Xiaoqing Zhu

Walking Touch (2016)
video
11’55”

My artistic practice is related to the interactions between people, objects and space. I use my body as a vehicle to test the physical world and either to strengthen or to subvert the “common sense”. By deconstructing all kinds of objective existence, I try to activate the hidden sensors, break the inertial thoughts and question phenomena in this era.

Most of my inspiration comes from my physical instincts of daily scenes. Considering the specificity of different locations and events I rendered either abnormal or illogical prompt actions then document these actions in the form of video. There was a 5AM Video Project that I did in Puebla, Mexico. During a six-week residency program, I woke up everyday at 5am, wandered on different streets and did prompt actions that responded to random abandoned objects. Through this way, I tried to reactivate people’s desire of touch as well as explore the relationships between human habits and city.

Like this work, most of my pieces are time-based projects. Within a long period of time, I observe all kinds of seemingly normal phenomena, discover the potential problem under the surface and try to solve the problem in an artistic way. Unlike being aggressive or didactic, I use a playful attitude to embody these phenomena and finally present them in an almost absurd form, Humour allows me to have a gentle communication with people and transfer complicated issue to something that can be easily understood.

Please copy and paste the video link into your browser: http://vimeo.com/187544081