YANG ZHICHAO
b.1963 Gansu, China. Lives and works in Beijing, China. Yang is a renowned Chinese performance artist. Considered one of the most extreme performance artists in China, and perhaps globally, he uses his body as a tool to draw on social issues linking the individual with the world. Many of his performances involve painful acts such as branding and surgical processes. Personal pain has become a part of his experience and a means of communication to engage the larger world.
In his recent work Chinese Bible, Yang has focused on a new art form linking China’s past in order to understand its future. The artist spent three years collecting from second-hand shops the personal diaries of overlapping generations from China. The 3,000 notebooks inscribed with personal writings span 50 years from 1949 to1999. The writings reach deep into the very essence of feelings among the Chinese whether emotional, political or even mundane during a half-century of monumentally changing times.
Chinese Bibles, 2011
Chinese Bible
Yang+Zhichao
Chinese+Bible
2009Installation%2C+3000+found+booksdimensions+variable+%28installation%29
Chinese Bible - Drawing No. 1
Chinese Bible - Drawing No. 2
Chinese Bible - Drawing No. 3
Chinese Bible - Drawing No. 4
Chinese Bible - Drawing No. 5
Chinese Bible - Drawing No. 6
Chinese Bible - Drawing No. 7
Chinese Bible - Drawing No. 8
Chinese Bible - Drawing No. 9
Chinese Bible - Drawing No. 10
Chinese Bible - Drawing No. 11
Chinese Bible - Drawing No. 12
Chinese Bible - Drawing No. 13
Chinese Bible - Drawing No. 14
Chinese Bible - Drawing No. 15
Chinese Bible - Drawing No. 16
Chinese Bible - Drawing No. 17
Chinese Bible - Drawing No. 18
Chinese Bible - Drawing No. 19
Chinese Bible - Drawing No. 20
Chinese Bible - Drawing No. 21
Chinese Bible - Drawing No. 22
Chinese Bible - Drawing No. 23
Chinese Bible - Drawing No. 24
Chinese Bible - Drawing No. 25
Chinese Bible - Drawing No. 26
Chinese Bible - Drawing No. 27
Chinese Bible - Drawing No. 28
Chinese Bible - Drawing No. 29
Chinese Bible - Drawing No. 30
Chinese Bible - Drawing No. 31
Chinese Bible - Drawing No. 32
Chinese Bible - Drawing No. 33
Chinese Bible - Drawing No. 34
Chinese Bible - Drawing No. 35
Chinese Bible - Drawing No. 36
Chinese Bible - Drawing No. 37
Chinese Bible - Drawing No. 38
Chinese Bible - Drawing No. 39
Chinese Bible - Drawing No. 40
Making of "Chinese Bible", Hong Kong
Yang+Zhichao
Making+of+%22Chinese+Bible%22%2C+Hong+Kong
2012
Selected notebook cover in the installation, "Chinese Bible"
Yang+Zhichao
Selected+notebook+cover+in+the+installation%2C+%22Chinese+Bible%22
Selected notebook cover in the installation, "Chinese Bible"
Yang+Zhichao
Selected+notebook+cover+in+the+installation%2C+%22Chinese+Bible%22
Selected notebook, in the installation, "Chinese Bible"
Yang+Zhichao
Selected+notebook%2C+in+the+installation%2C+%22Chinese+Bible%22
Selected notebook, in the installation, "Chinese Bible"
Yang+Zhichao
Selected+notebook%2C+in+the+installation%2C+%22Chinese+Bible%22
Chinese Bible, installation view at 10 Chancery Lane Gallery, Hong Kong
Performance
Revelation No.2: Ashes
Tail
Yang+Zhichao
Tail
2003Performance+Photograph%28L%29+160+x+120+cm%3B+%28S%29+100+x+68+cm
Pub
Tao Te Ching
Planting Glass
Yang+Zhichao
Planting+Glass
2000%28L%29+108+x+160+cm%3B+%28S%29+61+x+100+cmPerformance+Photograph
Iron
Yang+Zhichao
Iron
2000Performance+Photograph%28L%29+180+x+93+cm%3B+%28S%29+100+x+51+cm