Mengtai Zhang
SOUND ART 2019
Bio: Mengtai Zhang is a multidisciplinary artist based in New York. Employing sculpture, sound, and simulation technology, his works create ambivalent allegories of power, where personal and sociopolitical factors encounter each other. He is a PhD candidate in Electronic Arts at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. He holds an MFA in Sound Art at Columbia University, an MFA in Fine Arts at School of Visual Arts, and a BA in Fine Art at Goldsmiths, University of London. Mengtai's works have been presented internationally, including IDFA (Netherlands); Sundance Film Festival, New York Fashion Week, NYCEMF, ChaShaMa, Humble Arts Foundation, and Fridman Gallery (US); Times Art Museum, Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism/Architecture, MOCA SJZ, and SNAP (China). Conferences that have programmed Mengtai’s works include New Interfaces for Musical Expression, International Computer Music Conference, and Sound and Music Computing. He has received fellowships from Wave Farm, IDFA DocLab, and Sylff Association.
Thesis Exhibition
Artist Statement: Through observations and reconstructions, I work with ordinary objects and events to question its reality and familiarity. I am interested in digital technology, such as computer generated imagery and audio signal processing, with which my works quantized and mechanized the reality with a certain narrative. They employ multilayered structures, incorporating allegories to create sociopolitical contexts, and encourage the audience to question what is noticed and unnoticed by them.
Short and metaphoric, allegories contain a multiplicity of meanings—propaganda, pedagogy, and caricature within one simple form. Some people say they no longer need allegories, because what is the point of beating around the bush under freedom of speech? Still, is "freedom of speech" equivalent to "speaking the truth"? Whose truth, spoken by whom, to whom, through what means? What kind of interplay of power dynamics, identities, memories and awareness is behind such discourse? Working in the interdisciplinary approach, I look carefully into those questions as something irresolvable in contemporary society.
My thesis work Luna takes on the historical context of Internet addiction in China and narrates a fictional story of a man addicted to the Internet and trapped in Internet Addiction Center. Soon after, he discovers that the director of Internet Addiction Center also runs the internet cafe across the street, and he realizes himself as a victim of the collusion between different ideologies. This work combines personal experiences with found writings, video, and sound, reconstructing memories of the past as a way to speculate modern life in the socalled Internet age.
L to R: >19980 (3’30”, 2channel video projection with stereo sound, 2018)The Visual by Mengtai Zhang, sound by Lemon Guo; Luna ( 10’45”, 2channel video projection with 4channel sound, 2019)Sound in collaboration with Lemon Guo