Zhang Huan vs. Echo Transgression
During the class discussion after visiting the Zhang Huan exhibit, I noticed that many people expressed feelings of distress and skepticism. The source from which all these feelings stemmed seemed to be the concept of nudity in the artist’s work and the perceived message, or lack thereof, behind the work. To be honest, I myself, was slightly disturbed when watching some of the performance videos and I too felt that many of the “messages” completely escaped me. However, after researching on other performance artists, such as Echo in Echo: Transgression, I felt as though I began to understand Zhang Huan in his artwork in the sense that maybe I really don’t need to understand his artwork. That is, I felt that Zhang Huan was correct in saying no one can understand his artwork but he, which can be perceived somewhat as a disclaimer. No one really can understand his artwork and it’s up to the audience to decide what the meaning is behind something or if there is any meaning behind it.
Researching about Echo made me realize this. There wasn’t much information about the artist when I looked her up but many of her photographs or performance artworks resembled much of Zhang Huan’s. For instance, there was one photograph in which she draped a dead pig over her body and called it art. This was strongly reminiscent of Zhang Huan’s own particular artwork in which he draped the bones and meat of cows that he obtained from a butcher shop. Perhaps the messages between Echo’s and Zhang Huan’s are different but both can be considered art and are considered art by their owners. In effect, this assignment made me think of the quote, “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.” I think this is something many people need to keep in mind when interpreting others’ artworks.
Note: Many of Echo’s works of art were so controversial that she was arrested many times for her execution of them.
October 8th, 2007 at 11:38 pm
I agree with you that a big part of art i how the audience interprets it and may at times have nothing to do with what the artist “meant for it to be” i used to be more skeptical about these things, but recently my friend who is in a 3D art class showed me a peice of art she had made and told me what it was all about - i asked her what other students’ comments on her art had been and she said that all of their guesses were way off, but she said that didn’t bother her at all and she found their interpretations to be really interesting and that it was all part of the process.