Ruiqi Zhang (Richmond, USA): #KwaiArtistRQ (series)

#KwaiArtistRQ is a social media label created by the artist on the Chinese short-video platform Kwai(Kwaishou). Through a series of online performances, this work explores the inherent connection between contemporary art and Kwai’s uploaded content. The #KwaiArtistRQ series draws on the typical aesthetics of Internet culture, mixing characters, objects, and spaces in a virtual field. In the limited time of tens of seconds, an anonymous figure was re-performed the representative artist works in contemporary art and the types of short-videos uploaded by Kwai users. These online performances questioned the class conflicts, cultural conflicts and the discourse conflicts in the current short-video media, and proposed to re-evaluate the online identity and community culture of Kwai users.

Ruiqi Zhang is a media artist, writer, cyber citizen and cultural observer, born in 1994, Liaoning Liaoyang(China). He received his MFA in the Kinetic Imaging from Virginia Commonwealth University, and BA in Visual Communication Design from LuXun Academy of Fine Arts. Ruiqi’s art and practice combining critical thinking about Internet culture with reflections on decentralized creation and a multi-level dualistic society. Incorporating research and creation of emerging mobile technology, social media, short-video platform, and China online rural community, many of Ruiqi’s works explore media strategies, cultural and class divide under the current dominant discourse system. Ruiqi’s recent projects extend his practice to various fields (among them, web design, online performances, visual podcasts), establishing connections between art and society, politics, aesthetics and daily life. ARTIST’S WEBSITE