The art army

• Source: Global Times
• [11:19 July 01 2010]
• Comments

A "memory door" piece by Zhang Huan.

Variation and vitality

When we visited the grounds, the place was teeming with activity. A multitude of smaller workshops housed groups of artists variously shaping cow skins into small sculptures, banging away at sheet steel to produce reproductions of Zhang's Expo Boulevard piece, He He, Xie Xie, or working on his fabulous "memory door" pieces.

These latter works consist of big, beautiful old doors that are partly covered in photographic work and partly wood-carved into intricate designs that are intended to preserve various moments in time.

As you walk around the grounds you get the feeling that there is nothing quite like this place anywhere else on earth. Everywhere you look interesting details can be found, such as the sculptures dotting the lawns, or the fact that every tree on the premises is considered a piece of art and has been sculpted to Zhang's tastes.

"The studios stand on grounds that span just over three hectares and are some of the few remaining old-style factory buildings still around in Shanghai. We have also planted many fruit trees and rare species of trees," Zhang said.

Visitors' attention may also be grabbed by the massive stack of old blue/grey bricks that Zhang has collected from housing demolition projects around Shanghai. This project for the future is one of the many examples here of the directness of Zhang's artistic vision.

While people all over the city are talking about how sad it is that the old buildings in Shanghai are being torn down, Zhang has had the imagination and the financial backing to go further, making sure that history is preserved. Whatever piece of art he eventually creates with this mass of bricks, it is likely to be loud, powerful and hit at the center of the issue.

At present Zhang's studio is focusing on large-scale sculptures and ash paintings. One of the most impressive works on display in the ash painting gallery is called Digging the River, an enormous piece of nearly 2 meters tall and 6 meters wide, which shows a great number of workers, shovels in hands, carving out a huge channel of earth to create a canal.

The wood frame used for this work alone took five carpenters a whole week to create. In order to keep the painting consistent, Zhang chose four artists with similar painting styles to complete the work.

The scale and the intricacy of Digging the River combine to generate an arresting sense of the impact of humanity on the environment. It is also another example of how Zhang uses size in a very specific, considered way: his subject - nature - is also vast and intricate.