Zhang Peili is a senior contemporary Chinese artist of strong international standing who has pioneered video installation art. Born in 1957 and now living and working in Hangzhou, Zhang Peili is a graduate of the oil painting department of the prestigious Zhejiang Academy of Fine Arts in Hangzhou (now known as the China Academy of Fine Arts). He has presented numerous solo exhibitions internationally in prestigious venues including The Museum of Modern Art, New York, in 1998 and the Art Gallery of Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand in 1997. Zhang Peili's inclusion in significant international exhibitions reflects the high standing in which his practice is held. These exhibitions include 'Shanghai Biennale 2000: Shanghai spirit', Shanghai, China in 2000; 'The 1st Fukuoka Asian Art Triennale 1999', Fukuoka, Japan; '48th Biennale di Venezia, Venice, Italy; 'Fast Forward: New Chinese Video Art', Hanart T Z Gallery, Hong Kong in 1999; 11th Biennale of Sydney, Sydney; 'Cities on the Move', Vienna, Austria and tour; 'Inside Out: New Chinese Art', New York, United States, 1998; 'Mao Goes Pop: China Post-1989', Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney and '45th Biennale di Venezia', Venice, Italy in 1993. Zhang Peili's work is held in the collections of Asia Pacific Museum, Pasadena, United States; Centre National des Arts Plastiques, France; Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France; The Museum of Modern Art, New York, United States and Fukuoka Art Museum, Fukuoka, Japan. Zhang Peili was closely involved with the 1985 New Wave Art Movement which culminated in 1989 with the pivotal 'China Avant-Garde' exhibition at the China National Gallery in Beijing. This experimental movement sought to redefine the relationship between art and reality and signalled a break by young artists from the official art education sanctioned by state run art academies that continued a tradition of Soviet Socialist Realism, romanticism and traditional- style brush and ink painting. Zhang Peili and his peers established their own networks and sought independent opportunities to exhibit and publish their work. A fascination with Western theories of modernism and post-modernism existed and many artists experimented with the languages of current international art. Before concentrating on the video medium, Zhang Peili's early works in oil painting were inspired by urban modernisation and daily life and were rendered in a cool, analytical, realist style described as 'grey humour'. An interest in communication and the nullification of language lies at the heart of one of his first video works 'Water - The Standard Version Read from the "Ci Hai" Dictionary' 1989/92. The work depicts a high profile female Chinese television newsreader (who first reported the June 4th massacre on television) repeatedly reading the entry for water from the Ci Hai dictionary (the Sea of Words) in the manner of a news broadcast. Repetition transforms meaning within the work from banality to a sustained meditation upon contemporary political reality. Throughout the 1990s Zhang Peili focussed his practice on video art earning a reputation at the end of the decade as one of China's leading and longest standing practitioners of this art form. His interest in video lies in its value as a popular tool of communication and its artistic possibilities regarding the dimensions of time, movement, sound and image. His works may be viewed as video art, installation or sculpture, for he is conscious of the location of images, and the technology that delivers them in space. A primary concern is the meaning of time. Nothing, he says, stays the same. For 'Focal Distance' 1996, he filmed an intersection in Hangzhou's central business district. The video image is reshot repeatedly from the TV monitor. On each reshooting, film definition is lost until finally image and reality are reduced to a screen of dark and light abstractions accompanied by a high pitched hum. Similarly, 'Uncertain Pleasure' 1996 utilises multiple monitors in this instance presenting close frame images of a person scratching various parts of their body. The naked body and the obsessive, continuous scratching suggest the habitual actions of animals and expose human vulnerability and bewilderment in the face of rapid technological expansion. In 'Endless dancing' 1999, developed specifically for the 'Third Asia-Pacific Triennial', Zhang Peili takes as his subject ballroom dancing. The voice of an instructor drills the filmed couples in dance techniques and proclaims the health benefits of this activity. The voiceovers are interspersed with the strident chords of Chinese military marching music. In China, ballroom dancing has become the popular form of socialising and morning exercise for the elderly. For the creation of the work, cameras were fixed at eight points in a circular configuration surrounding the amateur dancers. Couples moved in and out of the cameras' view. These images are then edited into footage of competition ballroom dancers. Zhang Peili records a range of perspectives in real time, suggesting many different realities and constant variation. In displaying the work, eight television monitors are placed in a circular configuration to simulate but invert the original filming process. The final presentation fragments the activity into infinite perspectives while offering a layered reality. The dancers, the voiced instructions and the music continue ceaselessly. 'Endless dancing' refers to the cyclic nature of things while hinting at the absurdity of these repetitive actions. This work, like others in Zhang Peili's oeuvre, offers a metaphor for contemporary society; a nervous, psychotic response to change. Essay by Rhana Devenport, Senior Project Officer, Asia-Pacific Triennial, June 2001, adapted from an essay by Claire Roberts, 'Zhang Peili: 'Endless dancing' and other works' in 'Beyond the Future: The Third Asia-Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art' exhibition catalogue, Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane, 1999, p.44.

Zhang Peili's interest in video lies in its value as a popular tool of communication and its artistic possibilities regarding the dimensions of time, movement, sound and image. His works may be viewed as video art, installation or sculpture, for he is conscious of the location of images, and the technology that delivers them in space. A primary concern is the meaning of time. Nothing, he says, stays the same. In Endless dancing, developed specifically for the 'Third Asia-Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art' (1999), Zhang Peili takes ballroom dancing as his subject. The voice of an instructor drills the filmed couples in dance techniques and proclaims the health benefits of this activity. The voiceovers are interspersed with the strident chords of Chinese military marching music. In China, ballroom dancing has become the popular form of socialising and morning exercise for the elderly. For the creation of the work, cameras were fixed at eight points in a circular configuration surrounding the amateur dancers. Couples moved in and out of the cameras' view. These images were then edited into footage of competition ballroom dancers. Zhang Peili records a range of perspectives in real time, suggesting many different realities and constant variation. In displaying the work, eight television monitors are placed in a circular configuration to simulate but invert the original filming process. The final presentation fragments the activity into infinite perspectives while offering a layered reality. The dancers, the voiced instructions and the music continue ceaselessly. Endless dancing refers to the cyclic nature of things while hinting at the absurdity of these repetitive actions. This work, like others in Zhang Peili's oeuvre, offers a metaphor for contemporary society: a nervous, psychotic response to change.

Essay adapted from Roberts, Claire. 'Zhang Peili: "Endless dancing" and other works' in Beyond the Future: The Third Asia-Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art [exhibition catalogue], Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane, 1999, p.44.