Zhao, Sui Kang

A digital archive of Asian/Asian American contemporary art history

Other Names: Suikang; Sui-Kang; ???

Male

"I was born in China and educated there and have lived in US since 1986. The experience of living in [completely] different social environments gives me a unique opportunity to see things differently. My artworks explore the relationship between different cultural phenomenon and deal with the issue of interwoven social reality in present time. By using overlapping texts and images I try to reconstruct the parallel (displacement) exposition of todayï¿½s cultural fabrication and social structure. I see the cultural differences as the structure of harmony and dissonance within a shared space. My art is about re-thinking visual elements in terms of displaced environment and mind in the context of todayï¿½s world. The different formations of social structures of today and the past are the central issues in my thinking process.

Through my art form and media, I try to move beyond traditional modern/post-modern interpretations of disciplines into a new era of interdisciplinary collaboration, between representation and abstraction, and from hand-craft intangible artifact to digital manipulation. The inspiration of my artworks mostly comes from music form and structure. I see time in sculpture and space in music. I try to create multi-dimensional, interwoven visual or visual/audio structures that reveal the cultural phenomena of paralleling and simultaneity.

Recently I am working on several public art projects. To me public art is the extension of the idea of my site-specific installation. It is very important for me that my artwork roots in the existing architectural concept. Public art is not just the decoration of the space but part of organic structure of particular space (issue of integrating into architecture) and part of cultural/social environment of the region (issue of communication and involvement of general public)."

Suikang Zhao, Artist Statement