03/12/2006 - Artist Talk: Yang Zhenzhong

• Types of medium used for his artworks: Sound, installation, dynamic sculpture, photography and video


• “Often try to use different material for my works” said Yang

Light and Easy, 2003 (also known as Light as Fuck II)

Available in both photograph and video (so as to try different medium)

• Yang feels that video and photographs are mediums that ‘trick people’s eye’ so he wants to play with it and see how it works

In Light and Easy series, he did about 20+ photos

• The person in each photo does something that is impossible in life – balance large upturned objects with their middle finger


• “It is a game to me” said Yang Zhenzhong

After so many years, he found out that this new game – digitally re-touched photo and video – is more popular now as more artists are using it now

922 Grains of Rice, 2000

This is how it looks like on the screen.


This is how it looks like in the gallery.

(click here for the link to additional information on this piece of work)

• Starts with simple idea – want to see how much rich grain he has in his palm


• Male voice for the cockerel and female voice for the hen


• Don’t sound like they are eating the rice, more like the chicken are counting the number of rice they are eating

I will die, 2000-2005 (10 different versions)

• The first version was made in chinese


• He find different people from different level of life


• Each person will say “I will die” in front of the video


• Now this work is available in French, Korea, Arab, Italy, English and Japanese


• People find it hard to say those words, esp. when camera is facing them


• They know what they are saying is true but when they say it, they try to think of what to say

Power of camera:

• when people say things in front of the camera, they tend to ACT