Ocean Wave by Cheng Ran

Streaming here for a month, Ocean Wave is a performance by Chinese artist Cheng Ran which coincided with the opening of his recent solo exhibition, 'Orange Blue' at Qiao Space in Shanghai (until 15 August).

The title derives from an eponymous 13-foot boat that the Dutch conceptual artist Bas Jan Ader took to sea in the 1970s as part of his final performance, In Search of the Miraculous. This performance lends its name to In Course of the Miraculous, Cheng Ran’s 9-hour film from 2015 and the centrepiece of ‘Orange Blue’.

To read ‘Light Source’, En Liang Khong’s feature on Cheng Ran and Chinese video art, click here.

Cheng Ran was born in 1981 in Inner Mongolia, China and currently lives and works in Hangzhou. In 2014 he completed the two-year residency programme at the Rijksakademie van beeldende kunsten in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Recent solo shows include 'In Course of the Miraculous', K11 Art Foundation, Hong Kong, China (2016), 'Orange Blue', Qiao Space, Shanghai, China (2016), 'Orange Blue – In the Process of a Film', YUAN Space, Beijing, China (2015), 'A Film in Progress', Galerie Urs Meile, Lucerne, Switzerland (2015) and 'In Course of the Miraculous', Galerie Urs Meile, Beijing, China (2015). These exhibitions build an overview of his 9-hour film In Course of the Miraculous which has been shown in progress and in different aspects following its debut at the 14th Istanbul Biennial in 2015.

Ocean Wave courtesy: the artist and Galerie Urs Meile, Beijing and Lucerne.