TRACEOLOGY- performance & lecture by artist Zhang Qiang

The Critical Practices Research Group hosted a performance and lecture by artist Zhang Qiang (22 June 2017).

Zhang Qiang is a calligrapher and performance artist with an international reputation, having had works shown at the British Museum; City Museum of Seoul; National Museum of Melbourne; Art Commune in Hong Kong; Paris International Art City among others. He is Professor at the Sichuan Fine Arts Institute and Director of Modern Video Arts Research Centre for Chinese Calligraphy and Ink Painting. He is author of his multi-volume work ‘Zhang Qiang Artistic System’; Honor Winner of ‘Two River Scholar’, and organiser of the international conferences ‘Re-construction of Art History in the context of Globalisation’; and ‘Chinese Calligraphy in the backgrounds of Visual Arts History.

During the event Zhang Qiang provided a lecture and discussion, followed by a live performance work, during which participants were able to collaborate to produce large-format calligraphic works. A reprise of work presented at the British Museum in connection with their exhibition on the art of calligraphy in 2002, the performance and lecture drew upon a longstanding project of the artist, as represented in his book ‘Traceology’, which explores questions of cultural form and formation with aesthetic and philosophical considerations of ‘trace’, art making and visual culture.