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Lot Essay
Performance and conceptual artist Zhang Huan has pursued an aesthetic of extremes, propelling him as a global phenomenon. His works demonstrate a kind of morbid existentialism and an on-going interest in spiritual meanings, with the body in its fragile and mortal state as the perfect site of the tension between individual and collective, material and spiritual, ephemeral and timeless.
The fundamental philosophical interest of Zhang's - What connects the individual experience to something larger - has critically returned to paintings with profound Chinese culture in late 2000s. Born in 1965, Zhang experienced years of family hardship and deprivation as a kid, his recent works has paradoxically returned to his cultural past indissolubly bound to history. He created his photorealistic ash paintings instigate with his personal collection of vintage photographs from 1950 to 1980. China Flag No.2 (Lot 351) depicts a wavy grey-toned flag, made by dusting incense ash across the linen surface. The incense ash is collected from Buddhist temples near Shanghai, sorted into patchwork palettes of different tones and grades, and then dusted across the surface of the painting. Incense ash symbolizes religion, belief and dreams for Chinese people, conveying blessing and respect. Zhang says, "To me, ash carries unseen sedimentary residue, and tremendous human data about the collective and individual subconscious. We select materials as message-carries to reconnect with the spiritual world outside of our everyday life. Incense burning touches and awakens the spiritual impulse embedded deeply in our subconscious. The task, for me, is to solidify these remains of the spiritual life, and allow this evidence somehow to haunt my pictorial depictions of historical events, people or earthly symbols." Ash embraces a complex reading links to aura of vanishing, and mirrors the suspension of the substantial (incense) and insubstantial (burning of incense), reflecting the perpetually disappearing and renewing of the present. The pieces inherit, too, a sense of synthetic theatricality and a halo of alienation from the reconstruction of the historical image.
The fundamental philosophical interest of Zhang's - What connects the individual experience to something larger - has critically returned to paintings with profound Chinese culture in late 2000s. Born in 1965, Zhang experienced years of family hardship and deprivation as a kid, his recent works has paradoxically returned to his cultural past indissolubly bound to history. He created his photorealistic ash paintings instigate with his personal collection of vintage photographs from 1950 to 1980. China Flag No.2 (Lot 351) depicts a wavy grey-toned flag, made by dusting incense ash across the linen surface. The incense ash is collected from Buddhist temples near Shanghai, sorted into patchwork palettes of different tones and grades, and then dusted across the surface of the painting. Incense ash symbolizes religion, belief and dreams for Chinese people, conveying blessing and respect. Zhang says, "To me, ash carries unseen sedimentary residue, and tremendous human data about the collective and individual subconscious. We select materials as message-carries to reconnect with the spiritual world outside of our everyday life. Incense burning touches and awakens the spiritual impulse embedded deeply in our subconscious. The task, for me, is to solidify these remains of the spiritual life, and allow this evidence somehow to haunt my pictorial depictions of historical events, people or earthly symbols." Ash embraces a complex reading links to aura of vanishing, and mirrors the suspension of the substantial (incense) and insubstantial (burning of incense), reflecting the perpetually disappearing and renewing of the present. The pieces inherit, too, a sense of synthetic theatricality and a halo of alienation from the reconstruction of the historical image.