Redcat Presents NOT ONLY TIME

The Gallery at REDCAT is pleased to present the first Los Angeles presentation of two influential contemporary artists who pioneered the field of video art in China: Hangzhou-based artist Zhang Peili and Beijing-based artist Zhu Jia. Coming out of a generation that witnessed the ramifications of the Cultural Revolution, the 1989 Tiananmen Massacre and the infamous 1989 China/Avant-Garde exhibition at the National Museum of Contemporary Art and its subsequent closing by state authorities, Zhang and Zhu use video to navigate the complex and shifting terrain that characterizes contemporary China.

Though both artists trained in oil painting at the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing and the Zhejiang Academy of Fine Arts in Hangzhou respectively, they have exclusively worked in video and photography since the late 1980s/early 1990s; earning Zhang the title of the father of video art in China for his first video work 30x30 (1989). The radical departure between their training and practice becomes the impetus for this exhibition and the interrogation of video as a medium of provocation, resistance and resonance.

Working against the hyper-inflated art market of contemporary Chinese art, their practices are rooted in a critical, cynical, almost melancholic distance that has resulted in a consistent output of work developed during a 15-year period living and working in their respective hometowns. Through a parallel presentation of their work, the exhibition will provide an engaging look at both Zhu and Zhang's practice---tracking their interest in a time-based medium and their experimentation with form and representation. Each artist will present newly commissioned works alongside past works that date back to the early 1990s.

Zhang will present an early video work titled Document on Hygiene No.3 (1991)---an absurd, yet tender act of bathing a chicken in soap and water that ruminates on the clinical processes of bureaucracy; a ten-channel video installation Uncertain Pleasure (1996) about discomfort and the fragmentation of the body; Last Words (2003)---a compilation of edited film fragments of Cultural Revolution period Communist heroes dying repeated deaths; and a new work commissioned by REDCAT that investigate Zhang's interest in the potential of video to capture or represent the ethos of society.

Zhu will present his seminal video work Forever (1994)---a discombobulating video that captures the streets of Beijing through the circular movement of a video camera attached to a bicycle wheel; Never Take Off (2002)---a video of an airplane cruising endlessly on the tarmac, a lamentation on latent or wasted energy; We are Perfect (2009)---a photographic series that captures the veneer and fragility of the idealism of nation, identity and modernity; and a new, two-channel video work entitled Steaming (2010) about expended time, energy and effort, a counter response to China's ever-growing economy and power. Together, their works reflect upon the vast political, economic and social change in China using characteristic wit, humor and irony.

Not Only Time: Zhang Peili and Zhu Jia is funded in part with generous support from the Nimoy Foundation and the haudenschildGarage.

For additional information about the exhibition, high-resolution images, media and interview requests, please contact Diana Wyenn at 213 237-2873 or dwyenn@calarts.edu.

Zhang Peili (b. 1957, Hangzhou) graduated from the China Academy of Art, Hangzhou in 1984. 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: The Birth of Chinese Contemporary Art, Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing (2007); China Power Station, Serpentine Gallery, London (2006); Mahjong: Chinese Contemporary Art at the Kunstmuseum Bern (2005); Techniques of the Visible: the 5th Shanghai Biennale (2004); Alors la Chine?, Centre Pompidou, Paris (2003); Zone of Urgency, curated by Hou Hanru, Venice Biennale (2003); Global Conceptualism: Points of Origin 1950s-1980s, Queens Museum of Art, New York (1999); Cities on the Move, curated by Hou Hanru and Hans-Ulrich Obrist, CAPC musée d'Art contemporain de Bordeaux and Secession, Vienna (1997-9); Inside Out: New Chinese Art, 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); The Second Guangzhou Triennial (2005); Zooming Into Focus: Contemporary Chinese Photography and Video from the Haudenschild Collection at the National Museum of Art Museum in Beijing (2005); Alors la Chine?, Centre Pompidou, Paris (2003); Zone of Urgency, curated by Hou Hanru, Venice Biennale (2003); Time After Time: Asia and Our Moment, curated by Eungie Joo, Doryun Chong and Rene de Guzman 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: Performance and Body Art from East Asia 1990-2001, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin and Queens Museum of Art, New York (2001); Cities on the Move, curated by Hou Hanru and Hans-Ulrich Obrist, 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.

Gallery at REDCAT aims to support, present, commission and nurture new creative insights through dynamic projects and challenging ideas. The Gallery presents five exhibitions every year, often of newly commissioned work that represents the artist's first major presentation in the U.S. or Los Angeles. The Gallery also maintains an active publishing program producing as many as two major monographs per year. Proceeding from the geographic and cultural specificities of Los Angeles, its program emphasizes artistic production of the Pacific Rim--namely Mexico, Central and South America and Asia--as regions that are of vital significance to California. The Gallery aims to facilitate dialogue between local and International Artists contributing to a greater understanding of the social, political and cultural contexts that inform contemporary artistic practice.

Gallery at REDCAT is open Tuesdays through Sundays from noon to 6:00pm or until intermission. It is closed Monday and major holidays. Admission to the Gallery at REDCAT is always free.

REDCAT is located at the corner of W. 2nd and Hope Streets, inside the Walt Disney Concert Hall complex in downtown Los Angeles (631 West 2nd Street, Los Angeles, CA 90012).

REDCAT is an interdisciplinary contemporary arts center for innovative visual, performing and media arts located in downtown Los Angeles inside the Walt Disney Concert Hall complex. Through performances, exhibitions, screenings, and literary events, REDCAT introduces diverse audiences, students and artists to the most influential developments in the arts from around the world, and gives artists in this region the creative support they need to achieve national and international stature. REDCAT continues the tradition of the California Institute of the Arts, its parent organization, by encouraging experimentation, discovery and lively civic discourse. For more information, visit redcat.org.

REDCAT 2010-11 Season Sponsors include media sponsors Los Angeles Times and KCRW, official hotel sponsor The Standard Hotel Downtown and official piano of REDCAT Yamaha. Full REDCAT Acknowledgments can be found online at redcat.org/acknowledgments.

 

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