In the staged, digitally altered photographs presented in this volume, Chinese artist Chi Peng (born 1981) casts himself in a range of daring roles, fleeing an airplane attack nude or flying over the horizon with dragonfly wings. Feelings of childhood isolation are transformed into imaginative, sometimes harrowing adult play (a gesture the artist attributes to China's one-child policy).
"When I first met Chi Peng, he was a junior at the Central Academy of Fine Arts. I recall that what struck me most deeply when looking at his work was the fact that he had printed up his own photographs into a catalogue, making the refined and comprehensible. His creation painstakingly represented his own situation vis-ŕ-vis homosexuality. He had already departed from the naďve limitation of art interfering with life and was leaning toward the creation of an individualized space of discourse. For me, having seen too much politicized, ideological art, how work had a sense of fashion and freshness. By 'fashion' I do not mean that his work simply went along with conventional popular culture, but am referring to his use of mixed technologies, aesthetics, self-adoration, self-confidence, and imagination of the future. At the same time, Chi Peng's artworks and actions provide an obvious indication that society and culture had begun to be built on the basis of the market, accompanied by trends toward consumer culture."
Feng Boyi, excerpted from Which Heaven of the Other Realm? in Me, Myself, and I.
FORMAT: Hbk, 11.5 x 9.75 in. / 152 pgs / 65 color. LIST PRICE: U.S. $55.00 LIST PRICE: CANADA $65 ISBN: 9783775731324 PUBLISHER: Hatje Cantz AVAILABLE: 9/30/2011 DISTRIBUTION: D.A.P. RETAILER DISC: TRADE PUBLISHING STATUS: Out of print AVAILABILITY: Not available TERRITORY: NA LA
Published by Hatje Cantz. Text by Feng Boyi, Richard Vine, Ai Weiwei.
In the staged, digitally altered photographs presented in this volume, Chinese artist Chi Peng (born 1981) casts himself in a range of daring roles, fleeing an airplane attack nude or flying over the horizon with dragonfly wings. Feelings of childhood isolation are transformed into imaginative, sometimes harrowing adult play (a gesture the artist attributes to China's one-child policy).
