Curatorial Thinking and Writing, offered by ICCI, is designed to develop students’ critical writing skills in the professional context of art curation and animate contemporary art discourse through the medium of writing. The course is taught by Professor Travis Jeppesen. This is the second interview in a series of artist interviews conducted by ICCI MFA students of Class 2021.
A Magic Sculptor
In Conversation with Zizheng Zhou
With Zizheng Zhou’s sculptures, what you first see often turns out to be not what you think it is. He studied sculpture at the Shanghai Academy of Fine Arts, Shanghai University as an undergraduate. He is good at sculpture, installation art and glass art and loves material exploration, often resulting in more experimental works.
In April 2022, I contacted Zizheng Zhou through his lower grade classmate. The following content is from our WeChat conversation.
Ripple Galaxy
2021, Shanghai
EL: I searched for other artists like Joseph Kosuth and Tracey Emin who use neon lights as creative materials on the Internet, and found that most of them convey meaning by making neon lights in the shape of words, like a kind of "glowing and heating" external announcement. But your neon lights seem indeterminate. Do they have any special meaning?
ZZZ: Most artists use it from the invasion of light and text symbols. My original intention is to make a container that carries light, like a sculpture. The simplest action to make 2D into 3D is to tie a knot in space, which is also an intervention of sculptural thinking. Each knot shape is different because of the manual production, so "uncertainty" on the one hand refers to the uncertainty of the knot shape, and on the other hand, it also maintains "uncertainty" in the interpretation and division of the work.
The Type of the Pond
2019, Japan
EL: Later, I also saw the blue knot in "The Type of the Pond". I learned that you spent three days in Japan repairing a Japanese-style bathroom that had been abandoned for 13 years, and moved more than a ton of natural pool water. Why do you only think about putting a blue knot after so much drudgery? Does it feel like the whole dark space after cleaning lacks clear guidance or some contrast? I’m wondering what your initial inspiration was.
ZZZ: The purpose of my use of neon knots in this project is also from the examination and debate of "knot" in Japanese. In fact, the glass knot in the space is a spiritual symbol that "links all things", which is divine, like a shelter for the gods in the house. And all my renovations in the space serve to light it up.
When the light was lit, I knew that this work would be great. The waxed floor reflects the faint blue light from a distance. The viewer will follow the light with a sense of ritual, stepping on the wooden floor with bare feet and entering the interior space. suddenly see the light. The reflection of the bathroom tiles, the reflection of the neon knots around the bathtub water and the algae (the intention of catching the moon in the water), the stories of past users, and the local villagers as the main Japanese viewers’ opinions on “knots” and “musibi” The three perceptions of "generating spirit" are all connected in space, hoping to present something with thickness and transcendence of culture. As a resident art work, it is quite challenging to complete in a short period of time, and it is also influenced by the concept of "encounter" in Mono Art. The whole work follows the trend and does not feel very difficult. The whole process is a long process. completed in a slow interpretation of the formula.
EL: Your mentor during your residency period was a representative of the Japanese post-mona school. The works of Mona artists use a lot of natural materials such as unprocessed wood, stone, and soil, and try to avoid traces of artificial processing. The focus is on the relationship between objects and the resulting changes in the "field", in order to express Japanese-style perception and ontology. I feel a similar temperament in your "The Type of the Pond". You put natural objects and man-made industrial products together, which is often surprising, as if to blur the concept of the object itself to guide the viewer to think about "objects". of "reality" and "existence". What drew you to this approach?
ZZZ: Indeed, this similarity was only realized after I had a deep understanding of Mono, so that my later master's research was about the installation art of Mono. On the surface, this connection is caused by the commonality of history and culture, but it is still believed that this "encounter" is rooted, and the process is like asking the ultimate question of what is the essence of art. There are many indescribable commonalities between the creative methodology of the artists of Mono School and my thinking. Summarizing some of the previous practice rules will help me make choices at certain moments, which is also my original intention to carry out this kind of research.
It is not only the boundaries of objects that are blurred, the whole process is like a self-consistent action through counterattack and reconciliation. In the process, in fact, I no longer care about "objects" and "existence" itself, and the gain is "intent to objects". outside". It's as if the Mona artists didn't emphasize "things".
EL: After researching the Mona School, I suddenly remembered a general education course I took in Shanghai University to introduce Buddhist wisdom. The teacher's interpretation of the phrase "form is emptiness, and emptiness is form" is similar to the concept of Mona to a certain extent. At the same time, I also found that you are a very "Buddhist" person in other articles, such as the "Lying Flat Philosophy" and "The Golden Mean" you mentioned. May I ask whether your creations are influenced by eastern philosophy?
ZZZ: Indeed, there is the spirit of Japanese Shintoism in Mona, and traceability is also connected with Taoism and Zen, similar to animism. Although I have no beliefs myself, I do believe that things have some established rules of operation, which can transcend religion and culture. I have reflected more in my own works. The word lying flat is a little exaggerated, hahaha, I am not lying flat, and I still work hard to create every day. The meaning of being relatively flat and moderate is that I am not that radical in my art, and I hope that many things can be developed steadily rather than overnight.
Indeterminate White Triangular Pillar
2020
EL: Regarding your series of "Indeterminate Objects" such as "Indeterminate White Triangular Pillar", it seems to be a turning point in your creative path. I’m wondering if you deliberately chose fiberglass as a material, and kept exploring and experimenting to get the final form by accident? How do you determine which moments form the work, and do you have what you want in your head before you do the experiment, or is it just a matter of chance and randomness?
ZZZ: "Indeterminate White Triangular Pillar" is indeed my most satisfactory work in the early days. It uses very simple actions to explain what I want to say. I did not intervene in the form of the work. The fiberglass cloth I used was an industrial product brought back from the market. I didn't even open the packaging bag during the firing process. The final presentation looked like a glass sculpture. It is the product of an action dominated by ideas that disintegrates use values. The unconventional use of fiberglass comes from my background in sculpture and glass art. As for taking it back to the kiln for firing, the original intention is very simple. It is like playing a joke on the refractory material. The practical intention of production is fire prevention. Dissolving the productive value of labor is a contemporary discourse attached to my work. This move is caused by the rebellion of craftsmanship in the study of glass art. Unlike the previous glass art works, which requires the artist's incomparable intervention, I will minimize my intervention and act regardless of the result, because I will accept any firing results, even cracked ones. Unlike scientific experiments, works of art do not actually have a single success, nor should they have a defined perfect existence after firing. Yes, this uncertainty is brought to me by the process of thermoforming glass. The learning background of sculpture creation will make it difficult for me to escape the rational paradigm, and glass firing has a lot of accidental and uncontrollable factors. The kiln is like opening a blind box, but it is different from the ceramic kiln, which can open a "golden legend". The glass is crueler. It is either made, changed, or broken. This diversity excites me. With my new ideas for formal works and opportunities to create works, I will ask myself, is it okay to burn it to pieces? Why not?
Therefore, I did not give too many presuppositions to the work. This kind of thinking is to blur the boundaries of multiple disciplines. There will be a sense of sculptural form in "White Triangular Pillar of Uncertainty", as well as the conceptual application of contemporary art. The most important thing is that I can get a glimpse of my original intention of doing art from the works, conveying that the undercurrents under the calm water are what I hope to see.
Blue Ring and Meteorite Water Surface 2021
EL: In addition to some of the above-mentioned de-functional glass experiments, in fact, you also made a relatively traditional glass work, "Blue Ring and Meteorite Water Surface", which seems to be a juxtaposition of naturalness and industry. Why is it not a blue knot this time but a blue loop? Is it because there is a meteorite that means it is out of the circular orbit?
ZZZ: "Blue Ring and Meteorite Water Surface" is a work in my solo exhibition "Placement and Boundary". The blue ring is a life-size headlight ring with a size of 180cm and a height of 180cm. Considering the multiple ring symbols in the exhibition space to achieve a scene of overlapping holes.
Yes, as for "Meteorite Water Surface", this is a work of desalination of technology, or it is a further practice of "using technology and swimming in art". Simply in terms of craftsmanship, firing stone and glass together is impractical, illogical, and no one wants to try it. In fact, both volcanic stone and glass belong to the category of silicate. Regardless of the quantitative value of firing, the two have the same origin and the same origin, which makes me think that they can coexist. In the end, the volcanic stone was also gently clamped by the glass plate. This coexistence state is extremely ambiguous. Instead of trying to expand the boundaries of glass by burning glass that doesn't look like glass, I reconcile with the material itself and discuss the birth phenomenon behind it. Very clean works are suspended on the wall, like discrete ink dots, like a chess game, like a corner of the galaxy. I can feel that low-intervention attitude, like the breeze caressing the calm lake, through which I see myself using the glass reflecting surface as a mirror. Later, a series of neon star rings with knots was made at the UCCA Lab exhibition at the end of 2021.