Zhou Yan Contemporary Chinese Art Archive 周彦当代中国艺术档案
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Date
1995
Format
Photograph
Group/Movement
East Village Beijing
Description
The artist created this work after moving in with the East Village art group into the run-down suburban area outside of Beijing. Growing up in the area, the art had been hospitalized for three years of his life. This performance involved laying out 1500 plaster cast masks of his face. Variations in expression were recorded for 70-80 days in plaster to represent the different selves over two months. He had asked a nurse to inject him with syringes and then immediately placed his face in plaster to preserve his reaction to the pain. During the performance, he had invited participants to walk over the masks and purposefully break them. In this photograph taken for his "Virus" series, Cang can be seen lying naked over the broken pieces of plaster. The artist has described this performance piece as such: "the direction of this work is to treat yourself symbolically for the limitations of the body and the disability of the mind." (Source: https://cangxinart.com/work/performance-art/trampling-faces.html). (Nicole Wang '26)
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