. It was no different at the London festival.

When asked if installation art was harder to disseminate to a wider audience due to the need to view it as an installation, Zhang replied that art is rarely seen in its proper context by saying that “30x30” which has been shortened to five minutes and viewed on a cinema screen went down well with the audience. There was laughter at the absurdity, and sighs at the intended "consciousness of the existence of time" as Zhang once put it.

In Hygiene No.3, Zhang spends a lengthy space of time washing a live chicken over and over again. The piece is a further exploration of the aesthetics of boredom. In the multi-media age if you give an audience nothing to watch but a man washing a chicken, they will sit back and watch.

The London audience were quick to realise the implication of these two works. They laughed at the absurd realisation that time was passing them by and that there was nothing they could do about it. The audience, as well as the onscreen chicken, were lulled to sleepiness by extended time.

Happily for the audience, Zhang's visual dissertation on boredom was followed by works that were easier to be understood. "Happiness" -- a two channel video piece that was edited into single channel for the festival -- is repurposed film footage.

On one side of the screen, a male character speaks innocuously, while on the other side of the screen a group of revolutionaries with radiant smiles applaud the man. This hints at peoples' willingness to applaud words without understanding the content of what they applaud.

After seeing the works and joining in the Q&A session at the Chinese Visual Festival, many were left with the question: Will the UK see more of Zhang Peili's works? The answer is yes. Zhang Peili will participate in the Whitworth "Four Decades of Chinese Art" exhibition which runs from July 1, 2015 until September 20, 2015.

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