Zhang Ding's practice is mainly presented through his solo exhibitions/projects, including videos, installations, paintings and live performances, etc. Starting from Tools (2007), constructing absurd scenes full of contrasts and conflicts that focus on sensory perception and will power became his way of demonstrating and interpreting metaphors of societal references, which may also be seen as a series of deconstructed mise en scenes. The scenic displacement created a psychic displacement whereby we were confronted with our imperfect senses, our ‘fallible omniscience’.
Read MoreIn Opening (2011), live performance was brought into his project for the first time, and remained to presenting all the way to Orbit of Rock (2014). In these projects, chemical interaction generated by all the in-between stimulation transformed the sites into environmental sculpture of twisting emotion and atmosphere. From Enter the Dragon series, Zhang Ding experimented further and explored more possibilities in his work by opening up the sole artistic authorship to the public—26 musicians of various genres and styles were invited to collaborate in spinning mirror maze by making improvisation with each other at the ICA London (2015); the sensory challenges was updated over and over again by the variable space and participation of the Chinese musicians at the chi K11 Museum Shanghai (2016) then extended to the Enter The Dragon III Singapore.
In 2016, Devouring Time, Zhang Ding transformed the Rockbound Art Museum into a golden jail, and live-streamed the event of 150 VIPs having dinner party together. The same year he also initiated the art label CON TROL CLUB, which is the parties of both controllability and anti-controllability by integrating of geeks, immersive A/V installations, music etc. The debut project was activated by his sound installations and legendary musician Wang Fan at a historical ruin in Shanghai.
In 2017, ZHANG Ding was back to the gallery space for creating an immense VORTEX in the ShanghART Shanghai. In his latest solo exhibition SAFE HOUSE in 2018, he constituted a discussion which explores the core of the same concept in three differentiated dimensions and sites—the Bunker, the Wyoming Project and the KWM artcenter.
Recent exhibitions/projects include: SAFE HOUSE, ZHANG Ding Solo Exhibition, the Bunker, Wyoming Project and the KWM artcenter,(2018); VORTEX, ZHANG Ding Solo Exhibition, ShanghART, Shanghai (2017); CON TROL CLUB, Launch Project, Shanghai (2016); Devouring Time, RAM, Shanghai (2016); Enter the Dragon III, Gillman Barracks, Singapore (2016); Enter the Dragon II, chi K11 Art Museum, Shanghai (2016); Enter the Dragon, ICA London, UK (2015); Orbit of Rock, ShanghART, Beijing, China (2014); Orbit: ZHANG Ding Solo Project, The Armory Show, Focus Section, New York, U.S.A. (2014); Gold & Silver, ZHANG Ding Solo Exhibition, Galerie Krinzinger, Wien, Austria (2013); Meanwhile… Suddenly, and Then, the Biennale of Lyon, Lyon, France (2013); Perspectives 180—Unfinished Country: New Video from China, The Contemporary Art Museum in Houston, U.S.A. (2012).
Text courtesy ShanghART.
