Here are a few key points I gathered from our discussion: - Zhang Huan and Song Dong use their bodies and physical actions in performances to comment on issues of identity, culture, and the individual's relationship to power structures. Their works are meditations on impermanence and the minimal impact of individual actions. - Hongtu Zhang remixes and recontextualizes iconic images like Mao and icons of Western art to subvert expectations and comment on the intersection of Eastern and Western cultures. He draws from both traditions. - Performance art pushes boundaries of what art can be and how the artist can engage their body and actions as a medium. It challenges viewers to think differently. - Even small, seemingly insignificant actions

1. Who Are the icons of
America?
• Barack Obama - - - - - - - - Ex president, first black president (The Obey piece)
• Martin Luther King Jr. - - - - - - - -
• Malcom X- - - - - - - - Pose with finger pointing or finger pointing to head.
• Uncle Sam - - - - - - - - Red White and Blue.
• Oprah Winfrey - - - - - - - - “You get…...something”
• BEYONCÉ
• Jay Z
• George Washington - - - - - - - - MONEY,
• Lincoln - - - - - - - - Lil’ Statue? And the Penny!
• JFK
• Clint Dempsey
• Tim Tbow
• (indecipherable giggling)
How are they visually
represented?

2. Who Are the icons of
America?
• Celebrities - - - - in movies
• The president - - - - TWITTER ACCOUNT Ugh.
• “Lady Liberty.” - - - - Physical representations, or sport-ball teams
• Uncle Sam
• GEORGE Washington
• Ben Franklin - - - - CASH MONEY
• Abraham Lincoln
• (faces on currency)
• Alexander Hamilton (WHAT’S YA NAME!!!!)
• Barack Obama - - - - A supreme shirt in Sakin’s closet.
• Rosie the Rivetter - - - - T-SHIRTS, bags, buttons, posters,
• .
• .
How are they visually
represented?

3. Hongtu Zhang
• Christian: He distorts
pictures of an icon: Mao
Zedong (dictator, leader,
general, brought about
the Cultural Revolution)
• Azalea: It’s like he did
what we just did. Like he
painted the face of Mao
in different ways
• Jen: Disrespecting???
• Levy: Referencing
STALIN, Picasso, and
other artists

4. Hongtu Zhang
• Discombobulated.
• These all make fun of
the Emperor,
err….dictator....er....w
hat is he?
• Mao Zedong
• This reminds me of
Andy Warhol’s
Campbells Soup Cans
(Pop Art!!! Different
iterations of the
same subject)
• .

5. Andy Warhol
Campbells Soup Cans
1962
Silkscreen on canvas.

6. Hongtu Zhang
Zhang Hongtu was born and raised in a
devoted Chinese Muslim family in Gansu
Province in western China. He studied art in
Beijing early in his life, and live there during
the Cultural Revolution. He also studied
ancient cave painting in remote areas of
western China.
In 1982 he moved to New York City, where
he’s been living since. His artwork is a blend
of Pop Art, history, culture, and politics.
Often, he is known for combining elements of
Eastern and Western visuals.

7. Hongtu Zhang
In the early 1980s, Zhang turned
his critical eye to his experiences
of immigrant life in New York.
Coming to the U.S. was a positive
step for his creative expression,
but living in a new place had its
own challenges. Many pieces
from this period, including A
Walking Man (1983-4) and Fish
(1985), made while Zhang
studied at the Art Students
League, convey a darker mood.
(Queens museum)

8. Hongtu Zhang
Soy Sauce Calligraphy
1995
Soy Sauce on Paper
Others begin to reveal Zhang’s
ability to combine materials and
cultural signifiers for subversive
effects, like Soy Sauce Calligraphy
(1995), a remake of a sweatshop
“help wanted” ad—something
quite common to New York’s
Chinatown in the 1980s—in the
style of traditional Chinese
calligraphy.
(Queens museum)

9. Hongtu Zhang
Mao in Soy Sauce
Date unknown
Others begin to reveal Zhang’s
ability to combine materials and
cultural signifiers for subversive
effects, like Soy Sauce Calligraphy
(1995), a remake of a sweatshop
“help wanted” ad—something
quite common to New York’s
Chinatown in the 1980s—in the
style of traditional Chinese
calligraphy.
(Queens museum)

10. MAO ZEDONG
HONGTU ZHANG
Chairman Mao
Paper collage and mixed media on canvas

11. MAO ZEDONG
HONGTU ZHANG
No. 29 (from Long live Chairman Mao series)
1989

12. MAO ZEDONG
HONGTU ZHANG
Ping-pong Mao
1995

13. Hongtu Zhang
be.com/watch?v=IOcwwLaPVrg
be.com/watch?v=lr0m204A7j8
• Kendell: He’s emotional about talking about the Cultural
Revolution and how violent it was. He describes it with
horrible imagery.
• Benz: He seems passionate about this historical moment
and how it’s remembered versus how it actually
happened. .. but also self loathing about not stepping up
to be involved.
• Delani: He seems traumatized the way he describes the
bodies of dead kids he saw.
• Levy: He’s super impassioned ….everything. He loads it
all with meaning.
• Gya: It doesn’t matter how much passion you have, he
still didn’t do anything during the Revolution. I think I
would have responded the same way.
• Jaylin: He’s more passionate than all the other artists
we’ve seen interviews with.

14. Hongtu Zhang
be.com/watch?v=IOcwwLaPVrg
be.com/watch?v=lr0m204A7j8
• Ingrid: Emotional! He seems connected to his
work…When he first came up I thought he was going to
be SO BORING (Ageism!!!) He’s a hand talker!
• Michael: He is very affected by what has happened to
him.
• Promia: He’s not just describing what happened. He’s
living through it. He looked like he was going to cry.
• Abdul: He cares a lot about social inequality.
• Adrianna: I thought he’d be younger, based on the pop
art work he does. .it’s easy when you’re older to just
stick to what you’re used to.
• .
• .

15. While Zhang has continued to incorporate his
personal and cultural history into his practice,
he has further honed a brand of creative
mischief, drawing on his studies of traditional
Chinese paintings and Western art and art
history to weave elements of humor and
surprise into his works. The “political pop”
works from his Mao Series (1987-ongoing)
exemplify this. Referring to the iconic
celebrity series by Andy Warhol, Zhang gives
us an experience of seeing the image of Mao
everywhere around us—from the front of a
Quaker Oats canister to his silhouette cut out
of burlap. This inundation with Mao’s likeness
draws on Zhang’s experience of the
Chairman’s absolute power and influence,
which permeated the daily lives of Chinese
citizens. (Queens museum)

16. Hongtu Zhang
Guo Xi – Van Gogh
1998
Oil on Canvas

17. Various Landscapes by
Vincent Van Gogh

18. Hongtu’s work shows the power that icons and imagery have as they move from culture
to culture.
Consider how we influence one another across the globe—whose stories, historical
narratives, icons are the most common?
How do those icons interact with other historical narratives or stories?

19. Hongtu Zhang
Kekou Kele – Coca Cola Six Pack
2002
Porcelain

20. HONGTU ZHANG
MAO, AFTER PICASSO
2012
ink and oil on rice paper and
photo collage mounted on canvas

21. Final Thoughts?
Hongtu Zhang
• .
• .
• .
Site Visit to Hongtu Zhang’s Studio in Queens on Monday Dec 18 2:30pm

22. Final Thoughts?
Hongtu Zhang
• Kendell: His work is really meaningful, and he’s trying to oppose
things that he thought was wrong. A lot of us don’t really do that.
We don’t speak up for things that we think are wrong in society.
• Kellyah: His work is his way of clearing his conscience.
• Benz: Depends on the person….Some people DO stand up....but not
me.
• Christian: He sees ICONS and expresses them in his work. Chairman
Mao gets remixed over and over again...same with Coca-Cola and
Van Gogh. His theme is REMIX.
• Tenz: He’s a great man for knowing the mistakes he has committed.
Not everyone can do this. Most people are only concerned for their
own well being.
• Yeva: I like that he’s doing this work, to lessen his fear of being in
Mao’s shadow.
• Delani: @Kendell, This takes years to stand up for what’s right. They
may be afraid in the beginning.
• .
Site Visit to Hongtu Zhang’s Studio in Queens on Monday Dec 18 2:30pm

24. pointlessness.

25. Song Dong Breathing

27. Song Dong
Waste Not
Installation 2005
In his wide-ranging practice, Song Dong
explores ideas of memory, impermanence,
and the value of human expression within the
context of China’s rapidly changing society.
In 2005 he first exhibited Waste Not, an
installation showcasing more than 10,000
objects accumulated by his late mother—
everything from pots to shoes to toothpaste
tubes. The mass of what is essentially garbage
is intended to show the small details of a
human life and reference the futility of
existence, a frequent theme in his
performances, installations, videos, and
paintings.

28. Song
Dong
Breathing
Photo
1996
These two photographs document Song
Dong’s performances in January 1996. He
laid down face first on the ground of
Tiananmen Square under sub-zero
conditions for forty minutes. As he
breathed on the ground, a thin layer of
ice formed.
When he repeated the act on a small
frozen lake in Houhai (near Tiananmen
Square), the ice he wished to melt
remained unaffected, symbolizing the
conflict between the individual and the
establishment. Together, the two
performances illustrate the artist’s desire
to use his body to facilitate a change in
the environment, regardless of its
minimal impact.

29. Song
Dong
Breathing
Photo
1996
Initial Impressions of this artist’s work….
• .Nita: You can just do things for fun.
• Adrianna: Everything we do, even the
pointless things make a difference.
Staying up late may affect you later
the following day. We don’t need to
have massive cultural shifts. Little
things make a difference.
• Sarah: We may think there’s no
impact, even if we don’t see it in the
moment, it’ll still make a difference.
• Dest: Everything we do has a
purpose.
• Prince: People fail to realize that
everything they do has an impact.
• Danisa: like how half the country
doesn’t vote….

30. Song
Dong
Breathing
Photo
1996
Initial Impressions of this artist’s work….
• Tenz: He’s very dedicated to his
work. He does his work to
show ...a message.
• Tatiana: He’s making a point,
even though you may not know
the meaning....
• Benz: He’s a dude who cares
about what HE thinks of his
art...not others.
• .
• .

31. Song Dong Breathing

32. Song Dong
Stamping Water
Photo of performance in Lhasa River, Tibet 1996

33. Song Dong
Stamping Water
Photo of performance in Lhasa River, Tibet 1996

34. Song Dong
Stamping Water
Photo of performance in Lhasa River, Tibet 1996
Song began his career as an oil painter, but in the years
after 1989 he increasingly shifted his focus to installation
and performance art.
These iconic photographs capture Song’s most famous
performance, in which he sat in the Lhasa River in Tibet
for an hour repeatedly stamping the water with a large
wood seal carved with the Chinese character for water
(shui 水). The piece is, among other things, a meditation
on the evanescence of inscribed language.
As Song has said, “I exerted great force [in stamping the
seal on the water], but in the end left no trace.”

35. pointless.
Sarah: Impact doesn’t have to be VISIBLE.
Artan: You can try, but you may never get results.

36. Zhang Huan
Family Tree

37. Zhang Huan 1991
Family Tree nine color prints
During the 1990s, Zhang Huan’s provocative
conceptual performances, which tested his physical
and spiritual endurance, established him as one of
China’s most celebrated artists. Using his body as his
medium, Zhang challenges notions of national and
personal identity.
Family Tree is an exploration of culture and selfhood.
Zhang hired three calligraphers to inscribe Chinese
proverbs, family relations and histories, literary texts,
and words deriving from the ancient practice of
physiognomy onto his face over the course of several
hours. Gradually obscuring Zhang’s discernible
features, the calligraphy shifts from legibility into an
obliterating mask.

38. Zhang Huan
1997
Skin
Black and white photo
series

39. Zhang Huan
1997
Skin
Black and white photo
series

40. Push the limits of Performance Art.
Push your own limits as well.

41. Zhang Huan
To Add One Meter to an
Anonymous Mountain
1995
Color video

42. Zhang Huan
To Add One Meter to an
Anonymous Mountain
1995
Color video
According to artist assistant Kong Bu:
At 1pm on May 11, 1995, land surveyors Jin Kui and Xiong Wen stood on the road below
where they set up their measuring equipment. They measured the mountain's height at
86.393 meters. Everyone climbed the mountain, and one by one the artists shed their
clothes. The participants divided into four rows by ascending weight and then lay on top of
each other in the form of a pyramid. Between 1:26 and 1:38 that afternoon, the surveyors'
measurement of the anonymous mountain was 87.393 meters, precisely one meter higher
than before…

43. Every action, no matter
how simple or basic
makes a difference.
Even if there’s no trace
of the action when it is
complete.
<3 -kozak

45. Notebook Checks begin on Wed 12/13
• All content from Street Art Unit
• All content from Guggenheim Unit