In Just a Blink of an Eye
XU ZHEN®
徐震®
Production date
2005-2014
Object Detail
Media
performance
Measurements
dimensions and duration variable
Notes
A performance piece, In Just a Blink of an Eye (2005) appears to defy the laws of gravity; the impossible becomes, apparently, possible. Two figures are bent back, arms outstretched, heads tilted backwards, as if caught in mid-fall. Time itself seems to be suspended. Supported by a concealed metal brace, each performer holds a position that would in reality last for a fraction of a second, but here is held for the length of the performance. When first performed, Xu Zhen’s falling figures were illegal immigrants he encountered in New York’s Chinatown, thus posing questions about their marginalised status in a liminal zone between home and the mythical ‘gold mountain’ of the USA. Faced with this intersection of the real and the virtual, in the realm of the imagination, we are required to suspend our disbelief.
Accession number
2013.266