About the Artist:

Zhao Yao was amongst the emerging artists featured in Taikang Space’s 51m2 series that stretched from early 2009 to the beginning of this year; one suspects he will not be the only one to have a solo exhibition this or next year partly as a result. The pieces that occupied a single room at Taikang Space – the graphite-obscured bank notes, coins rubbed smooth, a chat-room-charted version of Beijing time, a long length of material inscribed with a series of numbers – do not reappear here. What does reappear is a strange sculpture effectively composed of a dark green line – with a black sludgy substance sticking to its length in places – that is bent and curved into a strange 3-D form; big but weightless, twisted and somewhat dark but somehow dynamic, not ugly. Attendant to this odd conceptual beast is a Chinese character pasted in a line along the floor and round the walls at floor level, swelling big and small in a wavelike fashion, the sound of which when read aloud is an endless ‘aaaa’. It is at first a perplexing and fun discovery to make.

Simply described, Zhao Yao’s current exhibition at Beijing commune brings together a number of individual works that seem to sit oddly – and enjoyably – together because they appear at once corresponding and juxtaposed. The individual pieces are arranged on a dark floor in the white gallery space: the aforementioned line-sculpture, figurative objects with exploding, zigzagged-line edges, other objects with coloured wooden bases reminiscent of a pop-art POW! shape, found material collages, and a ‘video’ work composed of television sets placed opposite each other at a distance; periodically, block colour flashes across their screens along with a loud clicking sound, like a human tongue mimicking the plop of water. The TVs appear to communicate with these intermittent clicks that at first take the visitor by surprise – a Dada-esque diction arising when it chooses in the otherwise quiet space.

The exhibition text traces a careful path. It implies in none-too opaque terms the difficulty in presenting a new form or idea of art to a waiting audience that has already seen so many ideas, so many works. ‘Has ‘interpretation’ become a barrier to interaction with art?’ it asks. Interaction or encounter, rather than layered ‘interpretation’, seems to be foregrounded in this show, not least because coming upon these works as a group is actually rather amusing or light hearted, and certainly very compelling. It is as if Zhao has grouped together several carefully-enacted references to conceptual art history: superficially enjoyable as objects and with a finely-tuned aura that stops them being trivial, these pieces voice an engaging simplicity. To say that they appear to lack depth feels less like a criticism than something quite refreshing. This is an exhibition to visit more than once.

- Iona Whittaker

1981
Born in Luzhou, Sichuan Province, China
2004
Graduated from the Design Arts Department of Sichuan Fine Arts Institute
Now lives and works in Beijing

Solo Exhibitions

2011
“Zhao Yao: I am Your Night”, Beijing Commune, Beijing, China
2010
“51m2: 3# ZhaoYao”, Taikang Space, Beijing, China

Group Exhibitions

2011
“The Knife's Edge”, Fremantle Arts Centre, Fremantle, Australia
“51 m2: 16 Young Artists” , Taikang Space, Beijing, China
2010
“Seven Young Artists”, Beijing Commune, Beijing, China
“No Soul for Sale”, Tate Modern Museum, London, UK
“Move on Asia 2010”, Alternative Space LOOP, Seoul, Korea; Para / Site Art Space, Hong Kong, China;
“DISCOVERIES: Re-value”, Shanghai Contemporary Art Fair, Shanghai Exhibition Center, Shanghai, China
“ReFlection of Minds-MoCA Shanghai Envisage III”, Museum Of Contemporary Art, Shanghai, China
“Negotiations: The Second Taday's Documents”, Today Art Museum, Beijing, China
“2010 Get It Louder: Sharism”, Sanlitun SOHO, Beijing, China
“Media Landscape-Zone East”, Korean Cultural Centre, London, UK
“Conception as Enzyme”, A4 Contemporary Arts Center, Chengdu, China
2009
“Poetic-Daily: Chinese Young Artist Exhibition ”, the thematic project "Art Unforbidden" of Art Beijing 2009,
Beijing, China
“Bourgeoisied Proletariat”, Small Production, Shanghai Songjiang Creative Studio, Shanghai, China
“Re-experimentation: a Rearmation of Will and Enlightenment"-Young Artists Promotional Exhibition, Beijing,
China
“Work in Progress: How Do Artists Work”, Iberia Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing, China
2008
“The 5th Small Productions Event”, Shopping Gallery, Shanghai, China
“Hui Hua Fei Fa Hui Art Exhibition”, Shanghai, China
“Happy Collider” Art Exhibition, Dong Ba County, Beijing, China
“Dream & Reality” Art Exhibition, Moon River Museum of Contemporary Art, Beijing, China
2007
“The Alchemy of Shadows: the Second Lianzhou International Photo Festival (LIPF) 2007”, Lianzhou, Guangdong,
China
2006
“Entry Gate: Chinese Aesthetics of Heterogeneity”, Museum of Contemporary Art, Shanghai, China
“Six Photos and a Small Room”, Long March Space, Beijing, China
2005
“Rumor Decor, Video & Photograph Exhibition”, DDM Warehouse, Shanghai, China
"Spectacle: 'Century' and 'Paradise'-the Second Chengdu Biennale",Chengdu Century City, Chengdu, China
"Archaeology of the Future, the Second Triennial of Chinese Art", Nanjing Museum, Nanjing, China
2004
“A Plan about Two Cities, Art Exhibition”, Chongqing / Hong Kong, China
2003
“Suspense: Video & Photograph Exhibition”, Chongqing, China