Vivien Zhang’s Uzumaki borrows its name from a Japanese manga by author Junji Ito, who introduced the shape of a spiral as a form conveying horror, opposing the generally positive connotations the shape carries in Japanese aesthetics. The spiral as a form is magnificent as a rip-curl wave, a sea-snail’s shell, or the double-helix that builds genetic code. Yet it may take on terrifying dimensions – the eye of a hurricane, the vortex of the tornado, the black hole at the centre of the milky way that will one day consume our planet. Vivien Zhang’s canvases often play with the combination of multiple references in a timeless and placeless plane. The new body of work presented with Uzumaki inserts examples of spiral columns into colour-radiant and iridescent digital planes.
Zhang spent one year living at the British Academy in Rome, experiencing layers of history coexisting in modernity. The contemporary seemed crushed by the weight of history, she explains. Like a Photoshop layer, one century is constructed over the other with portions remaining visible with the twists of history. St. Peter’s baldacchino in Rome is an interesting example of twisting Solomonic columns. Fascinated by forms, Zhang investigated the varied combinations and ideas of what a ‘twisting’ or ‘spiral’ column could constitute. Art Historians and contemporary sources talk about a ‘true spiral’ vs. a ‘fake spiral’ based on whether the entire rotation of the column exists or if the spiral is simply of decorative function.
In Korea, the American-flag-coloured barber pole served as a symbol for something much more seedy than the neighbourhood barber. Prostitution is illegal in Korea but common knowledge has it that two barber poles swinging in opposite directions are a symbol for brothels. From St. Peter’s cloister to Korean brothels, the form of the column has travelled from sacred to profane, from sculpted marble to plastic mass-production.
The reoccurring Solomonic columns in the work of Vivien Zhang serve as an illusion to digital image production. The copy-pasted column exists in countless repetitions of a theme spanning history and space. Like a spiral encompassing its surroundings, the spread of the columns takes unexpected turns and variations. Zhang’s layering processes play with notions of geometry and figuration. The extremely precise and controlled strokes of the columns present photo-realistic renditions of the marble cuts. Meanwhile, the digital image is dissected in its flattening function. Painting from a photograph is a different exercise than painting from life. The perspective of the photographic lens compresses and flattens information perceived naturally. Meticulously painted again by hand, Zhang’s simulation of the painted image is a contradiction to production in an automated world. The instantaneousness act of image collection contradicts the dedication and labour of the original column production. Each column is inserted carefully into a chromosomal colour gradient contrasting this digital coloration with the ancient form. Completely divorced of its function, the Solomonic column has entered the contemporary and its digital reality along with the rest of history.
Zhang spent one year living at the British Academy in Rome, experiencing layers of history coexisting in modernity. The contemporary seemed crushed by the weight of history, she explains. Like a Photoshop layer, one century is constructed over the other with portions remaining visible with the twists of history. St. Peter’s baldacchino in Rome is an interesting example of twisting Solomonic columns. Fascinated by forms, Zhang investigated the varied combinations and ideas of what a ‘twisting’ or ‘spiral’ column could constitute. Art Historians and contemporary sources talk about a ‘true spiral’ vs. a ‘fake spiral’ based on whether the entire rotation of the column exists or if the spiral is simply of decorative function.
In Korea, the American-flag-coloured barber pole served as a symbol for something much more seedy than the neighbourhood barber. Prostitution is illegal in Korea but common knowledge has it that two barber poles swinging in opposite directions are a symbol for brothels. From St. Peter’s cloister to Korean brothels, the form of the column has travelled from sacred to profane, from sculpted marble to plastic mass-production.
The reoccurring Solomonic columns in the work of Vivien Zhang serve as an illusion to digital image production. The copy-pasted column exists in countless repetitions of a theme spanning history and space. Like a spiral encompassing its surroundings, the spread of the columns takes unexpected turns and variations. Zhang’s layering processes play with notions of geometry and figuration. The extremely precise and controlled strokes of the columns present photo-realistic renditions of the marble cuts. Meanwhile, the digital image is dissected in its flattening function. Painting from a photograph is a different exercise than painting from life. The perspective of the photographic lens compresses and flattens information perceived naturally. Meticulously painted again by hand, Zhang’s simulation of the painted image is a contradiction to production in an automated world. The instantaneousness act of image collection contradicts the dedication and labour of the original column production. Each column is inserted carefully into a chromosomal colour gradient contrasting this digital coloration with the ancient form. Completely divorced of its function, the Solomonic column has entered the contemporary and its digital reality along with the rest of history.
