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Lot Essay
Zhan Wang is one of the most important sculptors in Chinese Contemporary Art. Artificial Rock (Lot 129) and Artificial Rock No. 88 (Lot 142) belong to his famous Artificial Rock (Jianshanshi) Series, which began in 1995. This series has been collected by more than 30 internationally renowned museums and foundations, including the British Museum in London and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. He is one of the first Chinese artists be involved with the latter's permanent collection.
Reflecting on the contemplative quality and healing role of art, the artist was inspired by an important cultural artifact in Chinese tradition, the scholar's rock, an object of meditation.The juxtaposition between old form, Chinese in nature, and new material and technology originally foreign to China defines the work. Jiashanshi exemplify how Zhan Wang challenges perception: his work is an intended artistic process, scholar's rocks that seem to inspire them owe their form and qualities to chance. Scholar's rocks are naturally eroded stones, collected for the subtlety of their form and traditionally found in Chinese gardens. Zhan Wang's artificial rocks are made by hammering sheets of stainless steel onto the surface of a Scholar rock. Small pieces of stainless steel are pounded and welded together to create the shape of the Scholar Rock. These sculptures are meant to be gleaming and hollow replicas but are actually original creations made by laborious craftsmanship. Zhan Wang's choice of stainless steel offers an unusal viewing experience. The mirror-surface of the stainless steel sculptures reflects the existance of viewers and their surroundings, whereas disappears in nature by means of its natural form. The sculptures are capable to disappear in an environment, self-effacing and stimutineously hovering between absence and presence.
Reflecting on the contemplative quality and healing role of art, the artist was inspired by an important cultural artifact in Chinese tradition, the scholar's rock, an object of meditation.The juxtaposition between old form, Chinese in nature, and new material and technology originally foreign to China defines the work. Jiashanshi exemplify how Zhan Wang challenges perception: his work is an intended artistic process, scholar's rocks that seem to inspire them owe their form and qualities to chance. Scholar's rocks are naturally eroded stones, collected for the subtlety of their form and traditionally found in Chinese gardens. Zhan Wang's artificial rocks are made by hammering sheets of stainless steel onto the surface of a Scholar rock. Small pieces of stainless steel are pounded and welded together to create the shape of the Scholar Rock. These sculptures are meant to be gleaming and hollow replicas but are actually original creations made by laborious craftsmanship. Zhan Wang's choice of stainless steel offers an unusal viewing experience. The mirror-surface of the stainless steel sculptures reflects the existance of viewers and their surroundings, whereas disappears in nature by means of its natural form. The sculptures are capable to disappear in an environment, self-effacing and stimutineously hovering between absence and presence.