Soka Art is honored to announce that Zhan Ji Ang’s first solo exhibition “Incorruption” will be presented from August 24 to September 21. Curated by Yuana, the exhibition focuses on the artist's painting creation and thoughts on his personal life in the past three years.

“Incorruption” comes from the Buddhist scroll “Pearl from the Garden of Dharma” written by Shi Dao Shi in the Tang Dynasty, which mentions that “if the Bodhisattva walks in Qiantu Mountain, the dirt does not stain his/her feet, it follows the stormy wind, blows through the mountain, scatters into dust, and even spotless to the Buddha’s body.” The meaning of this is that Buddhists need to exclude the desires in their spiritual practice in order not to be infected by the six factors (sight, sound, smell, taste, touch, and thought). For Zhan Ji Ang, “Incorruption” is a true portrayal of his faithful self, a reflection and aspiration of his heart, and he has also permeated this state into art creation.

Throughout Zhan’s past works, the concept of “re-creation” of traditional Chinese themes runs through it. The elements of murals and statues are skillfully utilized along with the artist’s spontaneous aesthetics and emotions, which make the viewers feel a little subtle sense of distance. The recent works have changed in terms of overall picture and images, obviously shifting from group image themes to the portrayal of a single individual. It dilutes the original external divinity and Buddha-nature and internalizes it in the heart, weakens the solemn and inviolable sense of religion, more focuses on the current daily life and a personal perspective full of secrecy, also emphasizes the giving and expression of one's own spirit. Such a transformation does not happen suddenly, it fluctuates with the artist's mood and creates ripples in the paintings, thus touching the viewer’s inner loneliest and softest part.

The main characters in Zhan’s paintings are mostly depicted as himself, a lonely youth. In the twilight when the day is about to end, he stands silently in the surging tide, looking at the direction of his heart with his back to you. In the dark night, he passes by your nightmare with flowers in his hand, stepping on the flame, and his unburned body reveals coldness. But most of the time, he is in an uncertain state, sometimes floating, sometimes sinking. As in the work “Lost Hero”, the wings on the youth’s back give him the ability to fly, but he also pays for it. The pain is accompanied by every flap of wings, always reminding him that the wound is not healed, and he is not ready yet. The people whose eyes are covered can only fly blindly in the air. Rise or fall? Let the wind decide the direction. Such a reciprocating sense of uncertainty gives rise to endless depression and frustration. The artist seems to isolate the characters in a single multi-space, with no noisy group communication and feigned heyday.

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My endless fall into my endless fall,

where nobody awaited me,

since upon seeing who was waiting,

I saw nothing but myself.

-- Alejandra Pizarnik, Nobody Knows Me I Speak the Night

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Perhaps the youth has always been convinced that no one will catch him when he falls, and the habitual self-pleasing and protection of growing up alone has led him to build up a system that blends and alienates from the outside world. As reality continues to overwhelm him, the more he grows up, the more he is left with nothing but pain and insecurity. In this journey, Zhan has created countless links between himself and the world.

According to the psychoanalyst Lacan, there is a rupture between the spiritual world of human beings and the material world, in order to bridge this rupture, everyone will try to reconnect the two. In this process, individuals connect images and visions, then integrate and adjust the various parts of the body to create a complete shell. This shell is what we commonly refer to as ego. In Lacan's psychoanalytic theory, he also puts forward the concept of object a. Object a is not an integrated whole, but a fragmented state, the target and reason of our true desires, which can never be fulfilled and absolutely recognized. The figures in Zhan’s paintings are “objects that have fallen from the subject”. When the intricate self-reflections are identified and judged by society and others, an inner dialogue and conflict is created in the artist’s mind, it derives a self-image full of fantasy, illusion,and idealizations. The light and unadorned clothes and uniform hairstyle of the people in the paintings disable the viewer’s habit of “defining the era of the person from how they look”, they can transcend all normal concepts and constraints to exist in any time and space. What is sketched out by the thick ink, light colors and delicate lines is a peaceful and holy youthful carnal pleasure. Those almost naked bodies, some of which are as elegant as white marble, cannot be touched easily. Some are mottled and blurred, when the dull gold meets the brick-red skin, whether it is whitewash or flaking, we can no longer tell. When various unconscious contradictions in the depths of the mind pull each other and erode, the accumulated confusion and ambition of youth only feel confused after colliding with the real world. The artist is constantly obsessed with and chasing each missing fragment. He thought he had picked up all of them, but he couldn't put together a complete self.

It is worth mentioning that the special material and technique of silk brushwork is destined to lengthen the timeline of the completion of the work. In order to present the cleanest and most dynamic images and visual effects, Zhan needs to wash and color his works over and over again during the creation process, which is like self-introspection and reconstruction. Being caught up in the era of materialism, patience and return to basics are especially precious. Tortured by the tedious process and repetitive behaviors, the body or mind may collapse at some point in the process, but only enthusiasm supports the determination of persistence. This process is also a kind of invisible constraint, which requires the artist to slow down and treat every detail carefully, without even a little bit of agitation and haste. Therefore, each painting is like a deep imprint left on the cliff shore after being washed away by time, and it also becomes a kind of cohesive experience of positive accumulation. The water evaporates, the humidity recedes, “My filth” is also washed away.