This UV printed photo on glass in the shape of an arch takes
its title from the name of the 8th circle of hell in Dantes ‘inferno’.
The shape and colour is a reference to religious renaissance painting. One can
see in the composition an ascension to heaven or more aptly perhaps, a fall to
hell.
This picture was taken after the performance in which Zhou
Ke, dressed as a street cleaner, brushed various body parts of several mannequins
through the streets of Beijing.
This performance titled 拆 (2012) was named after a character often seen
spray-painted on buildings destined to be torn down to make place for new
development.
In Beijing and many cities in China, new development and
real estate often trumps people and their livelihood as these people are forced
to move out in name of development.
Zhou ke, in her uniform as government-employed worked, sets about
to sweep the pieces of the mannequin, representing bodies aside and ‘clean up’ the
city. In this photo, the body parts take on a new role. As the limbs lie
scattered and intertwined in a position suggestion something in between coitus and
deformity, the work questions the
relationship between body and parts. The use of mannequin bodies as opposed to human
bodies conform to a certain lifelessness and lie limp around a broom.
The photo is digitally manipulated and printed on glass. This modern approach
to stained glass, where the arching shape resembles a church window and the
mosaic of pixels take on an architectural function both in image and as a digital
reference. The mosaic itself emphasizes the blocking out of body and nudity. Here
the body and ‘private’ parts have been left untouched and instead the
surrounding ‘public’ space has been rendered pixelated with a rough gesture. Evoking
questions about private vs public, body as a whole and body as a part of something
larger.
