During our trip to the Pace Gallery at 534 West 25th Street, we were greeted by one of the strangest paintings I have ever seen. Immediately after, I see a very similar painting in a different color and size only a few feet away from the first painting. I was appalled and stunned. Even more than that, I was confused.
It turns out that this was the “Poppy Fields” exhibition by none other than the artist Zhang Huan. According to his biography on the Pace website, it describes him as “one of the most vital, influential, and provocative contemporary artists working today.” (1) All of these are just so true, especially the provocative part.
Hey look! Colors on a board!
From far away, the painting looks like a mesh of colors. It’s quite impossible to tell what the painting is trying to convey. But, in an NY Times article about the exhibition, Zhang Huan describes it as: “The paintings represent the hallucination of happiness and the hallucination of fear and loneliness in this life as well as the hallucination of happiness in the next life.” It’s quite a stretch to give this painting such a wide range of emotions when it simply looks like an assortment of random colors. (2)
These creepy skulls stare straight into my heart…
But, close in, you get to see the details of each and every skull. You could see how each skull isn’t on the same plane. One’s a little higher than the rest; another one is a little lower than the rest. This almost gives the painting a 3D aspect, making the viewer examine the painting even more. The painting itself was incredibly detailed. There’s so much labor involved, making each skull individual. It almost gives the impression that each skull was created separately, and then collectively put together. Also equally noticeable is each smile of the skull, it was near unnoticeable from far away.
What do I think this painting means? I’d take a more as an outsider viewing humanity. From far away, you really can’t tell what humanity is like. It seems like a mess, just as the painting. But, as you move closer, you can see that each individual is different. I personally don’t see the “hallucinations” described by Huan, but everyone has their own take on paintings and exhibitions.
Some sources:
http://www.pacegallery.com/newyork/exhibitions/12596/poppy-fields
