(Alex’s Fabulous Show, Digital Film, 10:41)
Zelffie is a long-term project, primarily produced between 2018 and 2020, but not yet entirely discontinued. Zhang portrays an Asian superstar and collaborates with Ling Liu to develop a multi-dimensional project that investigates the illusion of idealized icon figures. The artists employ social media, pseudo-documentary, and performance to create a young female icon, exploring the meaning and function of Icon Policy, the pseudo-environment of the social media era, and the politics behind this artificial illusion.
Zhang and Liu argue that identity consumerism is a tool used by society—or those in control of it—to regulate cultural systems and stabilize societal perception. In recent years, TV programs such as Produce 101 and Idol Producer have gained immense popularity across East Asia. “Idols” are manufactured as market products to fulfill public fantasies, with the fan market as their primary target. Fans are reduced to cheap labor, acting as third-party agents on the internet, where they massively and repeatedly overshare information.
This market-driven identity consumerism has increasingly standardized and formulaic female identity. The stereotype of the female “idol” has become a publicly accepted ideal, reducing female icons to machines of public entertainment. This phenomenon reflects a surreal and toxic symptom of the current social media landscape. Yet, fans are merely the visible surface of this market; hidden beneath are agencies and the multiple layers of power and interests that Zhang and Liu seek to expose.
