In the post i wrote about the 798 Arts District yesterday i was asking if anyone could help me find out the name of one of the artists whose work i saw at 798. Thanks to Rania Ho and Ramsay Stirling for telling me that the work was made by Qiu Zhijie.

Actually i’ll merely copy, paste and decorate a bit what Ramsay wrote me yesterday because doing research online is so taxing when you’re blogging from China.

The name of the art work is Slowly Approaching (2005) which consists of a video performance as well as a massive canvas painted in military camouflage with two dragon costumes “floating” in front of it. The costumes were sewn in the traditional fashion with the exception of the camouflage pattern.

The Lion Dance, a Chinese traditional dance which developed into a myth during the Tang Dynasty, is currently performed to drive off evil spirits during festivals.

The work tries to highlight the conflict between national cultures and periphery cultures, particularly visible in Chinatowns around the world (the performance took place in the Chinatown of Yokohama, Japan).

Images Long March Space and Auckland Art Gallery.