10 Questions with Erica Zhan

Erica Zhan is an interdisciplinary artist and writer born in the southeastern hills of China and currently based in Chicago, US. They employ performance, moving images, installation, and writing to explore games, sports, competitions, and playfulness in the context of consumerism. Zhan graduated from the MA program in Visual and Critical Studies at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. This year, Zhan is a resident of the GlogauAIR Online Program and Ox-bow Longform. Lately, their work won the 1st Prize in the 7th Midwest Open hosted by Woman Made Gallery. They have exhibited and performed at various venues, including the International Museum of Surgical Science, Women Made Gallery, ACRE Projects Gallery, Gene Siskel Film Center, Comfort Station, No Nation Art Lab and others. Additionally, Zhan writes poetry, fiction, and art criticism, with art reviews published primarily in The Art Newspaper China (rebranded as The Art Journal in 2024).

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ARTIST STATEMENT

Erica Zhan is an interdisciplinary artist and writer from the southeastern hills of China, currently based in Chicago, US. Swallowed by their exhaustion of professionalism and standardization, Zhan acts as a rule hacker and an alternative player in their practice. Their works employ performances, moving images, photographs, and writing to interrogate the dynamics of game, competition, training, and system. Zhan explores the paradigm of contemporary sports, as well as the vulnerability shaped by discipline and regulation. They are drawn to navigate performativity and participation in their works, involving the body and the audience to build intimate dialogues. By using low-tech language and parodic methods, Zhan wants to scrutinize the zones of freedom in human society that have been eroded by professionalism.

INTERVIEW

Please introduce yourself and your work to our readers. Who are you, and what is your practice about?

I'm Erica Zhan, an interdisciplinary artist and writer from the southeastern hills of China. My practice engages with sports, competition, and game structures as a lens to examine broader societal dynamics. Through performance, moving images, writing, and experimental publishing, I explore how rules shape behavior, how competition constructs identity, and how systems of power manifest in play.
My work often involves audience participation and improvisation, treating performance as a space to test and disrupt existing structures. I'm particularly interested in reconfiguring games—not just as entertainment but as social and political frameworks that can be rewritten. While much of my work draws from sports, I see competition as a larger paradigm that extends beyond the athletic arena, influencing labor, discipline, and everyday interactions. My recent projects have investigated the mythology of professional sports, the emotional investment of spectatorship, and alternative forms of play that resist professionalization.

How did your upbringing in the southeastern hills of China influence your creative journey? And how did your work change once you moved to Chicago?

Growing up in an inland city in southern China, I witnessed the urbanization of economically underdeveloped regions and the rise of consumer society. While I don't intentionally foreground this in my work, the cultural mundanity and competitive survival mindset of such environments have indirectly shaped my critical engagement with competition, systems, and consumerism.
After moving to Chicago, my focus shifted from critical writing to a more embodied, event-driven artistic practice. Previously, I contributed reporting and criticism to Chinese art media, but in Chicago, I became deeply invested in creating interactive and improvisational live performances, expanding their core ideas into moving images, experimental writing, and photography. This transition was largely influenced by Chicago's artist communities and its diverse, supportive creative ecosystem.

In Chicago, you attended the Visual and Critical Studies program at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. How did this academic experience shape your perspective as both an artist and a writer?

The Visual and Critical Studies (VCS) project was pivotal in transforming my practice, shifting my focus from traditional critical writing to a more experimental, embodied form of art-making. VCS provided an interdisciplinary environment where theoretical inquiry merged seamlessly with performance, moving images, and interactive experiences—paving the way for new ways to interrogate systems of power, competition, and identity.
For instance, my video work "Teeth Gymnastics" parodies online facial yoga tutorials alongside the rhythmic structure of Chinese school radio calisthenics. By exaggerating and distorting these familiar formats, the piece examines the tension between bodily discipline, emotion, and vulnerability, prompting viewers to reconsider societal expectations around self-improvement and control. This work's success—garnering first place at Woman Made Gallery's "7th Midwest Open" in Chicago—reinforced the value of a research-driven yet performative approach.
Another example is my recent performance, "How to Become a Professional Artist" (2025). This work interrogates the commercialization and rigid standards of the art industry by inviting the audience to collaboratively construct an artist's professional identity. Through interactive prompts and voting, elements like resumes, artist statements, and portraits are generated, inscribed on my body, and ultimately ingested using edible materials—symbolizing the overwhelming pressures of self-branding and market commodification. The performance uses humor and self-sabotage to challenge who truly defines an artist's identity.
Overall, this grad program has been instrumental in expanding my creative vocabulary. It allowed me to blend critical theory with hands-on experimentation, ultimately evolving my work into a dynamic exploration of how play, disruption, and performance can reconfigure our understanding of art and its institutional structures.

Teethgraphy, handmade artist book, 148 x 210 cm, 2024 © Erica Zhan

Nowadays, your practice spans performance, moving images, photography, and writing. How do you choose which medium to use for a particular idea or concept?

I roughly divide my work into live and non-live categories. In live works—such as performances involving improvisation and interaction—I see them as a form of time re-compilation. The exaggeration, distortion, or rupture of an everyday action becomes a means of escaping capitalist labor time. If I imagine an event unfolding in my mind but don't wish to control it entirely, I opt for performance as my medium.
On the other hand, mediums like moving images, archives, and photography ultimately solidify time rather than unfolding it. I often use them for research-heavy projects as a way to fragment and reconstruct historical time—whereas performance, in contrast, deals with present and future time. My project, Whole Olympics Catalog, for instance, involves compiling archival materials, fictional rulebooks, and visual reinterpretations of Olympic events. Here, the archival format allows me to manipulate history, inserting speculative futures into existing sports narratives.
Writing, however, seems to be an exception. I'm not sure how to categorize it. Perhaps it emerges unconsciously whenever I seek comfort or security—since writing was my first home. Even when working with performance or image-making, I often return to writing as a way to anchor my ideas before translating them into other forms.

You describe yourself as a "rule hacker" and "alternative player." What do you mean, and how do these concepts influence your work?

These descriptions originally stem from my research and practice related to games and competition. I have long been interested in the revival of playfulness, the dynamics of control within rules, and critiques of professionalism. In a game environment, the power dynamic between rules and players determines the degree of freedom and democracy within the game world. Strict rules can transform playtime into labor, yet without rules, a game cannot exist. My approach is toencourage rule-breaking, theft, and modification within my works—restoring the player's agency and subjectivity.
This concept extends beyond games into other systems, such as social structures, industrial standards, and procedural regulations. This logic also appears in my critiques of professionalism, consumerism, and standardization: when a tightly controlled system experiences a minor parameter change, will the rest of the structure begin to unravel due to a glitch, exposing the raw mechanisms of control beneath? By inviting audiences to participate in these disruptions, I hope to create temporary spaces where new forms of play—and new ways of relating to rules—can emerge.

or lighter than a goose feather, Sealed plastic bags, labels, paper, pens, Dimension variable, 2023 © Erica Zhan

Speaking of your work, it often involves performativity and audience participation. Can you describe your creative process when conceptualizing such interactive pieces?

My process usually begins with questioning conventional structures of play, sports, or competition. I look at existing games, their rules, and the behaviors they cultivate, then try to subvert or reimagine them in ways that encourage alternative interactions. I often start with simple provocations—what happens if a game has no winner? What if a sport prioritizes slowness instead of speed? From there, I experiment with physical props, spatial configurations, and prompts that encourage audience agency. I see participation not as an obligation but as an invitation, leaving room for interpretation, negotiation, and even refusal. The final work often emerges from these collective encounters, rather than being predetermined.

Your exploration of contemporary sports, competition, and discipline is fascinating. What draws you to these paradigms, and how do you see them reflecting broader societal dynamics?

I'm drawn to sports because they serve as microcosms of larger societal structures—governed by rules, rewards, and penalties that shape behavior and identity. The Olympics, in particular, fascinates me as a global spectacle where nationalism, capitalism, and human performance intersect in highly controlled ways. I see competition as both a framework of control and a cultural obsession, dictating not only sports but also education, labor, and even social interactions. By dissecting and reconfiguring these structures in my work, I aim to reveal the ideological underpinnings of competition and offer alternative modes of engagement that emphasize collectivity, unpredictability, and play.

Whole Olympics Catalog, Inkjet print on papers, Dimension Variable, 2024 © Erica Zhan

You often incorporate low-tech language and parodic methods in your work. What motivates this stylistic choice, and how does it help you achieve your artistic goals?

I gravitate toward low-tech aesthetics and parody because they create accessibility, humor, and a sense of defamiliarization. Parody allows me to engage with familiar formats—such as rulebooks, training drills, or sports commentary—while twisting them into something absurd or contradictory. This approach disrupts ingrained expectations, inviting participants to navigate the work on their own terms, often oscillating between seriousness and playfulness.
For instance, in My Prescription is a Long Confession, I simulate both the repetitive motions of traditional Chinese gua sha therapy and the hypnotic cadence of psychotherapy. By subverting these well-known practices, the work sparks conversations about bodily care, belief systems, and psychological conditioning, encouraging viewers to rethink the rituals that shape our understanding of health and identity. This piece was exhibited at 4C Gallery in San Francisco in 2024, where it received critical recognition for its experimental approach, engaging audiences in discussions about medical authority and self-care as a constructed practice.

Having recently been a resident at GlogauAIR and Ox-Bow Longform, what insights or new directions have these residencies brought to your practice?

These two residency programs had vastly different atmospheres. The online residency at GlogauAIR provided me with the opportunity to connect and exchange ideas with a diverse group of international artists. With the support of curators, I further developed my ongoing project, Whole Olympics Catalog, which merges my interest in the Olympic Games and sports competitions with the format of commercial catalogs. This project represents a new exploration of historical archives and print media. Toward the end of the residency, I presented my ideas and outcomes through open studios and an online presentation, engaging the public in the work's conceptual framework.
In contrast, Ox-Bow offered a more relaxed, communal living environment, prompting me to reflect more deeply on community-based artistic practices. During my time there, I spent a great deal of time observing how play and interaction in everyday life contribute to community-building. This experience indirectly influenced my next residency at the Ragdale Foundation, which I recently completed. On the final day of my stay at Ragdale, I organized a participatory performance game, Step by Step, where flexible rule changes encouraged players to negotiate competition and cooperation strategies, ultimately reclaiming agency within the game. Each of these residencies has significantly expanded the depth and range of my artistic practice, allowing me to explore new forms of engagement and expression.

Debate, Durational participatory performance, 2024 © Erica Zhan

Looking ahead, are there specific projects, themes, or experiments you're particularly excited to explore in the near future?

Looking ahead, I'm particularly excited about my upcoming two-month residency in Lithuania, which will be the longest residency I've participated in so far. During this time, I plan to create a video essay that delves into the dynamics of sports competition, the emotional landscape of spectatorship, and the mythology surrounding athletes. This project will be an opportunity for me to further explore the moving image as a medium, particularly in relation to my ongoing research on play, performance, and the structures of competition. I'm interested in how visual storytelling can capture the intensity, rituals, and narratives embedded in sports culture while also questioning its underlying ideologies.

Artist’s Talk

Al-Tiba9 Interviews is a promotional platform for artists to articulate their vision and engage them with our diverse readership through a published art dialogue. The artists are interviewed by Mohamed Benhadj, the founder & curator of Al-Tiba9, to highlight their artistic careers and introduce them to the international contemporary art scene across our vast network of museums, galleries, art professionals, art dealers, collectors, and art lovers across the globe.

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