“Beauty Is In The Details: Murmur Woods” Part Of “8 Days Of Persol” Series
Shanghai- and Paris-based Chinese multimedia artist Yi Zhou, whose work was seen last year as part of Phillip Lim’s “4 X 3.1″ project and at Nicola Formichetti’s “Nicola’s” Pop-Up in New York, recently linked up with another big name, Persol, creating a short film for the luxury eyewear brand’s “8 Days of Persol” ad campaign. Included among works by a global assemblage of video artists, such as Dimitri Coste, Grégoire Alexandre, Alistair Taylor-Young and Fabio Paleari, Zhou’s piece, “Beauty is in the Details: Murmur Woods” takes inspiration from German artist Thomas Ruff’s 2003 work with French author Michel Houellebecq, “Nudes.” Filmed in Italy and featuring Princess Clotilde Courau and Prince Emanuele di Savoia, as well as rapid intercuts of abstract video images, Zhou’s short film transcends the typical ad campaign, tackling heady subjects like Zhou’s recent diagnosis of bipolar disorder. Definitely a short worth watching by one of the most interesting Chinese video artists working today.