- Forward to Zhang Nian’s Works

Zhang Nian has always been known for his performance art, and his work has a clear sense of purpose and critique. From the 1989 conceptual "Egg Incubation" exhibited at China Avant-garde Art Exhibition and the egg series that followed, to later series of works that have explored issues of the city, migrant workers, SARS, and the quest for the self, all express the interest that Zhang Nian feels for his surroundings and the experience of living. He is not the type of artist who reacts to life changes with existing pictorial styles, but rather he lives within and senses these changes in life, expressing his personal standpoint while also illustrating history. For Zhang Nian art is a kind of lifestyle, a way of life that consists of a search for meaning through time.

In fact, what has been put together by Zhang Nian through different mediums and different perspectives is an historical knowledge that reaches the very marrow, "My way: there is one that ties it together", it is paying attention to and treasuring historical process, commemorating and reflecting on historical events, being sensible and vigilant to historical changes. Among the numerous contemporary Chinese artists, there are very few who share Zhang Nian‘s creative attitude toward historicism. We live in an era where sudden prosperity is has come because of rapid economic development, exaggerated consumer psychology has been accompanied by star conscious ideals and is being spread in the artistic realm. Countless shallow, playful and trendy images are highly praised by curators because of their cathartic function. In reality, this entertaining style covers up existing political tension. When reality is being dressed up as Supergirl, true history disappears from our memories.

Lu Xun was painfully aware of the Chinese ability to forget. It is because a nation’s history is not only a series of major events, but also that which is retained in the hearts of its people, especially a remembrance of historical disasters. The German have became a nation with a distinctive philosophy through such remembrance; the new expressionism led by Anselm Kiefer was also a new historicism. Such remembrance should be stored in art, and spread like wildfire. Indeed, in terms of the system, the market and international exchange, Chinese artists continue to show their strength and attractiveness; at a time like this, language that touches critically on morality and principle is rather weak. The gradual weakening of Chinese academics in the public realm has allowed the autocrats and consumers to be so full of themselves that they‘ve forgotten who they actually are. However, anyone who cheats freedom should not forget about history or memories about history, to explicate history is the last position the academics stand on, it is an invincible and unshakable ground.

Zhang Nian, as an academic artist, has focused his attention on history, his series of historical photographs and paintings are all quite moving. They seem to be bursting out of a forgotten volcano, with a sudden explosion of radiance and energy, reaching to the audience with rapid motions and grandeur. Zhang Nian is unwilling to appreciate history with a sad romanticism, rather he wants to appropriate historical images to awaken the Chinese people’s historical consciousness. Such rocket-like images press for answers at the personal level; at the social level they are a shock to the spirit, like beating and shouting, like a thunderclap. Zhang Nian has transformed frozen historical moments into flickering images, his purpose is nothing other than shocking people, to awaken the historical memories that have been long ignored and forgotten. His works are not meant to represent history, but to allow history to be represented.

Art has always pointed at people‘s spirits, but people’s spirits have always grown between forgetfulness and memory. As the collective has lost its memory, what the artist can do is to stimulate the viewer‘s reaction to history.

At the bottom of what’s being forgotten, it is impossible not to have lightning. This is our belief in art, it is also our confidence in the Chinese of this contemporary era.

Wang Lin
Peach Blossom Mountain, Sichuan
October 3rd, 2006