Xu Zhen
Xu Zhen, In Just a Blink of An Eye, 2005
Re-performed for Kaldor Public Art Project 27: 13 Rooms, curated by Klaus Biesenbach and Hans Ulrich Obrist, at Pier 2/3, Walsh Bay, Sydney, 11-21 April 2013
Xu Zhen
born 1977 in Shanghai, China
lives and works in Shanghai, China
In Just a Blink of an Eye, 2005
As a prolific and controversial artist, Xu Zhen’s conceptually driven practice encompasses a vast range of media and often employs humour, irony and sophisticated trickery. For In Just a Blink of an Eye, 2005, a breathing body floats mysteriously in mid-air, frozen in time and space as if defying the constraints of physics. The work engages with the materiality of the body, testing the limits of physical and cognitive possibilities as we try to comprehend what we see.
In 2005, Zhen’s video work Shouting was exhibited in the first Chinese Pavilion at the 51st Venice Biennale and his work has been included in numerous exhibitions internationally including the Tate Liverpool in 2006, and Art Basel in 2007. In 1998, Zhen co-founded the influential artist-run space BizArt Art Center, Shanghai, and in 2009 formed MadeIn company with a group of collaborators who explore authorship, ethics and commerce, within the art system.