Sedition, in association with the English-Chinese bilingual art magazine LEAP and iArt, China’s digital edition of The Art Newspaper, presents Déjà Vu: Chinese Artists in Moving Images, a digital collection featuring works by five young Chinese artists working with moving image: Chen Zhou, Cheng Ran, Fang Lu, Guan Xiao, and Kwan Sheung Chi.
The works share the theme of uncertainty in a contemporary globalising and increasingly digital world, specifically that of contemporary China. The synesthesia and intertextuality within them becomes recognisable and seems to equate with a larger, shared Chinese experience; as if the viewer was experiencing a déjà vu. All works involve elements of style and narrative since every artist is subjected and making use of what could be termed the readily-available, global and digital “information cloud”. And yet, individual geographic, linguistic and cultural differences lead to a combination of symbols generated from native cultural backgrounds that gives each work its distinct character. Déjà Vu: Chinese Artists in Moving Images illustrates how, as a result of the proliferation of digital media and virtual reality, our vision of the world has become more vivid and sharp. And yet, it is also more distant and ambiguous. While we witness the fractions of our lives that happen right in front us, we already see them in our mind.
