He Yunchang, Mahjong
Washington Square Park
November 9, 4-7 pm
Presented by Chambers Fine Art for PERFORMA07, the second visual art performance biennial (October 27- November 20, 2007)

Project Description:
Beijing based artist He Yun Chang is arguably the leading performance artist presently working in China. Over the last eleven years he has created a series of unique and discrete solo performances in which he has placed exceptional physical demands upon himself both in terms of his strength and endurance. For PERFORMA07, He Yunchang will make a set of mahjong tiles out of hollow cement bricks at Washington Square Park and will play this ancient but common Chinese game for 3 hours with various people on site. The familiar game’s rules do not seem to change, but each round will have a different outcome influenced by changing desires.

Artist Bio:
Born in Yunnan, China in 1967. Graduated from Art Institute of Yunnan in 1991. Currently lives and works in Beijing. As a performance artist, He Yunchang has subjected his own body to tests of extreme endurance which are documented in photographs. On March 24, 2001, he wrestled with 100 people, one after another, winning 18 matches and losing 82. Further tests of physical endurance include exposing himself to water-cannons for 30 minutes on March 31, 2001 and casting himself inside a concrete block. His work was included in the notorious exhibition Fuck Off held at the Eastlink Gallery, Shanghai in 2000. Most recently, Tate Liverpool commissioned He Yunchang to do a performance in England in 2006. He will have a solo show with Chambers Fine Art in November 2007 and participating in Performa, NY 2007.

Qiu Zhijie, Slowly Approaching
Chinatown
November 10, 12.00 – 14.00 pm
Co-presented by PERFORMA and Long March as part of PERFORMA07, co- produced by Chambers Fine Art

Work description:
For PERFORMA07, artist Qiu Zhijie will present a performance to socially engage with the New York audience. A 10 member ceremonial dragon dance team wearing a costume made from camouflage will march from Columbus Park at Mullberry Street to Chinatown, and back.  

In Chinese tradition, the dragon is viewed as the god of wind and rain - dragon dances were held in the early spring to invite the rains, functioning as a way of bringing prosperity and good harvest. It is only during the Ming Dynasty that the dragon would become to be a symbol of Imperial power; however, still retaining its meaning as a symbol of peace and harmony. Through the artifice of camouflage (a seemingly militaristic motif), the artist investigates the game of hiding and transformation of culture and identity. How much is the disguise of subjectivity based upon a mutual deception? How are these facades interpreted, (mis)read, acted upon and reified into facts?

For the 2005 Yokohama Triennial, the artist conducted a lion dance on the streets of the Yokohama Chinatown. As a symbol of aggression and celebration, the lion dance provocatively unfolded the history of Japanese imperialism in the Pacific Region. The dragon dance in New York will engage with the unique multi-cultural framework of United States’ social policy, examining its limitations at the same time acknowledging the peaceful avenues for which to arrive at cultural dialogue.

The work encourages many people coming together to watch a dynamic performance and will create an enjoyable and festive atmosphere. It uses a happy and optimistic action familiar to all Chinese people to turn the PERFORMA07 into a true festival.

Artist Bio:
Qiu Zhijie is an artist, curator, writer and teacher whose experimental projects since the mid-1990s incorporate varied media in a visual challenge of authority and presumed social understanding. He was one of the first to engage new media activity in China, co-curating the influential exhibition ‘Post Sensibility: Alien Bodies and Delusion’ in Beijing, in 1999. Qiu Zhijie is currently Professor, Total Art Studio, China Academy of Art, Hangzhou, where he established a course focused on cultural research and concept-based practice through artistic creation, curation and teaching. Major group exhibitions include: ‘The Real Thing: Contemporary Art from China’, Tate Liverpool, UK; 2nd Yokohama Triennale, Japan; 5th Shanghai Biennale, China; and ‘Transience: Chinese Experimental Art at the End of Twentieth Century’, Smart Museum of Art, USA.