Selected Works
Video stills from Tide (2008)
"I spent one day in an abandoned hut alongside the sea beach. As the tide flooded, my body was hidden into the seawater gradually and then exposed to the ground when the tide went out. What can I feel from the re- experience of the historical space? Maybe just the movement of time and the tinge of it."
Zhou Tao
Tide
2008
Single channel video (16:9, color, with sound)
13 min 45 sec
Video stills from Mutual Exercise (2009)
"Mutual Exercise is some practices and experiences in a mutual way between my friend and me in the public space. We provide each other with our bodies to move forward mutually and to rehearse different kinds of common actions, according to the unostentatious and interesting scenes and objects. When we are still, it seems that we are just the same as all those ordinary people around."
Zhou Tao
Mutual Exercise
2009
Single channel HD video (16:9, color, with sound)
10 min 54 sec
Video stills from Time in New York (2009)
"I carried a roll of thread with me to document the traces of my everyday activities when I lived in the apartment in New York. Day after day, the thread became the evident of my movement around bedroom, living room, kitchen and bathroom; while at the same time, this thread of time has changed constantly the way I moved across the space, till a point that even the most basic motion became very difficult. There is plenty of time with boredom. In this way, every single movement I make seems like a work, and became an ego need. There are often a few seconds that I forget where I am when I wake up. Through this way I want to test how I adapt to living in New York."
Zhou Tao
Time in New York
2009
Single channel H D video (16:9, color, with sound)
16 min 55 sec
Video stills from South Stone (2010-2011)
"Ju and I have resided for nearly a whole year in the area of South Stone, of which appeared to be a distant village completely abandoned by the city, yet maintaining its very own independent system of living. Our perceptive consciousnesses were re-ignited (by the situation of South Stone area), our activities here made hap-pening of improvised scripts, of images, and of body exercises, on the new time path, we are to be the man who plants scenarios."
Zhou Tao
South Stone
2010-2011
Single channel HD video (16:9, color, with sound),
a series of 36 immediate scripts (inkjet prints on paper)
Video: 24 min 51 sec
Immediate scripts: 21.5 × 28 cm each
Video stills from After Reality (2013)
"I think that After Reality actually started from a feeling. A feeling for the suburbs, or let’s say for areas in between cities, where people plant trees and vegetables, for abandoned places. The luxuriant subtropical vegetation, intertwined with paths and viaducts, left out some zones where nobody lives. Even if they grow between cities, these plants are wild as there is no-one who takes care of them. They are just growing wildly under the bridge in a crazy way. We found some Dragon Boat rowers who came here everyday for training. we wait long for the imperceptible and occult signs, and sometimes we did some impromptu performances which were inserted and mixed into rowers' body training. From Guangzhou to Paris, we continued to throw ourself into totally different situation."
Zhou Tao
After Reality
2013
Single channel HD video (16:9, color, with sound),
a series of 18 photography scripts (inkjet prints on paper)
Video: 14 min 21 sec
Photography scripts: 20 × 30 cm each
Video stills from Blue and Red (2014)
"From the old man’s complexion lit by natural light, to the crowd bathed in the color of night; from the square stained blue by LED billboards, to the rust and oxidized-green surface of a rural metal mine; movements of these di erent characters, even a violent squall colliding with a mountainside—these all create a refraction from the skin to the earth’s crust."
Zhou Tao
Blue and Red
2014
Single channel HD video (16:9, color, with sound)
25 min 14 sec
Video stills from Fán Dòng (2017)
"From Minhougeqi Village in Fuzhou, to Menorca in Spain, from Fán Dòng in Shoguan, to the sea of Inchon, from the foot of Dafu Hill, to the Sonoran Desert. Images and reality are constructing a topologic booklet. No scripts, no stories, the light became the protagonist, the landscape became the protagonist."
Zhou Tao
Fán Dòng (The Worldly Cave)
2017
Single channel 4K UHD video (16:9, color, with sound)
47 min 53 sec
Video stills from North of the Mountain (2019)
"The 'mountain' in North of the Mountain is a mountain that exists in reality, but also in a metaphorical space. First of all, the potential starting point is that we are all returning to the north of the mountain at this day, to look for a shield, a sort of insurmountability, fear, or unconquerability; and we also anticipate a route that will lead human out of the dilemmas of time through this search."
Zhou Tao
North of the Mountain
2019
Single channel 4K DCI video (17:9, color, with sound)
76 min 21 sec
Film still from The Periphery of the Base (2024)
"A sandstorm emerges, and the cooling fan of the camera hums loudly in protest. Gasping for air, it convulses on the brink of sudden death. Collapsing from the shelter of the tent, it plunges into an unknown blind spot. Debris and shadows dance in chaotic splendor, momentarily obscuring the image of reality. Freckle- like dark spots transform into a dazzling spectacle, and a new image emerges from the machine. Whether reflecting on the past or reaching unprecedented heights of artistic expression, today the camera takes center stage, reveling in its performance and achieving a unique state of mastery.
“'With every step blushes the spring breeze.' Upon reflection, the camera breathes life back into its mechanical veins, resurrecting itself from the momentary collapse."
Zhou Tao
The Periphery of the Base
2024
Single channel 4K DCI video (16:10, color, with sound)
53 min 03 sec
Produced by Topography Practice and Vitamin Creative Space.
Film still from The Axis of Big Data (2024)
"The imagery, oscillating from complete blur to an impassable barrier, consistently rebounds to a clear view of the landscape, akin to the elastic and soft contractions during childbirth. Amidst clouds, fog, and the limits of machine technology, the difficulty in distinguishing the scenery becomes a metaphorical exploration. It represents the intersection of visible and invisible scales, navigating the extremes of expansion and contraction. It secretes a mirror-image mucus that intertwines the digital cloud with the terrestrial realm, encapsulating the delicate dance between the tangible and intangible."
Zhou Tao
The Axis of Big Data
2024
Single channel 4K HD video (16:9, color, with sound)
57 min 34 sec
This work is produced by Topography Practice and Vitamin Creative Space, co-produced with M Art Foundation.
The quoted text above is taken from the artist’s statement.
All works of art by Zhou Tao © the artist
Courtesy of the artist and Vitamin Creative Space
Flow of Time — David Claerbout and Zhou Tao
