Zhang Huan

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Zhang Huan ( Chinese  張 洹 , Pinyin Zhāng Huán ; * 1965 in Anyang ) is a Chinese artist.

Life

Zhang Huan was in Anyang in the province of Henan was born and spent much of his childhood in the country. In the early 1990s he moved to Beijing , where he graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts with a degree in painting in 1993. Since it first he failed to gain a foothold in the now successful in the West art scene in Beijing, he joined a group of artists in York after New District "East Village" named outskirts of Beijing, where he began, some masochistic appearing performances perform and to be documented photographically or on film. In the late 1990s he achieved his international breakthrough with participation in the Venice Biennale and solo exhibitions in Asia, Europe and the USA. Zhang Huan now lives in Shanghai and New York .

Zhang Huan, Three Heads Six Arms (2008) in Hong Kong

plant

Zhang Huan's works usually address the human body and its relationship to the environment and history, whereby the body itself is physically used and is sometimes exposed to great strain. His best-known works are performances , although he is now also working in the field of sculpture . He has performed both solo performances , such as in the early work 12 Square Meters (1994), recorded by the Chinese photographer Rong Rong , in which he was smeared with honey and fish oil and covered with flies for hours on a public latrine, as well as collaborative actions like the work To Raise the Water Level in a Fishpond (1997), in which Zhang Huan and 40 migrant workers stood naked in a pond near Beijing in order to raise its water level. In many cases, Zhang Huan's works can also be read as metaphors for political and social developments; it is 12 square meters as a comment on the fate of the Chinese poet Ai Qing interpreted in the course of the Cultural Revolution was forced to clean public toilets.

Another well-known work is My New York (2002), in which he walks through New York dressed in a flesh costume. More recent works are increasingly taking up aesthetic references to the history and religion of China, such as large sculptures depicting fragments of Buddha figures and made from symbolically charged materials such as the ashes of incense from temples or animal skins.

Exhibitions (selection)

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Biography ( memento of October 8, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) on the official website
  2. a b c Chinese Art, in One Man's Translation Review by Holland Cotter in New York Times , September 7, 2007
  3. Speaking the Unspeakable ( Memento of October 8, 2007 in the Internet Archive ), essay by Wu Hung, 1999
  4. Based in China ( Memento from February 11, 2013 in the web archive archive.today )
  5. Tangible Metaphors ( Memento of October 8, 2007 in the Internet Archive ), Christina Yu in Next Level , 2004
  6. Great Leap Forward , Alfred Hickling review in The Guardian , March 28, 2007

Bibliography (selection)

Web links