ZHANG XU Zhan

Into the popular century-old Hsin-Hsing Paper Sculpture Store in Xinzhuang, Taipei County, Zhang Xu Zhan specializes in creating a riotous profusion of paper effigies ranging from luxurious mansions and oversized paper dolls to paper-pasted mythological animals and flowers. The artist is also proficient in employing diverse media such as animation, video art, and experimental film, stop-motion paper doll and multi-channel video installation, and employs a wide range of artistic forms. His artworks not only revolve around absurd and bizarre images, but also encapsulate his wry observations on strange social phenomena and the cul-de-sac his family business (memories) faces, transforming all kinds of contemporary life experience into surreal, bizarre images. In other words, the artist’s works feature the unending decay and the post-revelry companionlessness that serve as part of his life’s rich tapestry.

Mirror Series–Gwangju
Mouse: You Never Loved Me Even in The Absence of the Pandemic.
Pigeon: Do You Miss the Air of Freedom as Much as I Do?
Gecko: Can’t You Just Take It Anymore?

Seeing the light reflected in the mirror, it feels as though understanding existence becomes clearer.
Near my artist studio, I often see the corpses of dead animals who have lost the game of survival in the city. The various forms of their flattened bodies are like the characters in a video game, where it is obviously “GAME OVER,” but the body still remains in the same place watching the world go by. It stays waiting for time to pass, waiting to log out, remaining in a state of limbo, lying there proclaiming its existence.

Animal Story–AT5
“The Aarne-Thompson Classification System,” shortened as “AT Number System,” is an index for classifying folk tales which understands them as being built out of smaller, interchangeable motifs. Tale of Animal AT58 starts with a research project during the artist’s residency program in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. “Mouse-deer” is a common subject in Indonesian folk tales. Based on the famous tale “Mouse-Deer and Crocodile,” similar motifs in Chinese folk tales are drawn upon in reference to “The Clever Fox or Other Animal.” The artist is as well inspired by costumes used in Yi-Zhen, traditional Taiwanese folk performance of religious procession, when he fabricates a half fox half mouse-deer figure in the installation. Images of the two animals work together for the character to act out “AT5,” a similar narrative to the tale, which speaks to the artist’s previous work Si So Mi regard to explorations on changes of meaning when cultures spread across different regions as well as universality. Using film concept “match cut,” the artist uses computer players to randomly reorganize choices of the story and mix narratives to become a random new narrative.