Zhang Miao's (1985) work  is strongly influenced by the post-modern, often American, architectural theory of the 1990s. Architectural authors like Rem Koolhaas (Delirious New York 1978, S M L XL 1995), Roberto Venturi (Learning from Las Vegas 1972) or John Hejduk (Such Places as Memory. Poems 1998) are of great importance to the Beijing based artist Zhang Miao, because they do not only build their architecture, but also try to explain in writing what kind of architecture they pursue and what the profession means to them. For these architects, architecture is a drawing, a text, a film, a real building and a sculpture at the same time, a work of art that can be used by the people, who look at it as a spectator, use it as a resident or discuss it as art critics would do. This lack of dividing lines and subdivisions in disciplines is a pleasant characteristic of Zhang Miao's work. In doing so, he crosses the Chinese national borders as a matter of course, already a political position of importance at this moment in time. In his work, it is impossible to know whether he has made a wall object as a painting, a sculptural relief, an architectural model or a toy, that is how far he goes in relativizing the different art forms. In Zhang Miao's mind, the museum visitor is not just a church-goer who has entered the temple of art, but the visitor inhabits, looks at and discusses the art, uses it as it were, and the function of the visitor is as fluid as the meaning of the objects Zhang Miao presents. This is not to say that his work is totally incomprehensible or perfectly relativistic. On the contrary, he wants to urge us to take a position. He wants the viewer to realise that every aspect of the object is meant, is made by the artist to be contemplated, looked at, and marvelled at, and to enjoy the colours and textures. Not only the theory, but also the making itself is of great importance to Zhang Miao, because he considers artistry as a whole of thinking and doing. How do you as a spectator react to the object and how would you give language to that? This is a subject that interests Zhang Miao immensely. Some homework for a visitor, but it's worth the effort to have a serious look at this Chinese avant-garde artist!