Heliang Zhou

Heliang Zhou is a Chinese visual artist based in London with a professional background in visual communication and contemporary jewellery. His interdisciplinary approach to art informs his narrative and communicative style, transcending specific materials and forms. Using humour and irony, he creates thought-provoking pieces that examine subtleties and inherent properties in human interactions. Through his art, Heliang seeks to foster a space for contemplation and reflection on the complexities of human relationships.

The series Temporary Props explores hidden desires in objectified human relationships, attempting to reveal the secrets hidden beneath the surface of our everyday lives and inviting the audience to interact with their inner world. Heliang transforms daily objects into symbolic metaphors intended to satirise objectification in various kinds of relationships. These include social relationships, as well as those between lovers, between parents and children, and the self-relationship. He focuses on the complexity of these different human relationships and the way they each display a form of objectification.

In Heliang's opinion, the process of objectification is a distortion of the philosophers Deleuze and Guattari’s description of a society as a 'desiring machine', commenting through the work on the potential dangers of desiring-production, when desire is disconnected from its positive, generative potential and instead becomes an instrument of domination and control.