5

2012 - Film & Video (Film & Video)

37:25 minutes

Jiang Zhi

location: Beijing
location: Shenzhen, China
year born: 1971
gender: male
nationality: Chinese
home town: Yuanjiang, China

5 is a three channel video about the dualities of death and resurrection, reminiscence and fantasy, chronological and retrospective narration. The main video features two dancers intertwining, caressing in trancelike movements, with intimacy eventually leading to scarring and bleeding. Towards the end, the trace of bodily movements and fluids crescendo in an image of a skull in a synthesis of performance, painting and theater. To the artist, the skull of smeared fluid can be considered an allegory to Zygmunt Mauman’s concept of “liquid love,” where the loosening up of traditional bonds becomes possible due to increased social mobility. Modernity forces one to make provisional bonds that are more fluid and liquid in nature as many are torn between freedom and security. Thus, stricken by a liquid love, the amorous protagonists of the piece, enraptured in a fluxus of pain and eros, unable to transcend duality, leaves only an image of passion and death in the final tableau.


Jiang Zhi represents a generation of artists whose practice developed against the backdrop of experimental art in China in the 1990s, during which a series of social and cultural transformation occurred in the country. His work actively deals with issues such as body, gender, identity, consumerism, conflict, fear, power, and temporality, and often involves recent social events. Jiang attended the China Academy of Art and has long been engaged with writing and video art. From 1995 to 2005, Jiang was also an active journalist, which had him on the frontlines of his country’s the social transformation, and all of his experiences have deeply influenced the language and context of his practice. Constantly positioning himself at the intersection between brutal reality and poetic imagination, Jiang’s works presents a complex trajectory of the artist’s everyday life and society at large.


Colors:



Related works sharing similar palette

Five-Hundred Twenty-Four
© » KADIST

Lenka Clayton and Phillip Andrew Lewis

2022

Five Hundred Twenty-Four, a single-channel video installation by Lenka Clayton and Phillip Andrew Lewis, features singers from over twenty Cleveland-area choirs counting numbers in an iterative process: one person sings “one”, then two people sing “two”, and so forth, to 524...

Royal Velázquez Portrait Expected to Shatter Auction Records
© » OBSERVER

Royal Velázquez Portrait Expected to Shatter Auction Records | Observer A portrait of a Spanish queen painted by Diego Velázquez, the 17th-century artist celebrated for his depictions of Spain’s royal family, is expected to shatter his auction record when it goes up for sale early next year...

Ong Keng Sen: Pushing the conversation
© » ARTS EQUATOR

Ong Keng Sen: Pushing the conversation | ArtsEquator Thinking and Talking about Arts and Culture in Southeast Asia Articles Patricia Bateira May 6, 2020 Theatre stalwart Ong Keng Sen returns to helm Singapore theatre company TheatreWorks, after being away for a decade to complete his PhD in Performance Studies at Tisch School of the Arts in New York...

Tropical Siesta
© » KADIST

Phan Thao Nguyên

2017

Tropical Siesta begins in a rural landscape of Vietnam...

Jason Dodge
© » KADIST

Jason Dodge talks about his work “Above the weather” (2007)...

CAMARADERIE
© » KADIST

Mahmoud Khaled

2009

CAMARADERIE is a precursor to and a blueprint for Mahmoud Khaled’s later forays into queer aesthetics and modes of visual representation...

American Artist: Shaper of God at REDCAT
© » KADIST

American Artist: Shaper of God at REDCAT Featuring newly commissioned work in video, installation, sculpture, and drawing, Shaper of God takes inspiration from science fiction author Octavia E...

Interview with Xaviera Simmons
© » KADIST

New York-based artist Xaviera Simmons and AFRO Charities executive director Savannah Wood introduce Nectar , on view at KADIST Paris from May 6th to July 24th 2022...

Podcast 65: M1 CONTACT Contemporary Dance Festival (Part 1)
© » ARTS EQUATOR

Podcast 65: M1 CONTACT Contemporary Dance Festival (Part 1) | ArtsEquator Thinking and Talking about Arts and Culture in Southeast Asia Articles Photo: Crispian Chan September 12, 2019 Duration: 20 min Podcast host Chan Sze-Wei and guest Melissa Quek discuss works they saw at the recent M1 CONTACT Contemporary Dance Festival, specifically at the platforms DiverCity, Off Stage and M1 Open Stage...

‘Tattoos are not a crime’ – how Iranian tattoo artists are leaving an indelible mark on a society that is slowly coming to accept body ink
© » SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST

‘Tattoos are not a crime’ – how Iranian tattoo artists are leaving an indelible mark on a society that is slowly coming to accept body ink | South China Morning Post Advertisement Advertisement Art + FOLLOW Get more with my NEWS A personalised news feed of stories that matter to you Learn more An Iranian man shows his tattoos in Iran’s capital, Tehran...

Abigail Lane — Doing Time
© » SLASH PARIS

Abigail Lane — Doing Time — Galerie Semiose — Exposition — Slash Paris Connexion Newsletter Twitter Facebook Abigail Lane — Doing Time — Galerie Semiose — Exposition — Slash Paris Français English Accueil Événements Artistes Lieux Magazine Vidéos Retour Précédent Suivant Abigail Lane — Doing Time Exposition Installations Abigail Lane, Black bird, Doing Time Abigail Lane Doing Time Encore 27 jours : 13 janvier → 9 mars 2024 La série exposée dans la project room chez Semiose, Doing Time, consiste en des broderies d’oiseaux insérées dans des boîtes fermées par des barreaux...

Weekly Picks: Malaysia (19–25 Nov 2018)
© » ARTS EQUATOR

Weekly Picks: Malaysia (19–25 Nov 2018) | ArtsEquator Thinking and Talking about Arts and Culture in Southeast Asia Weekly To Do November 19, 2018 KLEX 2018: Translucence , at various locations, 22–25 Nov An independent artist-run grassroots international festival of experimental film, video art and music...

Leading art collectors put pressure on Balai Seni Visual Negara
© » ARTS EQUATOR

Leading art collectors put pressure on Balai Seni Visual Negara | ArtsEquator Thinking and Talking about Arts and Culture in Southeast Asia Articles February 15, 2020 by Kathy Rowland In a first for Malaysian art history, a Collectors’ Petition signed by 55 private art collectors have warned Balai Seni Visual Negara that they will no longer be lending works from their collection to Balai in future unless Balai reinstates pieces removed from Ahmad Fuad Osman’s exhibition immediately ...

The Ballad of Special Ops Cody
© » KADIST

Michael Rakowitz

2017

The Ballad of Special Ops Cody by Michael Rakowitz is a serio-comic stop motion animated film in which an everyday African-American G...

In The Studio With Jakub Kubica: Between Minimalist Design And Sci-Fi Archeology
© » IGNANT

In The Studio With Jakub Kubica: Between Minimalist Design And Sci-Fi Archeology - IGNANT Name Jakub Kubica Images Clemens Poloczek Words Marie-Louise Schmidlin With a portfolio that spans minimalist furniture, functional design objects, and futuristic artworks, the practice of Jakub Kubica meets at the intersection of various disciplines...

Asante Gold: UK Agrees To Loan Looted Crown Jewels To Ghana
© » ARTLYST

The United Kingdom is set to return some of Ghana's revered "crown jewels" more than a century after being looted.....

They Were Here
© » KADIST

Elisheva Biernoff

2009

In her recent work, Biernoff is interested in investigating fictions and fantasies embedded in the remnants of consumer culture (for example magazines) or through ephemera such as postcards and old photographs...

The Trafficking Of Looted Syrian Art Is Helping Finance ISIS
© » ARTSJOURNAL

Stolen Syrian art funds international terrorism – Why aren’t we talking about it? – Annenberg Media Skip to main content Arts, Culture & Entertainment Stolen Syrian art funds international terrorism – Why aren’t we talking about it? Stories about the trafficking of blood antiquities across an international black market don’t often appear in the average person’s news diet; Stories about the terrorist organizations that these antiquity sales fund do, though...

The Big Review: Caspar David Friedrich at the Hamburger Kunsthalle
© » THEARTNEWSPER

The Big Review: Caspar David Friedrich at the Hamburger Kunsthalle ★★★★★ Art market Museums & heritage Exhibitions Books Podcasts Columns Technology Adventures with Van Gogh Search Search Exhibitions review The Big Review: Caspar David Friedrich at the Hamburger Kunsthalle ★★★★★ This curatorial triumph highlights the measured artificiality of the German Romantic artist who made work that still mesmerises J...