He FaPhotography, theatre and film

Artistic practice

He Fa began with photography. Mountain Beyond Mountains (2012) is assembled from many partial photographs. From a distance it reads as a landscape; at close range it separates into different times, focal points and camera positions. The viewer has to move back and forth to read the work between whole and detail.

In Fafalish (2017), made in San Francisco, writing, accent and listening carry a sentence through successive transformations. YourTube (2018) brings images and comments into a space of screens and connected seats. In Shixiang, developed in Beijing, photographing and viewing alternate across repeated encounters. Language, bodily distance and other people’s presence become part of the image.

In 2012, He Fa co-founded Gewu Studio and served as its artistic director. His work within collaborative projects including Twelve Water Lamps encompassed photography, conceptual development, form exploration and artistic direction. This period brought images, objects and space into a shared line of inquiry.

Around 2015, He Fa and Zhang Shaohua initiated P4 Theater in Beijing. Zhang Aoshuang joined its early conception and co-curated the first public performance, Shadow Counterpoint, with He Fa in 2016. He Fa has since continued as P4’s long-term artistic lead and organiser, working in former factories, a small office, a boxing space, bookstores and private rooms.

Howlers on the Rooftop was performed at P4 on 2 January 2021; Iceberg was performed for fifteen spectators inside a small office on 1 January 2022; and Duel Club took place in a boxing space in Chaoyang, Beijing, on 23 October 2021. He Fa’s work across them involved P4 organisation, 3P live documentation, production and collaborative development.

The Last Rehearsal took place at Ciyu Bookstore (Middle Theater branch) on 26 August 2023, and material from the event entered Human Surrender / Shoot Self with You. He Fa completed an approximately 156-minute film cut in 2024 and has since continued to work with its voices, dialogue, frames, short films and writing.