When I recently chose to attend Zhang Peili's exhibition titled “ZHANG Peili” at the Red Brick Art Museum, my expectations were uncertain. I have a passion for art and enjoy visiting museums and galleries, but I typically prefer “traditional” mediums such as painting, drawing, and sculpture. I’ve often struggled to appreciate the more conceptual aspects of art—like a few scattered items in a room or a toilet. Honestly, I have previously viewed such works as unserious and somewhat pretentious. This perception has undoubtedly limited my willingness to engage with this type of art. However, for some reason, I decided to break free from my usual preferences and see if I could discover something meaningful in the current exhibits at Red Brick or at least understand “what the big deal” is. Having attended and allowed myself to experience the work firsthand, I am extremely glad that I did. This exhibition has shifted my perspective on conceptual art and my connection to it.
The Artist
Zhang Peili, born in 1957 in Hangzhou, has been a leading figure in contemporary Chinese art for many years. Throughout a career that spans over four decades, he has positioned himself as a pioneer in video art, being widely recognized as the first to delve into this medium in China. His work largely explores the theme of repetition, often touching upon ideas of redundancy, recursion, grids, ennui, the commonplace, and the passage of time. At the Red Brick Art Museum, Zhang Peili showcases his recent works that revolve around these themes, featuring video art, object installations, and kinetic installations.
The Work
In this solo exhibition, which is his most extensive to date, Zhang Peili furthers his investigation of repetition by utilizing the grid as a foundational concept. Here, the grid transcends being merely a visual, static form; it is expressed sonically, temporally, physically, and emotionally as well. The grid symbolizes connections between individuals, the organizing environment around them, interactions and reactions among people, and the accumulation and recurrence of individual occurrences.
The exhibition opens with Constant Rotation, installed in the museum’s first-floor sunken circular area. In this piece, as the main structure spins, the propane tanks within are violently whirled around. At intervals, a significant magnet descends from above, lifts some tanks, and drops them into the center of the spinning structure. Once the spinning ceases, the distribution of the propane tanks, influenced by the spinning's dynamics, reveals its own structure.
As visitors move through the exhibition, it becomes apparent that lighting and arrangement imbue seemingly “unremarkable” objects like semiconductor radios, propane tanks, and notable machinery with a sense of vitality, making them participants in their narratives—entities in their own right. Many of the works adopt different methods to re-contextualize the “function” of the components, encouraging the audience to form their own connections, associations, and re-associations. Some works, like Gentle Touch, create anticipatory tension through direction or patterns of movement or sound, only to subvert expectations regarding the nature of interactions between objects and the outcomes of those interactions.
As one continues through the exhibition, it becomes evident that sonic “interference” from various pieces generates a defined soundscape, contributing to the unique world in which each work resides. It would not be far-fetched to claim that the pieces, especially with the life-like impressions created by lighting and positioning, seem to dwell within the exhibition.
Sound significantly contributes to constructing the grid in particular works. In Divisible Propane Tank I and Divisible Propane Tank II, the mechanics separate and rejoin the two halves of a propane tank, where the sounds of these movements emphasize the transition from one phase of separation to the next. Moreover, the almost musical tones emitted by the machinery during its repetitive actions create anticipation and frame the audience's experience. In Word Press Machine, plates bearing Chinese phrases rotate down slowly to imprint impressions onto fine white sand. The phrases are momentarily visible before the machinery, with its anticipatory sonic qualities, disrupts and smooths the sand once more. Eventually, a new phrase is printed as the plates rotate again.
Zhang Peili is also drawn to the concept of time—the perception of time and its effects. Many exhibits, like Dragging Mode, incorporate mechanized elements moving at extremely slow speeds over extended durations that skirt the edge of monotony—another recurring interest for the artist—prompting the audience to reflect on their own experience of time. The elements create a grid that organizes and contains time, transforming the intervals between events into the essence of the piece.
Conversely, while the repetition of elements or events may accumulate significance over time, with the entire process gaining a larger overarching meaning, some works adopt an opposing approach. One Word Per Minute, for instance, disassembles a phrase into its individual components, inviting contemplation of each distinct character while creating anticipation for the next one or reflection on the preceding character.
Renowned Chinese contemporary artist Zhang Peili employs repetition and "grids" to examine and question our understandings of time, experience, and self-formation.
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