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M+, Hong Kong, © Jiang Zhi
On View
Mediatheque
Jiang Zhi 蔣志
0.7% Salt 0.7% 鹽
2009
Working with photography, video, installation, and painting, Jiang Zhi crafts a lucid aesthetic that addresses questions of psychology and reality. 0.7% Salt was captured in a single shot showing only a woman’s head and bare shoulders. In a sequence of sniffles, batted eyelashes, and choked-back sobs, she begins the eight-minute take with a forced smile that soon transitions to watery eyes and finally ends in tears. Wind agitates her hair, and she maintains eye contact with the viewer throughout. The woman is Gillian Chung, a Hong Kong singer and actress who was implicated in a career-destroying scandal involving nude photographs the year before this work was made.
Despite the temptation to see Chung’s performance as a reflection of her reality, Jiang challenges viewers to forgo prejudices and social conditioning—to divest tears of their symbolism, and to see them instead as mere substance. He asks if it is possible to see objectively, and to appreciate the aesthetics of emotional transition.
Despite the temptation to see Chung’s performance as a reflection of her reality, Jiang challenges viewers to forgo prejudices and social conditioning—to divest tears of their symbolism, and to see them instead as mere substance. He asks if it is possible to see objectively, and to appreciate the aesthetics of emotional transition.
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