Zhé Wang was born in Jiangsu, China. After finishing her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree at Sichuan Fine Arts Institute in Chongqing, China in 2011, she moved to Germany where she received her Diploma Degree and Meisterschülerin nomination at the University of the Arts Bremen with Prof. Rosa Barba from 2013 to 2018. In 2015/16, as part of the Erasmus exchange program, Zhé studied at the University of the Arts Helsinki with Prof. Caspar Stracke. She was awarded the "Karin Hollweg Preis 2018."

From photography and painting to immersive installations, Zhé has been using various media for her art practice, including analog/digital films, ceramic, painting on photos, sound, multi-channel video, and algorithmic machine learning interactive installations. This diversity of artistic approaches leads to a creation of space based on the contextualization of social issues, from which she not only projects her reflections into this space but also lends invitation for spectators to think by themselves. Meanwhile, the mobility among different media, as encapsulated in her own aesthetic experience, exploration, and comprehension of objects and events, entails a diversity of artistic expression that can be captured from a subtle change of the position of an object in her installation artwork, or the selection of a specific view for framing her photographs. Her recent works have mainly focused on language, surveillance capitalism, self-consciousness, and observation of human emotional activities, embodying her critique of consensus derived from language and ideology, and her contemplation of the potential political implications behind human mental activities that are based on cognition and sensual experiences. Critically and poetically, absurdly and humorously, the contextualized space produced by her artworks ruptures the aesthetic experience of the spectators, bringing among them an aesthetic re-distribution. What can be discerned from Zhé’s artworks in regards to her discussion about social issues is the exploration of the edge of her own aesthetic experience. The vanguard gesture she takes for wandering around the border of aesthetic experience leads to the fact that she doesn’t stick to a single creative technique, and thus advocates free artistic expression. Either consciously or unconsciously, both Zhé and her artworks correspond to the inter-relational dependence between man’s contemplation of the world and of herself. 

The possibility and potentiality of individual subjectivity in power relations in the context of post-industrialism, cyberculture, and cognitive science occupy Zhé’s main concern. In her work "#TTM" (Talk to Me, 2016), she explores the “netspeak” as an emerging means of communication among younger generations, from which she calls the commonality in the usage of language based on social convention into question, therefore opens a new possibility for both the means and content of the communication. In “My Working Parents”(2018), through her artistic treatment of ‘repetition’—of both images and sounds— she touches upon the tension between individuality and solidarity, the invisible fascism and relational subjectivity, if possible, in a Deleuzian sense. As she was brought up in the east and educated in the west, her cross-cultural background gives her distinct insights into the socio-political, economical, and cultural aspects of contemporary issues. For instance, her sensitivity about the increasing deprivation of freedom as being the product of capitalism—surveillance, can be attributed to her past living experience, from which she not only explores the unaware and involuntary self-exposure to the mechanism of surveillance but also challenges the tension between the power of seeing and being seen that is involved in the decentralization of modern power. In her most recent work "Smell your minds"(2021), by positioning the audience in a game of language and thus starting a virtual olfactory journey, she opens the path for audiences to venture into the possible incompatibility of signs and feelings.

Zhé has exhibited in Germany, Finland, and China.

edited by Qilu Ma

王哲出生于江苏。2011 年毕业于四川美术学院油画系。2013 年至 2018 年就读于不来梅艺术学院， 师从 Rosa Barba 教授，并取得研究生学位及大师生称号。期间于2015 年前往赫尔辛基艺术学院师从 Caspar Stracke教授交流学习。2018 年获得奖 项 "Karin Hollweg Preis 2018”，其为德国所有艺术学院中最重要的艺术奖项之一。

王哲在她的艺术作品中使用了多种媒介，从摄影，绘画和录像到装置和声音艺术：具体包括胶片/ 数字影像，陶瓷，照片绘画，声音合成，多频道视频装置，和机器算法互动装置等。通过媒介的多样性，王哲在其作品中构建了将社会问题语境化的空间，在这些空间中投射其反思，并邀约观众一起进行思考。她对作品媒介的体验与使用，也承载了她基于自身审美经验的艺术表达(expression)的多样性——它细腻得体现于其装置作品某一“部件“的摆放，或是其摄影作品某一角度的选取。在王哲近期的作品中，她主要关注语言，监控资本主义，机器算法学习，人的自我意识及人类情绪活动观察；体现了对基于语言、社会意识形态等的共识的反思，以及基于认知、感觉经验上的人类心灵活动之政治意义的思考。这些作品同时充满批判性和诗意，荒诞和幽默感，其语境化的空间打破了观众已有的审美经验，带来了观众之间感性分配的重塑。渗透于王哲作品中对社会问题思考的，是她对自身审美自由边界的探索。她那不拘泥一格、主张自由的艺术表达，来自于她“先锋式”地游走于审美经验边界地带的感受与思考。王哲及其作品，以一种未必自知的状态，回应了人对社会思考与自身思考之间相互依赖的关系(inter-relational)。

游走于后工业时代、赛博文化和认知科学等语境之中，有关在权力关系中个体主体性的可能性与潜在性，一直占据着王哲主要思考的方向。在她的作品"#TTM" (Talk to Me, 2016)中，她探索了“netspeak”——产生于年轻一代的交流方式；从中，通过对基于社会传统的语言使用的共通性提出了质疑，从而打开了沟通这一行为在手段和内容上的新的可能性。在作品“My Working Parents”(2018)中，通过她对“重复”这一概念（或现象）的艺术处理——同时体现在图像和声音上；以及一种德勒滋式的思考，成功触及潜藏在个体性与团结之间的张力，不可见的法西斯（情节）与主体相关性之间的张力。在东方长大并在西方接受教育的经历，使她的作品也包含着许多跨文化的联系，这赋予了她一种独特的洞察力，对当代政治、经济、文化等领域的问题提出思考。例如她对资本主义的产物之一——监控的敏锐察觉，可以追述至她过去的生活经历。在作品中，她不仅探索一种不自知又非自愿得向资本主义监控机制的自我暴露，也向隐藏在去中心化的权力关系之中的“见”与“被见”之权力差异提出挑战。在她最近的作品"Smell your minds"(2021)中，通过由语言游戏来唤醒观众的大脑而带来的一场虚拟嗅觉之旅， 她为观众开启了一场有关感觉和符号之间可能存在的不相容性的冒险。

王哲曾在德国，芬兰和中国展出作品。

编辑：马萁璐

Grants & Residency 奖项和驻地

• 2021 October, Residency at Remote Gallry, Zwickau, Germany

• 2019, "KARIN ABT-STRAUBINGER STIFTUNG 2019" w/ Daniel Heitz, Germany

• 2018, "Karin Hollweg Preis 2018", Germany 

• 2015, Erasmus exchange program to Finland 

Publication 出版物

• WATCH ME    Edited by Dr. Annett Reckert. Texts by Aneta Palenga.  Published by Staedtische Galerie Delmenhorst, 2020 

Project 项目

• 2019-ongoing, “Debile” with Hairihan: A documentary about self-growing, and related to north-china’s shamanism culture.

• 2019-ongoing, "Mienophone" with Daniel Heitz: A digital synthesizer using facial expressions to modulate sounds

• 2014/15,  "Immigration Office": directing, curating, publishing, being "artist as curator", with "Immigration Office" Group: Lucas Odahara, Camila Riveros, Daniela Reina Téllez, Paula Hurtado

Education 教育

• 2017-2018 Meisterschüler, studied with Prof.Rosa Barba, University of the Arts Bremen, Germany

• 2013-2017 Diplom.F.A., studied Fine Arts with Prof.Rosa Barba, University of the Arts Bremen, Germany

• 2016 Erasmus Exchange, studied with Prof.Caspar Stracke, University of the Arts Helsinki, Finland

• 2012-2013, studied Fine Arts with Prof.Michael Dörner, University of applied sciences and arts in Ottersberg, Germany

• 2007-2011 B.F.A., studied Fine Arts at Sichuan Fine Arts Institute, Chongqing, China