Recording is at the crux of Zhao Liang’s work. People often only notice the cold, cruel reality through his lens, but very little attention is given to the kind of ascetic mental qualities, which are also qualities projected by his creative approach. The ‘movement’ and ‘stillness’ of reality, and the ‘meditative’ and ‘agitated’ mental spaces, together constitute four dimensions of Zhao Liang’s work. Through unbounded possibilities of reducing reality to interrogating individual mental worlds, this artistic position distinguishes Zhao Liang’s work from the terrain of discourse covered by ordinary interventionist practices.

This exhibition presents the video work “Bored Youth” (2000) with mounted photographs in traditional Chinese painting to reveal distinctive contrasts and resonances. Along with the tireless acts of recording and intervening, there are questions raised on the art context directed towards the foundation of formal creativity – Zhao Liang’s work proposes a method of opening up mental spaces with tragic meaning.

About the Artist

Born in Dandong, Liaoning Province in 1971, Zhao Liang graduated from Luxun Academy of Fine Arts in 1992, and he has worked and lived in Beijing from 1993. He is an independent documentary filmmaker as well as an artist in photography and video art.

Zhao Liang’s documentary films has been involved in various international film festivals, including: London Open City Docs Fest, Documenta Madrid (2012); Berlin International Film Festival, Hong Kong International Film Festival (2011), Documentary Edge Auckland, etc. and won a lot of awards.

Zhao Liang has participated in numerous solo and group exhibitions at local and international contemporary art institutions, including: Three Shadows Photography Art Center (Beijing), L. A. Gallery (Frankfurt), Walker Art Center (Minneapolis), etc.

About the Curator

Born in 1982, Su Wei is an independent art critic and curator based in Beijing and Hong Kong. He once won the German DAAD scholarship, and has carried out a two-year dissertation research between 2008 and 2010 at the Free University Berlin. His writings have appeared in various art journals and publications. The focus of his work is theoretical practice and writing on contemporary art. Su Wei participated in the 2012 Curatorial Intensive of ICI (Independent Curators International) in New York. He was involved in the curatorial team of “Little Movements: Self-Practice in Contemporary Art, presented at OCT Contemporary Art Terminal (OCAT)”, Shenzhen, China (2011), as an assistant curator.

Works which he has written and published include: “Little Movements, Self-Practice in Contemporary Art”. “Accidental Message: Art is Not a System, Not a World”, “Individual Experience: Conversations and Narratives of Chinese Contemporary Art from 1989-2000”, “Art History after Modernism” written by Han Belting; translated to Chinese by Su Wei; commented on by Su Wei and Carol Yinghua Lu, BeePub Publishing House, 2013.

About the exhibition

Duration: March 22 – May 18, 2014

Venue: Three Shadows +3 Gallery

Courtesy of the artist and Three Shadows+3 Gallery, translated by Chen Peihua and edited by Sue/CAFA ART INFO.