Zhang huan 12 square meters (1994)

Zhang Huan, widely considered to be one of the outstanding Chinese performance artists of the s, moved to the United States in In the five years prior to his departure, he had gained considerable notoriety in Beijing on account of the provocative nature of his performances, particularly those in which he submitted his own body to tests of physical and mental endurance.

To some extent this was a refection on the living conditions of the great majority of Chinese who had not yet benefited from the rapid development of the economy. More importantly, it was a demonstration of the power of the human mind to rise above situations that most would find unendurable. In Original Sound , , his mouth filled with earthworms, he laid underneath a flyover in Beijing while ten artists observed him and offered their own interpretations.

Potentially life-threatening was 25mm Threading Steel in which he laid flat on the floor beneath a steel-workers table while sparks flew dangerously close to his body. Other works such as the well-known To Raise the Water Level in a Fishpond , which took place on August 15, , involved the participation of other performers.

Forty or more participants, recent migrants to Beijing from other parts of China, were invited to walk into the pond in order to raise the water level, an absurd gesture that nonetheless underscores the far reaching effects of even the slightest movement or gesture.

Zhang huan angel (1993)

Peace was produced shortly after his best-known work Family Tree and shares some of the same preoccupations. Acutely aware of the distance separating him from his birthplace while not totally discounting the advantages, Zhang frequently chooses to emphasize the cultural conditioning that has made him what he is today. In this series of nine photographs, the famous story of "Yugong Moving the Mountain" is inscribed on his face until it is totally black.

As he has stated: "Modern culture is slowly smothering us and turning our faces black. It is impossible to take away your inborn blood and personality. From a shadow in the morning, then suddenly into the dark night, the first cry of life to a white-haired man, standing lonely in front of a window, a last peek of the world and a remembrance of an illusory life.

In Peace he turns to a more public manifestation of remembrance, using the ancient form of the temple bell to convey his messages.