Zhang Huan

by Yilmaz Dziewior, Zhang Huan, Roselee Goldberg

Zhang Huan has emerged as one of the most important artists of the past decade, a fearless explorer of the limits of the human body and a key figure in the flourishing Chinese art scene. His earliest performances, including 12 Square Meters, 65 Kilograms, and To Raise the Water-Level in a Fishpond, subjected his body to grueling tests of endurance while addressing the relationship between physical endurance and spiritual tranquility.

Zhang 's move to New York in 1998 contributed to establish himself as a widely recognized figure in the international contemporary art world, staging performances in several cities around the globe, including Sydney, Rome, Shanghai and Hamburg where he reflected on his experiences in the cities he visited and his ethnic identity in a foreign land.

In 2006 Zhang established a studio in Shanghai, where he began to seek a greater connection to Chinese heritage and history. This marked a new direction in his work, as he turned from performance to sculpture, painting, and installation. Through creating large-scale sculpture in diverse media, such as ash from local Buddhist temples, and with found objects, such as doors from the Chinese countryside homes, Zhang Huan continues to explore new ways to render his interest in the body and its language.

A significant aspect of Zhang's new work revolves around his interest in Buddhism. Although Buddhist themes figured indirectly into his early work, they took on a more prominent role after a visit to Tibet in 2005. There, Zhang began to collect fragments of Buddhist sculptures, which he then used as models for massive copper figures. Upon his return to Shanghai, Zhang Huan began to collect ash from local Buddhist temples for use in sculptures and paintings. The use of burnt incense, the product of religious offerings, strengthens the link between his art and Buddhist practices

Genres: Art

160 pages, Paperback

First published June 13, 2009

Reviews

[Grady · Rating 5 out of 5]

Highly Informative and Visually Satisfying Monograph of an Important Performance Artist

ZHANG HUAN is perhaps best known for his performances and installations in the prestigious Art Fairs throughout the world. Writing about performance art can be a challenge but fortunately this monograph benefits from the informed minds of fine critics who for one of the few times make his art form intelligible to the reader.

Zhang Huan is not only a performance artist, though there are few who equal his ingenuity and ever evolving finesse of that medium. He is also a fine painter, creating images from not only traditional materials, but also from incense ashes. His large sculptural works reference his Chinese home and inheritance. Among these are his enormous Buddha of Steel Life of Steel and Copper, Hero No.1 and Giant No.1 of Cowskin, Steel, Wood and Polystyrene Foam, and his Buddha leg, head, hand, and foot. Among the well known installations are the room of monumental Buddhas - both of steel and of ash, the latter being torn down as part of a performance, Canal Building 2008, Ash, Steel and Wood, and his inked faces and bodies both solo and in large groups, the groups at times standing on ground or partially submerged in water. His `Window' is both a performance and a photographic depiction of several encounters with a donkey in stages of man/animal intimacy.

The very helpful articles in this beautifully designed monograph are by such luminaries as Yilmaz Dziewior, RoseLee Goldberg, Robert Storr and Zhang Huan himself. Though the cover of the book shows several aspects of this amazingly gifted artist's avenues of communication (given the shock value of the artist's image), the book itself is the finest publication yet on the variety of expression Zhang Huan is bringing to the art world. Highly recommended.

Grady Harp