Zhang Yunhan
Born in 1985 in Changhua, Taiwan, he graduated from the Sculpture Department of Taiwan University of the Arts in 2012 with a master's degree, and now lives and works in Taipei. In 2015, she had a solo exhibition "We're Nothing" at the Taipei Center for Contemporary Art. His main group exhibitions include: "Live Ammunition" (Taipei Museum of Contemporary Art, 2011), Taipei Biennale 2010 (Taipei Fine Arts Museum), and 2009 Taipei Fine Arts Award Winning Works Exhibition (Taipei Fine Arts Museum).
"What distinguishes art from science is that it does not have to be completely objective empirical, it does not have to rely on reliability. Instead, it is appropriate to string together different experiences to find the feelings that resonate the most, and these are the possibilities and perspectives of each individual in describing various things in the world. ”
--Zhang Yunhan
The latest exhibition in ucca's "New Directions" series brings a series of works and related materials by Taiwanese artist Zhang Yunhan, which were completed during two residencies by Zhang Yunhan – the Residency Unlimited project in New York in 2017 and the Arctic Circle in Svalbard, Norway, in 2014.
Zhang Yunhan's motivational letter for applying for the arctic circle residency plan reads: "When we reach the North Pole and stand on the top of this planet, does it mean that we are on top of the world?" However, no one who has lived here for a long time, away from the experience of "man", how can they connect with and establish a relationship with that barren and rich nature? In the past, the way of facing social issues was often that huge structures encompassed the individual, and conversely, how individual experiences could be written and created in the Arctic, and what made individuals begin to slowly converge into communities and further become the world. As today, how can the Arctic, as no man's land, come to be a symbolic origin for future global catastrophes? Or is the idea that global warming and oil plundering are actually allegorical myths created in the structure of human society?
More than a year after setting foot in the Arctic Circle, Zhang invited an illustrator to draw scrolls on paper based on the stories and texts she dictated. Intertwined with different texts and narrative methods, the artist reconstructs the world we perceive in a sensual way.
"Actually, we are nothing"
After the 2017 New York Resident Unlimited Residency Program, Zhang Yunhan created the work "Have You Ever Dreamed of Such a Place?" The work is based on "American Rat Tan", an animated film that Zhang Yunhan has a deep memory in her childhood, and when she grows up, the artist still re-examines it with various perspectives, just like the process of accumulating in real life on her.
The artist searched for newspapers in various languages in New York and painted the classic image of American RatTan on it, carefully observing the contents of the newspaper as a canvas, such as the words: "We live in crisis." News headlines, superficial prosperity and hidden crises, lies, immigrant dreams, and childhood memories evoked by animation are recorded in this series of intuitive paintings. Zhang Yunhan's paintings show the state and struggle of different cultural backgrounds in the city.
《what does it stand for？》2017 报纸
In the 2018 work "American Dream", the artist provides the audience with a completely different way of reading in several different effects, the artist believes that the magicians and storytellers who appear in the work have certain characteristics of New York, and the voices of the storytellers in the exhibition hall are constantly circling the ears repeatedly, like incantations, like summons, and like hypnosis and entering a trance state. The storyteller's interpretation breaks the discourse and creates a sense of rhythm that characterizes the story. YT contacts the artist Zhang Yunhan and tries to find some of the "answers" hidden in the artist's work at this stage in her extremely open work.
YT: In your creation, you did not choose "sculpture" itself as a way of creation, but used other media as a means to "sculpture" the world, is this related to the sculpture major you studied? Were you influenced by the idea of sculpture?
Zhang Yunhan: In the past learning background, sculpture taught me to directly understand materials, improve my use and mastery of materiality, and at the same time, feel and think more comprehensively about space. But my thinking about creating more expanded is actually from the experience of working in the workplace, because I have worked as a project planner in the Cultural and Educational Foundation, whether it is for education or cooperation with different identities, it is often necessary to communicate fully and completely, so I must think about how to promote the effectiveness of communication with the communication object, how to move forward with each other, and so on. I often have to take a step back and look at things, think about the overall structure, further think about how to achieve goals, and practice stepping out of my past limitations at that time. However, the creative foundation of sculpture cultivation is the beginning of my artistic enlightenment, which has always existed.
New Tendency: Zhang Yunhan Exhibition Scene
YT: In your work, you usually choose things or individuals from different experiences to participate in the work, and it seems that the work is constructed with a great randomness, that is, the final appearance of the work may be more derived from the object you choose (they naturally have their own subjective ideas when constructing something) So the final appearance of these works will not depend entirely on you personally? Why is it used this way?
Zhang Yunhan: For me, I hope that the work will remain open to a certain extent, and that the work should be closer to questioning or exposing, rather than being the final "answer". Recent works just happen to be in a different place for the sake of residence, whether the content or the creative process is also closely linked to these experiences, but these experiences in terms of individual description, how to say it seems to be "inaccurate", and do not want to make the perspective appear too single and decisive, so the creation process of recent works has a collaborative process, through communication and cooperation with others, jointly presenting a transformation from personal experience.
However, on the whole, the work still has a vague direction in my imagination, which I may not be able to say clearly, but the judgment in the process must be mastered, so it will not arbitrarily let the work go to chaos or get out of control.
YT: I've seen some other works on your website, like The Plastic Surgery Project, and from these works, it seems that there are different narratives around different narrators who see things or perceive different perspectives, and you seem to be particularly concerned about the "way of telling"?
Zhang Yunhan: I think that experience is three-dimensional, and the way things are discussed is also a three-dimensional process. The reason for the creation of the "Plastic Surgery Project" work is because of the undergraduate sculpture in college, the training in the department begins with the shaping of Western classical statues, and the teachers often discuss the work with beauty as the starting point, but how to discuss the standards and methods of "beauty"? Also because the pages that are most likely to jump out of the search for the word "sculpture" now are cosmetic plastic surgery, plastic surgeons also use their hands to face the judgment of aesthetics, so what do they think? What is the difference with artists? In the relationship between these works, I tend to re-examine how artists think from their position and position, and how to distinguish between their perspectives and others.
Plastic Surgery Project 2013 Dual Channel Video, 13'11" Image Source: Artist's personal website
YT: In the exhibition hall, "In fact, we are nothing" Chinese part of the book, it seems that the audience does not want to completely watch these narratives, these narratives and the audience who walk into the exhibition hall also have a different sense of intimacy and alienation, can you talk about the specific ideas of this part?
Zhang Yunhan: The narrative chapters are very personal and private, and they all come from my handwritten notes on the Arctic ship at that time. I was actually quite shy when exhibiting, which was not the same as my usual talking habits, but the notes were very honest about the confusion, shock and thinking I faced in the Arctic. The way this exhibition is made chooses to be handwritten on the wall, but the light is vaguely difficult to read, as if it is the state of these personal monologues, direct but roundabout, constantly swinging among others and self. It can be private, but it wants to resonate.
YT: In the exhibition, we hang the installation "Unfinished Land" above our heads, and because the hanging position is so high that we can't actually see the image clearly, it seems to dilute the connection between individual experience and geography.
Zhang Yunhan: This is the iceberg I took in the polar village at that time, through the circular window of the cabin. After returning, looking at this photo with great contrasting light, I suddenly felt that the scenery outside the ship window seemed to be a planet floating in the universe. Whether it is the polar region or the planet, the driving force that drives people to the unknown is the curiosity and desire that we also have. And I hung the device at the height of the relationship in the cabin at that time, and the projection crossed to the rear of the light and shadow vaguely like a moon, and the moon was also the first planet landed by mankind. From the poles to the moon, the human gaze is forever looking into the distance that has not yet arrived, even if it is vague and unknown. So I also hope that this work will lead the viewer's eyes and imagination through the window of the cabin, to the glacier of the Arctic, and even to a distant planet, connecting a wider common experience.
Unfinished Lands 2015 Lightbox
YT: Have you ever dreamed of a place like this? Although the work is based on the cute cartoon image of "American Rat Tan" (also known as "Rat Also Immigrant"), but now when we talk about immigration, immigration fever, there are always some ironic or mean points of view in it, plus the "rat" in our cognition does not seem to be a popular image, we usually think that "they" seem to be the lowest creatures, is there such an idea in the work? Although this work has a cute and beautiful coat?
Zhang Yunhan: "American Rat Tan" is an animated film that occupies my deep memories when I was a child, and of course when I grow up, I will re-examine it with various perspectives, just like the process of accumulating in real life with me. In preparation, there was some simple research, and the cartoon actually appeared at about the same time as the manga "Maus of the Rats", which was about the Nazi massacre of the Jewish people, and even had a small storm about the order of distribution. It is not so much the arrangement I chose, but rather that in the atmosphere of the times at that time, the struggle between the international situations made cultural production an extension of many ideologies. When conceiving this work, I really thought about the output of such a beautiful imagination and how to reflect the reality of the surrounding situation, so I began to collect newspapers in different languages in New York City, showing the state and struggle of different cultural backgrounds in the city.
《this is america》2017 报纸
America 2017 newspaper
yt: In the American Dream, you convey your personal experience to people of different identities, such as magicians and storytellers, why would you choose such a person with different identities as your narrator? Which trait of their identity is what appeals to you? Or which particular angle they paraphrase is what you want?
Zhang Yunhan: I chose magicians and storytellers because I think they both have certain characteristics of New York. New York is a very performative place for me, everyone is trying to win the attention of others, and coming to this city allows you to be seen as you want. At the same time, like magic, even if you know that many things in front of you are not real, you still enjoy the happiness of the moment and are willingly deceived. Storytellers, like New York, are full of stories that are relayed to others and circulate in the city in various ways, like legends, and like everyday life.
The way and content of their performances I will discuss together, such as the magician, I provide him with a text written in New York, based on personal feelings and observations, ask him to figure out the techniques and atmospheres that magic can present according to the content of the text, people of different identities have skills that I can't do, and I hope that my experience can be translated by them, narrated by their abilities and unique language.
American Dream 2018 Dual Channel Video, 15'09" Image Credit: Artist's personal website
YT: Two different edited versions of the American Dream, with sound and silent versions, and combining two images and separating two images, create two experiences that seem different but are the same (perhaps the influence of audio in the same space) in different ways.
Zhang Yunhan: At that time, several different effects were tried during editing, the storyteller's voice was thick and full, and the main narrative between the two pictures took the audience to read the magic, establishing the narrative and performance as a relationship of near and far. However, the magic show itself is also very watchable, the story sound is removed, only the picture is left, and the whole white picture is interlaced at the end, but it is very visual, so the arrangement is two different ways of reading the image.
YT: How do you see the American Dream? Is the reference to the "American Dream" in your work simply due to its "multi-faceted ideal" trait itself?
Zhang Yunhan: "American Dream" for me is a state that has been around me since I was a child, disneyland that I have been exposed to since I was a child, and many relatives and friends have immigrated at different times. But I think that the yearning for others comes from the reflection of the current situation, becoming sustenance, becoming an unfinished eternity, so that we can always imagine a better future ahead. When I was in New York, I watched the different ethnic communities around me struggle to live in this metropolis, but I also tried my best to maintain my own culture and living habits. Let me often imagine that this kind of life is what they want? What does the practice of this American Dream mean to them? What are you expecting from the city to respond to them? Maybe it's cruel to say that those "better lives" are still a dream after all.
Unless otherwise noted, the images are courtesy of the UCCA Ullens Center for Contemporary Art.
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