ZHANG Lei was born in Jinan, Shandong and graduated from Shandong Institute of Arts & Design in Shandong with a B.A. and postgraduate degrees from the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing and the Burg Giebichenstein College of Art and Design in Halle, Germany. Her works are represented in numerous international solo and group exhibitions, in Germany and the US. Here in her installation, she uses the feminine allure of long eyelashes and the fierce torment of meat cleavers to suggest the violence against women. She takes intricate fringed strings and hangs them from the ceiling, and then anchors them to a great array of meat choppers. ZHANG grew up under great duress during the Cultural Revolution, her father was sent away from the family to the outskirts of Beijing and she and her mother and sisters were sent to their hometown in Shandong.
