Colin Zhongping Mao

PhD supervisor: Dr Hélia Marçal
Working title for PhD: Towards New Materialities: Time-based Media Art in Chinese Socialist Realism from 1976 to 2019

My research explores the evolution of Chinese Socialist Realism (CSR) from 1976 to 2019, focusing on its reinterpretation through a renewed understanding of time-based media art. This encompasses artistic practices incorporating technologies such as video, film, performance, audio, and digital platforms, each characterised by their inherent temporal dimension. Beyond technologically mediated forms, I also consider works traditionally seen as ‘static’ that evoke cinematic or temporal experiences through their physicality, spatiality, and interactivity.

Challenging the propagandistic connotations often associated with CSR, I investigate how artists like Zhang Peili, Wang Guangyi, Liu Xiaodong, Cao Fei, and Cai Guo-Qiang, alongside filmmakers such as Wang Xiaoshuai and Jia Zhangke, have expanded its ideological and material boundaries to engage with themes of temporality, globalisation, and identity. Using frameworks from post-Marxism, media archaeology, and feminist new materialism, my research examines how experimental practices redefined CSR’s monumentalism and collective ideals, fostering fluid and fragmented narratives. I also analyse the role of regional art centres—Beijing, Shanghai, Sichuan, and Hangzhou—and institutions like CAFA and SFAI, which acted as both enforcers of state ideology and spaces for experimentation. 

My project is fully funded by a Critical Histories of Art scholarship.

Publications and Translations

PUBLICATIONS

Mao, Zhongping, ‘A Survey of Contemporary British Art Ecology’ Art Monthly, 9 (2024), 20-22.

-- --, ‘Walking as a Form of Social Engagement: The Situationist International Dérive and Richard Long’s A Line Made by Walking’ The Courtauldian, Through Each Chartered Street, no. 29 (June 2023): 13–23.

-- --, (2022). ‘大规模复制时代的艺术作品及其创作The Work of Art and Its Making in the Age of Mass-Reproduction’ in《画刊》45周年封面计划 [ Art Monthly 45th Anniversary Cover Project], ed. by Meng Yao (Nanjing: Jiangsu Phoenix Fine Arts Publishing, 2024), pp. 26-29.  

-- --, ‘From Making to Matching: A Review of Tate Modern’s ‘Making of Rodin’, Art Monthly, 12 (2021), 54-57. 

-- --, ‘Consequences of Detachment and Transfer of Wall Paintings’ in Conference proceedings of 2020 National Mural Teaching Seminar, Sichuan Fine Art Institute Disciplinary—Outstanding Artistic Talent Construction Project (Chengdu: Sichuan Fine Art Institute Publishing, 2020): pp. 299-305.

TRANSLATIONS

Lee, Yi Ting, ‘对英国艺术生态系统中艺术写作的松散评论A Loose Commentary on Art Writing in the UK Art Ecosystem’, trans. by Mao Zhongping, Art Monthly, 9 (2024), 22-26.

Bonezzi, Federico, Emily Ratcliffe, ‘艺术市场与拍卖行的运作:对话艾米莉·拉特克利夫 The Art Market and the Operation of Auction Houses: Federico Bonezzi interviews Emily Ratcliffe’, trans. by Mao Zhongping, Art Monthly, 9 (2024), 27-30.

Landolt, Michele Ruo Yi, ‘枝繁叶茂结硕果：英国艺术基金会的现状Branches Yielding Fruit: The Landscape of Art Foundations in the UK’, trans. by Mao Zhongping, Art Monthly, 9 (2024), 36-49.

Marçal, Hélia, ‘作为媒介的博物馆 Museum as Medium’, trans. by Mao Zhongping, Art Monthly, 9 (2024), 48–51.

Teaching

• 2024-25 Writing Support PGTA for Core Course
• 2024-25 Thing-With Project

Contact: zhongping.mao.19@ucl.ac.uk

RPS Profile

Qualifications 

• MA in History of Art at the Courtauld Institute of Art (Distinction)
• BA in History of Art, Materials and Technology at UCL