I try to capture the anxiety and emotional exhaustion that is a result of widespread information overload.
Ziping Wang’s work deals with the issue of invasive tech, contributing to a necessary debate that has established itself at the forefront of societies across the globe.
As the paragons of the internet age continue to unravel, as the open wounds of illicit data storage and algorithmic targeting cut deeper into digital behemoths like Facebook and Google, a new collective consciousness is forming.
We are not the technologically naive society we were 5–10 years ago, even 5–10 months ago; we are quickly beginning to rethink our relationship with technology, examining both the intensity and the intimacy of this relationship, as well as the seesaw between lost and potential liberty.
As tech companies vie for position in the attention economy, the imagery with which we are targeted is becoming increasingly saturated, increasingly abrasive.
Ziping wants to not only capture this caustic aesthetic, but also the feeling it instills in the public: the fluttering anxiety of a gif, the sudden pang of a popup, or the bland ubiquity of a stale slogan. These specific curatorial tactics end up creating billions of digital worlds – each one unique to each user – thus creating the oft-used mantra that technology is tearing us apart as opposed to bringing us together.
Overview
Through her work, Ziping wants to enhance our levels of skepticism.
We have to remain vigilant, continue to look and see these tactics for what they truly are: ploys for keeping our attention. Her works, both striking and claustrophobic, stand up to critical viewing. They engage unapologetically with the issue at hand and what makes them stand out is that they grapple with such topics and feelings with uncompromising charm and beauty.
Ziping Wang
Fear of Dreamless Night
2020
Ziping Wang
Skiing on the Train of Thoughts
2020
Ziping Wang
Resting by the Sidewalk
2020
Ziping Wang
Painting for the Unsing Bird
2020
Ziping Wang
Sentimental Touch
2020
In technologically advanced societies, our experiences of the world are under constant invasion from brightly colored advertisements, pop up window browsers and catchy slogans, all designed to be distracting. The constant overload of information generates anxiety.
Overview
Ziping Wang’s works do not just signify certain societal issues, they also act as a visual tonic for them.
The painter’s artistic technique mirrors her concerns: she composes, edits, crops, overlays and finally paints the pieces. They are paintings in fragments, echoing the contemporary phenomena of the fragmentation of the frantic mind.
In contrast to traditional oil painting approaches such as underpainting and blocking-in, Ziping treats every inch of the canvas equally by harmonising the surface texture and paint consistency. She normally paints from one corner to the other, like a human printer.
After she finishes an area she doesn’t revisit it, so the painting is divided into areas of blank canvas and those that are finished, echoing the binary nature of our technological existences.
About the Artist
Ziping Wang was born in 1995 in Shenyang, China and currently lives between China and New York.
The artist received her BFA degree from Rhode Island School of Design in 2017 and went on to achieve an MFA with distinction from Pratt Institute in 2020. She was selected as the first place for a juried exhibition with Archway Gallery in Houston, and her work has been exhibited in Platform 2020, Winston Wachter Fine Arts, New York (2020); ASYAAF, Gallery LVS, Seoul (2020); Daydreaming, J. Yuan Associates LLC, New York (2019); and Artificial Delicacy at Gessoisland Artspace, Shenyang (2019).
Chosen Charity
Chosen Charity
Center for Humane Technology
Working at the intersection of human nature, technology, and systems transformation, The Center For Humane Technology’s goal is to shift the mindset from which persuasive technology systems are built, and to use that process to support crucial parallel shifts in our larger economic and social systems.
Artist
Ziping Wang
Ziping Wang’s fragmented and colour-saturated works explores ideas of information overload and sensory memory.