Xiang

Xiang
HAN ZHANG
625 ceramic rice bowls and ink
Solo Exhibition at Sharjah Calligraphy Biennial 2016
Sharjah Art Museum

/xiàng/ noun. image, appearance, likeness, resemblance; verb. appear to, look like, seem.

This installation, comprised of 625 Chinese rice bowls and traditional calligraphy ink, forms the Chinese character Xiang, which connotes the ambiguity of any act of interpretation. The work raises the question: Can calligraphy be expressed using different media (analog vs digital) and yet retain its timeless evocative power?

Xiang immediately brings to mind a digital rendering of the character in pixilated form, expressing our contemporary reality. However, the pixels are made from traditional cultural artifacts—rice bowls and ink—reminding us of the inextricable relationship between calligraphy and the texture of everyday life and civilization. In other words, the artist poses the question: Can digitalization in fact renew calligraphy?

The materials chosen for the installation mimic the deep relationship that has always existed between calligraphy and communal vitality in Chinese culture. Rice bowls are a metaphor for that which, like calligraphy, sustains and nourishes everyday life. The fluidity of the ink permits for both diversity of expression and the permanence of a mark that indelibly leaves its trace.
 

Xiang
Xiang

Xiang
HAN ZHANG
625 ceramic rice bowls and ink
Solo Exhibition at Sharjah Calligraphy Biennial 2016
Sharjah Art Museum
Xiang
Xiang

Xiang
HAN ZHANG
625 ceramic rice bowls and ink
Solo Exhibition at Sharjah Calligraphy Biennial 2016
Sharjah Art Museum
Xiang
Xiang

Xiang
HAN ZHANG
625 ceramic rice bowls and ink
Solo Exhibition at Sharjah Calligraphy Biennial 2016
Sharjah Art Museum
Xiang
Xiang

Xiang
HAN ZHANG
625 ceramic rice bowls and ink
Solo Exhibition at Sharjah Calligraphy Biennial 2016
Sharjah Art Museum
Xiang
Xiang

Xiang
HAN ZHANG
625 ceramic rice bowls and ink
Solo Exhibition at Sharjah Calligraphy Biennial 2016
Sharjah Art Museum
Xiang
Xiang

Xiang
HAN ZHANG
625 ceramic rice bowls and ink
Solo Exhibition at Sharjah Calligraphy Biennial 2016
Sharjah Art Museum

A Sadness I Can't Escape

Ink on Paper
9″ x 9″ x4″
2013

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Bodhi

Wool and thread
2014

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Translator

Paper and ink
6″ x 10″ x 5.5″
2009

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Chanting the Heart Sutra

Ink on Paper
21″ x 98″
2013

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Where I does not exist, nor you

Paper, ink and silk thread
22″ x 29″,
2013

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Lost in Four Seasons

Paper, ink, silk thread
11″ x 22″ each
2013

Lost in Four Seasons - Spring
Lost in Four Seasons - Spring
Lost in Four Seasons - Summer
Lost in Four Seasons - Summer
Lost in Four Seasons - Autumn
Lost in Four Seasons - Autumn
Lost in Four Seasons - Winter
Lost in Four Seasons - Winter
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See Mountains as Mountains, Waters as Waters

Wood and ink
35″ x 9″ x 5″
2013

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Awakening

Wood and ink
24″ x 26″ x 4″
2013

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The Bloom is not Bloom, Mist not Mist

Wood and ink
44″ x 16″ x 7″
2013

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The Other Shore

Ink on Paper
22″ x 29″
2013 

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The Other Shore III

Ink on Paper
22″ x 29″
2013

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Constant Non-Being, Constant Being

Ink on Paper
28″ x 29″
2013

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Void

Wool on Paper
26″ x 21″
2014

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You're not a fish

Wool and paper
14″ x 26″
2013

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Form

Wool on Paper
21″ x 39″
2014

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A Beautiful Mistake

Paper, ink and thread
48″ x 110″ x 60″
2014

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The Middle Way

Ink on Paper
17″ x 2″
2013

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The Other Shore II

Ink on Paper
22″ x 29″
2013

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Man and the Sea

Ink, Paper, Thread
12″ x 7″
2013

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Mourning

Ink on Paper
22″ x 22″
2013

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Everything I Wanted

(poem by Peter Unwin)
Ink, paper, thread
6″ x 6″
2014 

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Once, Never Again

Ink on Paper
6″ x 18″
2013

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Like Manna From Heaven

HELEN YUNG & HAN ZHANG
Ink and paper installation
2014

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Palimpsest

Ink on paper
26″ x 40″
2009

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It's Not Me Who's Writing

Woodcut prints
60″ x 60″
Single Edition
2009

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Can You Hear

Paper, ink and thread
12″ x 12″ x 48″
2009

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Poetic Realization

Installation
Mirror, ink and thread
2010

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The Invisible

Silkscreen print
Single Edition
30″ x 22″
2010

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Oxymoron

Linocut Print
Single Edition
26″ x 40″
2010

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“We Will Not Attack Unless We Are Attacked”

Watercolor and ink on paper
5″ x 8″
2009

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“Pledging our Lives to Defend Chairman Mao”

Watercolor and ink on paper
5″ x 8″
2009

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"One-child Policy is Good"

Watercolor and ink on paper
5″ x 8″
2009

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