Parasites are inherently regarded as purely negative, destructive, and subtractive in their relations. Perceived as threats or contaminants or undesirable agents, are largely associated with their metaphorical associations of taking without giving back. In the binary world of ‘us’ vs ‘them’, giving and taking is exclusively unidirectional, with hosts always playing the role of the contributor, and guests the benefactor. Parasite (物流) challenges this unidirectionality by considering how every medium of exchange, movement, flow of information generates new relationships and forms new hierarchies. Gary Zhexi Zhang’s ‘parasite’ assumes a different role (no longer a purely negative figure) as it diverts and siphons from the exchange, and in turn adds to the possibilities of new relationships being formed. At each level of parasitism, the individual is already involved in several relationships of exchange, playing the role of host and guest simultaneously, introducing the possibility of a quasi-equal relationship amongst actors, which prompts us to reconsider the political and ethical implications of the relationships, alterity and otherness. In other words, it is now impossible to decide who is the parasite and who is the host, who is the same and who is the other, who is the giver and who is the receiver.

Gary Zhexi Zhang Parasite (物流)
Single-channel video
2018
Duration: 9:58

Gary Zhexi Zhang is an artist interested in unstable knowledge; over the past few years his research has been concerned with parafictions, systems theories and planning technologies. As a writer and editor, he is currently working on a book about financial fictions and catastrophic time, to be completed in 2022. Recent and upcoming exhibitions and screenings include his first solo presentation, Cycle 25 at Bloc Projects Sheffield (co-commissioned by Arts Catalyst); Liquid Ground at Para Site, Hong Kong; Participation Mystique at Ming Contemporary Art Museum, Shanghai; The Swamp School at the Venice Architecture Biennale and Cross-feed at Glasgow International 2018. He co-runs collaborative studio Foreign Objects and is a resident at Somerset House Studios.

Text | ‘A Tapeworm without a Gut’ by Gary Zhexi Zhang, 2016.

Text | ‘Other Minds’ by Gary Zhexi Zhang, Frieze Magazine, July 2017.

Image: Gary Zhexi Zhang, Parasite (物流) film still. Single-channel video, 2018, Duration: 9:58