Cao Zhen caozhen0806@126.com DAZZLING photographic works, installations, videos and sculptures created by Chinese contemporary artist Jiang Zhi are on display at OCAT Shenzhen. Jiang’s photography series “Elegy” and “Love Letters” show the powerful sensory experience of light and fire. In the artist’s “Elegy” series, bright lights are cast on human bodies against a dark background, creating a glorious visual effect. But as viewers step closer to the works, they find that the light is in reality nylon fishing hooks piercing the skin of the bodies. Jiang said that in art history, light is a positive symbol and often a metaphor for divinity and power. But now he wants to signify an “overexposure” of personal space in an information-driven world through his works, so he uses blazing hooks penetrating human bodies as light penetrating our personal space. These hooks towing and pulling the skin and causing visible pain are Jiang’s unique expression of light’s symbolism. Jiang’s “light writing” frequently appears in his other works, such as the neon light in the photographic work “Neon” (2005) and the flashlight in the installation “The God of the Small Things” (2011). In his photography series “Love Letters,” Jiang tells passionate and dramatic visual stories of love through the pyrotechnic feats displayed on flora. Using alcohol as a flammable agent, he sets various types of flowers and blossoms on fire and photographs them as they burn. He captures the moments of life that emerges both from the flowers as well as the lively flames of the fire. Though eventually the flowers will be consumed by the force of the flames and turned to ashes, Jiang considers the process to not be destructive but, rather, a kind of transformation of beauty. He said, “The fire is as beautiful as the flower but of course, this is only temporal beauty. All things are temporal and transient. Beautiful things and objects themselves will ultimately disappear, but the beauty itself will live on, as well as love. Perhaps this is what I am trying to express.” Having graduated from the China Academy of Fine Arts in Hangzhou, Jiang’s artistic practice ranges widely from oil painting, videography, installation art, sculpture and photography. He is generally considered one of China’s most diverse and avant-garde artists of his age. He worked as a photographic journalist in Shenzhen in the early 2000s. From 1999 to 2005, he documented ordinary Shenzhen people’s lives and now showcases them through his multi-screen video installation “The Moments” at the exhibition. Dates: Until March 26 Hours: 10 a.m.-5:30 p.m., closed Mondays Venue: OCAT Shenzhen, South Area, OCT-LOFT, Nanshan District (南山区华侨城创意文化园南区OCAT深圳馆) Metro: Line 1, Qiaocheng East Station (侨城东站), Exit A | 