The project is motivated by the following reflections: First, I am a Chinese, myself, a member of a minority group in a plural western society. Second, the meaning of the word ”minority” becomes richer than before in terms of, as elements of social status, education, employment, wealth and political power interact. Third, I want to provide a new perspective on minority people and contribute to the public discourse on their standing in our multiple society. On the artistic side, I am interested in the transformation of objects into attributes of subjectivity. The people in my fabricated minority group will be totally alienated, covered with ornaments of colored familiar objects. I explore the question how substance matter can provide access to or cover human nature. Why nowadays in our society there is fear in the heart of people? wu zhi wrote in 2010
In this series I digitally mixed the images of my own performance in real lifewith the photos of Poppenhuis van Petronella Oortman I took in the Rijksmuseum. The montage creates an unlikely setting, in which a Chinese woman is “framed” in an incredible interior of the historic Dutch household represented by the dollhouse. It suggests a displacement of both space and time. The semi-narrative seems to reflect a certain social condition, one in which a person lives a bourgeois and wealthy, but monotonous and potentially destructive life with no escape in sight. ---by wu zhi. in 2005
The differences within my experience of China and the Netherlands form a complex structure within my everyday life.The structure is, to me, like a landscape. The collages are the “snapshots” of this landscape - flattened and seen through the conventionsof landscape painting, common to both Chinese art and Dutch art. Through this series I aim to express something of the dialectical movement between the two poles of cultural understanding. ---by wu zhi, 2004
These series of collages were made in Germany. It's just try-out for Goethe face in different environment.The materiel was used old film, tape and transparent colour. They were slides, 35mm. In total there are 60 slides. I made 20 pieces, Alexej made 40.They were one evening work but including 10 years visual art experience. ---by wu zhi 2004
Part of Minority 22, April, 2009 |
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