Chinese contemporary artist Zhang Huan
(張洹) garnered an early reputation as somewhat of an enfant terrible of Beijing’s art world. In his breakout 12 Square Meters he examined the tortures of existence by smearing his naked body with fish oil and honey after which he sat for an hour in a
bug-infested latrine. The 1995 To Add One Meter to an Anonymous Mountain (為無名山增高一米) consisted of 10 naked bodies piled on the summit of Miaofengshan (妙峰山) west of Beijing, with nine artists later the same day simulating intercourse with a nearby peak.
Videos of these performance works are currently on view at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Taipei, and form part of a retrospective of Zhang’s oeuvre under the title Amitoufo (阿彌陀佛). The show provides a solid overview of the artist’s career, from his early existential investigations and social critiques to his later Buddhist-inspired sculptures and ash on linen paintings.
Trained as an oil painter at Beijing’s Central Academy of Fine Arts, Zhang became disenchanted by the limitations of the medium and began experimenting with performance art. At this time, Zhang and other like-minded Chinese artists established the Beijing East Village, which enabled
the burgeoning artist to explore his new direction.
But audiences and critics generally met his penchant to perform naked with bafflement or derision, so in 1998 Zhang moved to New York, an environment more amenable to his performance art.
Two videos at MOCA are representative of his New York period. The 1998 Pilgrimage — Wind and Water in New York (朝拜–紐約風水) shows a naked Zhang lying face down on a Ming-style bed that is covered with thick blocks of ice, while My America (Hard to Assimilate) (我的美國) features a naked Zhang sitting on a stool as 60 volunteers, also naked, pelt him with loaves of bread.
The videos suggest the isolation of recent immigrants to New York and subtly poke fun at the city’s (and America’s) multicultural presumptions.
Zhang returned to China and opened a studio in Shanghai in 2006. It was at this time that he became a practicing Buddhist — a spiritual transformation that has informed his work ever since.
Amitoufo’s curator, Yang Shin-Yi (楊心一), does a superb job of showing this remarkable change by juxtaposing Zhang’s revelatory performance videos with his religiously inspired sculptures.
Buddhist influences are manifest in the hanging leather sculpture Cowskin Buddha Face No. 4 (牛皮佛臉4號). The hide is shaped to form the face of Buddha and hints at the inseparable relationship between animal and human, flesh and spirit.
A more general examination of China’s religious heritage can be found in Chinese Civilian & Chinese Warrior (文化部長和國防部長). The 5m-tall sculptures of the gods of literature and war are embedded with Buddhist relics, offering dishes and unburned incense sticks, invoking the ritualistic aspects of religion and its appearance in Zhang’s artistic practice.
There is much else to see in Amitoufo: The 11 ash paintings that examine China’s history from the Republican period until 1970 offer an interesting statement about the country’s public memory and future. But the value of the exhibit lies in the curator’s ability to demonstrate how Zhang channeled the existential angst of his early performance art into the transcendent calmness of his later paintings and sculptures.
The 1990s were a turbulent time for the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) patronage factions. For a look at how they formed, check out the March 2 “Deep Dives.” In the boom years of the 1980s and 1990s the factions amassed fortunes from corruption, access to the levers of local government and prime access to property. They also moved into industries like construction and the gravel business, devastating river ecosystems while the governments they controlled looked the other way. By this period, the factions had largely carved out geographical feifdoms in the local jurisdictions the national KMT restrained them to. For example,
With over 100 works on display, this is Louise Bourgeois’ first solo show in Taiwan. Visitors are invited to traverse her world of love and hate, vengeance and acceptance, trauma and reconciliation. Dominating the entrance, the nine-foot-tall Crouching Spider (2003) greets visitors. The creature looms behind the glass facade, symbolic protector and gatekeeper to the intimate journey ahead. Bourgeois, best known for her giant spider sculptures, is one of the most influential artist of the twentieth century. Blending vulnerability and defiance through themes of sexuality, trauma and identity, her work reshaped the landscape of contemporary art with fearless honesty. “People are influenced by
The remains of this Japanese-era trail designed to protect the camphor industry make for a scenic day-hike, a fascinating overnight hike or a challenging multi-day adventure Maolin District (茂林) in Kaohsiung is well known for beautiful roadside scenery, waterfalls, the annual butterfly migration and indigenous culture. A lesser known but worthwhile destination here lies along the very top of the valley: the Liugui Security Path (六龜警備道). This relic of the Japanese era once isolated the Maolin valley from the outside world but now serves to draw tourists in. The path originally ran for about 50km, but not all of this trail is still easily walkable. The nicest section for a simple day hike is the heavily trafficked southern section above Maolin and Wanshan (萬山) villages. Remains of
April 14 to April 20 In March 1947, Sising Katadrepan urged the government to drop the “high mountain people” (高山族) designation for Indigenous Taiwanese and refer to them as “Taiwan people” (台灣族). He considered the term derogatory, arguing that it made them sound like animals. The Taiwan Provincial Government agreed to stop using the term, stating that Indigenous Taiwanese suffered all sorts of discrimination and oppression under the Japanese and were forced to live in the mountains as outsiders to society. Now, under the new regime, they would be seen as equals, thus they should be henceforth
RSS