Zhan Wang (Chinese, born 1962), 展望Artificial Rock
2005

signed,dated 2005 and numbered 1/4
polished steel on teak base

112 x 56 x 33 cm (44 1/8 x 22 1/16 x 13 in)注脚Provenance
The Red Mansion Foundation, UK
Acquired directly from the above by the present owner in 2005

展望
太湖石
不銹鋼柚木底座
2005年作

簽名: Zhan Wang 展望 二OO五年
版數：1/4

來源
英國紅樓基金會
現藏家於2005年直接購自上述收藏

The Taihu stone is a type of limestone rock, originally from Taihu Lake, at the base of Dongting Mountain in Suzhou, that has taken on bizarre shapes over many years of water erosion. They have been frequently used as decorative elements in Chinese gardens since ancient times, seen as symbols of timelessness. The height of Chinese stone appreciation was in the Song dynasty. Song painters Mi Fu and Su Shi were both stone enthusiasts, and many high society figures collected and commented on stones with strange and unique shapes. Strange stones, as they are called, served as a medium for the ancients to contemplate the relationship between man and nature. Carved into a weathered beauty by time, they became vessels for aspirations and ideals in life.

Zhan Wang's Taihu stones form his most influential series of artworks, and stand as a response to the sense of opposition between nature and industry. As China's market reforms entered into full swing in the 1990s, the landscape was utterly transformed, with many old buildings flattened in the span of just a few years. Zhan Wang experimented with the use of artificial rocks to respond to the rise of new buildings, to bring nature and tradition into the modernizing urban landscape. Under the rapid pace of social change, the memories and traces of the past were being obliterated. This powerful sense of being rewritten led the Beijing-born artist to ponder the clash between Chinese traditions and the ideas of Western art. He found that sculptures of Taihu stones were entirely Western on a conceptual level, but there had been no new breakthroughs in Chinese concepts of stone sculpture.

In 1994, Zhan Wang infused his sculpture with conceptuality and spirituality, using the long-lasting material of stainless steel to clash against concepts of falseness and emptiness, while skillfully weaving lyrical beauty and timelessness. He placed sheets of stainless steel over stones and hammered them to imprint their contours onto the metal, before welding the sheets together into a single plate and removing the stone inside, leaving behind an empty shell which was then ground and polished to create a smooth surface. His Taihu stone sculptures marked a leap beyond traditional sculpture production processes, and forever changed Chinese contemporary art.

These artworks are empty on the inside, and shimmer with light on the outside. The distorted reflections on the surface present an illusion, a dreamlike, blurred representation of the scenery around it. Is the truth what we see with our eyes, or is it the scene that surrounds us? Zhan Wang defined a new aesthetic, using the inside and outside of objects to correspond to the real and illusory space in front of us, while the shiny surface of the stainless steel stands as a marker of the spirit of modernization. The heritage that comes down to us from the spiritual world of the past is being reinterpreted and recompiled piece by piece to break through with new meaning.

太湖石原為產於蘇州洞庭山太湖邊的太湖石，是一種常年水波侵蝕下而外形奇異聳峭的石灰岩。自古以來， 是中國園林常見的裝飾物，視為不朽的象徵。中國賞石文化的鼎盛時期在宋代，這個時期的書畫家米芾和蘇軾皆熱衷賞石，當時的社會風氣有許多名流收藏及評論奇石。奇石是古人思考人和自然關係的媒介，經自然與時間雕刻出歷經風霜的美感，使其寄託人生抱負和理念。

展望最具代表性的太湖石系列呼應了自然和工業之間的對立感。90年代中國改革開放後，地景更新，大量的舊建築被移平的，皆在短短幾年之間發生。展望試圖用假山石來對照新建築的興起，將自然傳統帶進現代化都市造景中。當時社會急速改變下，過去的記憶和痕跡逐漸被抹去。被改寫的衝擊感，使生於北京的展望思索中國傳統和西方藝術理念的碰撞。他發現石頭的雕塑全是西方理念，中國人對石頭雕塑的觀念卻無新的突破。

在1994年展望將雕塑注入了概念和精神性，運用不朽的不銹鋼材質碰撞假、空無的概念，空靈的精神和不朽也巧妙的繫在一起。他將一片片不銹鋼鋼板放在石頭上，敲打出相合的凹凸紋理，再將其焊接一起直到最後一片鋼板，最終將石頭取出，留下空殼，再進行來回打磨和拋光。太湖石跳脫了傳統雕塑的製作過程，在中國當代藝術中開創新局面。

由雕塑內部的空無，外部則閃耀綻放光芒，表層反射出的扭曲視覺，呈現了虛像，將身旁的風景如夢境般模糊呈現， 眼前所見的是真實，還是身旁的景為真？展望重新定義了新的美學，透過物質的內與外，呼應眼前真和假的空間，華麗閃耀的不銹鋼材質帶有現代化的精神符號。從前精神世界遺留給我們的遺產，如今透過新的詮釋，一個個重組起來，突破出新的含義。