We recently connected with Ke Zhang (i Go By Kekez) and have shared our conversation below.
Ke , thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?
The most meaningful project I’ve worked on is my undergraduate thesis performance, titled How to Draw a Circle. It was a solo live performance that reflected my teenage years as a dancer, a time when I both suffered under and adhered to rigid standards of beauty and discipline. Having spent years on stage, I had grown accustomed to being watched, even to the point of self-objectification, addicted to the audience’s gaze.
In the performance, I created a spotlight in an otherwise dark environment. Under this light, I began pulling white paint from black clothes and used various parts of my body to mechanically draw circles on the black floor within the spotlight’s reach. Gradually, both my body and the floor became coated in white. The act felt ritualistic—as if it charted a journey from initial self-awareness to surrendering entirely to the gaze of the audience and the spotlight, blurring my own identity in the process. The piece explored themes of control, discipline, and the loss of “self” in the process of socialization, while also symbolizing the paradox of empowerment and constraint in female performance.
It was my first performance art piece as an artist rather than a dancer, and only the second year of my career in fine arts. Unlike the structured, choreographed nature of dance, performance art demanded I confront uncertainty—a challenge I felt deeply unprepared for at the time. I performed the piece twice. The first time was without an audience, allowing me to interact with the light and space of the dance studio freely. The second time was in front of a large audience.
That second performance was transformative. During it, I oscillated between deliberate contemplation and a desperate need for external validation, feeling my identity as a dancer pulling against my emerging identity as an artist. Midway, I unexpectedly broke down in tears. At first, I panicked—tears felt like a “stage accident” to me. But I decided to let go, abandoning my pre-planned movements to complete the performance through instinct and connection with the audience.
Afterward, many audience members, including my photographer and close friends, told me they had cried when I did. They shared how powerfully the performance resonated, particularly in conveying the struggles and contradictions of the female body. For the first time, I experienced an emotional connection with the audience that went beyond technical perfection—something I had never achieved in traditional dance.
This project marked a turning point in my creative process. It taught me to embrace uncertainty and to prioritize expression over controlling audience reactions. I stopped treating art as a way to resolve questions and instead approached it as a dialogue. Although the performance reflected my inexperience at the time, it fundamentally shifted my mindset, allowing me to embrace vulnerability and intuition in my work. It remains one of my most meaningful projects because it was a moment of personal and artistic liberation.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I am a multimedia artist currently pursuing an MFA in Visual Arts at Columbia University. At 23 years old, I am one of the youngest artists in my program, which has been both a challenge and an opportunity to bring fresh perspectives to my work. My greatest strength lies in my versatility as an artist—I have worn many hats in the creative field, including working as a fashion week photographer, short film editor, gallery assistant, and social media content marketing. My photography has been recognized with the first prize at the National College Digital Art & Design Awards.
I hold a BA in Digital Media Arts, where I cultivated a broad skill set spanning photography, videography, generative art programming, editing, design, performance, and oil painting. My background as a former dancer has been particularly influential in shaping my approach to art. Having trained in more than five dance styles since the age of six, I frequently incorporate improvisational performance into my projects. Whether as a performer or a director, I have a strong command of guiding movement and choreography, ensuring that my creative vision is effectively realized.
One of my key strengths is my ability to independently plan and execute projects, blending creativity with strong organizational skills. Thanks to my comprehensive understanding of various artistic disciplines, I excel at generating ideas from multiple perspectives. This allows me to communicate effectively with collaborators and understand how to position individuals to leverage their strengths.
Through my work, I aim to explore themes of female identity, power dynamics, and the human experience in the digital age. I want my clients, followers, and audiences to know that my art is a continuous exploration of these ideas, driven by a passion for connecting people through shared stories and emotions.
Is there mission driving your creative journey?
The driving mission behind my creative journey is to create a better environment for women through my work and to help the Western world gain a more nuanced understanding of the experiences of East Asian women. My work primarily focuses on how women are represented in digital media and video in the age of information technology.
As an East Asian woman, I deeply feel the constant gaze and objectification tied to my identity. These dynamics are often normalized in short videos and films, both in my home country and abroad. Through my dual role as a videomaker and performer, I aim to shed light on this phenomenon while also exploring how women choose to present themselves in video and how their choices are shaped by their cultural and social environments.
I am passionate about collaborating with women and gender-diverse groups from different cultural backgrounds, providing them with opportunities to express their perspectives. By blending multiple cultural narratives, I seek to explore shared challenges and use art as a medium for dialogue and connection with the world.
For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?
Becoming an artist has led me to spend more time reflecting on the often-overlooked details of everyday life and continuously re-examining my relationship with the world around me. In the early stages of my artistic practice, during the COVID lockdown in China, my movements were restricted to my residential neighborhood. Each day, I could only take walks near home with my mother. While this routine seemed monotonous at first, it gave me the opportunity to notice the unique structures of the environment I lived in and how these spaces carried hidden memories and emotions. More importantly, this period allowed me to listen to stories from my mother that she had never shared with me before, deepening my understanding of her past and emotional world.
It was against this backdrop that I created my first series of photography works. Since then, I have consciously revisited my own experiences and uncovered the overlooked highlights within what seemed like a mundane emotional journey. For example, the dance training I once took for granted has shaped my artistic perception and self-reflection, and these early memories have become an essential part of my creative process. Art has taught me to adopt a critical perspective, re-evaluating the rationality of every detail and transforming these reflections into visual narratives.
At the same time, creating art has enhanced my ability to understand both the nature of things and the psychological states of those around me. Through artistic expression, my capacity for empathy has grown. I’ve learned to observe the relationship between people and their environments from multiple angles and to explore the deeper meanings hidden beneath the surface of everyday life, particularly from emotional and cultural perspectives.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.kekezkezhang.com
- Instagram: kekezrelated
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ke-zhang-kekez1008?utm_source=share&utm_campaign=share_via&utm_content=profile&utm_medium=ios_app
