Wu Shanzhuan 2009-09-09
Shanghai Gallery of Art,
Shanghai
Q: I’ve heard that the first buyer was the then-director of the National Art Museum, Liu Kaiqu?
Wu: Yes.
Q: And did he really want to buy [your shrimps]?
Wu: Yes, he really did. They were cheap.
Q: And did you know at that time what his take on this kind of activity was?
Wu: He should have known it was performance art. He must have known, but thought, ‘Well, why not?’ Right? ‘Why not? They’re cheap and there’s no real problem, anyway.’ However, the security guards stopped my sales, citing the lack of a business licence, and so this booming trade of mine collapsed. One more hour and I could have sold the whole lot.”
Biography:
Wu Shanzhuan (b. 1960, Zhoushan, Zhejiang Province) graduated from the Zhejiang Academy of Fine Arts in Hangzhou (now the China Academy of Art).
Wu is one of China’s most enigmatic conceptual artists whose work involves language, pseudo-text, humour and symbolism from everyday life. Some of his most celebrated works of the 1980s include his installation Red Humour International (1986), and Selling Shrimps, which was performed at the ‘China/Avant-Garde Exhibition’ at the National Art Museum of China (Beijing, 1989).
After moving to Europe in the late '80s, Wu obtained a master’s degree from the College of Fine Arts at the University of Fine Arts of Hamburg (Hochschule für Bildende Künste, 1989). After residing in Germany and Iceland for over ten years, he now has a base in Shanghai.
Wu continues to work as an artist and exhibits widely. A large retrospective of Wu’s work was recently organized at the Guangdong Museum of Art (2008).
