For most, the name Zhu Jia maybe doesn't ring a bell - though he was selected to attend the 50th Venice Biennale.
But it's time for the bells to start ringing. "We are Perfect," a solo exhibition of his work, is currently running at ShanghART Gallery.
Born in 1963, Zhu graduated from the China Central Academy of Fine Arts' Oil Painting Department in 1988. Now Zhu lives and works in Beijing.
The show features video works reflecting his continuous experimentation and development within this medium, including his latest three-channel video installation "We are Perfect (2008)."
In the work, close-ups of expressionless, but immaculate, faces are shown continuously, staring back at the viewer from three large screens. The projections directly create an immediate and unsettling impact and one might ask, "Who is staring at whom?"
Being confronted by the large faces, questions regarding the title itself also arise: Who is perfect? What is perfection? Is it a question of physicality, spirit, or imagination? Perhaps the artist is merely yearning for the "perfect" heroism of the past.
The latest work continues Zhu's usual style, with particular interest and focus on the interaction between the audience and the image, or the viewer and the viewed.
Date: through June 10 (closed on Monday), 1:00-6:00 pm
Address: Bldg 18, 50 Moganshan Rd, Shanghai
Tel: +86(021)6359-3923
(Shanghai Daily June 2, 2008)
