Artists under Xi Jinping
The primary subject of this project lies in the overlaps between visual arts and China's socio-political present. It is an interdisciplinary investigation that deploys mixed qualitative research methods, including visual analysis, archival research, interviews, critical theory, philosophical investigation, and qualitative, empirical visual analysis.
The Chinese Dream
This project brings to the fore the complex dynamics between visual arts and China's political situation by discussing the artistic practice by Jiang Zhi, Chen Wei, and Cao Fei. Their contemporary works deploy the same strategy of the Chinese Dream, namely imagination and speculation, and invite further reflection on what is behind this beautified facade.
Jiang Zhi, Rainbow out of service (2008), c-print, courtesy of the artist.
The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI)
This research sheds light on underrepresented visual narratives of the BRI in Xinjiang and Gansu provinces by analysing the contemporary works by contemporary artists Zhao Zhao and Zhuang Hui. As these regions undergo extensive urban transformations at the expenses of their socio-cultural heritage, the artists' work opposes this tendency and shifts the focus from the economic to the cultural role of these two provinces.
Zhao Zhao, Taklamakan Desert (2015), installation, mixed media.
