Artist Zheng Lu uses a drum to make his work striking

[Photo provided to China Daily]

He says, as Resistance demonstrates, the word "resistance" does not necessarily indicate a negative energy. Obstacles can also be changed into something fun and interesting.

"I am here to provide an alternative way of thinking about the world around us, which is contradictory and also compatible."

The exhibition also showcases other installations, videos and photos created since 2013, including Three Thousand Meters of Woe.

In this work, Zheng binds and twists a 3,000-meter-long stainless steel wire into an irregular formation. It is hung and viewers passing by feel like they are surrounded by a cloud of mist.

"At first, people may feel annoyed by this whole mass of twining circles, being reminded of the tension between them and society," he says. "But gradually, they will start to relax and enjoy the experience."

Zheng says he hopes his art can engage viewers, arousing in them feelings that are either joyful or painful, which they can have only when standing before the works, rather than from looking at photos online.

At the current exhibition, he also showcases Leaving, an installation created earlier this year. In the work, several suitcases stand on the ground, and in each of them is a screen on which rotating videos show grasslands.

The moving images were recorded by Zheng during the past two years when he traveled back to his native Inner Mongolia autonomous region.

The carefree, remote atmosphere of grasslands on the small screens forms a contrast with the cold, metal feel of the suitcases.

"We are the resistance against ourselves sometimes," says Zheng. "We need to crush it."

If you go:

10 am-6 pm, Tuesday-Sunday, through Dec 21. Long Museum (West Bund), 3398 Longteng Avenue, Xuhui district, Shanghai. 021-6422-7636.