Mixed Media
Single channel HD video, TV-set, TV rack, paint, ready-madeobject
Cheng Ran prefers the medium of video,and he has often parodied, distorted andreinterpreted the classic works of art,literature, and film. His entire oeuvre goes wellbeyond this, however, and showcases varyingmedia such as photography, installation,performance, and the novel. DD-MM-YYYY isan essential component of the artist’s Diaryof a Madman whose title derives from whatis widely considered China’s first novel inmodern Chinese, written by Lu Xun in 1918.Cheng Ran’s Diary of a Madman consists ofthree main chapters: New York, Hong Kong,and Jerusalem, comprised of three videoinstallations, with DD-MM-YYYY as its preface.The videos played on TV monitors are re-editedcollages extracted from news or commercials.Cheng Ran has fragmented those existingmoving images into a parade of cinematicsyllables in order to construct his ownnarratives about a single moment in the historyof each of the cities. Ready-made objectsaccompany the installations, adding anotherlevel of interpretation.