Perspectives 180--Unfinished Country: New Video from China

Perspectives 180

Unfinished Country New Video from China

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This publication has been prepared in conjunction with Perspectives 180—Unfinished Country: New Video from China, organized by guest curator James Elaine for the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, November 2, 2012–February 17, 2013.

The Perspectives Series is made possible by a major grant from Fayez Sarofim, and by donors to the Museum’s Perspectives Fund: Anonymous Bright Star Productions Inc. The Brown Foundation, Inc. Dillon Kyle Architecture Heidi and David Gerger Kerry Inman and Denby Auble Mady and Ken Kades Karol Kreymer and Robert J. Card, M.D. Poppi Massey Leslie and Shannon Sasser in Honor of Lynn Herbert William F. Stern Martha Claire Tompkins 20K Group, LLC

Perspectives catalogues are made possible by a grant from The Brown Foundation, Inc. Funding for the Museum’s operations through the Fund for the Future is made possible by generous grants from Chinhui Juhn and Eddie Allen, Anonymous, Jereann Chaney, Sara Dodd-Spickelmier and Keith Spickelmier, Jo and Jim Furr, Barbara and Michael Gamson, Brenda and William Goldberg, Marley Lott, Leticia Loya, and Fayez Sarofim.

The Museum’s operations and programs are made possible through the generosity of the Museum’s trustees, patrons, members and donors. The Contemporary Arts Museum Houston receives partial operating support from the Houston Endowment, the City of Houston through the Houston Museum District Association, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Texas Commission on the Arts, and The Wortham Foundation, Inc. CAMH also thanks its artist benefactors for their support including Ricci Albenda, Anonymous, McArthur Binion, Brendan Cass, Mel Chin, Leonardo Drew, Tim Gardner, Robert Gober, Wayne Gonzales, Oliver Herring, Jim Hodges, Michael Joo, Kurt Kauper, Jon Kessler, Terence Koh, Sean Landers, Zoe Leonard, Marilyn Minter, Donald Moffett, Ernesto Neto, Roxy Paine, Laurie Simmons, Josh Smith, Marc Swanson, and William Wegman.

Official Airline of the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston

Editor: Polly Koch Design: Don Quaintance, Public Address Design Design/production: Elizabeth Frizzell Printing: EarthColor Houston ISBN 978-1-933619-42-2 © 2012 Contemporary Arts Museum Houston Contemporary Arts Museum Houston 5216 Montrose Boulevard Houston, Texas 77006-6547 Tel.: (713) 284-8250 Fax: (713) 284-8275 www.camh.org Cover: Yan Xing, Daddy, 2011 Back cover: Yu Ying, Unfinished Country, 2012 Opposite: Zhang Ding, Great Era, 2007, detail Unless otherwise noted, all images are stills from featured videos and are courtesy of the artists.

Cinematic screenings presented at Asia Society Texas Center 1370 Southmore Boulevard Houston, Texas 77004 www.asiasociety.org/texas

Perspectives 180

Unfinished Country New Video from China

CONTEMPORARY ARTS MUSEUM HOUSTON

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Introduction

J AMES ELAIN E

Unfinished Country: New Video from China presents a selection of work by some of China’s most promising young artists working in film and video. Works in new media were unavailable in China, even illegal, just a few years ago, yet now film and video practices are taught in the country’s art academies, and the works are shown in galleries and museums throughout China. This exhibition is the first time many of these works have been shown in the United States.

My first trip to China was in 2002 with my family to see the country and to visit my mother’s birthplace in Shandong Province.

Before our journey was over, I felt that China was my home. Like most foreigners, I knew very little about what was going on in China’s emerging art world because it was so in­accessible to the “outside” world. But what I witnessed on several short trips after 2002 thrilled me and sparked my curiosity. I had to learn more. I moved to Beijing in 2008 to focus on contemporary Chinese art and culture. In four years, I have traveled extensively throughout the country, visiting art acad-

emies, artists’ studios, biennials, and art fairs.

I am constantly amazed by the quality and variety of the work being produced. Chinese contemporary art is maturing at a rapid pace.

The title Unfinished Country comes from a video of the same title by Yu Ying, a recent graduate of the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing. His video, based on an unfinished painting from the Cultural Revolution era in China, is included in the Asia Society Texas Center’s portion of the exhibition. I borrowed his title intending it to portray contemporary China in a broader sense. Today it seems that almost everything in China is unfinished. Construction cranes dot the landscape as villages are razed and new buildings are built, providing jobs even as they destroy homes and history. The air is full of the dust of destruction and construction. Even the intended political goal of a pure communist state has yet to be achieved. China is in transition in every respect. Unfinished Country provides us a small window through which to view what is going on in the minds and lives of these artists and to look at the ancient

country of China as it rises to a new position in the twenty-first century.

I would like to thank Bill Arning and Valerie Cassel Oliver for inviting me to curate this video exhibition. They are my dear friends and visionary curators themselves who have been supportive and trusting the entire way. Many thanks to Nancy O’Connor, curatorial assistant, and to CAMH’s preparators for putting together a wonderful installation. They were always creative in their approach and never said “no.” I would also like to thank the Asia Society Texas Center for hosting two programs of screenings in their beautiful new theater. Thanks to Su Wei, a brilliant young writer and curator, for writing the main essay for the catalogue, and to all of the various galleries for their kind and patient help. Thanks also to Deng Tai for his invaluable assistance on this project.

Lastly, I extend my deepest gratitude to all of the participating artists for their amazing work and friendship. opposite: Li Ming, Nature 3, 2011

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Huang Ran, Blithe Tragedy, 2010* 4

Unfinished Country When curator James Elaine asked me to write an essay for the exhibition Perspectives 180— Unfinished Country: New Video from China, a wave of ideas came to mind. I knew that it would be a difficult task to describe video art in the context of Chinese contemporary art in only a few words. On an intrinsic level, art cannot be neatly differentiated by culture, identity, and ideology, and for the artists who are participating in Unfinished Country, differences in perspective, belief, and vision often create conflict. These fundamental creative differences many times end in an unresolvable stalemate between artists—hence the difficulty in encapsulating this realm of art.

“New media” art played a crucial role in artistic practices in the 1990s as video became popularized in Chinese contemporary art.

While Chinese artists sought to work out an individual vision, the anxiety of translating that vision into a new media penetrated all stages of the development of their practices.

Just like installation art and performance art,

SU WEI

video is not simply a medium through which artists can realize their creative concepts, but rather an independent language, one that had developed more fully by the late 1990s. After video freed itself from the constraints of limited technical availability, a more versatile creative scene emerged. Accompanying the advancements in computer, networking, three-dimensional animation, and interactive technologies, an interest in documentary video grew, whether recording the artists of the “East Village” in Beijing or the daily lives of ordinary Chinese people. The functionality of video as a medium thus penetrated the core of more conceptual works, providing a cultural and social perspective for critics. After the political watermark of 1989,* the blooming of commercial opportunity and the weakening of ideological purity in China influenced artistic practices and criticism in a crucial way, especially evident in the new video work.

At the same time, this artistic language faced confusion, interference from outside

government or market forces, and uncertainty. Numerous discussions that focus on the relationship between concept and language fill many Chinese theoretical studies from the 1990s. Some artists had realized the danger of enshrining the concept and attempted to use the power of the new video language in their creative process as means to weaken their dependency on the concept.

Artist Zhang Peili’s Document on Hygiene No.3 (1991), showing a pair of hands scrubbing a hen repeatedly, is not only a clear representation of such awareness (the artist uses an absurd image to evoke a laborious and overweening bureaucratic control, going beyond the immediate conceptual statement), but also a manifestation of the creative vision that sees the artist’s language as expressing a political attitude, in this case a comment on * Student-led protests in the spring of 1989 resulted in a government and military crackdown now known as the Tiananmen Square Protests or the June Fourth Incident. —Ed.

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Jin Shan, One Man’s Island, 2009–10, installation view 6

government intrusion into people’s physical lives. While many critics focused on his work’s trivial use of sarcasm in the grand cultural and social narrative, Zhang was actually using the language of video to advance toward a reflection on creativity itself. “Language as political attitude” does not mean an exaggeration in the power of language, but an understanding that work made with such an attitude implicates the viewer, whose judgment and participation in the surrounding discourses is required; examines the vision and experience of the self; and observes the changes among different political relations within the system.

It is on this basis that we engage with the new generation of video art that is presented in Unfinished Country. Organized in two sections, one at the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston and the other at the Asia Society Texas Center, the videos are the work of artists who are already established internationally and emerging young artists, some of whom are even Zhang Peili’s students in new media education at the China Academy of Art in Hangzhou. The creative context for these artists shows significant changes when compared to that of the 1990s. The growing

commercialization in Chinese society and the sameness of much of the art created with an eye to the market’s dominance, which have become more apparent in the first decade of the new millennium, have affected the art industry in many ways. The introduction of capitalism helped propel Chinese contemporary art onto the international scene after 2003, giving the selected works higher exposure in institutions and exhibitions all over the world, and also helped form and accelerate the growth of a local art system. While many artists benefited from the resources, labor, and financial support, the art community also realized that this new art system was infested with works that solely aimed at satisfying the market needs of consumerism.

Once the individuality of independent artists had been compromised in this way, their practices started to gradually separate from the “language as political attitude” that Zhang had once so strongly emphasized.

As a local practitioner, I anticipate that video art with a stronger sense of individuality will soon emerge. In the works that this exhibition is presenting to an American audience, I see evidence of this: whether it is the rediscovery of narrative language in the works

Li Ran, Beyond Geography, 2012

of Yang Fudong, Chen Zhou, and Huang Ran; or the reflection on the relationship between art history and the individual in the works of Yan Xing and Li Ran; or the non-cultural historical contemplation engaged in by Sun Xun and Chen Qiulin. Videos like these perhaps will fulfill the wishes of many Chinese art practitioners, including my own.

Although the question of whether these works have been able to build an individual frame of reference and become independent from the (post-)colonial discourse remains a matter of judgment, artists are not the only players in Unfinished Country. The exhibition also calls upon spectators to place themselves

in the perspective of the works themselves, sensitive to their subtexts. On this basis, Beyond Geography (2012) by artist Li Ran has great symbolic significance. In the video, Li imitates the production of a Discovery Channel program, playing the role of the host himself and parodying the exaggerated tone of the voiceover, which accompanies the deliberate liveliness and confusion (and the viewer’s process of decryption) as an “adventure” is recorded against the backdrop of a film studio.

While we construct the self by narrating as the other, our subjective body experiences a complicated rebirth after its disintegration.

Translation by Ophelia Chan 7

Cinematic Screenings Presented at Asia Society Texas Center Unfinished Country: New Video from China Program 1 (in order of presentation) Sunday, December 2, 2012 5:00 pm Yu Ying Unfinished Country, 2012, 5:47 minutes Huang Ran Blithe Tragedy, 2010, 14:52 minutes Lu Yang Reanimation! Zombie Frog Underwater Ballet!, 2011, 6:06 minutes Chen Qiulin River, River, 2005, 16:00 minutes Cheng Ran Anonymity, or Imitation and Imagining of Man Ray’s Tears (1930–32), 2010, 11:33 minutes Sun Xun Beyond-ism, 2010, 8:08 minutes Zhang Ding Great Era, 2007, 14:00 minutes Sun Xun, Beyond-ism, 2010 8

Program 2 (in order of presentation)

Sunday, January 6, 2013 5:00 pm Wang Qingsong 1 2 3 4 5 6 Chops, 2008, 4:00 minutes Chen Qiulin Ellisis, 2001, 25:00 minutes Chen Xiaoyun Love You Big Boss, 2008, 3:59 minutes Sun Xun 21G, 2010, 27:00 minutes Zhai Chenglei Half Underground, 2012, 18:34 minutes Yang Fudong Liu Lan, 2003, 14:00 minutes

Chen Xiaoyun, Love You Big Boss, 2008 9

Lu Yang, Reanimation! Zombie Frog Underwater Ballet!, 2011 10

opposite: Huang Ran, Blithe Tragedy, 2010

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Chen Qiulin, The Empty City, 2012 12

Sun Xun, 21G, 2010 13

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opposite: Jin Shan, “One Man’s Island 1,” 2009–10

Huang Ran, Disruptive Desires, Tranquility, and the Loss of Lucidity, 2012 15

Lu Yang, Wrathful King Kong Core, 2011 16

Yang Fudong, Liu Lan, 2003 17

Wang Qingsong, 1 2 3 4 5 6 Chops, 2008 18

Works in the Exhibition Videos are presented at the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, except those marked by an asterisk (*), which are presented at the Asia Society Texas Center.

Chen Qiulin Ellisis, 2001* Video 25:00 minutes Courtesy the artist and 1000 Plateaus Art Space, Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China River, River, 2005* Video 16:00 minutes Courtesy the artist The Empty City, 2012 “Are you sure it is still there?” 16:20 minutes “What is the color of the sky?” 14:24 minutes “I drew a circle, sitting inside, was it my Arcadia?” 14:56 minutes “What seed was planted in winter?”

9:55 minutes “Is to close just to leave?” 11:47 minutes

“Is it really so hard to touch you?”

14:27 minutes “Still alive?” 14:27 minutes Multiple-channel video Courtesy the artist, Beam Contemporary Art, New York/London, and 1000 Plateaus Art Space, Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China

Cheng Ran Anonymity, or Imitation and Imagining of Man Ray’s Tears (1930–32), 2010* Video 11:33 minutes Courtesy the artist and Leo Xu Projects, Shanghai, China

Chen Xiaoyun Love You Big Boss, 2008* Video 3:59 minutes Courtesy the artist and ShanghART, Shanghai, China

Hu Xiaoyuan No Reason Why, 2010 Video 23:00 minutes Courtesy the artist and Beijing Commune

Chen Zhou Morning, 2011 16mm film transferred to HD DVD, multiple-channel video 13:00 minutes Courtesy the artist

Huang Ran Blithe Tragedy, 2010* Video 14:52 minutes Disruptive Desires, Tranquility, and the Loss of Lucidity, 2012 Video 22:00 minutes Both courtesy the artist and Long March Space, Beijing 19

Jin Shan One Man’s Island, 2009–10 “Retell Dreams 1,” 2009, 3:03 minutes “Retell Dreams 2,” 2010, 4:04 minutes “Retell Dreams 3,” 2010, 2:10 minutes “Three Curves,” 2009, 0:45 minutes “Insomnia,” 2010, 1:13 minutes “World 1,” 2010, 2:15 minutes “World 2,” 2010, 6:33 minutes “World 3,” 2010, 15:47 minutes “Oath about Love You,” 2009, 1:15 minutes “Try Your Foot in My Box,” 2010, 1:27 minutes “Dynamiter,” 2009, 4:13 minutes “Son of a Bitch,” 2010, 3:05 minutes “Da Da,” 2009, 1:18 minutes “Memories of Earth Crust,” 2010, 0:47 minutes “Fuck You,” 2010, 1:24 minutes “Reflection,” 2010, 6:44 minutes “Gehong’s Penetration,” 2010, 3:46 minutes “Give Nov. 7th a Tickle,” 2009, 2:44 minutes “Something Couldn’t Touch,” 2010, 4:00 minutes “River,” 2010, 8:08 minutes “River 2,” 2010, 2:55 minutes “Dead Bird,” 2009, 2:15 minutes “Black Trumpet,” 2010, 1:49 minutes 20

“Kinetic Red,” 2009, 4:16 minutes “Refuse Your Crazy World,” 2009, 1:41 minutes “A Talented Musician,” 2009, 2:32 minutes “Two Kingdoms 1,” 2009, 0:49 minutes “Two Kingdoms 2,” 2010, 1:29 minutes “Theorist,” 2010, 0:17 minutes “In God’s Hand,” 2010, 2:30 minutes “I’m a Volcano,” 2009, 1:56 minutes “I Swear,” 2010, 3:12 minutes “I Saw the Rainbow Monday Night,” 2010, 5:02 minutes “I Don’t Deserve It,” 2009, 1:23 minutes “One Man’s Island 1,” 2009, 1:32 minutes “One Man’s Island 2,” 2009, 0:41 minutes “Someone Is Coming,” 2010, 2:23 minutes “Dummy’s Magic,” 2009, 1:15 minutes “Not a Dream 1,” 2009, 1:09 minutes “Not a Dream 2,” 2009, 0:27 minutes “Not a Dream 3,” 2009, 3:36 minutes “Secret of Moon,” 2010, 6:16 minutes “Not a Dream 4,” 2010, 1:35 minutes “Not a Dream 5,” 2010, 0:27 minutes “Not a Dream 6,” 2010, 0:15 minutes “Clock,” 2010, 1:26 minutes “Ball of Self,” 2010, 1:41 minutes “Stallion,” 2010, 1:32 minutes “Tail Catcher,” 2009, 1:21 minutes

“Pig-Headed Football Team,” 2009, 1:44 minutes Multiple-channel video Courtesy the artist and Platform China, Beijing Li Ming Nature 3, 2011 Multiple-channel video 4:59 minutes Courtesy the artist Li Ran Beyond Geography, 2012 Video 23:09 minutes Courtesy the artist

Lu Yang Reanimation! Zombie Frog Underwater Ballet!, 2011* HD video 6:06 minutes Courtesy the artist Wrathful King Kong Core, 2011 HD video 14:47 minutes Courtesy the artist and Boers-Li Gallery, Beijing Ma Qiusha Token, 2011 Video 7:25 minutes Courtesy the artist and Beijing Commune Sun Xun 21G, 2010* Video 27:00 minutes

Beyond-ism, 2010* Video 8:08 minutes Some Actions Which Haven’t Been Defined Yet in the Revolution, 2011 Video 12:22 minutes All courtesy the artist and ShanghART, Shanghai, China Wang Qingsong 1 2 3 4 5 6 Chops, 2008* Video 4:00 minutes Courtesy the artist Yan Xing Daddy, 2011 Video 58:27 minutes Courtesy the artist and Galerie Urs Meile Beijing-Lucerne

Yang Fudong Liu Lan, 2003* Video 14:00 minutes Courtesy the artist and ShanghART, Shanghai, China Yu Ying Unfinished Country, 2012* Video 5:47 minutes Courtesy the artist Zhai Chenglei Half Underground, 2012* Video 18:34 minutes Courtesy the artist Zhang Ding Great Era, 2007* Video 14:00 minutes Courtesy the artist and ShanghART, Shanghai, China 21

Artists’ Biographies Chen Qiulin Chen Qiulin was born in China’s Hubei Province in 1975 and currently lives and works in Chengdu, Sichuan Province. She graduated from the Sichuan Academy of Fine Arts, China, in 2000. She has had many solo exhibitions at institutions that include the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; the University Art Museum, State University of New York at Albany; 1000 Plateaus Art Space, Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China; and Long March Space, Beijing. Her work has also been included in numerous group exhibitions such as the 4th Beijing International Art Biennale, National Fine Arts Museum of China (2010); Ancient Paths, Modern Voices: Video Work by Gao Shiqiang and Chen Qiulin, Orange County Museum of Art, Los Angeles (2009); and the 7th Gwangju Biennale, South Korea (2008).

Chen Xiaoyun Chen Xiaoyun was born in Hubei Province, China, in 1971 and currently lives and works in Beijing. He has had several solo exhibitions, including “Zhuiku Tablet” Annotation, ShanghART Beijing (2012), and Love You Big Boss, The Project Gallery, New York (2008). His work has been included in such group exhibitions as 22

Moving Image in China: 1988–2011, Minsheng Art Museum, Shanghai, China (2011); Jungle: A Close-up Focus on Chinese Contemporary Art Trends, Platform China, Beijing (2010); Out of Love, Soka Art Center, Beijing (2008); and Insomnia, BizArt Art Center, Shanghai, China (2008).

Chen Zhou Chen Zhou was born in Zhejiang Province, China, in 1987 and currently lives and works in Beijing. He graduated from China’s Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing, in 2009. In addition to a solo exhibition at Platform China, Beijing, in 2009, he has participated in several group exhibitions, including the 7th Shenzhen Sculpture Biennale, China (2012); The Personal Is Public, Aike-Dellarco, Shanghai, China (2011); In a Perfect World…, Meulensteen, New York (2011); Get It Louder: Sharism, Sanlitun SOHO, Beijing (2010); and Scene • Area • Emotion: New Video Media Art Exhibition 2010, Beijing. Additionally, his work was included in MADATAC 03, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid (2011), and SH Contemporary, The Asia Pacific Contemporary Art Fair, Shanghai, China (2012).

Cheng Ran Cheng Ran, now based in Hangzhou, China, was born in 1981 in Inner Mongolia, China.

His solo exhibitions include Cheng Ran: What Why How, Leo Xu Projects, Shanghai, China (2012); Hot Blood, Warm Blood, Cold Blood, Galerie Urs Meile, Beijing (2011); and Immersion and Distance (with Jiang Pengyi), Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing (2009). His work has been included in group exhibitions such as Moving Image in China: 1988–2011, Minsheng Art Museum, Shanghai, China (2011); In a Perfect World…, Meulensteen Gallery, New York (2011); and There Is No I in Team: Contemporary Chinese Artists’ Work, Civic Centre, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, United Kingdom (2009).

Hu Xiaoyuan Hu Xiaoyuan was born in 1977 in Haerbin, China, and graduated from the Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing, in 2002. She currently lives and works in Beijing. Her work was featured in Documenta 12, Kassel, Germany (2007), and she recently participated in the New Museum’s triennial The Ungovernables in New York (2012). She has had solo exhibitions at Michael Ku Gallery, Taipei, Taiwan (2011),

and Beijing Commune, Beijing (2010). Her work has been included in numerous group exhibitions, including Moving Image in China: 1988–2011, Minsheng Art Museum, Shanghai, China (2011); In a Perfect World…, Meulensteen Gallery, New York (2011); and Sprout from White Nights, Bonniers Konsthall, Stockholm (2008).

Huang Ran Beijing-based artist Huang Ran was born in 1982 in Xichang, Sichuan Province, China. He graduated with his BFA from the Birmingham Institute of Art and Design at the Birmingham City University, Gosta Green, United Kingdom, in 2004 and received a MFA from Goldsmiths College at the University of London in 2007. His work has been featured in such exhibitions as Ran Huang: Disruptive Desires, Tranquility, and the Loss of Lucidity, Long March Space, Beijing (2012); the 4th Guangzhou Triennial, China (2012); Disruptive Desires, Sean Kelly Gallery, New York (2012); Moving Image in China: 1988–2011, Minsheng Art Museum, Shanghai, China (2011); Videonale Touring, Gallery of Modern Art, Glasgow, United Kingdom (2011); and Ran Huang, George Polke, London (2010).

Jin Shan Jin Shan was born in 1976 in Zhejiang, China, and now lives in Beijing. His solo exhibitions include Thug Life, Platform China, Beijing (2012); One Man’s Island, Frieze Art Fair, London (2010); and Naked Ape, Platform China, Beijing (2009). He has participated in many group exhibitions, including Jungle: A Close-up Focus on Chinese Contemporary Art Trends, Platform China, Beijing (2010); Shouting Truth, Platform China, Beijing (2007); the 4th Seoul International Media Art Biennale, South Korea (2006); and Restless: Photography and New Media, Museum of Contemporary Art, Shanghai, China (2006).

Li Ming Born in 1986 in Hunan Province, China, Li Ming graduated from the New Media Art Department in the Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing, in 2008. He now lives and works in Hangzhou, China, and has had solo exhibitions at Platform China, Beijing, and BizArt Art Center, Shanghai, China. Additionally, his work has been included in numerous group exhibitions, including In a Perfect World…, Meulensteen, New York (2011); Jungle: A Closeup Focus on Chinese Contemporary Art Trends, Platform China, Beijing (2010); The Tell-Tale Heart, James Cohan Gallery, Shanghai, China

(2010); and Get It Louder: Sharism, Sanlitun SOHO, Beijing (2010).

Li Ran Li Ran was born in Hubei, China, in 1986. He graduated from Sichuan Fine Arts Institute in Chongqing, China, in 2009 and currently lives and works in Beijing. He had two solo exhibitions in 2012: Pretty Knowledge, Aike-Dellarco, Shanghai, China, and Mont Sainte-Victoire, Magician Space, Beijing. His work has been included in such group exhibitions as the 9th Gwangju Biennale, South Korea (2012); Little Movements: Self-practice in Contemporary Art, OCT Contemporary Art Terminal, Shenzhen, China (2011); In a Perfect World…, Meulensteen Gallery, New York (2011); A Project: Incommunicable, Platform China, Beijing (2010); and Use the Hand Do the Job, Shift Space, Shanghai, China (2010).

Lu Yang Lu Yang was born in Shanghai, China, in 1984.

She received both her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in the New Media Art Department at the China Academy of Art, Hangzhou, in 2007 and 2010, respectively. She currently lives and works in Shanghai, China. Lu Yang has had several solo exhibitions, including The Anatomy of Rage, Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, 23

Beijing (2011) and Lu Yang: A Torturous Vision, Input/Output, Hong Kong (2010). Select group exhibitions include It Takes Four Sorts: A CrossStrait Four-Regions Artistic Exchange Project, Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Taiwan (2012); Moving Image in China: 1988–2011, Minsheng Art Museum, Shanghai, China (2011); In a Perfect World…, Meulensteen Gallery, New York (2011); Use the Hand Do the Job, Shift Space, Shanghai, China (2010); and Jungle: A Close-up Focus on Chinese Contemporary Art Trends, Platform China, Beijing (2010).

Ma Qiusha Beijing-based artist Ma Qiusha was born in 1982 in Beijing. She graduated from the Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing, in 2005 and received her MFA in electronic integrated art from Alfred University, New York, in 2008.

Select solo exhibitions include Ma Qiusha: Static Electricity, Beijing Commune, Beijing (2012), and “Curated by Song Dong” Ma Qiusha: Address, Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing (2011). Her work has been included in such group exhibitions as Face, Minsheng Art Museum, Shanghai, China (2012); Moving Image in China: 1988–2011, Minsheng Art Museum, Shanghai, China (2011); No Soul for Sale, Tate Modern, London (2010); Move on Asia 2010, Alternative Space Loop, Seoul, 24

South Korea (2010); Personal Space, 24HR Art NT Centre for Contemporary Art, Darwin, Australia (2009); and Mechanism Organism, A9 Space, Beijing (2008).

Sun Xun Sun Xun was born in Fuxin, Liaoning Province, China, in 1980. He graduated from the Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing, in 2005 and established πAnimation Studio a year later.

He currently lives and works in Beijing. Sun Xun has had many solo exhibitions, including Beyond-ism, ShanghART Beijing (2011); The Soul of Time, Kunsthaus Baselland, Basel, Switzerland (2010); Sun Xun: Shock of Time, The Drawing Center, New York (2009); and The New China, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles (2008). His work has been included in numerous group exhibitions, including the Taipei Biennial 2012, Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Taiwan (2012); Hell (Helvete), Liljevalcks Konsthall, Stockholm (2011); Moving Image in China: 1988–2011, Minsheng Art Museum, Shanghai, China (2011); Get It Louder: Sharism, Sanlitun SOHO, Beijing (2010); and Moving Perspectives: Shahzia Sikander & Sun Xun, Freer and Sackler Galleries, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. (2009).

Wang Qingsong Wang Qingsong was born in Daqing, Heilongjiang Province, China, in 1966 and currently lives and works in Beijing. In 1993 he graduated from the Sichuan Academy of Fine Arts, China. He has had numerous solo exhibitions in China and abroad, such as When Worlds Collide, International Center of Photography, New York (2011); Wang Qingsong, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles (2009); and Caution, PKM Gallery, Beijing (2008). Additionally, his work has been included in many group exhibitions, including Living Frontiers of Architecture III–IV, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Copenhagen (2011); Photography from the New China, The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles (2010); The Simple Art of Parody, MOCA Taipei, Taiwan (2009); and 21: Selections of Contemporary Art at the Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn Museum, New York (2008).

Yan Xing Yan Xing was born in Chongqing, China, in 1986. He graduated from the Sichuan Fine Arts Institute, Chongqing, China, in 2009 and now lives and works in Beijing. He has participated in numerous exhibitions, including 1st CAFAM Future, China Central Academy of Fine Arts Museum, Beijing (2012); Something Will Inevitably Happen, K11 Art Space, Wuhan,

China (2011); Realism, Galerie Urs Meile, Beijing (2011); Little Movements: Self-practice in Contemporary Art, OCT Contemporary Art Terminal, Shenzhen, China (2011); In a Perfect World…, Meulensteen Gallery, New York (2011); A Project: Incommunicable, Platform China, Beijing (2010); and Liberation—and its relative meaning, Chinese Arts Centre, Manchester, United Kingdom (2010).

Yang Fudong Yang Fudong was born in 1971 in Beijing and graduated from the China Academy of Art, Hangzhou, in 1995. He has had numerous solo exhibitions in China and abroad, including Yang Fudong: Close to the Sea and The Revival of the Snake, ShanghART Beijing (2012); Yang Fudong, Marian Goodman Gallery, New York (2012); “…In the Bamboo Forest…,” Kunsthaus Baselland, Basel, Switzerland (2010); and Yang Fudong, Museum of Contemporary Art Denver (2009). He has participated in many group shows, such as 60-Minute Cinema, Chinese Arts Centre, Manchester, United Kingdom (2012); Moving Image in China: 1988–2011, Minsheng Art Museum, Shanghai, China (2011); Reversed Images, Museum of Contemporary Photog­ raphy, Chicago (2009); and I Still Believe in Tomorrow: Contemporary Video from Asia, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (2008).

Yu Ying Yu Ying was born in Shandong Province, China, in 1987. He graduated from China’s Tsinghua University in 2009 and subsequently studied in the Experimental Art Department at the Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing, graduating with a MFA in 2012. His work has been included in many group exhibitions, including Routine Reverie, Amelie Gallery, Beijing (2011); Get It Louder: Sharism, Sanlitun SOHO, Beijing (2010); I See You, SEE Foundation, Beijing (2010); Luo Zhongli Scholarship Award Exhibition (Finalists Exhibition), Chongqing Art Museum, China (2009); and Forbidden City (Video Art Exhibition), Valencia University, Spain (2007).

Zhai Chenglei Zhai Chenglei was born in 1984 in Weifang, Shandong Province, China. He attended the Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing, studying with Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Shuibo Wang. He graduated in 2012 and now lives and works in Beijing. He was a production designer for the film Here, Then (2012), which won Best Film in the International Feature Competition at the 2012 Edinburgh International Film Festival.

Zhang Ding Born in Gansu, China, in 1980, Zhang Ding graduated from Northwest Minorities University, Lanzhou, in 1998 and from the China Academy of Art, Hangzhou, in 2003.

He is currently based in Shanghai, China.

His solo exhibitions include Buddha Jumps over the Wall, TOP Contemporary Art Centre, Shanghai, China (2012); Opening, ShanghART H-Space, Shanghai, China (2011); and Zhang Ding: Wind, Krinzinger Projekte, Vienna (2008). He has participated in many group exhibitions, including EDIT: Image Fetish and Phobia, ShanghART H-Space, Shanghai, China (2012); Moving Image in China: 1988–2011, Minsheng Art Museum, Shanghai, China (2011); and Shanghai Kino, Kunsthalle Bern, Switzerland (2009).

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