Chen Zhen

by Zhen, Chen; Uslip, Jeffrey; Zur, Rachael

• ISBN13: 9780970442871
• ISBN10: 0970442874
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2003-11-01
• Publisher: Distributed Art Pub Inc

Summary

During the last five years of his life, Chen Zhen expended his energies to create a body of work that poetically articulated his knowledge of traditional Chinese culture and Western avant-garde art. Born in Shanghai in 1955, Chen grew up during the tumultuous years of the Cultural Revolution. When China transitioned out of that era, he became interested in combining traditional Chinese philosophy (forbidden under Maoist rule) and Western practices as an alternative to the government's official cultural ideology. The resulting body of work held as a central theme the creation of harmony through difference, taking the human body, illness and medicine as metaphors, mixing cross-cultural social dynamics before multiculturalism and globalization had ever been articulated. Exploring the intricate and often paradoxical relationship between the material and the spiritual, the community and the individual, interior and exterior, Chen used sound and everyday materials such as candles, beds, chairs, and even chamber pots, linking the physical world to the spiritual, ritualistic one. The result was an aesthetic immersed in the traditional past but aligned with the present. This catalogue accompanies an exhibition held at P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center in tribute to the artist, who died from a rare medical condition known as autoimmune hemolytic anemia in 2000, in Paris, where he had emigrated as an art student in the mid-80s.

Table of Contents

Foreword	p. 8
Introduction	p. 9
Acknowledgement: A Fabulous Cultural Short Circuit	p. 10
Sculptor as Doctor	p. 12
Chen Zhen's Last Work, "When the Cities Dialogue with the Interior Landscape of the Body:" A Tribute to	p. 14
An Interview with Chen Zhen	p. 15
In China There Is a Proverb That Says ...	p. 17
Conversation with Chen Zhen	p. 20
The Resounding Silence: Interview with Chen Zhen	p. 26
Selected Works, 1990-2000	p. 31
Tributes	p. 159
Eric Angels	p. 160
Janine Antoni	p. 162
Sylvie Blocher	p. 164
Domenico de Clario	p. 166
Cai Guo-Qiang	p. 168
Yan Pei-Ming	p. 170
Sam Samore	p. 172
Nari Ward	p. 174
Artist's Statements	p. 177
Captions	p. 182
Bibliography	p. 186
Biography	p. 190
Credits	p. 194
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