Film and Video art

The Adventure of Liang Liang

Zhang Xiaotao (b. 1970, Hechuan) is a cross-media artist working with painting, photography, installation, video and animation. His work often addresses the pressures of life in modern China, providing a glimpse into the unique and complex experience of living in China today, mixing feelings of hope and destruction. The result is one of grotesque imagery and dreamlike scenes.

The Adventure of Liang Liang (量量历险记) is a 2013 3D animation that sees a character called Liang Liang (the artist’s son) undertaking an epic journey, in the style of ancient Chinese epic legends, to find peace and quiet amidst the hectic environment of modern China. The artist utilises his son’s drawings, animating them with 3D techniques, mixing them with traditional ink painting-style landscapes and presenting the work in a handscroll format.

Zhang thus depicts a child’s life in flux, trying to bridge the gap between father and son, and child and adult, as well as past and present. The work is a multi-spatial, multi-layered spiritual landscape of today’s life in China, where the chaos of breakneck development merges with the need to find a peaceful haven.

ASIA | Art Spectacle International Asia is an independent online magazine covering contemporary art from Asia-Pacific to the Middle East.

Founder and Editor C. A. Xuân Mai Ardia is a Vietnamese-Italian from Padova, Italy. She currently resides near Venice, Italy, but she has lived around the world for more than 20 years. London was her home throughout university and her first forays in the art world and gallery work, until she moved to Shanghai in 2006 where she worked for Pearl Lam Galleries (then Contrasts Gallery) until 2009. She has lived between Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, and Padova, Italy in 2009-2016, where she worked at Galerie Qyunh, Craig Thomas Gallery and contributed to Art Radar.

Mai holds a BA in Chinese | History of Art and Archaeology and an MA in Chinese Studies from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London, UK, as well as an MSc in Development Studies | Conservation of Cultural Heritage from the School of Development, Innovation and Change (SDIC), University of Bologna, Italy. She has worked in the conservation of world cultural heritage in Rome and in contemporary art galleries in London, Shanghai and Ho Chi Minh City. Her articles have been published in Art Review Asia, Art Radar, The Culture Trip and CoBo Social.

Mai joined the Art Radar team as Copy Editor in May 2013, and became Staff Writer in November of the same year. Continuing to contribute her writing to Art Radar, she took up the role of Managing Editor from November 2015 to December 2018, when Art Radar ceased publication.

To continue on and contribute to the dissemination of contemporary art ideas and practices from Asia, Mai founded ASIA in Spring 2019.