Tianzhuo Chen
Born in 1985, Tianzhuo Chen is currently living and working in Beijing, China. After graduating from Central St. Martins College of Art and Design in London, he received his Masters in Fine Arts from the Chelsea College of Art and Design, London.
As a younger generation artist, Tianzhuo Chen skillfully works between the artistic disciplines of installation, performance, video, drawing on paper and photography. Many of his artworks require others’ participation or that of the audience so to take the form of a “happening”, such as an underground party, staged performance, or more conceptually, a constructed ritual site, and ultimately transforming reality into fantasy. Within his artworks, Chen mixes his well versed knowledge of elements and symbols found in religion (like Buddhism, Hinduism, Christianity, and Shamanism, etc.), subculture (like cult cultures, drag and rave, etc.), popular culture (such as cartoons, hip hop and electronic music, etc.), and dance (like Japanese Butoh and Vogueing) in order to juxtapose the atmosphere, and cause the audience/participants to transcend both superficial sates of the body and spirit. Ultimately, arriving at, what the artist himself has referred to, as a “state of madness”.
Transcending the self and triggering frenzy are the incentives that seemingly motivate Tianzhuo Chen’s artwork. Like a master alchemist, he seeks to bring out elements that already exist within the reality of contemporary society. After their distillation (or purification), he molds and sublimates them into an authentically frenzied atmosphere. The all-seeing eye, Eric Cartman, the racist from “South Park”, and dwarfs that possess elements or symbols of alienation often appear within his works. Whether a wood-carved sculpture, performance prop or video backdrop, his use of bold and gaudy colors in addition to layers of music, both interactively stimulates the senses, and completes the sublimation of his artworks.
Tianzhuo Chen’s strong artistic purpose allows him to more freely gather and utilize a diverse range of media. In addition to sculpture, video, installation and drawing, he synthesizes work by including forms of popular culture, such as clothing, music, parties and performance.
Tianzhuo Chen’s strong artistic purpose allows him to more freely gather and utilize a diverse range of media. In addition to sculpture, video, installation and drawing, he synthesizes work by including forms of popular culture, such as clothing, music, parties and performance.
Aïsha Devi
Aïsha Deviemerged in 2013 with the EP Aura 4 Everyone on her own sanctuary-label Danse Noire followed by the 12? Hakken Dub/Throat Dub in Summer 2014 alongside EPs from boundary blurring artists Vaghe Stelle and El Mahdy Jr. Danse Noire is dedicated to exploring abstracted techno/club structures, and Devi’s own music mines her Nepalese-Tibetan heritage, using her machines to transmute deep meditation. Whether they are guttural or soprano, Devi’s warped pop mantras instruct us to find the unseen through a tense, visceral musical landscape that is often gnarled and industrial as it is danceable. Her debut LP ‘Of Matter And Spirit’, a “materialisation of her initiatic journey through her spiritual and origin quests”, was released October 2015 via Houndstooth and followed by March 2016?s remix EP ft. Lakker, Throwing Shade, Killing Sound, Mind:Body:Fitness and video game by Emile Barret. Her show has since gone on to be presented all over the world including Montreal, Moscow, Mexico City, Beijing, and Tokyo.