ZHONG Q​i

artist statement

b.1981, Shanghai, China.
 

Rivers and water flows - as pivotal visual vehicles and conceptual substrates in my artistic practice. The fluidity of water serves as a phenomenological interface for my ontological inquiries into spiritual dimensions.

In 2018, I directed my gaze towards the Yangtze River, China's longest watercourse, consciously transcending mere documentation of its topographical archive. This evolved into a psychogeographic narrative that interrogates the human emotional cosmos through an Eastern philosophical lens, articulating the existential faith of seeking self-redemption within chaos. Within this framework, the river's liquid dynamics assume polyphonic roles: as narrative protagonist, mnemonic repository, and ceremonial space. In 2023, “Theater of the Yangtze River™” was accomplished.

During the concluding phase of "Theater of the Yangtze River™", my sustained contemplation of the river's ceaseless flow catalyzed the conceptualization of a subsequent series - "Flow". This body of work constitutes a philosophical pivot from macrocosmic narratives to microscopic examinations of impermanence (Wú Cháng), articulated through water's metamorphic essence. Through topological observation of aqueous phenomena, the series manifests the dialectic between ephemerality and perpetuity inherent in fluid systems, probing the symbiotic tension between being and dissolution to awaken consciousness of the eternal present.

To my artistic consciousness, creation represents an alchemical transmutation of lived experience - a perceptual apparatus for distilling and articulating the ontology of existence.