ICA is closed from the 30 May – 3 June inclusive.
Credit: Gary Zhexi Zhang, Ocean Briefings, 2023. ⓒ Busan Biennale Organizing Committee
ICA and Conditions host a talk by artist and writer Gary Zhexi Zhang.
A successful artistic practice benefits from being autonomous, coherent and legible. But the world is none of these things. This talk will consider the styles of ontological instability, hybrid methodologies and accidental alliances adequate to an inchoate world. It will attempt to think about: what lives in the gulf between contemporary art and its claims? What would it mean for a practice to move upstream in the supply chains of culture, to be complicit in its own instrumentalisation, or to start looking for an exit? What forms of practice will emerge from the politics and poetics of a multipolar world?
Gary Zhexi Zhang (who does not hold any of these answers) will examine his working process and the trajectory of his practice in order to try and understand what is going on.
A successful artistic practice benefits from being autonomous, coherent and legible. But the world is none of these things. This talk will consider the styles of ontological instability, hybrid methodologies and accidental alliances adequate to an inchoate world. It will attempt to think about: what lives in the gulf between contemporary art and its claims? What would it mean for a practice to move upstream in the supply chains of culture, to be complicit in its own instrumentalisation, or to start looking for an exit? What forms of practice will emerge from the politics and poetics of a multipolar world?
Gary Zhexi Zhang (who does not hold any of these answers) will examine his working process and the trajectory of his practice in order to try and understand what is going on.
Gary Zhexi Zhang is an artist and writer whose work explores connections between cosmology, technology and economy. He was born in Suzhou and works in London. He recently edited a book of fictions, essays and interviews about finance and time Catastrophe Time! (Strange Attractor Press, 2023). The opera he co-created with Waste Paper Opera, Dead Cat Bounce, premiered at Somerset House in 2022. His last solo exhibition Cycle 25 documented events that blur the boundaries between speculative belief and the material world, like natural disasters, scam nations and cosmic economies. Recent group shows include: Sea Art Festival 2023, Busan; Katabasis, Totalab, Shanghai; Liquid Ground, UCCA Dune, Beidaihe & Para Site, Hong Kong; The Principle of Hope, Inside Out Art Museum, Beijing.
06:30 pm
Wed, 28 Feb 2024
Cinema 1
Ticket information
- All tickets that do not require ID (full price, disabled, income support) can be printed at home or stored in email
- For aged-based concession tickets (under 25, student and pensioner) please bring relevant ID to collect at the front desk before the event.
Access information
Cinema 1
- Both our Cinemas have step free access from The Mall and are accessible by ramp
- We have 1 wheelchair allocated space with a seat for a companion
- All seats are hard back, have a crushed velvet feel and they do not recline
- These are our seat size dimensions: W 42 x D 45 x H 52
- Arm rest either side of the seat dimensions: L 27 x W 7 x H 20
for the following requirements:
- We have unassigned seating. If you require a specific seat, please reserve this in advance
- Free for visitors where ticket prices are a barrier, please email
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Gary Zhexi Zhang
no. 236848.