Opening reception at REDCAT on Thursday, September 16, 6–9 pm

Due to unforeseen circumstances, the screening and conversation scheduled for Friday, September 17 at the haudenschildGarage, has been cancelled.

About the Artists

Zhang Peili (b. 1957, Hangzhou) graduated from the China Academy of Art, Hangzhou in 1984. He has been called the “Father of Chinese video art” and is a leading figure in the Chinese contemporary art scene ever since the mid-1980s. His influence on his peers and his role as educator of younger generations of artists cannot be emphasized enough. As the main founder of the first new media department in the Chinese art eductation system, his pedagogical engagement has been greatly fruitful. He has had solo exhibitions at Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, New Plymouth (2009); OCT Contemporary Art Terminal, Shenzhen (2008); and Museum of Modern Art, New York (1999). Zhang has also been included in ‘85 New Wave, Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing (2007); China Power Station, Serpentine Gallery, London (2006); Alors la Chine?, Centre Pompidou, Paris; Zone of Urgency, Venice Biennale (2003); Global Conceptualism, Queens Museum of Art, New York (1999); Cities on the Move, CAPC musée d’Art contemporain de Bordeaux and Secession, Vienna (1997-9); Inside Out, P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center, New York and San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (1998). Zhang lives and works in Hangzhou where he serves as founding dean and professor of the New Media Department at the China Academy of Art in Hangzhou.

Zhu Jia (b. 1963, Beijing) graduated from Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing in 1988. He has presented work at Trans Local Motion, Shanghai Biennale (2008); Not Only Possible, But Also Necessary, Istanbul Biennale (2007); World Factory, San Francisco Art Institute (2007); Zooming into Focus: Contemporary Chinese Photography & Video from the Haudenschild Collection, National Art Museum of China (2005); The Second Guangzhou Triennial (2005); Alors la Chine?, Centre Pompidou, Paris (2003); Zone of Urgency, Venice Biennale (2003); Time After Time, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco (2003); Tempo, Museum of Modern Art, New York (2002); Living in Time, Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin (2001); Translated Acts, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin and Queens Museum of Art, New York (2001); Cities on the Move, CAPC musée d’Art contemporain de Bordeaux and Secession, Vienna (1997-9); Every Day, 11th Biennale of Sydney (1998). Zhu lives and works in Beijing.

*Image: Left: Zhang Peili, Uncertain Pleasure, Right: Zhu Jia, Forever

“This exhibition explains the importance of re-acknowledging and re-evaluating this hot spot of contemporary art. From the very beginning, contemporary Chinese photography has been closely related to the daily lives of Chinese people. The quickly growing and changing social environment has focused on the created objects of the artists. From these vivid and graphical works, we can witness the exciting poles of this age, experience the active interaction between art and society, and understand the new and unique exploration of these pioneers. Shanghai has always been the essential window to contemporary Western cultural patterns.

From oil painting to photography, from industrial design to video art, Shanghai plays a critical role during this process of communication and incorporation. Therefore, the opening of Zooming into Focus, a preliminary review of Chinese contemporary photography and video, is not only an occasion of chance but a necessary consequence of history. The importance of the exhibition is in no doubt: it showed some truth of Chinese contemporary art to the public and to the cultural circle, and it prodded the Chinese art museum circle to start collecting contemporary video and photography works.” -Li Xu, Curator, Shanghai Art Museum

“Different from traditional art, such as painting and sculpture, photography includes video, together with film and animation. Focusing on photography, this exhibition introduces the history of recent contemporary Chinese art….Furthermore, this collection can be regarded as an objective review on the current situation of Chinese photography. The Shanghai Art Museum is dedicated to the promotion and development of contemporary Chinese art. This exhibition is the first time contemporary photography and Chinese artists are introduced to the public.” -Li Xiangyang, Executive Director, Shanghai Art Museum

Exhibition

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February 18 – March 30, 2004, Shanghai Art Museum

Organized by Li Xu, Laura Zhou, and Eloisa Haudenschild.

Roof Top Performance by Song Tao
February 18, 2004, Shanghai Art Museum

Following the opening of the exhibition Song Tao with other contemporary Chinese artists, presented a multimedia sound and video performance on the roof of the Shanghai Art Museum.

Symposium
Envisioning the Future of Contemporary Art From Different Glocal Positions

March 25 & 26, 2004 – China Art Academy, Hangzhou
Organized by Zhang Peili (Artist and Director of New Media dept., China Art Academy, Hangzhou), Laura Zhou (Director of ShanghART, Shanghai, China) and Eloisa Haudenschild. All participants toured Zooming into Focus at the Shanghai Art Museum and were then transported via bus to Hangzhou.

Moderated by Hou Hanru (Director of Exhibitions and Public Programs, SFAI and Independent Curator) and Pi Li (Independent Curator and Founder, Universal Studio, Beijing) with works shown by Bill Voila (courtesy of Britta Erickson; presented by Eloisa Haudenschild), Wang Gongxin, Qiu Zhijie, Zhang Peili, and Yang Fudong.

Presenters included:
- Fan Di’an (Director, National Art Museum of China) Meeting and Traffic
- Hans Ulrich Obrist (Curator, Paris) The Museum of the Future – Art, Architecture, Science and Technology
- Mami Kataoka (Senior Curator, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo & International Associate Curator, Hayward Gallery, London) New Media as New Experience
- Li Xu (Curator, China) The Relationships Between New Media Art and Museum Systems in China
- Huang Du (Ph.D., China) New Events and Culture Space
- Zhang Zhiyang (Professor, China) Where is the Space for Art in the Era of Technological Globalization?
- Rudolf Stoert (Curator, Germany) Switch Media Project in Thailand
- Gridthiya Gaweewong (Curator, Thailand) Regional Strategies and Global Impacts: A Southeast Asian Perspective
- Hu Fang (Writer, China) Pseudo-Machine of Writing
- Evelyn Jouanno (Curator, France) Under the Earth, There is the Sky
- Martina Koppel-Yang (Art Critic, Germany) The Pingpang Policy of Chinese Contemporary Art
- Zheng Shengtain (Curator & Managing Editor, Yishu Journal, Canada) Non-Local and Non-Mainstream
- Karen Smith (Art Historian, UK) The Future: In Whose Hands?
- Waling Boers (Curator and Founding Director of Buro Friedrich-Berlin and Universal Studios-Beijing) Art Between the State and the Market, A Challenge?

Envisioning the Future of Contemporary Art From Different Glocal Positions

March 25 & 26, 2004 – China Art Academy, Hangzhou

Organized by Zhang Peili (Artist and Director of New Media dept., China Art Academy, Hangzhou), Lorenz Helbling (Founder of ShanghART, Shanghai, China), Laura Zhou (Director of ShanghART, Shanghai, China) and Eloisa Haudenschild. All participants toured Zooming into Focus at the Shanghai Art Museum and were then transported via bus to Hangzhou.

Moderated by Hou Hanru (Director of Exhibitions and Public Programs, SFAI and Independent Curator) and Pi Li (Independent Curator and Founder, Universal Studio, Beijing) with works shown by Bill Voila (courtesy of Britta Erickson; presented by Eloisa Haudenschild), Wang Gongxin, Qiu Zhijie, Zhang Peili, and Yang Fudong.

Presenters included:
- Fan Di’an (Director, National Art Museum of China) Meeting and Traffic
- Hans Ulrich Obrist (Curator, Paris) The Museum of the Future – Art, Architecture, Science and Technology
- Mami Kataoka (Senior Curator, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo & International Associate Curator, Hayward Gallery, London) New Media as New Experience
- Li Xu (Curator, China) The Relationships Between New Media Art and Museum Systems in China
- Huang Du (Ph.D., China) New Events and Culture Space

- Zhang Zhiyang (Professor, China) Where is the Space for Art in the Era of Technological Globalization?
- Rudolf Stoert (Curator, Germany) Switch Media Project in Thailand
- Gridthiya Gaweewong (Curator, Thailand) Regional Strategies and Global Impacts: A Southeast Asian Perspective
- Hu Fang (Writer, China) Pseudo-Machine of Writing
- Evelyn Jouanno (Curator, France) Under the Earth, There is the Sky
- Martina Koppel-Yang (Art Critic, Germany) The Pingpang Policy of Chinese Contemporary Art
- Zheng Shengtain (Curator & Managing Editor, Yishu Journal, Canada) Non-Local and Non-Mainstream
- Karen Smith (Art Historian, UK) The Future: In Whose Hands?
- Waling Boers (Curator and Founding Director of Buro Friedrich-Berlin and Universal Studios-Beijing) Art Between the State and the Market, A Challenge?

The exhibition’s lead title, Zooming into Focus: Contemporary Chinese Photograph and Video from the Haudenschild Collection (2003 – 2005), refers to three major concepts quintessential to the exhibition and the symposium: Chinese artists’ use of photographic and video camera to examine the quick transition in their culture, the incredible pace of growth in China’s urban centers, and the current attention being paid to China by the rest of the industrialized world, especially the West. Most of the artists represented in Zooming into Focus live and work in China’s swiftly expanding southern megalopolises and frequently address those issues that directly affect young urbanites – the social impact of burgeoning consumerism, the meteoric rise of youth culture, the threatening loss of identity amidst the city swirl, the persistent sense of time speeding by. Exploring contemporary Chinese art in light of these concerns, the symposium will provoke a fresh perspective on China’s role in the international milieu.

About the Organizers & Moderators

Hou Hanru

Hou Hanru is Director of Exhibitions and Public Programs and Chair of the Exhibitions and Museum Studies program at SFAI. He was also the moderator for the 2004 symposium in Hangzhou, China Envisioning the Future of Contemporary Art From Different Glocal Positions organized in collaboration with the exhibition Zooming into Focus: Photography and Video from the Haudenschild Collection. A prolific writer and curator, Hou received both his undergraduate and graduate degrees from the Central Institute of Fine Arts in Beijing, where he was trained in art history, with additional work in painting, performance, installation, and architectural research. He is a consultant for several cultural institutions internationally including the Global Advisory Committee of the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis and the Contemporary Art Museum in Kumamoto, Japan. Described as a significant international voice on cultural difference, Hou is the French correspondent for Flash Art International and a regular contributor to several other journals on contemporary art including Frieze, Art Monthly, Third Text, Art and Asia Pacific, Domus, Atlantica, Texte Zur Kunst, and Tema Celeste. Most recently, Hou was appointed Curator of the 10th International Istanbul Biennial, which will take place from September to November 2007. Other recent curatorial projects include the second Guangzhou Triennale where he co-curated Beyond: An Extraordinary Space of Experimentation for Modernization; Go Inside, the 3rd Tirana Biennale (Tirana, Albania, 2005); Out of Sight, organized by the De Appel Foundation (Amsterdam, Netherlands, 2005); Nuit Blanche 2004 (Paris, 2004); and A L’Ouest Du Sud De L’Est / A L’Est Du Sud De L’Ouest (Villa Arson, Nice, 2004). Hou is one of the first curators and thinkers to examine postmodern issues of nomadic identity, hybridity, globalized mobility, what he calls “in-betweeness,” and artists living in the diaspora.

Laura Zhou

Laura Zhou is co-director and co-founder of ShanghART in Shanghai, China. The gallery was initiated in 1996 and it has since grown to become one of China’s most influential contemporary art institutions. ShanghART has established itself as a leading gallery representing established figures whilst continuing to support the work of innovative younger artists. As a gallery, producer, supporter, and point of reference ShanghART contributes as a vital resource to the development of contemporary Chinese art. Being recognized for its importance ShanghART became the initial gallery from China participating in major international art fairs like Art Basel and Fiac, Paris. Since its inauguration the gallery has established more than 70 exhibitions, and it enjoys the great respect of being among the 75 international galleries selected in Thames & Hudson publication international Art Galleries that features 75 of the most acclaimed galleries from post-war to post-millennium (2005). ShanghART represents over 40 of China most talented artists working with different media ranging from painting and sculpture to video art and performance. Since its founding, ShanghART has supported multiple, international programs and projects.

Pi Li

Pi Li, born in 1974, has constantly changed his career direction in recent years. He was once the Art Director for the Chinese Contemporary Art Award sponsored by Uli Sigg. He also showed up in the Cannes International Film Festival as the producer of the Chinese movie Shanghai Dream. After over one year of operation, the U Studio (now named Boers-Li Gallery), founded in 2005 with curator Waling Boers, has also changed its direction. Now Pi Li decides to develop whole-heartedly the studio into a commercial gallery, and he has opened up a 100-square-meter affiliated exhibition area beside the main hall to promote the experimental solo exhibitions. The once mixed-orientated U Studio finally begins to transform into a professional gallery. The gallery represents a selective group of internationally operating artists. The gallery program is not media-specific, and includes installation, sculpture, painting, works on paper, audio work, photography, video, film, performance, and digital art. Each year, approximately six major solo exhibitions are organized, along with an irregular number of smaller solo and group exhibitions. Boers-Li emphasizes its support for the production of new and experimental work, utilizing its unique position both at home and abroad to open new pathways for artistic development. The program focuses on new developments in international art, as well as on the changing contemporary positions of established or older-generation artists. In addition, Boers-Li participates in a selection of both Chinese and international art fairs. The program also includes the publication of catalogs, both to accompany major solo exhibitions and to offer retrospectives on our artists. Click here to visit Boers-Li Gallery’s website.

Zhang Peili

Zhang Peili (b. 1957, China) lives and works in Hangzhou. In 1984 he obtained his BA in oil painting from the China Academy of Art in Hangzhou. Today he remains one of China’s foremost video artist and his been shown in galleries throughout the world. He has shown at the Museum of Modern Art in New York and at the Venice Biennale. For a Chinese-born artist who still lives in his hometown, Zhang Peili has been represented in a remarkable number of international exhibitions. In just over two years, his work has been seen in several high-profile Asian-themed group shows–including “Cities on the Move” and “Inside Out: New Chinese Art”–as well as at the Basel art fair and the most recent Sydney and Venice biennials. He also bears the distinction of being the first Chinese artist to have an installation piece collected by MOMA (where he had a project show last summer).

Marking many important milestones, Zooming into Focus: Chinese Contemporary Photography and Video from the Haudenschild Collection (2003 – 2005) was the first exhibition of its kind in San Diego and Singapore and the first contemporary Chinese photography exhibition at the Centro Cultural Tijuana, Mexico. It was the first time the Shanghai Art Museum exhibited works on contemporary Chinese video and photography from a private collection and most importantly, it was the first retrospective exhibition of Chinese photography and video ever held at the National Art Museum of China, Beijing.

Zooming into Focus investigated the effects of accelerated change in China through the work of the country’s most talented emerging artists. The swift transformation of Chinese culture is reflected in the work of each of these represented artists who comment on contemporary Chinese urban life with intelligence, wit, foreboding and nostalgia.

The works of Cao Fei, Chen Shaoxiong, Feng Mengbo, Geng Jianyi, Hong Hao, Hu Jieming, Kan Xuan, Lui Wei, Lu Chunsheng, Shi Yong, Song Tao, Tang Maohong, Wang Youshen, Weng Fen, Xiang Liqing, Xu Zhen, Yang Fudong, Yang Yong, Yang Zhenzhong, Zhao Bandi, Zheng Gougu and Zhu Jia were included in this exhibitions. Other artists in the collection include Gu Dexin, Hai Bo, Wang Jin, Zhou Tiehai, Yu Youhan, and Zhao Nengzhi.

Lorenz Helbling and Laura Zhou supported all exhibitions and organized the Hangzhou symposium at the China Art Academy. Shi Yong was responsible for designing the Zooming into Focus catalog and the installation design of Zooming into Focus at the National Art Museum of China, Beijing.

In addition to the traveling exhibitions, two symposia were held: An International Discourse on New Chinese Video and Photography at the San Diego Museum of Art and Envisioning the Future of Contemporary Art from Different Glocal Positions at the China National Academy of Art in Hangzhou, China. Participants included Xu Bing, Waling Boers, Fan Di’an, Huang Du, Britta Erickson, Hu Fang, Yang Fudong, Gridthiya Gaweewong, Wang Gogxin, Hou Hanru, Betti-Sue Hertz, Xu Jiang, Evelyne Jouanno, Mami Kataoka, Martina Koppel-Yang, Pi Li, Barbara London, Zhang Peili, Christopher Phillips, Zheng Shengtain, Karen Smith, Rudolf Stoert, Hans Ulrich Obrist, Li Xianyang, Li Xu, Mo Zhelan, and Qiu Zhijie.

The haudenschildGarage launched their residency program in 2003 which invited Chinese artists and curators for the first time to the United States. Shi Yong and Yang Zhenzhong were the first artists in residence and Hou Hanru, Cao Fei, Yong Fudong, Laura Zhou, Lorenz Helbling, Evelyn Jouanno, and Victoria Lu were also invited to the Garage. Both Shi Yong and Yang Zhenzhong produced new works commissioned by the haudenschildGarage while in residence.

It was in 1988 when Zhang Peili realized his 30 X 30, one of the first examples of Chinese video art. 30 X 30, a two hour sequence showing the artist breaking and reassembling a mirror over and over again, with its sobriety and its obvious Chan-Buddhist absurdity – at the time called grey humor – is not only typical of the contemporary Chinese art of the late 1980s, but also shows the main characteristics of early Chinese video art. Fixed camera positions, endlessly drawn out shots, underlying the absurdity and strangeness of the image or performance documented, or again the medium of the video installation, typical of Zhang’s later works, were main features of Chinese video art until the middle of the 1990s.

Since 1988, fifteen years have passed, and video art in China today is as pluralistic and colorful as Chinese society. Next to Zhang Peili, Wang Gongxin, Wang Jianwei, Chen Shaoxiong, Hu Jieming, Li Yongbing, Liang Juhui, Song Dong, Qiu Zhijie, Wu Wenguang, Xu Tan, Yan Lei, Zhu Jia, and Feng Mengbo belong to a first group of artists working with video and new media in China. Zhang, once pioneer, is today the head of the first multi media art department at a Chinese academy, the New Media Art Center of the China Fine Arts Academy in Hangzhou. Zhang Peili’s style, once experimental, today rather tends to be academic, still showing the quest to create a kind of universal visual language and to set aesthetic and technical standards.

The emergence of this kind of academism within the field of the relatively young Chinese video art guarantees the backing necessary for experimentally working younger generations. Since the mid-1990s, with more easily accessible technical equipment and information, video has become a major form of expression of young Chinese artists. A young generation primarily experimenting with video, film, and other new media has emerged in the urban centers, in particular in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou. These young artists, mainly born in the 1960s and 1970s – for example Cao Fei, Jiang Zhi, Jin Jiangbo, Lu Chunsheng, Shi Yong, Weng Fen, Xu Zhen, Yang Fudong, Yang Zhenzhong, Zheng Guogu and others – not only gained immediate recognition in the Chinese art scene but also garnered success on an international level rather quickly. Since the late 1990s video and multi media art works of Chinese artists have been selected for numerous international video festivals and have been presented at high-profile exhibitions, such as the documenta X in Kassel in 1997 (Feng Mengbo, Wang Jianwei) or the documenta XI (2002) (Feng Mengbo,Yang Fudong) or again the 50th Venice Biennial (2003) (Cao Fei, Chen Shaoxiong, Gu Dexin, Jiang Zhi, Liang Juhui, Yang Fudong, Yang Zhenzhong, Zhang Peili, Zhu Jia).

The Haudenschild Collection is the first collection focusing on Chinese photography and video art, thus giving witness to the importance of these media. The present exhibition features video works from the collection by artists born in the 1960s and 1970s and working in the Southern Chinese urban centers Shanghai and Guangzhou. Certainly, this generation’s enormous interest in the medium video cannot merely be ascribed to the increasing accessibility of technical equipment and know-how. Having grown to maturity in a society in rapid transition, where the fleetness of change makes an individual’s life’s perspective appear totally unpredictable and where omnipresent media play major roles in determining the perception of what is real and what is imaginary, video (and photography alike) might be a most adequate and direct medium not only to capture the overwhelming changes of personal life, urban environment, and of society, but also to convey the feelings of uncertainty and vagueness felt by the majority of the young generation. Yang Fudong describes these feelings as a distance to life that is evident in the videos and films of his contemporaries on a conceptual and on an aesthetic level. Alienation and perception are major themes, and the wish to grasp reality and take hold of this ever-changing life, is at the origin of the quest to integrate art into life, or to consider art a “by-product of life”. On an aesthetic level this distance generates a kind of poetic melancholic mood and humor typical of this generation of artists.

Yang Fudong (1971) graduated from the China Fine Arts Academy in Hangzhou and moved to Shanghai in 1998. The so-called literati short films, as well as the Chinese cinema of the 1920s/1930s and the Yuefen-style typical of the Shanghai petit bourgeoisie of the early 20th century are important references for Yang. His strongly narrative videos, films, and photographic series can be read as allegories of the alienated city-dwellers’ lives. The narratives enfold sometimes in high-rise apartment and office-buildings, the typical environment of the new middle-class Chinese of the metropolis, the so-called “white-collar” (bailing), like for example in “City Lights” (“Chengshi zhi guang”) and “Honey” (“Mi”) – both part of the present exhibition – sometimes in a dreamlike setting reminiscent of traditional Chinese gardens and the Chinese literati landscape, like for example in “Su Xiaoxiao” (2001), “Tonight’s Moon” (2000), and “Liulan” (2003). “City Lights” (2000, 6 minutes, color) recounts the life of such a white-collar, performing his prescribed every-day ritual, sometimes feeling like standing besides himself and being left alone with his solitary but ready-made dreams of a modern life. The stereotype of him holding and passing on an umbrella occurs throughout the video. “Honey” (2003, color), evocative of some ominous spy-story, similarly is set in some apartment and backyard of high-rise buildings in the metropolis. The image of a young mundane girl moving from one place to another, or in the company of blankly gazing, discreet men in Mao-suits appears throughout the video. Close-ups of her body and dress might hint to the nature of relationship between the protagonists. But the story Yang recounts never gets explicit, only suggesting the possibility of their interaction through the creation of a never fulfilled suspense. Even though Yang Fudong’s works have a strong narrative component their message is never clear. Yang rather creates a filament of allusive images, underscored by sound and text, letting the viewer alone with a multitude of ambiguous insinuations that he calls “abstract imagery”. According to Yang, “abstract imagery” can convey the inexplicit feelings of the individual and engender a transformation of perception.

The transformation of perception is also a concern of Shanghai-based Yang Zhenzhong. Yang (1968) who graduated from the oil painting department of the China Fine Arts Academy in Hangzhou in 1993, started working with video and photography in 1995. His approach is rather metaphorical than narrative. His videos often start from witty ideas, using the repetition of images and the rhythmic coordination of sound, language and image. “922 Rice Corns” (“922 ke mi”, 2000, 8 min., color) plays with the interaction of the image of a cock and a chicken pecking grains of rice and the sound of a male and female voice counting the number of pecked grains. “Let’s Puff” (“Wo chui”, 2003, Zone of Urgency, 50th Venice Biennial) similarly starts from the interplay of two images: a young woman puffing and a busy street. Every time the woman is puffing, the image of the street moves away from the viewer. The rhythm of the traffic and the angle of perception are altered with the rhythm of the woman’s breath. Yang’s often playful videos could be called visual reflections. Individual perception and experience, as for example in his “I Will Die” (“Wo hui si de”, 2000), are the starting point for the transformation of perception, as Yang points out: “Sometimes I feel that if you deal with individual experience on a certain level it becomes universal experience. “That’s not to say I think theory is of no importance, actually art is also not that important, they are all the by-products of life.”

Guangzhou-based Chen Shaoxiong (1962) who graduated from the Guangzhou Fine Arts Academy is one of the pioneers of Chinese video art. With him, the concept to lead art back into life, or to consider art a by-product of life takes a more radical and subversive stance. As with other artists of the Cantonese avant-garde, for him the creation of an allusive imagery is less important. Being a member of the Big Tail Elephants Working Group (Daweixiang gongzuo xiaozu), called “urban guerrilla” by Hou Hanru , Chen searches a direct interaction with his urban environment. The perception of reality again is the artist’s concern. Chen’s early videos of performances, such as “Five Hours” (1993), as well as his “Sight-Adjusters” (1996), installations with split-screen videos, and his “Streets” (1997- today), a series of three-dimensional photo collages, tend to reveal perception as a conceptual construct depending on outer conditions, such as the rapidly changing urban environment. “Figure Anti-Terrorism” (“Huayang fankong”, 2003, Zone of Urgency, 50th Venice Biennial), which is part of the present exhibition, is Chen Shaoxiong’s answer to the global anti-terrorism campaign. The computer-generated video installation consists of a chessboard – the figures are airplanes and buildings – and two video projections that show high-rise buildings in the southern metropolis of Guangzhou using different tricks to avoid the impact of approaching airplanes. Chen’s work is not only a witty comment on current events, but also a reflection on how the perception of the urban environment changed after September 11. On a more general level, Chen’s work explores how the real-time mediation of a real event that had formerly only been thinkable as imaginary redefined the limits of perception. Within these newly defined limits, video can act as an expansion of reality.

Antique furniture and ceramics are usually favorites for Western collectors. But Eloisa Haduenschild, an American collector, will surprise local art lovers with a quite different collection in the exhibition Zooming into Focus: Contemporary Chinese Photography and Video.

The show, which opened on Thursday at the Shanghai Art Museum features nearly 50 photos, 10 videos, and several installations created by 15 contemporary Chinese artits, all collected by Haudenschild since 2002. “This is the first time an overseas photo and video collection came back to China for an exhibit,” says the 40-something Haudenschild proudly. Shanghai, she says, is the second stop of the show after its launch at the San Diego State University Gallery and the San Diego Museum of Art.

If you are familar with contemporary Chinese art, you will probably admire Haudenschild’s ability for spotting the stars of tomorrow. Zooming into Focus includes a group of emerging and promising young Chinese artists, some of whom have received international recognition such as Yang Zhenzhong and Yang Fudong.

The charming collector is more interested in the quality rather then the quantity of her art, and she cannot even estimate the number of works she has in her collection. “For me, it’s not important to show my collection on the walls but how much I am involved in the art,” she explains. “I love to participate in and really enjoy the process.” Initially collecting artworks by Latin American artists, Haudenschild fell in love with contemporary Chinese art at first sight, even though she did not know much about Chinese culture and history. “I was so amazed at the outstanding quality of these photos and videos created by Chinese artists,” Eloisa said.

Those hallucinatory scenes in the avant-garde photos and videos are a mixture of the artists’ fantasies, longings, and cutting-edge views of the future. “The conjured up a reality, a hyper-reailty which is dreamy and beautiful,” she said. Haudenschild was immediately caught by such illusory images. Ever three or four months she comes to China to search for new artsts and new works. A major in psychology, the San Diego State Univeristy alumna confesses that she never did anything related to her major but instead took up a series of art courses. “Now my focus is in photos, videos, and installations by Chinese artists.”

The Haudenschild home is like a salon frequented by curators and artists from different countries. Yang Zhenzhong is among the lucky candidates. “I stayed at the Haudenschild’s home for about two weeks and finished two pieces of work,” he says. “She has a straightforward personality, very easy to communicate work.”

Perhaps Haudenschild’s knowledge of psychology enables her to access people more easily, “I like talking with Chinese artists – they are intelligent, witty and humorous. The future of Chinese art is certainly brilliant. Flying around the world to view different shows, Haudenschild found proof to support her words though a greater exposure to the works by Chinese artists in large biennales and art fairs.

Zooming into Focus is an exhibition aiming to offer art lovers a novel experience of photos, videos, and installations. The show features works by a group of active contemporary Chinese artists, from 25 year old Song Bo to 47 year old Zhang Peili with styles ranging from radical to mature.

From Yang Fudong’s video City Light depicting the absurd and mechanical life of office workers to Xiang Liqing’s photo featuring a cluster of match-box shaped old houses the works on display manifest the artists’ doubts about society’s rapid change and how it affects people.

Perhaps their names are unfamiliar, but these artists have already won international attention. Many of their works have traveled overseas for biennials and art fairs. If Westerns are still intoxicated by the old China in Zhang Yimou’s films, these contemporary photos and videos will show them an updated video that many be quite perplexing.

“This should be an interesting and thought-provoking show,” says Li Xuingyang curator at the Shanghai Art Museum.

Video art, though an exotic genre of art, is not merely a consequence of following the trail of western society. The emergence of video art in China or its acceptance by Chinese artists found a happy medium only after certain cultural conditions had fallen into place. Therefore, before we go into the topic of Chinese contemporary video art, I believe it is more necessary and meaningful to review the process of how video art appeared in China.

The emergence of video art was first symbolized as an objection to the realistic creative methodology of utilitarianism. The peculiar fate of the Chinese nation in the last century has forced the Chinese society to view art in a way of utilitarianism (for example, the concept of content determining form and art for the sake of politics). Such thoughts were established at the Yenan Forum on Literature and Art by Mao Tse-tung in 1942, which were then maintained as the guidelines for the arts. The emergence of Chinese contemporary art initially challenged the guideline. During the 1980s, the work done by Chinese contemporary artists overturned the emphasis on the “socialist realism” of ideological propaganda. Specifically, what they were overturning was not a kind of artistic style; rather it was the cultural authority that this style represented. Therefore, the Chinese contemporary artists nearly repeated the overall art history of the west society within the decade. During the process, the style of conceptual art such as installation, performance and etc began to appear. The political events of 1989 caused artists to realize that within their society there was a power that, at least temporarily, could not be contested, and that they really did not have the ability to carry out their own artistic convictions. Thus, low morale, cynicism and malaise began to spread.

On one hand, due to the change of political climate at that time, the style of concept art was animadverted as decadent. All the channels to introduce western concept art were blocked; on the other hand, due to the long existence and education of social realism in China, artists began to take advantage of their familiar painting style to satirize the society in a tedious, boring and ridiculous way. They also adopted the popular commercial symbols to amuse the ruling ideology and formed cynical realism and political bop. Compared with 80s, no matter from the angle of cultural aspiration or the artists’ exploring directions, the early 90s was a time of withdrawing. While the cynical realism and political bop, though conservative to some degree regained a different fate in the 90s.

Viewed from the angle of economy, 90s was a decade that Chinese market gradually opened to the west. In the past decade, numerous multi-national enterprises set up thousands of representative offices or branches in China. While the opening of China’s market appeared rather slow if compared with the wishes of western investors, multi national enterprises were still willing to spend great amount of money to operate their representative offices in China. People employed by such representative offices with little work to do, foreign ambassadors residing in Beijing and officious journalists from foreign media together formed the channel of the communication between Chinese contemporary art and its international counterpart. As a result of Chinese nationalization process in the last century, there was no economically independent middle class in China. Therefore, there was no chance for the art sustaining power to survive. The fanciers full of political discriminations formed the unique channel between the Chinese contemporary art and the outside world. China as the last socialist country began to draw interests from curious art tourists and collectors.

Driven by commercial interests, galleries in the west began to go through such channels to introduce and sell Chinese contemporary art to the outside world. Such non-professional channels enabled Chinese art represented by cynicism and political pop to frequently appear in the west. In 1993, Chinese contemporary art, which features political bop and cynical realism, first revealed in Venice Biennial, which brought Chinese contemporary artists great amount of economic income and chances of international exhibition. In terms of the West, this form of artistic style, which ultimately points towards non-western ideology, established the label and standard for Chinese contemporary art, and initiated the process of cultural understanding and sharing on these foundations. The success of cynical and political art encouraged even more young Chinese artists to embrace the status-giving image of “ political dissidents”.

If in the past the artists had sensed the danger of art being controlled by politics, then now the cynical realism and political pop would make young artists feel that framed paintings, driven by commercial interests, would be imposed by the west post colonialism. Both above mentioned are based on the old style art medium and creative methodology (realism-utilitarianism). Under such background, the Chinese artists began to introduce and experiment on video art. Young artists desired to find a new art medium which will not be commercialized by west galleries and also poses a strong contrast to the official art. The medium will not only allow the existence of personalized feelings and languages but also be easy to use, spread and communicate. Under such circumstances, video art became their choice.

In terms of young artists, the time perceived from the video art leads more deep experience than the traditional medium. The experience will enable the works a strength beyond the literal description, i.e. video, unlike realism paintings, will not be fully interpreted in words. It requires audiences’ real experience in a certain period of time. Meanwhile, the interaction of video installation will invite physical involvement during the appreciation process. In 1996, china held its first exhibition of video art named “ Phenomenon and image”. The title could be translated as “ Phenomenon and image” while in Chinese, the title has more meanings. Video means reflection and image indicates response. The reason why young artists chose video as the medium is that the video art embodies “reflection” which is rather deeper and closer to the nature of art than traditional paintings. The curator of the exhibition and video artist Qiu Zhijie wrote in the preface, “the falsehood of historical determinism is to consider human being as a simple perceptive object, while man not only perceive and sense, but also imagines and takes actions to practice.” Obviously the equation is as follows:

Traditional media= reaction= virtual individual = perception= unilateral
Video =reflection= real individual= perception, imagination, action= interactive

In 1989, a German professor was invited to Chinese Central Academy of Fine art to give lectures. He brought 8-hour video art information, which included Gary Hill, Bill Violla and Matthew Barney. Works of those artists enlightened the two-generation artists like Zhang Peili and Qiu Zhijie to access to the complete video art information and realize the possibility of this medium, whereas they chose different ways. Zhang Peili is known as one of the early experimentalists of the Chinese contemporary art and also the first Chinese video artist. In 1989, he completed his first works. Generally speaking, Chinese artists in 80s were mostly concerned with grand narration of society and culture, which made them to apply the language style of logic and conceptualism. To be simple, Zhang’s early works was greatly influenced by Gary Hill and his genre. Such orientation was even more distinctive in his famous works “ uncertain pleasure”. They were going all out to distinguish video art with mass TV programs. Therefore he denied the existence of any traditional measures, sound effects or even the figuration of TV to appear in his works. Zhang’s style influenced many artists, for example, Zhu Jia’s bound video camera on a wheel to conduct shots; Han Xuan and Yang Zhenzhong’s repetition of the daily life. Similar while different to Zhang is one artist named Wang Gongxin, who resided in New York for a decade and was greatly influenced by Violla. The magnification of life subtlety resulted in unconventional experiences. Such means undoubtedly generated many works with strong visual impact. It is perhaps due to the different origin of Chinese and foreign video art. The origin of west video art originated from their rebellions to the system while in China the art derived from concerns on media.

Just because of that, younger Chinese artists consider them as “standard video art” or “insipid tradition”. Representative video artist Qiu Zhijie has been concerned about the possibility of video technology and the aesthetic value it brings. For him, the route that Zhang followed was to worship the west video art as classics, while on the other hand he ignored the possibility that the new, inexpensive equipment and techniques have brought.

For Qiu, the reasons why the early video art appeared insipid, on one hand is due to their anti-system belief, on the other hand due to financial and technical reasons. Therefore in the second Video art exhibition in 1997, the curator Wu Meichun wrote: ”the problem we are facing is not what the video art is, rather what we can do with video. It is still early to define the video art. Though it appears that a standard video art is coming into being, but it destined to be weary during its shaping. Video with an innate media is full of challenges, which is powerful and inexpensive. It is private and easy to duplicate and spread: it is both intuitive and imaginative. Under the instruction of such thoughts, video art began to appear three new development directions, such as documentary, narrative and interactive.

Documentary

In the mid-90s, the movie circle in China launched a large-scale campaign of “New Documentary Movement”. Director represented by Wu Wenguang emphasize the absence of photographer during shoot, and try to exhibit the real state of the objective revealed. Chinese New Documentary Movement is regarded as resistance to the grand narration of the governmental TV programs since the founding of the People’s Republic of China.

Such orientation leads them no improvement in the documentary language and method. To be strict, what they created is “real documentary” rather than “New documentary”. While this movement interflowed with the video art in the art circle and combined a “new documentary art” beyond documentary. Wang Jianwei is the unique pioneer in this aspect. In his “Living Elsewhere”, he traced the life of four farmers in an unfinished villa, and disclosed that the function of the villa was never fulfilled. In his works, Wang created a very “nonprofessional” documentary in which some of the images stand still for as long as 8 minutes. While for him, all those are quite necessary because his works is to conduct review of phenomena rather than simple record.

Narrative

As the self-questioning of the video art, narration is brought about as an element. Video techniques enabled video art to share many achievements with the movie aesthetics—all the time disposal measures adopted by classical movies is applicable to video. Moreover, the time disposal in the video has more flexibility with the help of digital measures: various digital stunts created various relationships of time dimensions and greatly enriched the tradition movie language. The involvement of three-dimensioned animation makes every whim possible to become a visual reality. All these endowed many possibilities for younger artists. Representative artists in this field includes Yang Fudong, Jiang Zhi and etc. From these artists, they received more influence from movie aesthetics than the video art tradition. And moreover, they are seeking more chances to shoot film. While from them, we can see a possibility of applying video to conduct personal writings.

Interaction

Interaction actually derived from suspect to video art. Will video art finally be devoured by movie aesthetics and insipid tradition? Will Digital technology bring new aesthetic values except better image quality and convenience? Questioned by that, video installation was emphasized by artists as a “right time, right place” art. Because besides the attribution of video installation and video itself, it also includes the peculiarity of the installation more than the sum of the two. Telecasting of Multi-layer monitors or various reflected images distributed in pre-designed structures have formed a three-dimensional dramatic structure. The Chinese video art will develop into two distinguished video installations, which will focus on interior knowledge and interior experience respectively.

Video installations focused on interior knowledge will appear in a specific scene. The video image will have some semantic connection with property and also the images will produce meanings. The property can be used to stand out the topic. For example, Wang Gongxin’s “Cradle” and Wang Jianwei’s “Screen”. In Wang’s “baby talk”, different facial expressions are revealed when playing with the baby. All the milk flows out from the mouth of the image and then circulates from other places. In the video installation ”Screen”, Wang discussed the cultural relationship of secret and disclosure and the truth. It is more like a visual version of “knowledge archaeology”. The indication of the two works are both wavering between vague and clear. The spot visual, audio and kinaesthesia experience sometimes transcend the original enactment of the author to complex and profuse imagination. Video installation focused on interior experience sometimes calculated the trace of the audiences’ physical movement in the interior structure of the installation, such as Qiu Zhijie’s “the present tense” and Chen Shaoxiong’s “Sight Adjustor”. Such works is based on anthropo-engineering, waiting the approaching of audiences from a certain location and route. Audiences’ bodies were pre-designed as a factor that will influence the installation composition and spot scene itself. The phenomena world established when the audiences are passing by was evoked as an interior experience rather than exterior knowledge.

Video installation brings interaction to the agenda and artists try to ascertain the possibility of the video art through the pursuit of interaction. While that is more like a bitter choice. The more you seek for interaction, the more you suspect the spaces that the video art is able to provide. Therefore many artists began to seek for other interactive mode beyond the video installation. Artists focused on interior experience began to abandon video art and hope to seek the possibilities provided by new technology. More technical and more interactive multi media art then appeared.

Artists focused on knowledge try to seek spot and social interaction by breaking the media. In 1999, Wu Ershan together with installation artists, jazz singers, and modern dancers completed “evolved knight”. If Wu Ershan’s involvement was not spontaneous but incidental, Wang Jianwei adopted a more active manner. He invited video artist, puppet players and performance artists to complete the play “Screen” derived from. In this works, the overall stage was a magnificent interactive work synchronized video, installation and performance.

Through the development of video art in china, we can see that a new era is approaching. The west video art originated from their rebellion to the system while in china the video art derived from their concern on media. The professionalising of video art was strengthened in the west society since the involvement of foundations since 1968. In the west, people isolated video art with movie, TV and photography and brought it to galleries. It leaded to the combination of video and installation. During this process, video art turned from criticism of informational culture to the combination of social thoughts, which in return bring the validity of the video art itself.

It is the duty of video art to criticize the informational culture while that is not all. Personalized manual contemporary art cannot dialogize the commercialized informational media substantially and nor can it rein it. Judging through video art practice before 1968, we will see clearly that the relationship of video art and mass media is like that of a strong fly and a fly flap. Chinese artists like all the other artists in the word begin to realize that they can only find their own territories and manners beyond the scope of the mass media. Pursuit of interaction is a forever dream of contemporary art. While we also witness that during the pursuit of interaction, like all the other artists around the world, some of Chinese artists lost their confidence on the media and finally abandon the media itself and turned to multimedia art, which is more technical and more interactive. Here, I am not saying that I object the emergence and existence of multimedia art, on the contrary, I am so confident about the future of the multimedia. While the reality of Chinese video art makes me ponder: The video art turned from criticism of information culture to the combination with the social thoughts in order to assure the validity of the video art itself. Is it the time to connect video art with movie, TV, photography and a lot more? For Chinese video art, it may be the time to choose. Do we value the video as one kind of media or one kind of culture? Because different choice will result in evolution and multi-polarity, the two completely different results.