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Arts & Communication Sound and cross-cultural art in China since 1980s

Figure 5. Zhang Peili, Standard, Healthy, Upward, and Distinctive Circle
and Its Sound, 2017. Reprinted with permission from Beijing Sound Art
Museum. Copyright©2024 Beijing Sound Art Museum. Figure 6. Shi Yong, Sound Amplification Site: Cross-echo of a Private
Space, environmental installation, variable size, and photograph provided
by the artist, 1995.
through private space, and demonstrate how sounds and
environments shape human perception. Zhang Peili and
Shi Yong have both claimed that they did not deliberately
emphasize the medium or sound at the initial stages of
creating these two works; however, these artworks clearly
evidence that Chinese artists had begun to experiment
with sound (Figures 6 and 7).
In exhibition contexts, sound art is typically displayed
in museums, galleries, and art spaces and the term
generally indicates sound installations, sound sculptures,
and works that produce sound using conventional
or unconventional media, and visual artworks that
incorporate auditory experiences and acoustic reflection.
Sound-intensive exhibitions showcase these types of sound
art. The period of sound-intensive exhibition practices Figure 7. Shi Yong, Sound Amplification Site: Cross-echo of a Private Space,
began in China with the 1996 exhibition Phenomenon: environmental installation, variable size. Reprinted with permission from
Video, which expanded the possibilities of sound creation Beijing Sound Art Museum. Copyright©2024 Beijing Sound Art Museum.
and contributed to an increasingly diverse landscape of
Chinese sound art. promoter of video art and experimental exhibitions in
China. Qiu Zhijie continued to introduce Chinese video
Qiu Zhijie and Wu Meichun curated an exhibition artworks to international art festivals such as the Berlin
titled Image and Phenomena: Video that opened at the Video Festival and facilitated the exchange of new media
affiliated gallery of the China Academy of Art. This display art between China and the West through screenings and
featuring 16 video artworks shown on 40 rented television lectures. 9
monitors and video players was the first in China to utilize
both sound and video. This video exhibition is significant Li Zhenhua returned to China in the late 2000s after
in the history of Chinese contemporary sound art and studying in the UK. Inspired by sound artist Scanner’s
curatorial practices because it pioneered the showcasing work exhibited at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in
of sound as an aspect of video installations. Certainly, this London, he invited Wang Wei, Zhang Hui, and Shi Qing
exhibition was influenced by Western artistic practices. Bill to curate China’s first sound-art-themed exhibition at the
Viola exhibited several sound and video installation works Central Academy of Fine Arts gallery. Zhang Hui’s Lost
at the 46 Venice Biennale in 1995, including The Greeting Sound (2000) perhaps best exemplified the exhibition’s
th
(1991), Nantes Triptych (1992) (Figure 8), and Desert theme: She installed a deformed sound receiver on a street
(1995) along with two sound installations. These intricately wall and recorded the everyday sounds of busy Beijing
layered audiovisual artworks profoundly impressed the outings mixed with her own voice asking for directions
artist Qiu Zhijie, who curated the 1996 video art exhibition but the sounds were deliberately distorted and rendered
after returning to China and subsequently became a key unclear.

Volume 3 Issue 3 (2025) 5 doi: 10.36922/ac.4669