Zheng Kuo

Ming (Yang Shicong) lays atop a patch of grass on a sea-side cliff, the word ‘yes’ in torso sized letters written across the front of his shirt. As he stands to face the sea dotted with distant fishing boats, his shirt ripples in the wind, waving the bold letters ‘n’ and ‘o’ printed across his back. Burned Wings (2013) begins on serenity, but don’t be fooled, for this genre bloodbath is anything but serene.

“Why are there violent demolitions in a harmonious society?” asks artist Zhang Jun as he leads the cameras of director Zheng Kuo through the derbies of the wall that once stood behind his art studio. His joke about the Chinese phrase “harmonious society” is repeated later as he points out broken objects that lay scattered across his studio floor.