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His performance art is bound to provoke
By Cate McQuaid (Globe Correspondent)
Updated: 2005-09-29 14:17
Zhang Huan had
stripped naked, covered himself with honey and then sat for an hour in a
Beijing public toilet while flies landed on him. It's named "The 12 Square
Meters." [file photo] | Zhang makes pieces that are relevant to their site and freighted with
history. "My Boston" centers on a giant pyramid of books and the story of a
Chinese emperor in 213 BC who ordered a massive burning of books. The theme
spans centuries and cultures and is as relevant in a city where "banned in
Boston" became a catch phrase as it is in China.
Over the years, the artist's pieces have become more complicated, although
they remain ritualistic and centered on his body. In "My Boston," the added
bells and whistles, including eight dogs and a fog machine, get in the way of
the Zen-like clarity on view in "Seeds of Hamburg." The fog machine, meant to
mimic smoke, didn't generate enough vapor amid the evening's light rain to
suggest the funeral pyre the artist seemed to be aiming for.
The dogs barked, bickered, and strayed, making a solemn scene unintentionally
comical. The artist has marveled at how in America, dogs seem to be treated as
well as children, unlike in China, where they're treated like animals. That's
why he incorporates dogs in some performances that straddle the two cultures.
Here, they simply got in the way.
Zhang entered like a snake, slithering through the grass from beneath a bush,
a dozen or more books tied in a stack to his ankles. As with "Hamburg," "My
Boston" amounted to a series of moving, crystalline images: Zhang, nude and
weighted by his literary shackles, shimmying up a flagpole; Zhang, prostrate
along a pyramid shelf, buried under many volumes; Zhang, perched regally atop
the pyramid with a giant volume around his neck.
Edited down to a few still photos, "My Boston" will make
a more potent document than it did a performance.
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