Zheng Guogu 郑国谷

Zheng Guogu 郑国谷
Important Works from a Distinguished Private Collection
4 September - 13 October 2014
exclusively on
foreword
“There is a beautiful and ungraspable aspect of tension that
exists between dreams and reality.“ Zheng Guogu
Artshare.com presents a selection of twelve works from a distinguished private collection, featuring some of Zheng Guogu’s most well-known
pieces, significant in the historical context of the artist’s career, and Chinese contemporary art.
Zheng Guogu is considered to be one of the most important members of a new generation of Chinese artists after the avant-garde movement
of the 1980s. Highly versatile, Zheng has experimented with a wide range of mediums such as photography, painting, sculpture, calligraphy,
installation, embroidery and architecture. He is the recipient of the Chinese Contemporary Art Awards in 2006, and took part in several seminal
exhibitions such as ‘The Corruptionists’ in 1998 and ‘Post–Sense Sensibility’ in 1999. In 2002, he co-founded the Yangjiang group with Cheng
Zaiyen and Sun Qinglin, and collectively created interactive installations subjected to the environment. His works are collected by some of the
most important private collections and public institutions in the world.
This exhibition features ten works from Zheng’s ‘Computer Controlled by Pig’s Brain’ series. This project began in 1999, when the artist grew
wearily of photography and wanted to experiment in painting and drawing. Drawing inspirations from Hong Kong cinema, this series alludes to
the impact of mass media and commercial imagery on Chinese youths in the 1990s. It also pinpoints the fictive nature of images that inundate
our everyday reality, as the artist juggles with imagination and reality in his photography. This series of works are historically important, in
particular, Computer is Controlled by Pig’s Brain Series Two No.13 was exhibited in the Documenta 12 in 2007.
As part of the TV Travel Notes series, ‘Travel Notes 5’ replicates an image from the TV news channel in the midst of reporting a current event.
Other works from the series shows a similar focus in current events, such as the Wall Street stock market, a session of court of law and Al Qaeda
terrorists on CNN[1].
[1]
Page 71, RedFlag Collection, Zheng Guogu, MAP Book Publishers, 2008 | Editor: Jean-Marc Decrop
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About Zheng Guogu
Zheng Guogu was born in Yangjiang, Guandong in 1970 and graduated from the Guangzhou Academy
of Fine Arts. Zheng is renowned for his versatile artistic character and his capability of utilising a wide
range of media in his creative process. Zheng has experimented with a wide range of mediums, such as
photography, painting, sculpture, installation, calligraphy, embroidery and architecture.
Zheng is best known for the expressive quality of his artworks. Having grown up in Guangzhou, Zheng
was profoundly influenced by the rapid economic development that in China. Zheng’s hometown
and its culture have been an important inspiration as he commits his works to exploring the radical
changes brought about by the nation’s fast expanding economy. To a large extent, Zheng’s works
represent an artistic formulation of the social and economic transformation that has overwhelmed
China over the past decade. With the use of a diversity of art media, the subtle changes in Chinese
culture are reflected, revealed and contemplated in a prudent and sensible manner. In the context
of unmanageable globalization, Zheng offers a revamped mix of imagination and reality, and his
personal interpretation of the new China.
Zheng co-founded the Yangjiang Group in 2002 with two other Chinese artists. The Group explores
the use of calligraphy in creating contemporary art, fusing various materials with the traditional
Chinese art to forge a unique style and give a new approach of making calligraphy, which they believe
should be something that ordinary people have a right to enjoy. By using the city itself as subject and site
for their interactive installation pieces, the Yanjiang Group examines modern social phenomena and
displays inhabitants’ collective memories through art. Apart from the Yangjiang Group, Zheng Guogu
has also worked on other initiatives such as architecture. He bought about two hectares of land in the
suburbs of Yangjiang city for his project Empire Time with the idea to develop the land into a conceptual
garden-esque space. The project is a real life adaptation of the computer game Age of Empire, in which
players can build and develop their own land into an empire.
Zheng is the recipient of the Chinese Contemporary Art Awards in 2006 and took part in several
seminal exhibitions such as ‘The Corruptionists’ in 1998 and ‘Post-Sense Sensibility’ in 1999. Notable
solo exhibitions, including ‘Hundred-Year-Old Tree Blooms Again’ (2008) in Chambers Fine Art, New
York, ‘Surprise Urban Discoveries’ in Hanart TZ Gallery, Hong Kong, and ‘Photo works 1997-2000’ in
ShanghART, Shanghai. His works are widely shown in China and abroad, namely at the 4th Guangzhou
Triennial (2011), 10th Lyon Biennial (2010), Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art, Rotterdam
(2010), The Israel Museum, Jerusalem (2008), Bonniers Konsthall, Stockholm (2008), Walker Art Center,
Minnesota, USA (2007), Documenta 12, Kassel (2007), Mori Art Museum, Tokyo (2005), Venice
Biennale (2003) and P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center, New York (1998).
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Exhibition highlights
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1
4
3
1. Computer is Controlled by Pig’s Brain 2008, 80 x 80 cm
2. Computer is Controlled by Pig’s Brain No.4, 50 x 50 cm
3. Bermuda – Made by Zheng Guogu, 51 x 61 cm
4. Computer is Controlled by Pig’s Brain Commemorative
Edition No.2, 80 x 80 cm
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Exhibition highlights
5
5. Computer is Controlled by Pig’s Brain No.33, 153 x 237 cm
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Computer is Controlled by Pig’s Brain
“
The series started with a group of drawings on paper covered with seal-marks of
characters. Drawn from the Hong Kong magazine Yes. Entitled ‘Bermuda – Made
by Zheng Guogu’, this group of paintings was shown by Hans van Dijk, Zheng’s first
gallerist, in his Beijing gallery CAAW (China Art Archive and Warehouse) in 2000.
Very quickly, he moved from drawings to oil paintings, most often in small format
and densely covered with very thin seal – marks of inspirations. At that time, the
seal-marks had borders around them, or were enclosed in patches of colour.
The ‘Pig’s brain’ series consists in working with a computer on bits of texts, drawn
from pop magazines as well as from comic strips and internet, evoking a popular
and young culture that is nourishes by new information technologies, and printing
them in three dimensions, in the form of rubber characters in relief. These loose
characters are then stuck on canvas and covered with paints. It is a tedious and
time -consuming process. The texts were applied to various surfaces: fabric, felt,
imitation leather, imitation mother-of-pearl, imitation cow skin, imitation snake skin,
etc. The rubber characters in relief appeared in a single hue at the beginning. Later,
a different colour was applied to each character, and then several colours were event
present inside each character, sometimes in a pointillistic manner and sometimes
with an effect of movement.
RedFlag Collection, Zheng Guogu, MAP Book Publishers, 2008
Editor: Jean-Marc Decrop
”
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zheng guogu
Bermuda – Made by Zheng Guogu
51 x 61 cm / 20 x 24 in; excluding framing
Acrylic and Gum on Paper
2000
Price Upon Request
Framed
Location: Beijing
7
Bermuda – Made by Zheng Guogu
51 x 61 cm / 20 x 24 in
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Detail
9
61 cm
24 in
51 cm
20 in
10
zheng guogu
Computer is Controlled by Pig’s Brain No.4
50 x 50 cm; 19 2/3 x 19 2/3 in; excluding framing
Acrylic and Gum on Fabric
2001
Price Upon Request
Framed
Location: Beijing
11
Computer is Controlled by Pig’s Brain No.4
50 x 50 cm; 19 2/3 x 19 2/3 in
12
Detail
13
50 cm
19 2/3 in
50 cm
19 2/3 in
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zheng guogu
Computer is Controlled by Pig’s Brain No. 33
153 x 237 cm; 60 1/4 x 93 1/3 in
Acrylic and Gum on Fake Cow Fabric
2003
Price Upon Request
Location: Beijing
15
Computer is Controlled by Pig’s Brain No. 33
153 x 237 cm; 60 1/4 x 93 1/3 in
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Detail
17
237 cm
93 1/3 in
153 cm
60 1/4 in
18
zheng guogu
Computer is Controlled by Pig’s Brain
Commemorative Edition No.2
80 x 80 cm; 31 1/2 x 31 1/2 in
Acrylic and Gum on Canvas
2005
Price Upon Request
Location: Beijing
19
Computer is Controlled by Pig’s Brain Commemorative Edition No.2,
80 x 80 cm; 31 1/2 x 31 1/2 in
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Detail
21
80 cm
31 1/2 in
80 cm
31 1/2 in
22
zheng guogu
Computer is Controlled by Pig’s Brain 2008
80 x 80 cm / 31 1/2 x 31 1/2 in
Acrylic and Gum on Fake Cow Fabric
2008
Price Upon Request
Location: Beijing
23
Computer is Controlled by Pig’s Brain 2008
80 x 80 cm / 31 1/2 x 31 1/2 in
24
Detail
25
80 cm
31 1/2 in
80 cm
31 1/2 in
26
zheng guogu
Computer Controlled by Pig’s Brain MOMA II Party No.2
205 x 312 cm / 80 2/3 x 122 4/5 in
Acrylic and Gum on Canvas
2006
Price Upon Request
Location: Beijing
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Detail
28
312 cm
122 4/5 in
205 cm
80 2/3 in
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zheng guogu
Computer is Controlled by Pig’s Brain, 87
200 x 200 cm / 78 3/4 x 78 3/4 in
Acrylic and Gum on Canvas
2006
Price Upon Request
Location: Beijing
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Detail
31
200 cm
78 3/4 in
200 cm
78 3/4 in
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zheng guogu
Computer is Controlled by Pig’s Brain No. 80
150 x 175 cm / 59 x 69 in
Acrylic and Gum on Fake Cow Fabric
2005
Price Upon Request
Location: Beijing
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Detail
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175 cm
69 in
150 cm
59 in
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zheng guogu
Computer is Controlled by Pig’s Brain
Series Two No.13
150 x 270 cm / 59 x 106 1/3 in
Acrylic and Gum on Canvas
2006
Price Upon Request
Location: Europe
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270 cm
106 1/3 in
150 cm
59 in
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zheng guogu
Computer Controlled by Pigs Brain
200 x 500 cm / 78 3/4 x 196 4/5 in
Embroidery on Felt
2006
Price Upon Request
Location: Europe
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500 cm
196 4/5 in
200 cm
78 3/4 in
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“With the ‘TV Travel Notes’ series, Zheng is carrying out another experiment.
His idea is about representing the image of a television screen, over-exposed,
as if on a throne or a podium. The method, a long and fastidious one, consists
in showing visible cathode screen lines, with the image being constructed
through superposing these stripes. The subject matters are those of current
events: a successful female singer, the Wall Street Stock market, the Afghan
president Hamid Karzai… In fact, underneath the apparent randomness, all
of these images suggest the imminence of a verdict: that of the public, of the
market, of the jury, of the ultimatum of the terrorists…”
RedFlag Collection, Zheng Guogu, MAP Book Publishers, 2008
Editor: Jean-Marc Decrop
zheng guogu
Travel Notes 5
158 x 210 cm / 62 1/5 x 82 2/3 in
Oil on Canvas
2005
Price Upon Request
Location: Europe
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Detail
41
210 cm
82 2/3 in
158 cm
62 1/5 in
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zheng guogu
Speak
160 x 210 cm / 63 x 82 2/3 in
Oil on Canvas
2002
Price Upon Request
Location: Europe
43
210 cm
82 2/3 in
160 cm
63 in
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Biography
Selected Solo Exhibitions
2014
2011 2008
2007
2005
2003
2001
2000
1998
Images of Magnetic Resonance, Tang Contemporary Art Center, Beijing, China
Zheng Guogu, The Pavilion | Vitamin Creative Space, Beijing, China
Hundred-Year-Old Tree Blooms Again, Recent Works by Zheng Guogu, Chambers Fine Art, New York, USA
New Paintings, Grace Li Gallery, Zurich, Switzerland
Surprise Urban Discoveries, Hanart TZ Gallery, Hong Kong, SAR
Zheng Guogu, Barbara Gross Galerie, Munich, Germany
Puzzle – It is from Yangjiang, Grace Alexander Contemporary Art Gallery, Zurich, Switzerland
Trademarks, Galerie Loft, Paris, France
Photo works 1997-2000, ShanghART, Shanghai, China
The Compressing World, Yangjiang, China
More Dimensional, BizArt Space, Shanghai, China
Sixteen of the Ten Thousand Customers and other Works, Beijing Photo Gallery, Beijing, China
Selected Group Exhibitions
2014
2013
2012
2011
2010
2009
2008
Hans van Dijk: 5000 Names, Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing, China
Landscape: the Virtual, the Actual, the Possible?, Times Museums, Guangzhou, China
do it, Stacion-Center for Contemporary Art Prishtina, Prishtine, Kosova
New Framework: Chinese Avant-Garde Photography 1980s-90s, Blindspot Gallery, Hong Kong
Zizhiqu (Autonomous Regions), Times Museums, Guangzhou, China
Writing Without Borders, Lehmann Maupin Gallery, Hong Kong
Suspicion, Night Breezes, Never-ending Voyage, Tang Contemporary Art Center, Beijing, China
Rites, Thoughts, Notes, Sparks, Swings, Strikes – A Hong Kong Spring, Para Site, Hong Kong
The Unseen, Guangdong Museum of Art, Guangzhou, China
4th Guangzhou Triennial: Back to Basics - The Museum Per Se, Guangdong Museum of Art, Guangzhou, China
Credit Suisse Today Art Award 2011 Finalists Exhibition, Today Art Museum, Beijing, China
Museum on Paper: 12 Chinese Artists, Iberia Art Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing, China
Shanshui, Museum of Art Lucerne, Luzern, Switzerland
10th Lyon Biennial, Lyon, France
Morality in Fragments, Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art, Rotterdam, Netherlands
Shenzhen Hong Kong Bi-City Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism, UABB, Guangzhou, China
Thirty Years of Chinese Contemporary Art, Minsheng Art Museum, Shanghai, China
Images Recalled – Bilder auf Abruf, Kunsthalle Mannheim and Kunstverein Ludwigshafen, Germany
Can Art Do More?, The Israel museum, Jerusalem, Israel
China Gold, Maillol Museum - Foundation Dina Vierny, Paris, France
Our Future: The Guy & Myriam Ullens Foundation Collection, Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing, China
Pine Tree Garden, Art 29 Basel, Basel, Switzerland
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2008
2007
2006
2005
2004
2003
Sprout from White Nights, Bonniers Kontshall, Stockholm, Sweden
The Third Guangzhou Triennial: Farewell to Post-Colonialism, Guangdong Museum of Art, Guangzhou, China
Zheng Guogu: Commemorative Plague 2008: Lehman Brothers Gate, Art Basel Miami Beach, Florida, United States
Accumulation – Canton Express Next Stop, Tang Contemporary Art Center, Beijing, China
Barcelona – Paris – Pkin, Espace Cultural Ample, Barcelona, Spain
Brave New Worlds, Walker Art Center, Minnesota, USA
China Welcomes You… Desires, Struggles, New Identities, Graz Art Museum, Graz, Austria
City in Progress/Live from Zhang Jiang, Shanghai Gallery of Art, Shanghai, China
Documenta 12, Kassel, Germany
Infiltration – Idylls and Visions: Second Space for Contemporary Ink Work, Guangdong Museum of Art, Guangzhou, China
The Real Thing: Contemporary Art from China, Tate Liverpool, Liverpool, England
Building Code Violations, Long March Foundation, Beijing, China
China, Zwischen Vergagenheit und Zukunft Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin, Germany
Guangzhou – Cantones Artists in the Sigg Collection, Kunstmuseum Bern, Switzerland
GuestRoom #3: Vitamin Creative Space, Museum het Domein, Sittard, Holland
Popular Expression, Het Domein Museum, Sittard, Netherlands
The Twelve – Chinese Contemporary Art Awards, Zendai Museum of Modern Art, Shanghai, China
Black – Extreme – Vigorous - Figurative, Shenzhen Fine Art Institute, Guangzhou, China
Follow me! Chinese Art at the Threshold of the New Millennium, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan
Guangzhou Triennial, Guangzhou, China
Living in Interesting Times – A Decade of New Chinese Photography, The Open Museum of Photography, Tel Hai, Israel
Out of Sight, De Appel Art Center, Amsterdam, Netherlands
The Second Guangzhou Triennial, Guangdong Museum of Art, Guangzhou, China
A l‘ouest du sud de l’est, Center of Contemporary Art, Sète/Villa Arson, Nice, France
All Under Heaven: Ancient and Contemporary Chinese Art, Museum van Hedendaagse Kunst, Antwerp, Belgium
Between Past and Future: New Photography and Video from China, ICP International Center of Photography, New York, USA
Past in Reverse: Contemporary Art of East Asia, San Diego Museum of Art, San Diego, USA
Canton Express, 50th Biennale di Venezia, Venizia, Italy
Fabricated Paradises, Le Parvis Center of Contemporary Art, Pau, France
The Fifth System: Public Art in the Age of “Post-Planning”, Shenzhen Art Museum, Guangzhou, China
Zooming into Focus - Contemporary Chinese Photography and Video from the Haudenschild Collection, University Art Gallery of San Diego State
University, San Diego, USA
2002 Asianvible: Asian Contemporary Art, Espai D’Art Contemporani de Castelló, Castelló, Spain
Fan Mingzhen & Fan Mingzhu – Glad to Meet, Jin Sha Jiang Rd., Shanghai, China
Paris-Pekin, Espace Pierre Cardin, Paris, France
Urban Creation, 4th Shanghai Biennale, Shanghai Art Museum, Shanghai, China
Too See The Calligraphy or to Measure the Blood Pressure, Gungju Biennial, Guangju, Korea
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2001
2000
1999
1998
1997
1994
Art Forum, Berlin, Germany
Chengdu Biennual, Chengdu Contemporary Art Museum, Chengdu, China
Chinese Photography Show, Passage de Retz, Paris, France
City Slang: Chinese Contemporary Art from Zhujiang River-Delta, He Xiangning Art Museum, Guangzhou, China
Cross Pressures: Contemporary Photography and Video Art from Beijing, the Oulu City Art Museum and the Finnish Museum of Photography, Oulu
and Helsinki, Finland
Hang Zhou New Media Festival, China Fine Art Academy, Hang Zhou, China
Hot Pot, Kunstnernes Hus, Oslo, Norway
Living in Time - 29 Contemporary Artists from China, Hamburger Bahnhof – Museum für Gegenwart, Berlin, Germany
Meseum für Gegenward, Berlin, Germany
Photo Festival, Naarden, Naarden city, Netherlands
Cities of the 21st Century: Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Dessau Master’s Houses, Dessau-Rosslau, Germany
Clash! 100 Artists, Canvas International Art, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Fuck Off, Xi Suzhouhe 1133, Shanghai, China
Individual and Society in Art - A Collection of Works of Art by Eleven Chinese Artists, Guangdong Museum of Art, Guangzhou, China
Portraits, Figures, Couples and Groups from the Collection of the Modern Chinese Art Foundation, Modern Chinese Art Foundation, Gent, Belgium
Post-Material Interpretations of Everyday Life by Contemporary Chinese Artists, Red Gate Watch Tower, Beijing, China
The Sun Rises in the East – the Current Artistic Scene in Asia, Rencontres Internationales de la Photographie en Gaspésie, Gaspé, Canada
Changing Views, Hunsthal Hof 88, Almelo, Netherlands
Cities on the Move 4, Hayward Gallery, London, England
Cities on the Move 5, Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art, Helsinki, Finland
Concepts, Colors and Passions, China Art Archives and Warehouse, Beijing, China
International Photography Biennale, Centro de la Imagen Mexico City, Mexico
Intimate Moments, Hanart TZ Gallery, Hong Kong
Love: Chinese Contemporary Photography & Video, International Arts Festival, Tachikawa, Japan
Modern Chinese Art, Foundation Caermerklooster, Gent, Belgium
Biennale de l’imago Paris 98, Centre National de la Photographie, Paris, France
Cities on the Move 2, CAPC Musée d'Art Contemporain, Bordeaux, France
Cities on the Move 3, P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center, New York, USA
Confused…, KunstRai 98, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Guarene Arte, Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin, Italy
Site Art Project, Walking Museum in Takashimaya, Tokyo, Japan
Taipei Biennal, Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Taipei, Taiwan
Photography as Concept – 4th Internationale Foto-Triennale, Esslingen, Germany
Cities on the Move 2, Vienna Secession, Vienna, Austria
Contemporary Photo Art from P.R. China, Museum Gunzenhauser, Chemnitz, Germany
Hanmo New Art Show, Hanmo Art Center, Beijing, China
The Third Exhibition of Chinese Contemporary Art, Documentation, Library of East China Normal University, Shanghai, China
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