Art@Site www.artatsite.com Zhan Wang Heaven of Matter
Artist:

Zhan Wang

Title:

Heaven of Matter

Year:
2003
Adress:
Shiodome City Center
Website:
This artwork makes cheerful
To the holes in the surface you can see that this work of art is made of natural stone. These holes are used to the debris from the quarry to chop. The object is a number of times human height and therefore impressively large. Maybe this is a monument that gives an ode to nature.
On top of the column hanging debris sideways and are mounted on the ceiling in a clumsy way. Because the firmness is dependent on the surrounding building, is going to be a big part of the monumentality of the work of art lost.
This work of art has an ugly form: there are no perfectly straight or curved lines, no smooth transitions between parts, no colors that reinforce each other, there is a messy reflection of the surrounding area in the shiny material.
What's crazy is that the work of art silver plated. The lack of monumentality, the unclear message, the ugly shape is thereby strengthened and laughable. This work of art laughs itself off.
Hopefully do the critics weighty on the natural stone, an ode to nature, a monumental created form. Then they may also be laughed at.
Heaven Matter by Zhan Wang is one big party; the laughs at the self-importance, the dependence, the lack of message, the expectations from the environment. I wish I that also more frequently about myself would do
By Theo, www.artatsite.com

Translation
Dit kunstwerk maakt vreugdevol
Aan de gaten in het oppervlak kun je zien dat dit kunstwerk gemaakt is van natuursteen. Deze gaten zijn gebruikt om de brokstukken uit de groeve te hakken. Het object is een aantal maal menshoogte en daarom indrukwekkend groot. Misschien is dit een monument dat een ode geeft aan de natuur.
Bovenop de zuil hangen brokstukken zijwaarts en zijn op een knullige manier aan het plafond gemonteerd. Doordat de stevigheid afhankelijk is van het omringende gebouw, gaat een groot deel van de monumentaliteit van het kunstwerk verloren.
Dit kunstwerk heeft een lelijke vorm: er zijn geen rechte of perfect gebogen lijnen, geen vloeiende overgangen tussen de onderdelen, geen kleuren die elkaar versterken, er is een rommelige weerkaatsing van de omgeving in het glimmende materiaal.
Wat gek dat het kunstwerk verzilverd is. De gebrekkige monumentaliteit, de onduidelijke boodschap, de lelijke vorm wordt daardoor versterkt en lachwekkend. Dit kunstwerk lacht zichzelf uit.
Hopelijk doen de critici gewichtig over het natuursteen, een ode aan de natuur, een monumentale opgerichte vorm. Dan kunnen zij ook uitgelachen worden.
Heaven Matter van Zhan Wang is een groot feest; het lacht om de eigen gewichtigheid, de afhankelijkheid, het gebrek aan boodschap, de verwachtingen vanuit de omgeving. Ik zou willen dat ik dat ook vaker over mijzelf zou doen.
By Theo, www.artatsite.com

www.artnet.com:
Zhan Wang is a contemporary Chinese artist best known for his series of Artificial Rock sculptures.
Melding the traditional Chinese scholar’s rocks with the industrial medium of stainless steel, Zhan reexamines the original function of these decorative objects.
'Placed in a traditional courtyard, rockery satisfied people's desire to return to nature by offering them stone fragments from nature.
But huge changes in the world have made this traditional ideal increasingly out of date,' he explained. 'The material's glittering surface, ostentatious glamour, and illusory appearance make it an ideal medium to convey new dreams.'
Born in 1962 in Beijing, China, he studied at the Beijing Industrial Arts College and later the Central Academy of Fine Arts.
In the early 1990s, Zhan broke from the Socialist Realist tradition of depicting important political figures, by choosing common people on the sidewalks as his subjects.
Over the years that followed, the artist has continued to explore the borders of traditional Chinese aesthetics crossing the threshold into contemporary art. He continues to live and work in Beijing, China.
Today, Zhan’s work is held in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

www.wikipedia.org:
'My Personal Universe' is a 2012 exhibition done by Zhan Wang. The project started in December 2010 and wasn't finished until its revealing in January 2012.
The concept that he had for this installation was to try to recreate the beginning of his universe through the explosion of this single rock and about "removing the boundary of time and showcasing power in its most primitive form". Though Wang was the artist behind the project he had help.
Many steps were taken to get the end results. The process in which he took resulted in the use of a camera crew of 32, six high-speed cameras that took 2,000 frames per second, an explosion technician, dynamite, one rock, picking up of 7,000 pieces, recreating each piece out of stainless steel, rearranging them in the pattern in which they landed, and the amount of time it took to reassemble "his universe".
The cost exceeded $63,000; that alone was the price to rent cameras for the project. However, Louis Vuitton supported the project. In return, he was able to create "My Universe – The Beginning". Video Clip on My Personal Universe.
Louis Vuitton Since Louis Vuitton supported Zhang Wang's "My Personal Universe", he was in return able to create a video instillations "My Universe – The Beginning". It was showcased in Beijing for Louis Vuitton's "Louis Vuitton Voyages", a show that helped express their journey and progress as a brand at the National Museum of China.
Urban Landscape: Beijing
An arrangement of stainless steel cooking ware that has the appearance of Beijing's Landscape. Zhan Wang keeps the forms of the cookware so the viewer can tell that they are still everyday objects. However, through his arrangement he creates conceptual idea of the Urbanization of China and essentially the imagery of Beijing's landscape. As John Stomberg states:
"His materials are both objects of desire and physical manifestations of the systems (social, political, cultural, and economic) in which they operate: it is precisely the trade in commodities such as cooking tools that is fueling the booming Chinese economy, which is in turn driving the modernization of China's cities. In the work there are many of the same cookware, which represents the urban life of Beijing where many of the buildings are identical to one another."
The implications of Urban Landscape: Beijing make the viewer think about this rapid economical modernization that China is under. The amount of detail that Zhan Wang puts in this work is obvious. He even distinguishes between older parts of the cities by adding frost tips. To distinguish the Forbidden City, he uses low serving trays, dishes and groups of lunch boxes that give it a notable look.

www.wikipedia.org:
Zhan Wang (born 1962 in Beijing) is a Chinese sculptor. "Zhan Wang's career as an iconoclast began with In a Twinkling (1993), an installation of superrealist figurative sculptures. The figures' style was not new, but the method of installation was: after creating a group of figures in poses of arrested movement, he propped them in unlikely positions outside a building, creating a surrealistic vision of a world gone awry," wrote Britta Erickson in Art Journal.
He is known for being a contemporary Chinese sculptor; however, he is also known in other art forms such as installations, photography and video. His pieces consist of conceptual ideas where he "embraces and subverts several other major traditions in modern art, both Chinese and Euro-American". Many of his works include the use of simplistic object that serve a purpose of telling a complex idea. Many of his ideas that are expressed through his works pertain to Chinese culture.
An arrangement of stainless steel cooking ware that has the appearance of Beijing's Landscape. Zhan Wang keeps the forms of the cookware so the viewer can tell that they are still everyday objects. However, through his arrangement he creates conceptual idea of the Urbanization of China and essentially the imagery of Beijing's landscape. As John Stomberg states:
"His materials are both objects of desire and physical manifestations of the systems (social, political, cultural, and economic) in which they operate: it is precisely the trade in commodities such as cooking tools that is fueling the booming Chinese economy, which is in turn driving the modernization of China's cities. In the work there are many of the same cookware, which represents the urban life of Beijing where many of the buildings are identical to one another."
The implications of Urban Landscape: Beijing make the viewer think about this rapid economical modernization that China is under. The amount of detail that Zhan Wang puts in this work is obvious. He even distinguishes between older parts of the cities by adding frost tips. To distinguish the Forbidden City, he uses low serving trays, dishes and groups of lunch boxes that give it a notable look.