 n Chinese, “chi” means “late,” and “peng” means “soar,” but definitely the name ”Chi Peng” (soaring late) will not decide one man’s fate. Chi Peng is a 25-year-old artist who was born in the city of Yantai, in coastal Shandong Province. He is now a rising star in Beijing. Someone even called him the dark horse of Chinese contemporary art.
 Chi graduated from Central Academy of Fine Arts in 2005, where he majored in photography and digital media. He enjoys the powerful and unconstrained style of digital technology, saying, “It is the only major that will not limit my thought.” Before graduation, Chi found his medium to express his mind. In 2003, Chi applied computer technology to fuse his naked body with landmark buildings in Beijing, creating a series of virtual mirages, named “Run.” In the digital images, a young naked man, without restraint and unafraid of rules and standards, is running among the huge buildings, which seem to stand for authority and capital. In a photographic series called “Sun,” Chi used a computer to blend images of him running with a background of red walls from the Forbidden City.
Chi’s art is to fix his naked image into an unreal space. In his photographic series, “Consubstantiality,” the character seems weak and lonely. Through those sexless features, Chi invents a mood of confusion. In his piece, “I Fuck Me,” two images of the artist “Chi” flirt with one another, under the desk in an office or in the telephone booth on a curbside. As Chi said, “This series reverberates with our generation, the '80s character. Many young people from the 1980s are the only child in their family. We have better economic condition and we more call for self-independence. The ‘80s is quite different from earlier generations. We never experienced the great reforms of Chinese society. We only enjoy a prosperous economy. ”
In his work entitled, “The Day After Tomorrow,” buildings in New York City come forth as a foreground, and landmark buildings in Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen and Hong Kong appear in the background. They come into an illusion of a new city from Chi’s subjective idea. Uncountable small naked people with wings fly to the shadowland. At the same time, Chi puts his eyes on the former New York World Trade Center, and he changes all the advertising boards in New York’s Times Square, replacing them with Chinese advertisements, including many elements of Chinese pop culture. For instance, entertainment stars such as Zhang Manyu and Yao Ming. Those small naked people are fast flying in the virtual world. “It is to imply that China’s status is rising at the center of the world,” Chi said.
Right after the photo-based artworks with naked young artist appeared, they became popular. In 2004, this work became a favorite among curators and at international art exhibitions. The first overseas exhibition Chi participated in was “One to One: Recent Photographs from China,” at the Chambers Fine Art gallery in New York. The curator, Feng Boyi, said, “With changes in our society, people’s taste and way of aesthetics also change. Chi is representative of young artists. He begins his works with ego-cognition, from ego-virtualization to ego-identity. He represents the youth’s self-confidence and longing towards the future. It is definitely different from irony and self-mockery of recent Chinese Contemporary art.” In the same year, Chi’s work “Run” was presented at an exhibition entitled Visual Gallery at Phtokina that traveled through Germany, France and Austria. In “Run,” Chi presented some small naked people with the back to the audiences, running forwards with a red plane to a unknown destination. Some critics say Chi Peng may be using planes in his images to suggest that young, vulnerable people are under surveillance in the modern world.
 In 2005, the Pompidou Center in Paris selected Chi’s “Sun” to exhibit at Karlsruhe Barcelone Cambridge Toronto Exhibition. In September, 2005, Chambers Gallery presented Chi’s solo exhibition, “Naked Lunch,” with eight photographs, including “Castle in the Air.” Mao Weiqing, Director of the Chambers Gallery, said:“I thought Chi Peng’s work was visually excellent, so I decided to present his solo exhibition. It is quite successful. All the works are purchased by clients, including some young buyers from U.S., Europe and Asia.” With the soaring price of Chinese contemporary art, one of Chi Peng’s photographs can now fetch $3,000-4,000.
After graduation, Chi Peng flung on his way. Just during the first half of 2006, he participated in about ten art exhibitions in Korea, America, Germany and Austria. In February of this year, Beijing’s White Space Gallery presented his solo exhibition “UP.” It is his first domestic exhibition. In the preface, he was described as a product of the 80s. “This impulsion is from a child born in 1980s. …… the ‘80s is fearless. You have the right to love or hate or judge them, but they are still there.” In August, Shanghai Zhu Qizhan Art Museum will also present his work.
When talking about the chance to soar like a rocket, Chi said, “The chance is made by our years. What I have done is just to take it. I was born in 1980s. My experience and background is quite different from the other artists. What I try to express is the mind of single child, including narcissism and curiosity.” After leaving college, Chi busied himself with work and international exhibitions. “I just begin to create. And then, I want to continue and to try sculpture and video.”
It is hard to judge whether Chi Peng is a bodkin piercing through pocket or a sapling attracting too much attention. But in the action of searching for “new star,” Chi Peng is no doubt a talent showing himself.
Translated by Wei Ying
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