QIU ZHIJIE (China, B. 1969)

Qiu Zhijie was born in the Fujian province in 1969. He graduated from the print-making department at the China Academy of Art in 1992. He created works in a wide variety of media including drawing, ink painting, video, photography, and installations. Tattoo I (Lot 156) is an early work that was completed in 1994. It explores the relationship between the image and the background behind it. Balancing these two aspects is the prime objective of traditional portraiture. Qiu Zhijie confronted this concept and subverted it by introducing foreign objects in the picture plane to obliterate any distance between them. As they share the same features, everything in the picture reverts to a universal flatness.