Fall 2005 - Traveling Outside and Within: Four Contemporary Chinese Artists: Yang Fudong, Yang Zhenzhong, Cao Fei, Ou Ning
Traveling Outside and Within presents film and video works by four artists from Shanghai and Guangzhou that explore the daily life of Chinese cities and people navigating the cultural dynamics between state politics and socio-economic change. Yang Fudong's beautiful narrative films portray the re-emergence of an urban class of Chinese artists and intellectuals recovering their identities while being estranged and uncertain of their roles at the margins of a society driven toward rapid modernization and cultural contention. Cao Fei's documentary video and her work with Ou Ning and U-thèque Organization, and Yang Zhenzhong's performance-based conceptual video works document expressions of autonomous and alternative realities. Although referencing traditional Chinese aesthetics and primarily intended for Chinese audiences, these works are relevant, without being exotic, to an international audience. Most people know the struggles and conflicts between personal desires and allegiance to family responsibilities, the experience of nature in sublime settings and living in modern urban centers and the benefits of collaborative group dynamics compared with the disjointed monotony of conformity in the speeded-up life of contemporary global culture. –Patrick Clancy
September 16, 2005
Let’s Puff, Yang Zhenzhong (China), 2002, 7 min., video on DVD
This document of a 2-channel video installation juxtaposes imagery of a street scene and a young woman, two ordinary subjects connected in an unreal and extraordinary way.
Light and Easy, Yang Zhenzhong (China), 2001, 7 min., video on DVD
Light and Easy 2, Yang Zhenzhong (China), 2002, 5 min., video on DVD
Yang Zhenzhong interacts with the Shanghai skyline in these humorous and ironic performances.
922 Rice Corns, Yang Zhenzhong (China), 2000, 8 min., video on DVD
A hen a rooster enact a dance of yin and yang while competing for a finite number of grains of rice in one of Yang Zhenzhong’s many visual parables that comment on everyday life.
I Will Die, Yang Zhenzhong (China), 2001, 20 min., video on DVD
Individuals of all ages and social classes from China, Germany, France, America and other countries confront their own mortality by declaring, “I will die.”
Seven Intellectuals in Bamboo Forest, Part 1, Yang Fudong (China), 2003, 30 min., 35mm black and white film on DVD, Mandarin with English subtitles
In the first of this five-part work in progress, Yang Fudong references often-told mid-third century Chinese stories of scholars and poets retreating into nature to escape their societal and worldly troubles, losing themselves in pure thought and discussion. In this contemporary version, the seven young men and women reflect silently on their own individual lives, fortunes, hopes and dreams.
September 23, 2005
San Yuan Li, Ou Ning (China), Cao Fei (China) and U-thèque Organization (China), 2003, 40 min., digital video on DVD
The site of the 1841 Opium War that led the revolt against colonial British authority, San Yuan Li Village is a “village-amid-the-city” that is typical of the urbanization process in Guangzhou in booming Southern China. Commissioned by the 50th Venice Biennale, this modern day “city symphony” is a collaborative work that documents contemporary life along the Pearl River Delta. – Ou Ning, Cao Fei and U-thèque Organization
COSPlayers, Cao Fei (China), 2004, 8 min., digital video on DVD
This video follows a group of anime obsessed Chinese teenagers adorned in costumes they think will grant them magical powers as they traverse the cityscape and engage in combat within their imaginary world. – Cao Fei and Lombard-Freid Fine Arts
Honey, Yang Fudong (China), 2003, 9 min. digital video on DVD
“A young girl in the company of blankly gazing, discreet men in Mao-suits, moves from one place to another. Close-ups of her body and dress might hint to the nature of their relationship. But the story never gets explicit, only suggesting the possibility of their interaction through the creation of a never fulfilled suspense.” –Martina Koppel-Yang
Liu Lan, Yang Fudong (China), 2003, 14:20 min., 35mm black and white film on DVD
In this film interpretation of a popular Chinese folk song, a young man from the city and a country girl travel together on her small boat.
September 30, 2005
City Light, Yang Fudong (China), 2000, 6 min., video on DVD
“An office worker is pursuing a safe and quiet existence but he also wants to experience romance and to be a hero. He wants to create a glimmer of hope for himself, just like the countless lights that illuminate the work place at night.” – Yang Fudong
An Estranged Paradise, Yang Fudong (China), 2002, 76 min., 35mm black and white film on DVD
In a nonlinear way An Estranged Paradise records the internal struggles of Zhuzi, a young intellectual caught between his ideals and the practicalities of life. “The film is a meditation on life, peace and boredom, love and melancholia.” – Yang Fudong |
