Feature Stories

January 15, 2020

Emerging Artist Award winner Cheng Ran celebrates successful first UK solo exhibition

Cheng Ran’s first UK solo exhibition Diary of a Madman: Manchester Plan, New Bees was presented at the Centre for Chinese Contemporary Art (CFCCA). The exhibition ended on January 12 and was a great success.

His latest work is a multi-channel installation filmed entirely in Greater Manchester and is the outcome of a short residency with CFCCA in 2019. Interested in the idea of ‘otherness’, Cheng uses cinematic techniques to look at the ways we experience new cities and their unfamiliar geographies and living spaces. In the video, he explores the city of Manchester from the perspective of a visitor and a stranger, drawing attention to the myths and fabrications that inform our understanding of place.