Chinese artist: Zhang Huan. Visual & Performing Arts Essay

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ZHANG HUAN
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Abstract
China has always been – remains to be – misunderstood. Culturally, China is stereotyped as exotic, if not incomprehensible, by and in Western art and exhibitions. In more recent decades, contemporary Chinese art has been undergoing radical changes in an attempt to reclaim, or perhaps reimagine, China. In a postcolonial, post-Cultural Revolution period, however, Chinese art is hard pressed between official claims on country’s historical art, actual or imagined, to project a New China, and genuine experimentations spearheaded by leading avant-garde artists. In current research project, Zhang Huan epitomizes a new wave of Chinese artists who, in unique subversion of conventional cultural and artistic conventions, redefine Chinese art (and cultural history) for international audiences eager to “decipher” a puzzling China, now in purely native voices. This research project offers a broad overview of underlying dynamics in contemporary Chinese scene, proceeds to present an understanding of postcolonial art in Chinese context, provides an in-depth analysis of origins, influences and meanings in Huan, particularly in using body as and for art, and, finally, wraps up by a general; conclusion.
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Outline
Title: Zhang Huan
Thesis: This research paper aims, accordingly, to examine Zhang Huan as a leading contemporary Chinese performance artist who, using body as and for art, is informed by uniquely native origins and shaped by international art experiences from a postcolonial perspective.
I. Introduction.
Offers a broad overview of underlying dynamics in contemporary Chinese scene.
II. Zhang Huan: Post Colonialism in Context
Present an understanding of postcolonial art in Chinese context.
III. Zhang Huan: The Body Is & For Art
Provides an in-depth analysis of origins, influences and meanings in Huan, particularly in using body as and for art.
IV. Conclusion
Restates main argument.
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Introduction
Typically disruptive, art subverts meaning by reconsidering conventional wisdom. For millennia, China has maintained a highly guarded culture against external intrusions. This has cut across all public and private spaces. In art, Chinese creativity, to an outsider, was – still is – exotic and incomprehensible to eyes used to different modes of artistic viewership and consumption. In more recent years, however, China has been opening up in ways inconceivable only a few decades ago. The growing profile of China as a global international power has repositioned Chinese art in uniquely avant-garde, contemporary perspectives. More specifically, contemporary Chinese artists, particularly ones exposed to Western artistic experiments, can be said to be leading a New Cultural Revolution. Informed by local origins and inspired by increasingly diverse non-Chinese artistic influences, a growing number of Chinese artists have been reshaping Chinese art scene (and influence) for years. For current purposes, and against a postcolonial background, one artist is selected to highlight emerging patterns in contemporary Chinese art in a post (Old) Cultural Revolution period: Zhang Huan. Having modest, rural origins in Central China1, Huan has come to represent a new breed of Chinese artists now reshaping China’s artistic face to a world, in and out of art scene, eager to understand and appreciate Chinese art via a native eye. The performance art Huan has continued to produce independently and collaboratively – since his official debut, according to many accounts, in 1993 by posing naked for Angel exhibition, an exhibition received in mixed response to China’s
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1. “Zhang Huan.” The Art Story, n.d., /artist/zhang-huan/.
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political (i.e. recent June Fourth massacre at Tiananmen Square of 1989) and social (one-child policy) oppression 2 – is insightful, if not representative, of a changing Chinese art scene. To put matters into perspective, a closer look of Huan’s work and influences in context is required. This research paper aims, accordingly, to examine Zhang Huan as a leading contemporary Chinese performance artist who, using body as and for art, is informed by uniquely native origins and shaped by international art experiences from a postcolonial perspective.
Zhang Huan: Post Colonialism in Context
In essence, art is performative. Indeed, art uniquely spearheads cultural and social movements of change. In so doing, art is not only a mere expression but, more important, a critical shaper and influencer of cultural and social changes. From a postcolonial context, art has been imperative to highlight long-standing suppressed identities, ethnicities and, more broadly, native modes of expressions across all public and private spheres. In China, having an intermittent colonial history, art, particularly in post Cultural Revolution period and on, continues to inform increasingly emerging modes of expression in order to, among many issues, bring forth a native Chinese artistic face. Thus, if postcolonial art could be referred to as an “art produced in response to the aftermath of colonial rule, frequently addressing issues of national and cultural identity, race and ethnicity,” 3 contemporary Chinese artists, particularly Huan, do not only recast Chinese art into native lights – as all postcolonial artists do, particularly in countries of long colonial history in Africa and Asia – but, more important, combine native and
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1 “Zhang Huan.”
2 “Postcolonial Art.” Tate, n.d., /art/art-terms/p/postcolonial-art.
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modern (mostly Western) modes of artistic expression in ways inexperienced by outsider (Western) sensibilities.
The use of body, as discussed in next section, by Huan to express personal and national struggles over political, economic, cultural, and social issues captures, now in new emerging native expressions, sensibilities long exclusive to Western understanding – and exhibition – of Chinese art. 4 Put differently, in lieu of an exotization, i.e. a representation of Chinese art in Western exhibitions as something exotic, alien, if not completely comprehen...