Zhang Deli

Zhang Deli () is a [Shanghai]-based artist born in Zhengzhou, Henan province in 1979. Her work in new media has been exhibited around China, especially in Beijing and Shanghai, as well as in Hong Kong and Brussels. She plays a key role in the art collective Liu Dao of the island6 Arts Center, a not-for-profit, artist-run collective of visual artists, photographers, graphic designers, filmmakers, electronic engineers, dancers and choreographers based in Shanghai.

Background

Zhang has a background in fine arts studies and her primary interest is in the field of photography, particularly in alternative photographic tools, which she has extensively researched. She also works with old photographs, giving them a new lease of life through reanimation and the application of 3D techniques.

Her artworks bring together the fields of photography and fine arts. She is deeply influenced by feminist issues and she draws inspiration from feminist artists like Barbara Kruger. She has traveled extensively in India and participated in various arts festivals like the Kala Ghoda Arts Festival in South Mumbai, India, a celebration of dance, drama, literature, film and street art. These experiences have shaped her artistic direction and exploration of gender issues in her work.

Liu Dao

Zhang joined the Liu Dao art collective at island6 in 2007 and has been an integral pillar of the collective ever since, exhibiting in a series of tightly curated shows. She works closely with artists and engineers of various backgrounds, assimilating their talents and skills to create collaborative artwork. Zhang’s work in Liu Dao fuses natural and digital forms and marries the two seemingly disparate concepts of tradition and modernity. The multidisciplinary approach of Zhang and the collective produce innovative and exciting artworks.

These artworks afford us an intimate glimpse into a spectrum of emotions, problems and patterns in the interactions between men and women. At the same time, the collaborative effort both represents a harmonization as well as a variety of current artistic statements.

Themes

Preservation

Zhang uses different electronic tools and 3D techniques to bring back to life old negatives which she located from different regions around China. She animates still photography and infuses modern elements such as white light holograms into old photographs. Her techniques simultaneously preserve the traditional and the historical while renewing and reinterpreting the past and our perspectives of it.

Renewal

One of her projects, "Where the Beauty Stays" (美-丽), is a series of ten photographic artworks created with a pinhole camera with which she captured a series of old women in their underwear. It is an intimate, tender exploration of emotions in which the process of creation and the sentimental impetus driving it both surprises as well as intrigues the audience. The juxtaposition of tradition with technology creates an elegant and complex sensory environment that audiences can be immersed in.

Exhibitions and Honors

Zhang and Liu Dao's first group exhibition was held within the 2007 Shanghai eArts festival. With Liu Dao in 2009, Zhang was collected by White Rabbit Gallery in Sydney, Australia, and in May 2010, Zhang was chosen by Red Gate Gallery to be represented at the Hong Kong Art Fair.

Exhibitions

External links

• Zhang Deli.com : Artist’s Web Site
• Saatchi Gallery : Tree of Wishes
• Zhang Deli : ArtSlant
• Zhang Deli : One Art World

See also

• island6, art space that founded and sponsors the Liu Dao's collective.
• New media art
• interactive art
• video art
• Electronic art
• Digital art
• LED art