We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Zhang Daiqing a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Zhang , thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

Very often, my site-sensitive work is merged into the built-in structure of an architectural space. Therefore, by having participants spotting phenomena/artworks in unexpected places, the usual way of encountering an acquainted environment is interrupted. Though it is nice showing works in white cube galleries, where the minimalist environment holds a quite and serious atmosphere for the art, I am also hoping that I can work with sites that has characters. Responding to these unusual venue can only bring fun challenges to my practice, but will also open up more potential ways for the viewers to interact with and interpret the work.

Last spring, my friends Alex, Kai and I had this amazing opportunity to do a show at Ladd Observatory in Providence, RI, which we also refer to as a “site intervention”. With overlapping interests in optics, the cosmos, and apparatuses of visuality, we responded to the enduring and historical mechanisms, technologies and imagery that characterize the site. For example, one of my works, the Moon Vessel, was displayed next to the models of celestial globes. The vessel is lit by a slowly orbiting light. In the front, on the frosty surface, a subtle moonlike pattern is formed. The imagery is cast by encased air bubbles on the back side of the vessel. Since the imagery shifts on a barely noticeable speed, it took many viewers multiple takes to finally realize that the “moon” is phasing.

Zhang, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

For the last year and a half I have been seeking seemingly impossible phenomena within the forgotten recesses of the everyday. In my work, I create situations where viewers are invited to encounter and activate phenomena in both physical and mental space. My goal is to attune my viewers’ attention to the inconspicuous, causing them to shift the understanding of their perceptions from the ordinary to the extraordinary. In my work, one “sees” the cosmos within a speck of dust; constellations are formed with a clear glass orb; the surroundings compressed within a lens of air. My preoccupation with the ways materials can become thresholds to grander realities has only grown with time. Treasuring phenomenon as the evidence of the unfolding world, I recreate/stage moments of serendipity from everyday life in space with hot glass.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

I think one of the most rewarding things I could possibly experience as an artist would be seeing people getting and enjoying my work.

I like anonymously observing how people interact with my work. Not knowing the presence of the maker, their responses are instinctive and real. This makes it the best opportunity to know if my intention has been conveyed successfully.

In the Sol Koffler version of the About Dust series. I inserted a piece, The Corner, into one of the gallery’s corners. A glimmer of light from the top illuminated the veil of dust captured inside that blob of glass. At the opening, I saw people crouching down, trying to look at the shine closer. Kids lay on their stomachs and studied this unusual thing. They whispered to their parents, wanting to touch the mass and figure out how the veil of particles was suspended in the air. I find these interactions very beautiful and moving. They are the reminder of how a work can only be considered complete once it has been experienced.

Are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

I guess I wish I could have learn more about how people sustain their practices. I am still figuring these things out. How to make a living; how to balance feeding oneself and making works; what are the ways too get your work know and how much they might cost, etc. These questions are super realistic and important, especially for young artists, yet they are barely talked about. To me, I don’t think talking and sharing information in these aspects will take down the glamours cover of the art world. On the contrary, I think it is only healthy to discuss and share related experiences and knowledge so we can keep the community energetic and creative by giving everyone the support system they can rely on.

Contact Info:

• Website: zhangdaiqing.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/zhang_daiqing?igsh=OGQ5ZDc2ODk2ZA%3D%3D&utm_source=qr

Image Credits
Images credits to Yang Wei Han and Kai Wasikowski.