—— Ai Weiwei
A few years later, it was a shocking feeling to read Yang Zhichao's notes about "within the Fourth Ring Road" and "Jiayuguan". Shocked because this man put his body alone in the most difficult realistic situation and had a very unimaginable experience within the specified time. This should be a scene that no one is watching or cheering, and it is certainly not a "performance".
-Wu
I think the value of Yang Zhichao is that his works have no performance at all. After reading his archives, I believe that performance art can be a controlled experimental process in which human beings live in specific fields and forms. ..... As long as we are good at observing, feeling and recording, in fact, each of us can become a performance art-works are our life.
-Reading Yang Zhichao Performance Art Archives from "Within the Fourth Ring Road" to "Jiayuguan" China Youth Daily -Payeva
As early as 20 years ago, Lanzhou was involved in the torrent of experiments. A group performance art-"Rolling Canvas" became the opening work of this city action art.
-"Lanzhou Morning News" "Stick to it, from the standpoint of modern art"
Especially, the work "Planting Grass" not only brought a shocking "visual feast" to the audience, but also set a milestone for China's performance art, but for most people, the impact of this "most avant-garde art" cannot be fully accepted.
-"Children of China". Youth Federation magazine
For a long time, he regarded his body as a testing ground and implemented his works around the extension of various concepts of "body" ... The most touching thing is that when this personal internal force encounters social external force, the tension that broke out from it is the most valuable fulcrum in his works. ...
-Wu Hong,
Yang Zhichao has been looking for the possibility of innovation and breakthrough. As one of the early practitioners of China artists' personal behavior art, he is one of the few people who can calm down in the noise of the outside world, and the thinking context presented in his art files is very clear. Concern for the body and the social value of personal experience are the most distinctive discourse characteristics of his works.
—— Gu Zhenqing
Yang Zhichao's 3,000 China bibles can be read at will, connecting the hearts of viewers and creators ... I appreciate Yang Zhichao's leisurely and spacious installation, which makes the distance between artists and viewers zero.
-Guo Gai
In the late 1990s, Yang Zhichao created a series of high-quality performance art works in Beijing. It is with this persistence and tenacity in art that Yang Zhichao quickly opened up a situation in Beijing contemporary art world and became one of the most representative figures in the performance art world.
-Yang Wei
Mr. Yang Zhichao used his physical behavior to reflect the conflict and collision between an artist and the times ... When a normal person becomes a mental patient in society, is it a merger or a social disease? ..... no bonus, no certificate, this is just my personal tribute to them.
-Wu Youming
Personal essay:
Health has always been my concern. Our body has never been so independent of ourselves ... Today, when everything in the body can be replaced and rebuilt ... it will be related to all production systems in society.
But if you want to explain how ideas come about. How to solve the problem? You have to cut the skin to see it. Thus, human body art came into being. It is like a scalpel, trying to solve people's common problems while solving its own problems.
If performance art doesn't make you feel pain and shock, you will lose your initiative and attention at first, and the second step will make you feel uncomfortable, embarrassed and even angry until you acquiesce and reflect.
For our numb nerves, mental numbness is also a kind of blood, which is no different from the blood of behavior.
The work needs some opposition and curse, which just forms the guardian of the work. In such a complex era of losing confrontation, any works that flaunt clean and pure words are questionable. So the voice of opposition almost proves the establishment and effectiveness of the work.
In my works, I want to show the absurdity and confrontation of life, the contradiction and embarrassment of life, the happiness and pain of life, and the pain is also a kind of happiness. All life will experience pain before dawn.