A dying bighead carp giving out a hue of light blue in the barber’s pole, moving non-stop against the backdrop of the Gobi desert in Nevada, as if to awaken those phantoms in gold-digging dreams around the Death Valley. Swallows carrying water bears that were born in the Cambrian period are imprinted and trapped on the metal surface at high temperature, together with their desires to fly and survive. Like a sigh, the orange seal of the deserted oil tank barged in the forbidden zone that is fenced by the city conservation. However, it was just a whiff of breath so it was in condensation by the tremendous security while breaking in.
Street lamps, water tanks, surveillance cameras, hook ropes and all kinds of urban public facilities are no longer lifeless. Their seemingly stiff texture was vested gentle restraint in the design. While fulfilling their duty, their hidden emotions embodied were captured by the artist. Yellow halo under the street lamps, the smooth arc left by the cold metal blade of cameras as well as the ingratiating luster on the water tanks all bring them closer to intimate emotions. The artist connects living things with lifeless embodiment such as those red-touched-with-yellow pomelos, verdant sprouting plants and coconuts twisted by violet lights. The differences between cool and warm tones as well as the discrepancy between firm and soft textures are presented and passed down among different types of objects.
The title “Coupling Relation Between A Prisoner, A Lover and A Spy” is an eyehole the artists prepared for the viewers to look for the clues with the opportunity lying between hiding and revealing. “Coupling” implies a laid-back attitude, experiencing what is complex and perceiving the coupling relations among different things in an intimate and comfortable poise. The prisoner, lover and spy are exchanging roles constantly in which the lover is a prisoner controlled by his/her emotions while turning into a spy of the self in the emotion game. With the role rotating and psychology shifting, all kinds of emotions burst and then decline. Various kinds of emotions wax and wane yet intertwine with each other, sweet and bitter, lost and hopeful, doubtful and self-distrustful.
Zhang Yibei was born in Daqing of Heilongjiang province in 1992 and is now based in Beijing. He graduated from Department of Sculpture in Royal College of Art in 2017 with a Master’s Degree; He graduated from Department of Sculpture in University of the Arts London with a Bachelor’s Degree in 2015.
