Eye Candy [ z h a n g p e n g ]

I just learned about Zhang Peng, a photographer/painter from China, whom Trevor♡Brown wrote about in 2008(?). I think, T. was inspired by him, because some of their works are pretty similar.

"Teddy Bear Operation" vs "Made in China No.1" ?

"The Butcher" vs "Made in China No.2" ?

Whatever. Zhang Peng makes cool pictures, true. I don't like his paintings though, so I'd rather write about his photographs. Speaking of which, I think that his latest work, "Made in China" series, is his best project so far (not sure if he's going to continue his career):

These two are my favorites!

However, the series differs from the rest of his works.

Generally, Zhang Peng looks like this:

And the wiki article on him is just hilarious: "Zhang Peng is determined and serious about his art. His works are different from the works of other artists of his age (duh) ... The red used in Zhang Peng's paintings and full-color photographs symbolize either China itself or blood." Or both, haha. Sorry.

But I like this piece about the artist concept (the statistics are interesting):

His intentions are to create a visual contradiction that represents the current problems in China due to the ever-growing modernization. One of those problems is the gross overpopulation of the country. Because of the one-child policy, families are being selective about the gender of their babies. Boys have traditionally been more desired. In order to ensure the birth of boy, families resort to a number of different methods, including having early-term abortions with the discovery of a girl fetus. Because of this, China now has the greatest difference in sex ratio, with males outnumbering females by 35 million. Zhang Peng’s image of girl dolls symbolizes the discrimination against young girls in China and the injustices they endure.

He also shoot 4 videos, and I want you to watch at least these two of them:

1 video: two little uber cute-ly dressed girls start to tease a man, then dress him up, then undress him again, then try to decorate him with beads, then threaten him with a rifle(?), then dress him up again etc.

In the 2 video one of the girls operates on a man and removes a baby doll out of his stomach.

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