Ming Zhao is a Chinese artist/maker and writer. She graduated from the Industrial Design department of Jiangnan University in 2016. After finishing her studies in China, she moved to London to pursue her Masters at the Royal College of Art in Jewellery and Metal. During this time, she has exhibited in many local and international exhibitions.
Zhao’s work can be described as, being on a fine line between fine art and design. Her artistic process is diverse and her practice isn’t restricted by forms. She uses multiple mediums from metalwork to glasswork and photography. Similarly, she likes combing traditional skills with readymade and mass produced objects in order to create her vision.
Artistically, she describes herself as an ‘outsider’, which helps her take advantage of the observer’s point of view. Inspired by phenomenology and its modern developed philosophies, her ideas and objects provoke deeper conversations into the depths of meaning, while challenging the aesthetics hidden in commonplaces.
Her recent work, ‘Everyone is this one’ and ‘A Story about Metaphor’ are inspired by Heidegger’s “Broken Tool” theories. By manipulating the process of photography, such as placing foreign objects in the camera and replacing flat paper with three-dimensional objects, Zhao interrupts the functionality of photography in order to simulate the possibility of photography as the art of light tracing, which is usually hidden behind the myth of perfect photographic rules.
Ming Zhao continues to live and work in London, where she is currently doing a PhD at the Royal College of Art.