Zhang Xiao

  • ZHANG XIAO GUAI LI LUAN XIN Text/Zhang Xiao Guai Li Luan Shen stems from a line in the Analects of...

    ZHANG XIAO

    GUAI LI LUAN XIN

     

    Text/Zhang Xiao

     
    Guai Li Luan Shen stems from a line in the Analects of Confucius, “The subjects on which the Master did not talk, were: extraordinary things, feats of strength, disorder, and spiritual beings.”. There are many interpretations of this quotation today, but the most scholarly would be that Confucius did not talk about ghosts and gods that were not on the divine list. In a literal sense, the phrase Guai Li Luan Shen also refers to things about bizarreness, courage, rebellion as well as ghosts and gods.
     
    This project continues Zhang Xiao’s ongoing interest in Chinese folk society. While many of Zhang Xiao’s previous works originated in his hometown and explored folk society in depth around folk aesthetics and their appreciation of beauty, this project extends from the artist’s native place in the countryside to the larger Chinese rural society, focusing on the rich forms of Chinese folk religion. These newly created deities are exceedingly strange with their images corresponding to all walks of life in our time. The icons rooted in the present breaks down the original belief and aesthetic system of religion and turn into ad-hoc bodhisattvas that embody whatever the people desire.
     
    Zhang Xiao is not criticizing this kind of folk religion and kitsch images; he merely tries to lay out their current existence. Forms of folk religion as such are pervasive in China’s rural society, which probably do not compose a religion in the strict sense or can be rather understood as a religious mutation in the process of China’s economic development. The imagery is primarily raw and direct, reflecting more of a collective unconscious of the people. At the same time, it also speaks to the need for religion and faith from the civil underclass, who are eager to seek psychological comfort and suggestion from the divine. The statues provide the people with a crude and straightforward vehicle to navigate and find a way out in their lives – although these bodhisattvas may not be on the divine list and are hardly mentioned by the believers.
  • ARTIST: Zhang Xiao Born in 1981 in Yantai city, Shandong province, China, Zhang Xiao graduated from the Department of Architecture...

    ARTIST: Zhang Xiao

     

    Born in 1981 in Yantai city, Shandong province, China, Zhang Xiao graduated from the Department of Architecture and Design at Yantai University in 2005. He was a photojournalist for Chongqing Morning Post. Zhang won the Robert Gardner Fellow in Photography of Harvard University in 2018. He won the Three Shadows Photography Award in 2010 with They series. He also received the second Hou Dengke Documentary Photography Award in 2009, The Photography Talent Award (France) in 2010 and the Prix HSBC pour la Photographie in 2011 with his Coastline series. Zhang has participated in several solo and group exhibitions, including “ The World in 2015 ”, “Civilization: The Way We Live Now”( Ullens Centre for Contemporary Art, Beijing, China),    “ Unfamiliar Familiarities ” , ( Fotostiftung Schweiz ,Winterthur, Switzerland), “ Photoquai ”， ( Quai Branly Museum，Paris，France ),  and “ Apple ”, ( Lianzhou Photography Museum, Guangdong, China), “ Social Geography: Ten Journeys with a Camera , (Shanghai Centre of Photography ,Shanghai , China) , “ Photography and Video Experiments in Southwestern China since 2000 ” , (A4 Art Museum ,Chengdu , China) , “The Farm”, (chi k11 Art Space, Shenyang, China), etc. Zhang currently lives and works in Chengdu city, Sichuan province, China.

  • CURATOR: Liu Gang He is a curator and artist who graduated from the Central Academy of Fine Arts. As a...

    CURATOR: Liu Gang

     

    He is a curator and artist who graduated from the Central Academy of Fine Arts. As a curator and the director of “the PIN projects”, Liu builds on the achievement with a global outlook. He is committed to promote cultural exchanges between Europe and China through the cultural brand “the PIN projects”.  
    Major exhibitions curated by him at home and abroad include: SUNIVERSE - Opening Exhibition of Hall of The Sun Ruihong Tiandi (2021); From the Mundane World - Inaugural Exhibition of the He Art Museum (2020) ;Now Is the Time - 2019 Wuzhen Contemporary Art Exhibition (2019); Breaking Boundaries - BAZAAR's 150th Anniversary Fashion&Art Exhibition (2017); Visual Questions - Young Artists' Vision and Experiences (2017) ; Utopias/Heterotopias - Wuzhen International Contemporary Art Exhibition (2016); We May Have Met Before - Chinese Contemporary Photography (2015) ; The Future of Fashion is Now (2016); SUN JIE & JIE SUN Contemporary Jewelry Exhibition (2015); Now is the Time - BCG&Magnum Photos Present (2015); Next City Living Lab: The Nurturing House - Beijing International Design Week (2015); Work, Rest and Play - British Photography from the 1960s to Today (2015); Still / Life - Contemporary Dutch Photography (2015); Self / Unself - Dutch Contemporary Design (2014-2015); The Dutch Program for 2014 Beijing Design Week (2014).
    His artistic/design activities include: Musicians in Residence Exhibition (2019); Catch The Light - China Xi'an “The Belt and Road” International Light Festival (2018); The Imagined Future is Not the Future - OCT-LOFT Creative Festival (2017); Boundary of Light - Sea World International Light Festival (2016); Taikoo Li Light Festival 2016  (2016); Toward 2050: Developing a Sino - Dutch Approach for Sustainable Urbanization (2014).

  • Zhang Xiao, Guai Li Luan Shen series, 2021. Camphor wood, paint, acrylic, 35 X 28 X 36 cm. 

    Courtesy of the artist and White Space.

  • Zhang Xiao, Guai Li Luan Shen series, 2021. Camphor wood, paint, acrylic, 46 X 18 X 25 cm. 

    Courtesy of the artist and White Space.

  • Zhang Xiao, Guai Li Luan Shen series, 2021.  Giclée Print, 56 X 40 cm.

    Courtesy of the artist.

  • Zhang Xiao, Guai Li Luan Shen series, 2019. Giclée Print, 56 X 40 cm.

    Courtesy of the artist.

  • Zhang Xiao, Guai Li Luan Shen series, 2019. Giclée Print, 42 X 30 cm.

    Courtesy of the artist.

  • Zhang Xiao, Guai Li Luan Shen series, 2019. Giclée Print, 140 X 100 cm.

    Courtesy of the artist.