By SAMANTHA CULP

This month, the international art crowds descended upon Shanghai for SHContemporary 09, the third edition of the city’s art fair. But the best parts of any art fair are usually the satellite events surrounding it, and Shanghai’s visitors had plenty to choose from this year. Word quickly spread that one of the not-to-miss highlights was “Attitude,” Osage Gallery’s solo show by Jiang Zhi, which features three brand-new works by the often provocative artist.

Like many Chinese artists of his generation, Jiang is known for his being somewhat of a renaissance man, and his pieces have appeared equally in art festivals like the Venice Biennale, and film festivals from Hong Kong to Torino. Born in 1971 in Hunan Province, he was based in Shenzhen for several years as he began creating distinctive works across photography, video, and installation. For his landmark quasi-documentary “The Moments,” he carried a hand-held DV camera around Shenzhen every single day from 2000-2003 to capture random snippets of city-life: an old man cursing at traffic, two kids learning how to kiss. In the controversial video and photographs of “Our Love,” he profiled the morphing bodies of two individuals: a female ballerina battling breast cancer, and a male nightclub dancer undergoing gender transformation. His more recent photographs and videos have become less raw, more polished, but his basic concerns remain the same – unflinching observations of a changing society, via the microcosm of human emotions, expressions, and bodies.

In “Attitude,” he deeply investigates artifice and reality in how we perform our emotions. “Maiden, All Too Maiden!” is an installation of 100 photographs, all of young women posing against pink backdrops with an expression of “coyness.” The total effect is disturbing rather than charming, suggesting how even this cute and innocent look is a mask we can never see beneath. Upstairs in the 7-channel video loop of “Tremble,” a diverse line-up of naked individuals stand upon vibrating platforms, their flesh shaking at a high frequency as they attempt to hold a rigid pose – simultaneously vulnerable and fierce. But the most striking attempt to peel back these layers of perception and reality is perhaps “0.7% Salt.”

Presented in an intimate alcove at the very top of Osage’s beautiful 1920s villa, this single-channel video shows a beautiful young woman staring straight into the camera, her face gradually shifting from a shy smile to controlled tears. The fact that the woman is Hong Kong starlet Gillian Chung is an extra surprise, and makes the cinematic nature of her crying more beguiling. Though the tears are staged, they’re very much real – the “0.7% salt” solution rolling down her cheeks remains the same, regardless of her “true” emotions. Jiang suggests that in a media-saturated world, perhaps the artificial surface is all we can trust.

Jiang Zhi, “Attitude,” in Shanghai Sep 08-Nov 08, 2009, travelling to Hong Kong December 2009 and will finally hit Beijing April 2010

Osage Gallery Shanghai
93 Duolun Road, Hongkou District
Shanghai, China 200081
Tel: +86 21 5671 3605
www.osagegallery.com

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