30 x 30

Considered the father of video art in China Zhang Peili has been producing incisive internationally acclaimed works since the 1980s building a career that ushered in and encompasses the entire history of Chinese video art Keenly critical of his countrys authoritarian leadership he sees his work as a form of protest revealing the forces shaping Chinese society and the lives of its citizens Inspired by the endurancetesting videos of artists like Andy Warhol and Bruce Nauman Zhang uses mundane repetitive actions and scenes to demonstrate the absurdity and destructiveness of ritualized behavior and social norms 30 x 30 1988 his first video work is an intentionally excruciating threehour loop of a pair of gloved hands shattering a mirror then piecing it back togetheran acerbic critique of the rage for watching television yet another form of thoughtcontrol in China