Ning Zhou

Queer artist whose work combines photography, moving images and sound. The works she produces are inspired by her personal history, dreams, and imagination. Exploring issues such as gender, relationships, and mental health. She usually presents them in a form of absurd and funny performances to make her stories shareable and tolerable.

Q: WHAT WAS YOUR ROUTE TO YOUR CURRENT ARTISTIC PRACTICE?

Before I came to London to explore my creative practice, I got my BA Chinese Literature and History, and had worked as a professional musician manager in Beijing for five years. This decision was like a determined adventure for me. In 2019, I was tired of the industry I was in at the time. And I was also diagnosed with borderline personality disorder. The manifestation of this disorder in me is that my emotions and self-awareness are always in an unstable state. Besides seeing psychoanalysts and taking antidepressants, I found that joking about my problems was also a good way to deal with my aggressiveness. Humour makes me feel protected and has made my problems tolerable and shareable. It is a form of mental processing, a coping mechanism that helps me deal with complex information. In the past two years, I have been learning how to speak up my feelings and develop a tragicomic practice filled with my own narratives. I believe comedy and tragedy can grow together without losing their respective power. Therefore, my work is a blend of those two elements and the story focuses on myself, allowing me to better understand myself, and through this process build myself a happier future.

Q: CAN YOU IDENTIFY ANY ELEMENTS OF YOUR COMMUNITY OR COLLABORATORS THAT HAVE HAD A STRONG INFLUENCE?

Sarah Jones.

Q: HOW IS YOUR PROJECT TIED TO THE CIRCA X DAZED CLASS OF 20:21 THEME OF ‘COMMUNION’ ?

“I Want My Money Back” is a music video produced in April of 2021. I wrote this song after receiving too many rejection emails from all kinds of art competitions and open calls (11 in total, paid 365 pounds for entry). Everyone has their own way and style of communication. My preference is using absurd and disruptive language in order to make my feelings shareable and tolerable. In the form of music and performances, I conveyed my concerns about the relationships with my family and with the profession field of Western art world as an Asian queer, as an outsider, as a young artist. I am eager to communicate with the authorities and ask for a convincing answer to these problematic artists’ selection methods. At the same time, I want to narrate this common feeling of artists who are in the similar situation as me.

Q: HOW WOULD THE CIRCA PRIZE OF £30,000 IMPACT YOUR FUTURE PRACTICE?

This prize will be a great help to my future practice. Not only will it provide me with financial support for making projects, it also will bring me a lot of confidence and motivation.

FOLLOW NING ZHOU ON INSTAGRAM