Zhou Xiaohu on loan from White Rabbit Collection, Sydney. Donated through the Australian Government’s Cultural Gifts Program by Judith Neilson.

Can you take the pressure?

Anxiety is a largely invisible condition that affects one in four people. Using a giant weather balloon, Zhou’s work creates and reveals these feelings of anxiety and pressure hidden just beneath the surface of everyday life. Mimicking and evoking anxiety, Even in Fear slowly builds up the pressure in front of you. Inhaling and exhaling, this endless cycle repeats, stretching, pulling and pushing the edges.

Does this bring your anxieties closer to the surface or release them?

BEWARE: latex and talcum powder!

Zhou Xiaohu was one of the first contemporary artists in China to work experimentally with sculptural ideas of video and animation. Zhou’s work often points out the absurdities of contemporary life, reflecting a world in which technology rules and the media is the pinnacle of propaganda and public influence. With a background in sculpture, oil painting and graphic design, Zhou's work is a dynamic combination of these mediums.