Using his naked body as an artistic medium, contemporary Chinese artist Zhang Huan gave UB students some insight into how he interprets the world during a lecture Monday night.
As part of the Visual Studies Speakers Series, co-sponsored by the departments of media study and art, Zhang lectured to students using video, live performance, photography slides and sculpture. Of the many eye-catching performances, a few stood out for the audacity and physical endurance of the artist.
In one video performance, "3006 meter cube/65 kilogram," Zhang stood naked and tied yellow blood transfusion tubes to himself and the Watari Museum. It was an attempt to pull down the building, a symbol of modern civilization. He failed, and in his intention to show the breakdown of modern civilization, the opposite happened - the building in fact tore him down.
The "My New York" video featured Chinese seamstresses sewing together a muscle suit using 100 pounds of prime choice beef. Zhang emerged out of the Whitney Museum and walked along the streets of New York, passing out white doves to passersby. His muscle suit commented on body-builders who spent years accumulating their body while he did it overnight. The performance also showed his Buddhist side with the setting of captured doves free.
Some of Zhang's more recent performances were inspired by his experiences in America.
In his video piece called "Pilgrimage - Wind and Water in New York," Zhang had dogs leashed to a Chinese wooden lounge bed filled with large slabs of ice. With Buddhist chants playing in the background, Zhang enters the gravel-covered walkway by clapping three times before sliding hands-first into the gravel. When he reaches the lounge bed, he strips naked and lies on the slabs of ice.
Zhang, who began his career as an artist by focusing on oil paintings, felt there was a distance between him and his artwork. To Zhang, the use of the body in art bridges that gap.
"The body, to me, is a very direct language. This way, I felt (my art) was very close to me," said Zhang. "With the body, I could feel flies on my body, the feel of ice on me. It is very direct feeling on the body. The body is the most direct way to feel things."
Photo: Breadchastick / Wikimedia Commons
