The China Project

198 In 1993, the first Chinese face appeared in Zhang’s paintings; previously his portraits featured faces with Western characteristics. In contrast, his portraits from 1993 show faces clearly tied to the artist’s own culture — Zhang conveys a psychological state in each character’s expression, reflecting the turbulent decades of China’s recent past. By this time, Zhang realised he was willing to confront the reality of his past experiences. This self-discovery was linked to a conscious recognition of culture. For Chinese artists in the 1980s — including those, like Zhang, who were able to study at university — modern Western literature, philosophy and art opened up new experiences. While the artists of the 1980s attempted to ‘catch up’ with their Western contemporaries, artists of the 1990s used their experience and knowledge to develop a uniquely Chinese sense of identity and style. This new awareness greatly enriched the art of this period. It was at this time that Zhang began to develop his ‘Bloodline: The big family’ series, which presents China’s internal shifts and legacies, and reconciliation with its rapidly changing culture, through observations of family. We can see how each individual is linked; their similarities are emphasised far more than their differences. The artist depicts the nature of an individual’s inherited characteristics, as well as their links with history through the use of a personalised iconography of birthmarks, scars and ‘bloodlines’ on his subjects’ faces. In Zhang’s paintings, a person is not simply an individual; each is an individual within a family or society who carries within them the social codes and hereditary traits of their ancestors. Furthermore, the artist’s own personal experiences laid the foundation for his portrayal of these social codes and his emphasis on the inescapable nature of genealogy. Zhang received a so-called orthodox socialist education, and experienced life in the countryside during the Down to the Countryside Movement. As an artist who grew up during the Cultural Revolution, his experiences as an individual paralleled the broader process of transformation occurring in China under a socialist ideology. Yet, when the notion of the individual and the self is reasserted, socialist ideology’s emphasis on the collective evokes ambiguous and contradictory feelings. The ‘Bloodline: The big family’ paintings articulate this ambiguity precisely. They convey Zhang’s inner transformation, which was also occurring on a broader stage throughout China. Arguably, the state of being contemporary is the unceasing process of analysis and redefinition of the individual. The figures depicted in the ‘Bloodline: The big family’ paintings rarely exhibit individuality; their faces appear neutral and generic. The outward appearance of a socialist and collective ideology is clearly visible in the costumes — often uniformed Mao suits — yet the individual emotions and sentiments beneath this facade are hinted at in the symbolism of colour and lines used to delineate the figures. The ‘Bloodline: The big family’ series renders both the individual’s beginning and its point of return. The series uses marriage and blood relations as the natural base unit in society: parents, husband and wife, son and daughter, and extended family. Zhang uses personal experience to explore how the family unit defines the identity of individuals. This notion of the individual may have developed out of the experience of growing up during the Cultural Revolution, but could also be related to a much older Confucian tradition. The character and attributes of the individual often emerge from the individual’s personal history, social characteristics and sense of belonging. In ‘Bloodline: The big family’, Zhang’s recognition of the ‘individual’ or ‘self’ is made on the basis of nature and blood relations. In the contemporary world, where the Western ethos of individualism is highly valued, Zhang presents a different kind of individual expression. His notion of the individual has a strong connection to history and memory, as well as to amnesia and ideology. Moreover, this individual embodies a system of connections. In Zhang’s paintings, the recurrent images of lines — bloodlines, lamp cords or electrical cables — signify the linkages between individuals, as well as between individual and society, history and ideology. From 2002, Zhang began to move away from portraying people to depicting objects relating to people. The objects appearing in series such as ‘In-Out’, ‘Amnesia and memory’ and his most recent ‘Green wall’ are connected to recording and reading and are laden with human presence; they include ink bottles, lights, pens, television sets, sofas, notebooks and books. At times, the artist writes diary-style text directly onto the surface of the painting, a kind of simultaneous act of remembering (memory) and forgetting (amnesia). The artist believes that amnesia is sometimes more important than memory, for history requires constant revision. Zhang is absorbed in his own history; he relates his individual experiences to the psychology of a generation and a period in history. This tendency to self-reflection and renewal is the result of a rapidly developing society and the blending of contemporary cultures. With an intense awareness of the residue and traces of the past, Zhang amplifies the nature of the self. He moves from portraits of family members to depictions of mundane household items, and to landscapes saturated with memory and experience. In these works depicting non-figurative objects and scenes, the human hand can be seen everywhere. The landscapes contain human or man-made elements; they have been altered by people and made above Describing the week of 01/05/2007 to 07/05/2007 (detail) 2007 Silver ink on Type C photograph / 7 photographs: 51 x 76cm (each) / Collection: Liu Lan, Beijing Three comrades (from ‘Bloodline: The big family’ series) 1994 Oil on canvas / 150 x 180cm / Purchased 1996. Queensland Art Gallery Foundation / Collection: Queensland Art Gallery opposite Big family no.4 (from ‘Bloodline: The big family’ series) 2007 Oil on canvas / 229 x 300cm / Collection: Droga 8 Collection (The Collection of Daniel and Lyndell Droga)