「Look at the Picture and Talk about the Painting」Zhang Peili: The Other Side of “Gloves”

Perhaps you first came to know Zhang Peili through those highly sensory-challenging installation artworks. However, his “X?” series has broken through the inherent constraints of the art viewing relationship with a “counter-impact” kind of coldness.

In Zhang Peili’s view, the breakthrough point of art is not the superficial excitement of form innovation or public participation, but rather breaking the “lax and relaxed viewing habit” of the audience. In the “X?” series, he uses medical latex gloves as a symbol, with repetitive compositions and neutral tones, to strip away the “viewing nature” of the paintings. Moreover, through those seemingly meaningless creations and viewing rules, he forces the audience to shift from “entertainment-based viewing” to “immersive confrontation”, as if using a rational blunt instrument to strike at the audience’s cognitive inertia towards art, compelling them to confront their own appropriation and misinterpretation of the works.

This reconfiguration of the “viewing and being viewed” relationship goes far beyond the modernist critique of language itself, directly addressing the deep tensions between artists, works, and the art system. It is not only a sharp extension of the “85 New Wave” art proposition, but also sows the seeds of the “oppressive expression” in subsequent performance art and video creation.

His artistic experiments are more like a mirror, reflecting the inertia of numbness that contemporary people have in cultural consumption, and also making art a powerful tool for awakening self-awareness.

The tea for today is all gone. Next time, I’ll brew a fresh pot and enjoy art with you again.