Arthub Favorite: Week 158
THE ANNUAL REPORT OF OCD | Zhang Peili Solo Exhibition
Opening: 2019 Nov 5, 17:00-20:00
Duration: 2019 Nov 6 – 2020 May 6
Venue: Rén Space, No.10, Lane 133, Shangwen Road, Huangpu District, Shanghai
Rén Space will present Zhang Peili’s second Solo Exhibition at Rén Space, “The Annual Report of OCD”. This exhibition will showcase Zhang Peili’s latest body of work in an unprecedented and ground-breaking approach to the study and expression of “self” and “self-image.” The artist breaks free from convention and appropriates some of the most advanced technical components from the 4th industrial revolution. With these new transformational enabling tools, along with the traditional techniques from art, science, medicine, and industries, the artist articulates and facilitates his deeply personal exploration into the fundamental questions of human condition. And during that process, he erases the gaps between modernity and tradition, reality and unreality, life and substance, between individuals, and even the essential difference between human and other forms of life.
Premiering in this exhibition are works from a multi-year project that are rooted in the artist’s personal and societal experiences. The artist extracts the digital information of himself sourced through the latest medical technology and transforms the visualization of abstract data into tangible and tactile forms. The works are presented in several modules with different media and in various forms. One module of the work is all about translation of his physical self; the parts of his body which are invisible to naked eyes, bones and organs, are manifested into visible and touchable forms through multi-layered process. Another module presents various expressions of digital data of the artist’s physical body. With the light installation, Common Numbers, the artist utilizes lighting as a tool for the first time to create an integrated environment which expresses the binary codes of self in white space.
The title of the exhibition, The Annual Report of OCD, is related to both the artist and others. It is used as both an inducement and misdirection to the works. “If you really view the works from the perspective of this title, you will be disoriented and perhaps disappointed because they don’t provide bases or anything specific related to Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.” – Zhang Peili.
About the Artist
Zhang Peili was born in Hangzhou, China in November 1957. He graduated from the Department of Oil Painting at Zhejiang Academy of Fine Arts (now China Academy of Art) in 1984, where he now teaches. He also serves as the executive director of OCAT Shanghai and currently lives and works in Hangzhou.
In 1985 and 1986, he organized and participated in the “85 New Space” exhibition and artist collective “Pond Society.” His major works include Rest, X? series, 30×30, Water: Standard Version from Cihai Dictionary, Document on Hygiene No.3, Last Words, A Gust of Wind and Collision of Harmonies etc., and 30×30, which is one of the earliest video works in China. He engages various media in video, text, sound installation, mechanical installation and photography to express his concern and invention for real life through art, and to emphasize the judgment of artistic language and self-criticism.
Zhang Peili has been engaged in art teaching for more than 30 years. He established the New Media Department at China Academy of Art in 2003 and established the earliest New Media Art education in China. He participated in Venice Biennale three times, as well as in La Biennale de Lyon, The Sydney Biennial, The Gwangju Biennial, Busan Biennale, etc.; the artist has held solo exhibitions at numerous Institutions such as Art Institute of Chicago, Museum of Modern Art New York, and S.M.A.K. in Ghent, Belgium.
His works have been collected by prominent institutions such as MoMA New York, Tate Modern, Guggenheim Museum New York, Guggenheim Museum Abu Dhabi, Centre Georges Pompidou, Art Institute of Chicago, Asia Society New York, Singapore Art Museum, Queensland Art Gallery Australia, M+ Hong Kong, Fukuoka Asian Art Museum, Centre National des Arts Plastiques, Minsheng Art Museum, Daimler Art Collection, DSL Collection, K11 Foundation and Sifang Art Museum. Zhang Peili received the AAC annual artist award, 2015 and CCAA lifetime achievement award in 2010.