Buddha, ash and donkeys. Conceptual sculptures by Zhang Huan

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

Chinese artist Zhang Huan is considered not only one of the most prominent nonconformists of contemporary art, but also one of the most successful creators from the Middle Kingdom, who managed to break through the "Iron Curtain" and bypass the censorship hanging from the hands and feet of the local authors with heavy shackles. We already wrote about Hope Tunnel installations, which Zhang Huan dedicated to the 2008 earthquake in Beijing, but he also has a whole gallery of unusual sculptures, which will be discussed today. Zhang Huan began his work in a small art community known as the "Beijing East Village" located in the outskirts of the city. A group of friends from the art school, where the artist was studying at the time, often received reprimands from local officials for the inappropriateness of their actions. Censorship does not sleep! That is why, as soon as there was a chance to leave his native Shanghai and move to New York, Zhang Huan immediately seized the opportunity. Now he lives and works for two houses, and exhibitions of his sculptures, paintings, installations and photographs are held all over the world.

This artist is called a master of metamorphosis and an unconventional Buddhist. While the rest of the Buddha are worshiping, Zhang Huan reproduces his image in steel and ash, cowhide and clay, wood and other materials with which he works. Moreover, for years he has been collecting ashes for his sculptures in the temples of Shanghai and Tibet - ashes from lamps and incense burners, which smells of incense and traditional aromas of Buddhist temples. This material, according to the artist, contains the power of prayers and holy spirits, the dust of death and rebirth, as well as the hopes, aspirations and desires of hundreds of people who come to bow to Buddha.

However, in addition to religious sculptures, the author also has less pretentious, but much stranger works. For example, a leather donkey climbing a structure of an undefined type and purpose. By the way, one of these donkeys - white, leather, with feathers on the ridge - once climbed the wall of the Dilya Gallery in Moscow. Or a ragged giant, also made of cowhide and seated in the center of the gallery. Sometimes it seems that the author's task is to shock the audience, make them ask hundreds of questions, the answers to which may not be at all. More works are on the artist's website.