Max Protetch Gallery is pleased to present the North American premiere of two videos by Chinese artist Gao Shiqiang. Great Bridge (2007) will be screened in the gallery from November 7 through November 26; this work had its world premeire at the 2008 Gwangju Biennale, curated by Okwui Enwezor. Faint With Oxygen (2008) will be on view from December 2 through December 23. Also on view will be a selection of Gao’s photographs.

Great Bridge, shot in black-and-white, uses the Nanjing Bridge as a contemporary lens through which to view 20th century Chinese history. A symbol of nationalistic pride, the bridge was built over the Yangtze River in the 1960s. Gao’s film centers around a middle-aged man in a domestic setting. Fragments of memories of the past intersect with the static central narrative, as do scenes of a group of young academics discussing the legacy of Nanjing Bridge. A ghostly female voice whispers ‘daqiao’, another name for the bridge, throughout the work.

Gao created Faint With Oxygen as the result of an invitation to produce a work on the Tibetan plateau. The video begins with a series of close-up portraits of shepherds in high grasslands, focusing eventually on a young man, Gairi Luosong Gelai, who was forced to teach himself Chinese by listening to the radio. While the work takes a panoramic look at a particular landscape and its inhabitants, it also examines the way language can spark the cultural imagination.

Gao Shiqiang (b. 1971) works and lives in Hangzhou, China. His work has been shown in major exhibitions throughout Asia, including the Guangzhou Triennial and the Gwangju Biennale.