Zhang Huan is one of those individuals I find completely moving and inspiring even apart from his work; drawing inspiration from his day to day endeavors, seeing the Earth through the eyes of not only an Artist, but also as an Activist.
Though he first made a name as a performance artist from inside a bathroom in Shanghai's Art district, (By coating his naked body in honey for swarms of flies to feast upon him), it is in Tar magazine that I finally happened upon his work. In conversation with Chuck Close, he spoke of his recent works; building paintings with ash from temples in Shanghai:
"We don't say that we 'bought' or 'collected' the ashes, because this is not a commodity or something that you can actually buy or collect. This is something that you have to pray for. We pray for ash, and the ash itself embodies all the dreams and wishes of all the people when they are offering their spirits." (Huan in Tar Magazine, Issue Two, Spring 2009, USA)
This meticulous man has now moved to the Theatre Royale de La Monnaie, in Brussels, Belgium. It is here where Zhang Huan will make his directoral and scenographic debut with Semele, a Baroque Opera adapted from Ovid's Metamorphosis, under the stage direction of Huan's contemporaty genuis; A first ever in Opera History.
As La Monnaie's "Artist of the Season 2009-10," Zhang Huan is assuredly one of the worlds most pre-eminent artists, and I only wish I could be in attendance for this definite transcendental masterpiece.
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