Uncertain pleasure (Les maladies superficielles), 1996
30 min, Betacam SP, silencieux, couleur
What I try to do is to “record” or “restore” a certain kind of intuition rather than symbolizing or making metaphor of some “subject.” What I am interested in is the public experience of the action of scratching an itch. The public sense does not need to be explained. It causes a mixture of racial, sexual and cultural differences and provides hence possibilities for communication and exchange between people.
I believe deeply that there is a profound universality in the nature of man. This universality comes from man’s basic needs, sensations and reactions. It’s perpetual. It is based on this point that art is still meaningful today.
— Zhang Peili
The growing interest in video art in China during the 1990s culminated in the exhibition Image and Phenomena (1996), which became the first major exhibition in the country dedicated exclusively to time-based media. Curated by Qiu Zhijie and Wu Meichun, the exhibition took place in a repurposed assembly hall at the China Academy of Art (Hangzhou), aiming to recognize and to legitimize the artistic potential in video as a creative medium. Given the prevailing limitations on state-supported exhibition spaces, which often rejected unconventional art practices, underground exhibitions like Image and Phenomena provided venues for artists experimenting with new media to showcase their works. Although these exhibitions reached only a limited audience, largely consisting of artists and their immediate circles, they served as a critical space for the exchange of ideas among like-minded creatives and pushed the boundaries of contemporary art practices in China.
It is in this context that Zhang Peili first showcased his multi-channel installation Uncertain Pleasure (1996), presenting multiple 30-minute close-up recordings of hands scratching various parts of the body. Displayed through a patterned array of monitors, the installation captures the repetitive and intimate act from multiple perspectives, immersing viewers in a hyper-focused experience. This sensory engagement invites an empathic response, encouraging viewers to almost feel the itch themselves. At the same time, it also elicits discomfort by evoking themes of voyeurism and surveillance, as it transforms an otherwise private act into a public display.
Uncertain Pleasure marks a transitional moment in Zhang’s experimentation with new media, shifting from single-channel to multi-channel video installations, in his ongoing pursuit of innovation and critique of contemporary trends. In his earlier single-channel works, Zhang invoked monotony and boredom by focusing on actions like dropping and reassembling a mirror [1], or through extended, drawn-out tasks like washing a chicken [2]. These works pushed viewers to confront the passage of time, challenging the entertainment value of television. In Uncertain Pleasure, Zhang retains these qualities of repetitive action and long duration, while expanding the scope of his artistic language in the multi-channel format. The scattered arrangement of monitors invites viewers into the exhibition space in a way that disrupts conventional viewing. Each monitor, displaying videos of various body parts engaged in repetitive scratching, fragments the whole into isolated parts and creates a sense of disorientation and uncertainty. Such disjointed experience, where the body is separated and reorganized, compels viewers to confront the unfamiliar and unsettling aspects of their perception. With the monitors free from conventional framing and exposed like naked bodies, alongside the display of bare skin from various body parts, the installation draws out a primal connection to the physical sensations depicted on-screen. Grounded in the universality of human perception, the confined viewing experience heightens physical discomfort through the long duration of the footage and the repetitive actions, simultaneously intensifying the immediacy and relatability of the scratching sensation. By using scratching as a metaphor for both physiological and psychological states, Uncertain Pleasure epitomizes Zhang’s exploration of universal human experiences, offering a deeper reflection on how uncomfortable, enduring sensations resonate across time and public contexts.
By drawing viewers into a confined, repetitive experience, Uncertain Pleasure mirrors the subtle control that media can exert over individuals, even as it appears to offer diverse perspectives. Zhang’s installation, in this sense, evokes questions about personal agency and broader societal structures, encouraging viewers to confront their own discomfort and consider broader themes of control and surveillance.
Amy Wang
August 2024
[1] 30 x 30 (1998).
[2] Document on Hygiene n°3 (1991).