ז’אנג הואן
ЧЖАН ХУАНЬ
張洹

family tree

source: metmuseumorg
With Family Tree, made less than two years after his move to New York, Zhang offered his face as a surface on which words, names, and stories connected to his cultural heritage are, literally, written. This performance piece is documented in nine photographs that record the gradual obscuring of Zhang’s face with inked words until it is completely blackened. Most words derive from the ancient Chinese art of physiognomy, which seeks to map personality traits and divine the future based on one’s facial features. But rather than elucidating Zhang’s character and fate, these traditional divinatory marks ultimately obscure his identity beneath a dense layer of culturally conditioned references.
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source: zhanghuan

Family Tree, 2000, New York, USA
I have been feeling pain on the left side of my chest for over a year, which lately seems to have gotten worse. I sense an ill omen and am afraid that something unpredictable might happen.

When a mother squeezes out the last bit of her energy, a new life eventually emerges. There are numerous events in our lives over which we have no control.

More culture is slowly smothering us and turning our faces black. It is impossible to take away your inborn blood and personality. From a shadow in the morning, then suddenly into the dark night, the first cry of life to a white-haired man, standing lonely in front of window, a last peek of the world and a remembrance of an illusory life.

In my serial self-portrait I found a world which Rembrandt forgot. I am trying to extend his moment.

I invited 3 calligraphers to write texts on my face from early morning until night. I told them what they should write and to always keep a serious attitude when writing the texts even when my face turns to dark. My face followed the daylight till it slowly darkened. I cannot tell who I am. My identity has disappeared.
This work speaks about a family story, a spirit of family. In the middle of my forehead, the text means “Move the Mountain by Fool (Yu Kong Yi Shan)”. This traditional Chinese story is known by all common people, it is about determination and challenge. If you really want to do something, then it could really happen. Other texts are about human fate, like a kind of divination. Your eyes, nose, mouth, ears, cheekbone, and moles indicate your future, wealth, sex, disease, etc. I always feel that some mysterious fate surrounds human life which you can do nothing about, you can do nothing to control it, it just happened.
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source: artnet
Zhang Huan (Chinese, b.1965) is a performance artist, painter, photographer, and sculptor best known for performances that test his own physical and mental endurance, create symbolic self-portraits, and question the role of family and culture in shaping our way of thinking. Born in An Yang City, He Nan Province, Huan studied traditional painting at Beijing’s Central Academy of Fine Arts. Inspired by reading about performance art at the Central Academy library and seeing the photography of Tseng Kwong-Chi, Huan staged his first performance titled Angel (1993) at the National Art Museum of China. In this work, Huan laid down almost naked in the entrance hall and poured over his body red liquid and parts of a dismembered doll, referencing the Chinese government policy that requires women to have an abortion if they conceive more than one child. In these early years, Huan was part of the East Village group, avant-garde performance artists living on the outskirts of Beijing. Huan continued to make performance art in museums and at public events during a period living in the United States. After he moved to Shanghai in 2006, Huan has focused on sculpture, woodworking, and painting. In a recent series titled Memory Doors, begun in 2006, he created screen prints of photographs depicting Chinese historical events on doors that he found in Shanxi Province. All of Huan’s work has a spiritual foundation, but his interest in Tibetan Buddhism, which he cites as a key influence, is evident in a recent series of paintings and sculptures made from ash collected at Buddhist temples. Huan emphasizes family and cultural connections in the photographic series Foam (1998), ten pictures that feature the artist’s face covered in foam with members of his family bursting out of his mouth. Similarly, his series of nine photographs titled Family Tree (2000) documents the artist’s face as calligraphers painted personal and cultural stories on his skin until it was covered in ink. Huan has held solo exhibitions at many galleries and museums, including the Museum of Contemporary Art in Taipei, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, the Shanghai Art Museum, and the Haunch of Venison Gallery in London. He is represented by the Pace Gallery in New York. He lives and works Shanghai and New York.
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source: bhasiaart
Zhang Huan, artista chinês aclamado internacionalmente, nasceu em 1965 em Anyang, Província de Henan, e atualmente reside e trabalha em Xangai. Ativo em Pequim na década de 1990, ele foi considerado um dos maiores artistas de vanguarda do país. Morando em Nova York de 1998 a 2005, ganhou reconhecimento internacional.
Voltando para Xangai em 2005, ele fundou Zhang Huan Studio onde continuou a ampliar o escopo de seu trabalho artístico, criando novas formas e explorando novas áreas. Suas pinturas com cinzas acrescentaram uma nova técnica à história da arte. Ele abriu caminho com ainda outras técnicas como escultura em couro de boi e em portas, e xilogravuras com penas, para citar algumas.
Exposições individuais aconteceram no Norton Museum of Art na Florida, Shangai Art Museum, Gallery of Ontario em Toronto, Canadá, e Palazzo Vecchio e Forte de Belvedere em Florence, Italy. Suas obras podem ser encontradas nas coleções de museus de arte contemporânea e de fundações em grandes cidades ao redor do mundo.
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source: arteaunclickes
China – 1965
Creador de performances a menudo protagonizados por él mismo utiliza en sus obras parámetros anclados en la tradición de su país generando un escenario de enorme teatralidad que conmueve al espectador.
Su propio cuerpo su territorio de experimentación que, en ocasiones somete a pruebas de gran dureza buscando respuestas en la relación entre carne y espíritu, al tiempo que le sirve para realizar una dura crítica de los postulados de la Revolución Cultura de Mao.
En este sentido, su obra combina un extraño misticismo al que se une la crítica a las políticas del régimen chino con una complicada reflexión acerca del cuerpo y su uso como medio de expresión artística.
Yo siempre he tenido problemas en mi vida y estos problemas muchas veces han derivado en conflictos de orden físico. Es de esta forma que me di cuenta de que mi cuerpo era el vehículo principal para conocer mi entorno y el entorno a mí.
Centra su mirada en el desnudo, contraponiéndolo a la percepción que de ello se tiene en China para trasladarlo al ámbito de la comunicación. Sus desnudos representan actividades cotidianas al tiempo que las vincula con las raíces de pensamiento tradicional de su país.
Un artista que desalienta, intimida pero también conmueve, que nos traslada a un mundo en el que cuerpo y espíritu se unen para mostrarnos cruentas realidades.
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source: etodayru
Жанг Хуан (Zhang Huan) родился в 1965 году в Китае. Окончил Central Academy of Fine Arts и He Nan University. Работает в жанрах скульптуры и инсталляций. Живет в Шанхае и Нью-Йорке.
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source: zhwikipediaorg
张洹（Zhang Huan），1965年出生于河南安阳，1988年毕业于河南大学美术系，1993年毕业于中央美术学院硕士进修班，1998年移居美国纽约。
张洹是中国当代最杰出的行为艺术家之一，以一种极端却深刻的方式警醒着世人对人类生存终极命题的追问与反思。20世纪90年代以一种以逼近极限的身体表达，陆续创作了《为无名山增高一米》、《为鱼塘增高水位》、《12㎡》等众多艺术史的经典行为作品。
在《12㎡》的作品，张洹裸體坐在北京東村的公廁中，塗滿魚油和蜂蜜的全身，招惹無數蒼蠅。而在《65公斤》（又名“烙血饼”）中，裸體的他吊在工作室的天花板上，身上傷口的鮮血滴落在地上的熱鍋中。
移居美国后经常参加威尼斯双年展等各种国际大展，作品也多被蓬皮杜艺术中心、纽约现代美术馆等世界级机构收藏，成为国际艺界关注的焦点。2005年放弃行为，回国后不断拓宽创作领域，但表达方式趋于内化：以香灰为材料的作品表达了对中国急速社会变迁中物质与精神，存在与消逝等问题的哲学思考；而2009年应邀担任著名歌剧《塞魅丽》的导演和舞台设计，则实现了当代视觉艺术与表演艺术间实验性的跨界合作。他也是奥迪艺术与设计大奖赛候选人。