Zhang Hua is an artist born in the late 60s. As one of the famous “Eight Monsters of Sichuan” performance artists in the 1990s, he has experienced and witnessed the development of performance art in Southwest China.
Zhang Hua specializes in expressing his thoughts in various art forms, including performance art, installation art, video recording and painting. His creations are rooted in his personal life experiences, focusing on real social issues and the state of existence of modern people. Through experimental artistic methods, he expresses his unique and creative ideas on art, culture and social issues.
His works are always centered on the exploration of the relationship between human beings and language, body, nature, time, society, history and the spiritual world. In his view, art should not be limited to formal innovation; truly valuable art is the continuation of historical and cultural deposits.
Only those works that contain a spiritual core in their unique forms of expression can have a lasting resonance through time. He especially emphasizes the innovation and completion of artistic language, which he believes is fundamental to the vitality of art works.
In his behavioral creations, the body has multiple meanings: it is both a medium for perceiving the world and a carrier for artistic expression; it is both a tool for transmitting ideas and a site for self reinvention. Through the intervention of the body, a deep dialogue between the spiritual world and the real world is realized. Zhang Hua has his own opinion about performance art: it is the most direct way for artists to respond to the real world, showing criticality and depth of thought through unconventional and highly personal actions. Especially in the era of artificial intelligence, this kind of live art, which cannot be reproduced by digital technology, has become an important existence to resist the erosion of the traditional art evaluation system and business, and maintains the most genuine state of art.
“NIGHT SCHOOL NY INSIGHT” Vol. 54
Searching: Exploring Between Reality And Ideal
Lecture: Hua Zhang
Host：Jody Huang
April 20th, 2025 (Sun)
Sponsor: UP-ON Performance Art Archive
Hua Zhang
Zhang was born in Sichuan in September 1969, graduated from the Fine Arts Department of Leshan Normal College in 1991 and the Printmaking Department of Sichuan Fine Arts Institute in 2000, and now lives and works in Chengdu.
《 Coagulation 》1997 Devices
《 Pure Land 》2003
《 Finding 》 2004
