NI HAIFENG

Ni Haifeng’s practice draws from an interest in cultural systems of exchange, return, language and production. Through photography, video and installation he explores the simultaneous creation and obliteration of meaning while drawing attention to the cyclical movements of people, products and goods that are often reflective of patterns of colonialism and globalization.

After graduating from the Zhejiang Academy of Fine Art in 1986, Ni joined RED 70%, BLACK 25%, WHITE 5%, a group of artists working with conceptual art and nonsense text. These early works focused on acts of writing, re-appropriations and deconstructed forms of language. Since the mid 1990s, after emigrating to Europe, his work has acquired additional layers referring to his new identity as a Chinese immigrant, and to issues of (post)colonialism and ‘otherness’. Ni created a series of installations that featured objects and tableaux suspended from knotted ropes. Precariousness and instability are dominant factors in these works, as is the persistent sense of weight, balance and feeling of danger elicited in the viewer. In recent years, overt and covert references to manufacturing and production have formed recurring themes within Ni’s artistic practice.