ZHANG HUAN

Zhang Huan's performances, conceptual photography, sculptures, drawings, and prominent public commissions have earned him a reputation as one of the leading Chinese artists working in contemporary art today. Transformation is a common theme found in Zhang's different media of works, and in Untitled (Lot 611), executed in ink, watercolor, and soy sauce, the drawing depicts a stag with antlers that appears to be transforming into branches of a tree reaching into the sky, and roots deep in the earth resembling a self-portrait of his face. In this drawing, Zhang examines and questions humanity and spirituality to reflect upon the changing environment and culture, and the animal, tree and human spirit dwells in three worlds, translating a link between heaven, earth, and the underworld into Zhang's own metaphorical identity from his social dislocation.