China in Four Seasons: Zhang Peili

Zhang Peili has played a critical role at the threshold of experimental media arts in China since the 1980s. This exhibition marks the first significant presentation in New Zealand of his work.

Pivotal in the exhibition is the five-channel work 'A Gust of Wind' 2008 which offers a breathtaking cinematic parable on urban development and architectural efforts in the face of unstoppable and inevitable velocities of change.

Zhang Peili’s video works offers wry social critique and suggest political contexts against a backdrop of collective memory, personal experience and states of mind. Impermanence, discontinuity, uncertainty and unexpected forces inform the artist’s ongoing investigations. The exhibition spans the diversity of the artist’s approach to making video.

This is the third project in the Govett-Brewster’s year long series of solo exhibitions exploring the breadth, power and specificity of art from the world’s most populous country. The other artists involved are Jin Jiangbo, Guo Fengyi and Song Dong and Yin Xiuzhen.

Curated by Gallery Director Rhana Devenport.

Image: Zhang Peili 'A Gust of Wind' 2008 (video still, detail)