Water - Standard Version from the « Ci Hai » Dictionary, 1991 - 1992
1 betacam numérique, couleur, son,
In Water: Standard Version from the Cihai Dictionary, the television screen frames an isolated face, the one of Xing Zhibing, a renowned news reporter of China’s national CCTV channel during the 1980s and 1990s. However, instead of delivering news, she was instructed by the artist to impassively read, for almost ten minutes, all the dictionary entries that begin with the character shui (water). The neutrality of her facial expression and of her tone addressing directly at the camera with an impeccable professionalism, stand out against the plain blue backdrop, commonly used by this widely viewed media outlet. Water is the first audiovisual work where Zhang Peili uses the language of mass media to convey his artistic intentions.
Two earlier single-channel videos precede Water. In 30 x 30 (1988), considered as one of the first artist-produced videos in China, we see the hands of Zhang Peili dropping a mirror, then patiently reassembling the shattered fragments back together before breaking it again. Document on Hygiene n°3 (1991) once more shows his hands in close-up, this time washing a chicken in a basin for nearly 25 minutes, in echo with nationwide hygiene campaigns. These are authentic performances, akin to that of the journalist Xing Zhibing, which occupy the image’s time and comment on the attention demanded by the media on a national scale. Water, similarly, flows irrepressibly. In the wake of events in Beijing in the year of 1989, which went unmentioned on national television, water symbolizes an energy that continues to circulate regardless of obstacles. Since the 1990s, Zhang Peili creates numerous sound and video installations. He also pursued the ethos of his pictorial work where the rigor of pure flat colors welcomes ambivalent icons of athletes and military devices. His perspective on contemporary society remains at distance from the spectacular, constructing a fertile detachment imbued with subtle critical thoughts.
Marcella Lista, June 2024
Translation : Amy Wang