Zhang Jianjun. Scholar’s Rock (The Mirage Garden). Ink Art: Past as Present in Contemporary China (2013). Metropolitan Museum December 11, 2013–April 6, 2014
Collision, Process, and Integration: Temporal Elements in Zhang Jianjun’s Material Art
Every material is endowed with its unique temperament. Different materials possess various elements and arouse divergent feelings in the audience.
In this art history research, I explained the temporal elements in Zhang Jianjun’s material artworks from the lens of culture sociology. The evolution of materials in contemporary Chinese art epitomizes the drastic conflict between the ancient culture and the modern one.
This paper is included in the exhibition Human Traces: Zhang Jianjun sponsored by the Hong Kong K11 Art Foundation.
Time 2021 Spring
Methodology One-on-one interview and desk research
Highlights
Abstract
Zhang Jianjun has commenced on his experiment of Material Art to convey his artistic conception since his peregrination to Dunhuang. The journey marks a watershed in his art career where he initiated the mediation on Taoism and embedding rational thinking in material instead of clinging to the Fauvist painting he majored in before graduation. In the facet of media, an extended range of materials could be perceived during the progression of Zhang’s career, from pebble, wood, rope, and ink to water, fire, rain, and silicon. From the aspect of artistic concepts, Zhang’s preoccupation with time is one of the most salient among all his rational thoughts encoded in these materials. In this essay, I seek to analyze how Zhang enciphers three major topics on time which are the collision of the past and present, the exploration of the ephemeral and the eternal, and human integration into the temporal space in his Material Art with Iconicity, a cultural sociological concept.
Artworks Studied
Xu Bing’s Monumental “Phoenix” at Saint John the Divine
Liu Jianhua’s Regular/Fragile Collection
Cai Guoqiang’s Borrowing Your Enemy's Arrows
Zhang Jianjun. Scholar’s Rock (The Mirage Garden). Ink Art: Past as Present in Contemporary China (2013). Metropolitan Museum December 11, 2013–April 6, 2014
Zhang Jianjun’s Rubbing Rain Series
Zhang Jianjun’s Rubbing Sun Series
Zhang Jianjun’s Human Beings and their Clock