He Yunchang, a renowned Chinese performance artist, was born in 1967. His artistic journey has taken him worldwide, as he has consistently pushed the boundaries of his craft. His performances are a testament to his unwavering commitment to his art, as he often subjects himself to physically and psychologically demanding situations.
One of his most notable works is "In Dialog with Water" (1999),where he spent over 90 minutes attempting to cut a river in half with a knife while suspended upside-down from a crane. Another piece, "Wrestling: One and One Hundred" (2001),saw him engage in a 66-minute wrestling match with 100 consecutive opponents. He has also undertaken the grueling task of sealing himself inside a concrete block for 24 hours, as depicted in his work "Casting" (2004).
He's performances often involve journeys of self-discovery, and he returns transformed by the experience. For example, his "The Rock Tours Around Great Britain" (2006-2007) saw him carry a rock from Boulmer, England, and return it to its starting point after walking 3,500 kilometers counterclockwise along the perimeter of Britain.
He has also explored the concept of spiritual ascension in his work "Dream of Traveling—From Fukuoka Asian Art Museum to Mount Fuji" (2009),where he gradually emerged from a pile of 999 rocks while painting each one with the imaginary routes of his spiritual journey.
Some of his performances have involved immense pain and interventions into his own body. For instance, he has stared at 256 light bulbs for an hour at close range, undergone the surgical removal of one of his ribs, and most famously, had his body cut with a 1-meter-long opening without anesthesia in his work "One Meter of Democracy" (2010). In this piece, 25 participants collectively voted to carry out his proposal, and they stayed to witness its fulfillment.
Despite the shocking nature of some of his works, they always reveal a deep engagement with contemporary art discourse and classical Chinese philosophy. He's practice is characterized by a delicate sensitivity towards the salient questions of our time, as he treats his own body as both medium and object. By doing so, he turns abstract philosophical concepts and the amorphous transformations of our times into experiences that are concretely comprehensible and lived.
He Yunchang refers to his practice as "live art" or xianchang yishu, which distinguishes it from the sense of "performance" as acting. His commitment to his craft has led him to create a unique and thought-provoking body of work that continues to push the boundaries of contemporary art.
