Chang Gao

Many major cities in China, such as Beijing or Shanghai, are designed without considering the feelings of local citizen. The Chinese government prefers instead to invite Western famous architects and artists to install artwork and architectures. These implanted artworks and architectures subconsciously influence people's mind and create alienation between residents and public art. Chang Gao defines this effect as a 'Post-colonial Phenomenon in Chinese Public Space'. Meanwhile, living in a political sensitive environment, people are restrained from expressing critical opinions in China, which intensifies social anger and anxiety among Chinese public audiences. 

Chang Gao’s research topic: Supernormal Stimuli, Post-colonialism, and Public Sphere Theories: Addressing the Post-colonial Phenomenon in Chinese Public Space is a practice-based PhD research project. By utilising the Supernormal Stimuli theory in the production of artworks, her research aims at exploring the tension between the very personal matter of the human bodies and its relation to the postcolonial phenomenon in Chinese public space. By triggering the public’s emotions and desire when they encounter the public art, her research wants to release the suppressed social tension and to provoke new ideas, perspectives and identities among Chinese public space. Her approach tries to disrupt the Chinese obsession with blue chip global artists and offer an alternative path to address the pressing issues of postcolonial phenomenon in Chinese public space.