Footnotes

PROVENANCE
Sherman Galleries, Sydney (stamped verso)
The Gene & Brian Sherman Collection, Sydney

EXHIBITED
Zhang Huan, Sherman Galleries, Sydney, 9 November - 2 December 2006

'In 'Soft-Hard Kungfu', 2005, Zhang Huan has used poses taken from an old, traditional Kung Fu book as the model for photographs of himself, which were then superimposed over the original and screenprinted. There is no long tradition of performance art in China, at least until the 1990s when Zhang Huan revived the form. His 'Soft-Hard Kungfu' posits similarities and differences between his performance practice and this ancient martial art. Fascinated by the complex meanings generated by physical action and the hierarchical movements, Zhang comments on the rituals of day-to-day life, the aggressive and defensive gestures we practice and perfect to interact and to cope with ordinary social interaction. The image in one of the prints of the artist bashing his head against a brick wall is amusing and telling.'

Michael Desmond, Curator of Art, National Portrait Gallery, Canberra in exh. cat.

Zhang Huan's work first came to our attention in Witness (12 March–
16 May 2004, Museum of Contemporary Art Australia (MCA)) curated
by Rachel Kent. Hand in hand, Brian and I walked, eyes shining, into
a space saturated by the nine-piece Family Tree series. The artist's
larger than life monumental heads, initially smooth and pale, were
progressively blackened by clusters of calligraphic marks until the solid
dark surfaces radically transformed the artist-subject's physiognomy.
As we entered the exhibition, packed tightly into what felt like a
relatively intimate, intensely hung space, the works surrounded and
astounded us. Firmly anchoring the stunning suite of photos as a solid
centrepiece, lay a bronze figure overhung by a monumental bronze
bell; both of which struck an immovable note against which the fluid
flow of the heads and text sat in opposition.
'We should buy the whole show', whispered my astute, beloved
husband. And we almost did – acquiring, (as did the Pompidou at a
much later date), the full photomedia set, albeit sans bronzes. The
decision set us on a Zhang Huan path which took us, in 2017, to his
studio in Shanghai. We arrived during one of China's rare national
holidays to meet the artist who generously returned from a family
gathering in his home village to welcome and host us during the
course of an astonishing afternoon.
Surprise and amazement accompanied our movements down a long
gravel pathway bordered on the left by studios specific to a dozen
different mediums – painting, printmaking, works on paper, sculpture
and more. On the right, artisan workers' dormitories lined the stretch
of road – at the time emptied of their inhabitants who had rare time
off for the precious Golden Week break. The studio and complex
commenced with a sorting house – wherein temple ash was graded
according to colour and texture – a logical introduction to the next,
much larger space in which variously scaled pictures were in progress
or had just been completed by the artist in preparation for worldwide
exhibitions.
We kept in touch periodically with Zhang Huan over the years. In
2006, when our identical twin grandsons were born, two small
matching textile sculptures arrived chez nous from our artist-friend,
signalling and/or symbolising their birth. The works for our two little
spiritual beings, now grown but still innocent and untouched by the
complexities of the world, connect back to our day in the artist's
temple ash studio.
Zhang Huan has become increasingly famous – and is now
represented by the hugely influential, active-worldwide Pace Gallery
– and in 2020, was invited to exhibit in a major solo show at the
legendary Hermitage Museum.
Dr Gene Sherman