The Second Asia-Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art exhibition catalogue (APT2)

Top Two comrades with red baby (from 'Bloodline:The big family' series) 1994 Oil on canvas 150x180cm Collection:The artist Bottom Big family (from 'Bloodline:The big family'series) 1994 Oil on canvas 150x180cm Collection:The artist 78 j ARTISTS EAST ASIA So much of China's contemporary art thrives on the forces that shape collective idealism, that one finds the same collectivist instinct that supports the official line at the heart of the 'avant-garde' -its art is selfconsciously subversive. In all the leading art trends since 1979 we can witness a lucid awareness of the forces of 'history'. New ideologies are formed to combat the old, and the public eye is internalised in private artistic endeavours. Zhang Xiaogang's present series of works started with a decision in 1991 to break with his old self. For over a year he travelled and did not paint. He was dissatisfied with the increasingly emotional and politicised voice in his art, and sought an imaginative space wherein private dreams and public history might mingle. Zhang wanted to retreat from the 'avant-garde' and explore personal themes. He was increasingly lured by the world of private lives ahd subconscious intuition, and sought to establish an 'intimate relationship' between his creative art and personal life. The source of inspiration Zhang found was in old portrait photographs. What attracted him was the possibility of exploring the ambiguity between the standardised, socialised image and its intimate personal manifestation. He started by distorting photographic images, emphasising the twisted face of socialised humanity. In 1993, Zhang saw for the first time a photograph of his mother as a young woman. He was amazed to discover that the picture showed the ideal feminine beauty he had always held in his mind. The mother Zhang now knew was a schizophrenic woman who required weekly reassurances of his wellbeing to maintain her psychological balance. This discovery opened up a psychological dimension he had not anticipated, and led to the 1996 series of paintings entitled 'Bloodline: The big family'. Portraits in the 'Bloodline: The big family' series turn a detached, impersonal face to the world.The images are touched up to perfection, so that each face resembles the others.The beautified, uniform images represent the ideal of their era; at the same time, they are also the idealised images which the sitters wish posterity to remember them by. Zhang's sympathy with the introverted and the passive leads him to an aesthetic that seeks beauty in sexual ambiguity, which is common in traditional Chinese art, but runs contrary to current Communist machismo taste. Through the stylised representation Zhang subtly brings out the special character in each individual by means of artificial lighting effects, and the slightest twists in their glances. But ultimately, what differentiates the figures seems not so much the minute differences in look or character, but the secrets each hides. These portraits are intriguing because of the private histories that are being withheld. Zhang is fascinated by the tensions between forces of public life and individual privacy. To him, it is in the latter that humanity manifests itself. Zhang's art may also be read as a veiled exploration of society's guilt and transgression. In recapitulating the collective experience of violated privacy, Zhang has created convincing images of the suppressed psyche of China's recent past; he shows us that no standardised portrait can hide the personal history of private pain. Chang Tsong-Zung,Gallery Director and Independent Art Curator,Hong Kong