The art army

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

Zhu Gangqiang and Giant Man No.1 in Zhang's warehouse.

Individualism versus collectivism

Zhang's venture does, however, raise some difficult questions: How happy is his staff? Do they mind working for one man who takes all the credit? When answering these questions, Zhang shifted into business mode.

"Our studio is organized and run like a company; every worker has signed a labor contract. I provide the concepts and ideas for the pieces and my assistants help me to realize it, I also decide when the piece is finished (the final effect)."

Mike Chen, one of Zhang's artists, told the Global Times: "Here, I can find inspiration in solitude in the garden, read about the world of art in the extensive library, and learn about the business end of the current art market from experts."

Chen believes that the feedback and rewards system used by the company are useful for motivating staff: "Great works are made publically known and rewards are given accordingly. The environment pushes me challenge myself constantly and encourages healthy competition," he said.

Yin Guodong, who works as a photographer for Zhang, was equally positive: "I feel proud from the bottom of my heart when a piece of work I've participated in has been exhibited or reported by media. We are a team, everybody playing his or her own role."

"I think it is similar to the production of films or operas. Zhang is like the playwright and director, while we assistants play the roles of the cameraman, lighting engineer, make-up artist and so on," added Yin.

Speaking to us about this issue this May, founder of the Island6 gallery in Shanghai, Thomas Charvériat said: "I really respect Zhang Huan and admire his work. I especially respect the fact that he reinvests every penny of his money back into trying to be a better artist. But I don't like the way he has structured himself, because all the people who work for him are artists and this setup reflects the cult of the ego."

A second charge some may want to level at Zhang is that he has moved from being an artist to simply being a businessman in control of a factory. This is a subtle question, and one for the art historian to investigate, but it is interesting to note a couple of details.

In the metalwork shed, the artists were still banging away with hammers and hand-held drills, individually crafting the He He, Xie Xie replicas. This is not exactly a mass-production setup.

Secondly, and potentially more important, is the brutal fact that Zhang's warehouses contain an immense quantity of genuinely impressive pieces of art, far too many to mention in this article. Almost everything viewed by us was innovative, striking and fundamentally interesting.

As a parting question, Zhang was asked about what goals he has left for the remainder of his career.

"I feel that one thing in an artist's life's work should be to move art forward along its path, while another is to leave that path and forage over new ground. I feel that I haven't been successful in either of those tasks, but I personally prefer the latter. I like to get away from 'traditional' art and open up the frontier, to blur the concept of what art is, and in doing so, redefine it," he said.