on Qiu Zhijie

Qiu Zhijie was born in Zhangzhou in1969, Fujian Province, China. In
2992 he graduated from the Printmaking Department, Zhejiang Academy of
Fine Arts (now China Academy of Art, CAA), Hangzhou. He now lives in
Beijing and Hangzhou and holds two major titles: Associate Professor,
Mixed Medial Art Department, CAA, and Co-Director, Visual Culture
Center, CAA. In his autography, Qiu says that he has been learning
traditional Chinese calligraphy and extensively reading Chinese
history and culture since his childhood. He is a student of Zheng
Yushui in engraving. During his study at CAA, he was influenced by the
New Waves and Joseph Beuys, a German contemporary artist. He got to
know contemporary art and was determined to pursue his career in this
field. Qiu's works range from calligraphy (Writing Lanting A Thousand
Times, 1992), painting (A Suicidology of the Nanjing Yangtze River
Bridge - copperplate: Under the Heaven,) video (Asian Parallel
Times,), internet/interactive art, video installation and sound
installation, etc. In addition, according to his students, Qiu is a
very interesting teacher. In his first class, he usually asks students
to play a "dancing game", in which students are asked to introduce
themselves using their body and dance moves.

Writing Lanting A Thousand Times,1992

Born in Shanghai in 1963, Shi Yong is interested in exploring the
interaction among consumerism, daily life and cultural industry. He
graduated from the art department at Shanghai College of Light
Industry. His wildly known works are "the New Image of Shanghai, 1997"
and "Made in China.1999." which are both interactive art. The images
chosen were based on a poll on the internet. Netizens were asked how
should an ideal citizen look like, and this sculpture is the answer.

The New Image of Shanghai.1997

Interestingly enough, Qiu Zhijie has highly spoken of Shi Yong's work.
To me they are like the representative of China's traditional art and
modern art, which is certainly converging at an accelerating pace.

http://qiuzhijie.com/e-works.htm

http://www.artnow.com.cn/Discuss/Special/SpecialArticle.aspx?c=741&ArticleID=22791