Big heads, pale eyes, and subtle changes in hairstyle drop little hints about intimate characteristics and stifled emotions. And that is how Zhang Xiaogang, famous for his Bloodline series, is recording his life.
In his latest exhibition at Pace Beijing Gallery, his sculptures, installations and steel-plate paintings dredge his memory to unearth life as it was in the 1980s and 1990s.
“I’m not a historian. I don’t care about what exactly happened. I’m just interested in the (emotional) truth. This exhibition is my reflection on the fragment of that time that was mfe,” Zhang says
“The future is vague once more, and today is still just another wait without dreams. Perhaps time is a container for souls – (one) designed by people to mock life and exaggerate reality?” the artist wrodown his anxieties about the future in a giant bronze notebook, the centerpiece of the exhibition.
The title of the exhibition, “Records”, is derived from Records of the Great Historian, a Han Dynasty (206 BC – 220 AD) te But Zhang’s records are a reflection of his never-ending quest to explore history.His diaries are transcribed onto a dozen steel plates at the exhibition, each painted with everyday scenes of his bathroom, study and bedroom.
In his sculptures, the artist selects everyday objects that have played an important role in his life: fountain pens, a giant candle, a notebook and light bulbs. Another of his displays shows 60 cinder blocks with ink bottles, discarded transistor radios, black-and-white TV sets and thermoses crammed into their holes.
