Art Los Angeles Contemporary 2017: Huang Rui

Beijing artist Huang Rui at the Art Contemporary Los Angeles 2017 performance of his hour-long work, “Ping Pong.” (photo by Ali Zandi / Meniscus Magazine)

The nearly hour-long event started late because the stage was being set up with nails. Huang Rui spent a good 15 minutes setting up paddles in which he tied down using the nails they had drilled into the pedestal. (photo by Ali Zandi / Meniscus Magazine)

Once the paddles were locked into place, Huang Rui slowly climbed and emerged standing on top of the stack of paddles, holding a ping pong ball and looking ominously down on the crowd. (photo by Ali Zandi / Meniscus Magazine)

A female dancer moved ambiguously to a droning cello. She emerged with tapestry that with Mao Zedong’s and Richard Nixon’s faces on them – a nod to the “ping-pong diplomacy” days of the 1970’s. (photo by Ali Zandi / Meniscus Magazine)

Huang Rui then took the tapestries and nail-gunned them to canvas, which he then hung up onto the walls. He then poured black and white paint onto the paddles, dipping two ping pong balls into the paint, and then placing the painted balls in the opposing paint puddles. (photo by Ali Zandi / Meniscus Magazine)

The final product. After Huang Rui’s performance of “Ping Pong,” the crowd was invited to use the paddles and hit table tennis balls at the wall. (photo by Ali Zandi / Meniscus Magazine)

Video: Art Los Angeles Contemporary 2017: Huang Rui – “Ping Pong”
video by Wade-Hahn Chan / Meniscus Magazine