Vivien Zhang

MA work

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Repetition, the 'excessive', and authority.
Having lived in Nairobi, Bangkok and now London, I construct self-perpetual systems in my work, within which I revisit and confront specific personal objects of significance. References are employed from the recesses of cultural history (such as African jugs made from old pirate ships that occupied my childhood home, and Thai Khon dance drama masks), as well as traces of elements  from contemporary culture.
Through a play of absence and presence – repetitions followed by eruptions, intersecting drives of gestures, and accelerations within stutters – I challenge what may be recognised and mis-recognised within fields of modulating motifs in my work, to resist assumptions of the unknown that is outside presence.

Experience
Residency, Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris, 2013; Teaching placement, Goldsmiths, London, 2014

Exhibitions
Laurence Owen & Vivien Zhang, Rook & Raven, 2014; RCA Secret, Royal College of Art, London, 2014; In Glorious Colour: Saatchi Showdown, Griffin Gallery, London, 2014; PNTG NOV, Royal College of Art, London, 2013; ASYAAF, Cultural Station Seoul 284, Seoul, 2013; Scratch, It's Easy, Camden Collective, London, 2013; Work-In-Progress Show, Royal College of Art, London, 2013; World Event Young Artists (Representing UK Young Artists/UKYA), Surface Gallery, Nottingham, 2012; The Boat of 2012, Today Art Museum, Beijing, 2012; Moreover, UCL Art Museum, 2011

Awards
Winner, Riverlight Award (in association with the Royal College of Art, St James Group and Futurecity), 2014; Finalist, Drakes Fashion House Collaboration, 2014; Shortlisted, 3rd International Emerging Artist Award, Dubai, 2014; Andor Scholarship, Slade School of Fine Art, 2009

Publications
Asian Students and Young Artists Festival Catalogue, Seoul, 2013; '1000 Artists, 100 Nations, 10 Days', World Event Young Artists Catalogue, UK, 2012