Born 1976, Changsha, China
Lives and works in Guangzhou, China

Zhou Tao's non-linear and highly poetic videos occur in fascinating settings — a crumbling village amid towering skyscrapers, lush wetlands, a public square under citizen occupation — and conflate the human and topographic, while simultaneously confusing artistic and quotidian gesture. Blue and red 2014 immerses audiences in experiences that take place in two different cities, weaving together sequences of night-time spectacles in the public spaces of Guangzhou (where Zhou lives) with footage of the 2013–14 Occupy Bangkok protests that took place while he was visiting the city. In both cities, Zhou concentrates on public spaces as collective experience, highlighting the areas and their occupants in washes of colour, particularly the electric blue of LED light, which he contrasts with the surface of a third space, the toxic red run-off of a heavy metal mine in northern Guangdong province.