Trip to Yangjiang

3 hours away from Guangzhou by bus, in a small seaside town (at least for Chinese conditions), Zheng Guogu is living and working. The artist graduated from the Printmaking Department of the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Art in 1992 and invited us to visit his hometown Yangjiang.
Today Zheng Guogu is one of China’s most respected contemporary artists. His work has been shown at many international exhibitions in recent years. In 2006 he received the Chinese Contemporary Art Award (CCAA), the most important art prize in China. Since the mid-1990s the artist has been known for his experimental photography, scrolls, large installations and public projects. Zheng Guogu is a representative of a very individualized, unconventional subculture and he is difficult to be categorized: artist, interior designer or architect? He uses all kinds of media - photography, painting, performance, video, sculpture and installation - in his works. The concept of his work also goes to very wide range and covers f.e. artist's identity, consumption culture, history, urbanization development and the global art market; during the last decade he has been inspired by the rapid shifts and the socio-economic transformations taking place in China.
Many of his art projects emerge from his local and personal environment. Zheng Guogu and his friends are purposefully reconstructing residential space in Yangjiang:
1. My home is your gallery
The artist’s home is crossing boundaries between art and life. Zheng Guogu bought three apartments in the constant three floors, then demolished all the floors and built another architecture inside of these apartments: "It is architecture which grew up from inside of the building", Zheng Guogu said. There is also mini garden with fish pond, trees and a waterfall inside of the architecture. Ultimately the whole space is an integrated piece of work by Zheng Guogu.
2. Studio
Secondly, Zheng Guogu showed us the studio of the Yanjiang Calligraphy Group, which he joins. The group tests the boundaries of calligraphy in a contemporary context, often extracting the characters from their traditional setting and turning them into sculptural objects. With calligraphy as the point of departure, the members of Yangjiang Group (Zheng Guogu, Chen Zaiyan and Sun Qinglin) also work with performance, installation, video and photography.
3. Empire
Last but not least Zheng Guogu presented “his empire” – a huge area near the city, it’s architecture inspired by a computer game.
(Claudia Elm)